Headstash

Lipp Service

Photo Courtesy of Eliot Lipp's Facebook

With a new tour, new album and promised new sound on the way, Eliot Lipp is certainly making strides in the electronic music world.

Creating unique and utterly infectious electro-funk in the musical mecca of Brooklyn, New York, Lipp aims to create well-conceptualized shows that act as one flowing track, taking listeners on a journey much like his creative albums.

[FIND news, downloads and tour dates on Eliot Lipp's official website.]

His next release promises to be even more danceable and bass-heavy, as he explored new terriroties and even plans to bring a live band to Camp Bisco this summer.

Headstash Magazine caught up with Lipp to talk about his upcoming album release, recosntructing songs for the live setting and being influenced by 80s classic rock.

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Headstash Magazine: You have a new album in the works as well as an expansive upcoming tour – talk a little bit about your busy spring/summer.

Eliot Lipp: I haven't set an actual release date yet, but I'm in the process of finishing up the album soon. This album is definitely like a lot of stuff that I made while I've been touring. It’s definitely more bassy and has more club tracks, so I'm sure some people will like that more.

Photo Courtesy of Eliot Lipp's Facebook

It's also interesting because it's my first full-length that I've done in three-and-a-half years – a lot of work went into it. Some of these tracks I've had around for a long time, so I’m just wrapping them up. It's around 14 songs and has lot of samples. I still love vinyl records and sampling. It's kind of all over the map as far as influences go.

HM: What are some of those influences? Any that people wouldn’t necessarily expect?

EL: For one, Van Halen – all the synthesizer stuff they did and the key changes in their songs. The song structure is never ordinary. I don't know if that shows up much in my music, but it gives me ideas for sure. I also listen to a lot of jazz.

Ahmad Jamal is one of my favorite jazz pianists. He has a classical approach to doing a movement instead of just a bluesy riff. He would take his whole band on a journey through all these different styles in just one song.

I think other producers do that, especially sample-based producers. Michal Menert is someone that I’ve been influenced by a lot lately. He takes from all these different places and treats it as just one piece of music.

[FOLLOW Eliot Lipp on Facebook.]

I also like Wolfgang Gartner, too. I think his melodies are really interesting. A lot of house guys try to keep it real minimal and keep it real tucked in, so they'll have these melodies in the background, but Wolfgang Gardner puts it right out front.

HM: So when you’re creating these compositions, what’s your goal with each track? Are you telling a story, displaying an emotion?

EL: I like having these big shifts in the music and within each track. I love the song that starts changing two minutes in and takes you on like a little journey.

It's similar when I play live. I love to start the set with one energy and then just rub off the crowd and take them to the next place and see how far they’re willing to go. Sometimes if they're getting really heavy I'll play like darker shit or downtempo shit.

It all depends on the way that I feel versus the way the crowd feels. I want the live set to have the same dynamic as you would have in one song. There's a build-up, there’s a happy part, a chill part – I want the set to look the same way.

HM: So with your shows, you treat the set as one long song?

EL: That's the goal. That's what I try to do, but it doesn't always work.

HM: How do you begin to write these coherent tracks?

EL: Well it usually starts from a sample. There's a song I posted recently that was inspired by an old soul track. I was listening to the lyrics and I could really identify with what the dude was talking about. It was basically a song he wrote to his girl about being out on tour and how he's just trying to make some dough.

It's kind of a timeless sort of thing and it's just a cool story. I started making that track right away. I made that song in just a few hours. I was like, “This a cool, old soul track, but what would it sound like if I put it on double time beat?”

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I started making the drums right away and did the bass line and once you get the beat going, it was a cool groove. But I wanted the song to shift when the hook came, so I wrote this whole other bassline in a different key. There’s chord progressions that say different things – some build tension or paranoia or one’s that are warm and fuzzy and tell you everything is going to be ok.

The story is told through the music and the tension and the melody.

HM: It sounds like you take a pretty academic approach. Do you have a technical music background?

EL: No, I keep meaning to get around to it. My mom showed me a little bit on the piano when I was a kid, but I just taught myself everything else.

I've been trying to lock down somebody to teach me music theory. The piano is my favorite instrument and it's where I learned music from, but I still don't know a lot of the basics.

HM: Do you think that almost gives your music a more genuine feel, being rooted in emotion and not bogged down with technicality?

EL: I think it does in terms of my personal style, but I think ultimately it hurts me just as much as it helps because it slows me down. But it’s hard to say. Some of the best out there never had any training and vice versa.

Photo Courtesy of Eliot Lipp's Facebook

I think it’s all about your own ambition. I don’t have any formal training, but there’s a lot you can teach yourself. I watch a lot of tutorials YouTube honestly.

HM: What have been some of your most memorable gigs in recent memory?

EL: Just a few nights ago in Austin I played a Silent Disco at like 5:30 in the morning and it was in this forest. For some reason right outside downtown Austin, there’s this place called enchanted forest. It was like right before the sun came up and I had never played a Silent Disco before so it was a unique experience. That was probably my favorite.

HM: What are some things that fans can expect from the upcoming dates you have planned?

EL: My new sets are really high-energy and I'm really stoked on the new stuff that I've made. I'm remixing some of my old classic tunes to keep them interesting for myself and keep them fun to play.

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I'm trying to play longer sets and go all over the place and play as many different styles as I can. I like to keep it in funky and just try to keep people dancing and keep the energy up.

HM: What are some of your plans for taking your music to the next level in the future?

EL: One thing I'm excited about is I'm putting a band together. At some festivals this summer, I'm going to be playing with a full band, another guitar player and another keyboardist and a drummer.

I'll definitely be playing with a band at Camp Bisco, but I haven’t confirmed any others yet. It's something that I've been focused on.

Changing the songs and breaking them down into a version that we can play live with a band is not easy, but it's exciting. It sounds totally different, but it's really cool. It's not as computer-y - it sounds more alive.

HM: It sounds like the reverse of your usual process, so what goes into turning it the other way?

EL: I basically see the core of what it is that makes this song. Sometimes it's just a sample and we'll just play around it. But a lot of these songs, when you break it down, have a bassline and a drum beat and different core parts.

Once everybody knows their parts, they'll rehearse it and then they start tweaking it to sound right live. Things sound good one way on the mix on the track, but then don’t sound good live. Sometimes there’s 32 parts to a track, so we have to figure out the essence of the song.

It’s not going to sound the same way live than it does on the CD, which I think is a good thing.

HM: Thanks, Eliot. Really excited to see what you have in store this summer.

EL: Thanks, appreciate it.

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Catch Eliot Lipp on tour Friday, April 20 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights, OH. For a complete list of tour dates, visit Lipp’s official website.