Start Listening To: The Lazy Susans
Explore the riff-tastic old-school rock of the London based five-piece ready to take your world by storm.
The Lazy Susans have slowly been making a name for themselves in the live music London circuit. Referencing the Blues of Muddy Waters and B. B. King, as well as The Rolling Stones and garage rockers The Hives as key influences, their discography is packed with stomp-your-feet synergy. Read on to hear their bassist, Oli, talk us through what the musical life as a Lazy Susan is truly like - and why their mums love them.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
Hi, Oli on Bass here. The band started in the hangover of the lockdowns here in London with a walk round Victoria Park with Adam (guitar/vocals). We have always loved rock n roll music and with me getting into bass over the lockdowns and Adam getting more into guitar we thought if we could find a drummer we could play some of our favourite covers in pubs round East London. A couple of years later and many, many band mates later we are here – playing sets of all original material as a 5-piece. It’s been great fun which has always been at the core of the band – to not take yourself too seriously and get people moving. It’s been a revolving door of people joining and leaving but the 5 we have now (Dean on Drums, James on vocals and Dan on guitar) is the best we have had by a long shot.
Can you tell us about the origin of your band name, The Lazy Susans? How does it reflect your style or personality as a group?
The band name came from a friend of ours at a house party. We just went round and got people to name good band names. We liked the use of the name ‘Susan’ in there too, it just kinda stuck… we are fairly lazy too so that bit suits us! I still have the note on my phone of the potential band names but most are not fit for publication.
You all bring experience from playing with other bands. How has this experience shaped the music and direction of The Lazy Susans?
Actually ⅗ of the band (Oli, Adam and Dean) had never been in a gigging band before this (unless you count grade 9 jazz band). Dan and James both come with experience from playing in bands before though! I think the thing that gels us together the most is that we all genuinely like each other and regardless of playing music we'd probably all be mates anyway. The bonus is we also have a blast getting together every week and throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Riff-based rock ‘n’ roll is at the heart of your music. Can you share your creative process for writing and developing these killer riffs?
Adam is the engine room of the band for sure. He usually comes up with a riff and at least some lyrics or a melody. From a simple riff which needs a lot of work to songs which are more or less finished, it varies. We jam it out in the rehearsal room and see where it takes us. If we like playing it then it gets added to the setlist. New songs are the most exciting for sure and we are always looking forward as a band.
With band members hailing from Australia, Canada, England, and Wales, how do your different cultural backgrounds influence your music and dynamic as a band? Has being a London based band influenced this in any way?
Our different backgrounds (geographically/musically) will undoubtedly influence what we sound like but ultimately I think we all just come at it from a point of - what's the most fun thing we think we can have playing a song and if we're having fun hopefully everyone else is.
Do you all have a favourite Lazy Susans song to date? Why / why not?
I’ll answer for me. Probably Ballad of Rick & Tony, it’s the simplest of our songs but great to play live, the recorded version didn’t quite capture that magic. The riff is my favourite thing we have written. But the newer songs are always the ones that excite you. We have a slower one called ‘Lost in You’ which I think is great; we’ll try and get it recorded sometime soon.
Your latest EP was recorded Live at the Cargo Rooms - what was that experience like?
Great fun, we went to shoot a small video for WarChild and liked the audio so much we thought it would form a nice EP. I think it’s fair to say that being videoed wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world for us but that’s part of our philosophy as a band. To say yes to everything and see what happens!
Who are some of your biggest musical inspirations from the 50’s, 70’s, and 2000’s (and beyond), and how have they impacted your music?
The Susans are always rooted in the Blues and rock n roll of the 50s/60s. BB. King, Freddie King, Chuck Berry, Howlin Wolf. I see these influences as the building blocks of the band with the more obvious influences of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Band, Faces being the ones people probably hear. As we are a band from 3 different continents and different music backgrounds all the influences come together to form our sound. If we can capture even 10% of the magic on Exile of Main Street I will die happy.
What would ultimate success look like to The Lazy Susans?
9. I think just have fun and see what happens, we don’t really have any solid goals, certainly not long term. I think you can get bogged down in those. If we are having fun and enjoying ourselves, that’s the main thing. We’d love to play a gig outside of The Great Escape in Brighton or a gig in Bristol, play an outdoor Festival, and a venue that ain’t a pub! At the same time glasto headliners is what we're always aiming for.
What do you love right now?
I like The Lemon Twigs new album a lot, anything which sounds like The Beatles is good in my book. I do think 2024 has been a very good year for music so far with a lot of interesting upcoming releases still to go. Charlie Crockett is another artist from the past few years who is great and some of our new songs have taken on a slight country twang. Country and rock n roll are from a similar book in my opinion so it seems a natural fit. And of course, still discovering lost albums of the 60s and 70s like The Spencer Davis Group ‘The Second Album’, can’t believe I have never heard that one before.
What do you hate right now?
Perhaps hate is a little strong but we get put on a lot of bills with post-punk bands, which isn’t really our thing at all. Certainly don’t hate them but it doesn’t really speak to us. But some are getting a lot bigger crowds than us that’s for sure!
What’s next for The Lazy Susans? Are there any upcoming projects, tours, or new music releases that fans should be excited about?
We have a gig at The Fiddler’s Elbow on the 25th May as part of Camden Rocks festival which we are very much looking forward to. After that another gig in July in East London. But we wanna get some of the new songs recorded in a studio and get them out there for our mums to listen to. Our mums love us.