Synthesizer Wizard’s Lakewaves Trio in the Lair on Max Ink Radio

Alright, we are here, we are live in the lair on Maxing Radio presented by the ear and

webber group, I'm rocker here with Rob Roberts. Lake Wave's trio is a Madison-centric group

based outfit that creates celestial originals with an eclectic, progressive, soundscape

instrumentalism and like their offbeat song titles allude to the experimental music creates

a fitting soundtrack to anything from bank robies to impromptu dance parties. Led by

Graham Marlow, the since-and-sizer graffiti artist, the Lake Wave's trio is live in the

lair. Graham Marlow, Mason Ammanstahl, and Will Bailey, welcome to Maxing Radio.

Alright, hey Lake Wave's trio played on State Street in Madison for the night market

and you know when you guys are downtown, what's your favorite restaurant to eat at before

or after a show? I don't know if it's anything specific like to the name, but I generally

go for like Thai food, something spicy and nutrient-dense. Nice. Is there Thai food

down on State Street? On the perimeter of the very least. Alright, I know there's one

over on Willie, but I didn't know about State. We'll have to check it out. Graham Marlow,

the synthesizer graffiti artist from Pulaski, Wisconsin. How did you get involved in music

and tell us a little bit about your backstory? Sure. Well, Pulaski was kind of like a sure

what Anderson short story kind of place, you know, like 11 bars in a Catholic church

literally at one point. So what a contrast. Right. And so you, I don't know, just start

seeking new places and your imagination runs wild, being in a place like that, just because

you're so removed from everything else. But I took piano lessons, like classical level

in middle school, didn't have the discipline in me until I got really out of high school.

I was starting to turn into like a keyboardist in high school. I did the jazz ensembles.

I did a lot of experimentation in different styles and stuff. Roger bands.

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I was really more of a percussionist in the beginning. So I think

that gave me a good baseline to kind of jump around. But keyboards have been primary since like 1516

and been more professional about it since my early 20s. I guess you could say. And what role

did your parents play with you, you know, getting into music? Were they involved in music?

To an extent, like my mom sang in church and stuff like that, I think that's as much as she

had time for when she was raising us. But really beautiful voice. I always just kind of wish

she had used it more. My dad was more of like, you know, the prog rock vein jazz. That's right.

experimentation. Just like kind of into bands that could go off the page and come back. But then

also like really have a well crafted song like Rush, you know, like the live show was a,

you know, almost like a cartoon. So this on top of that though, I had two brothers that were

professional jazz musicians at 1.1 was playing with like Miles Davis electric band alum like in

their college five o'clock band stuff, Clark Terry. And I had no idea who those guys were when I was

younger, but I just kind of thought, oh, this is another concert of my oldest brother. And it's

going to be good. I didn't really connect the dots and connect the dots at the time. But yeah,

it's really intimidating to think about in hindsight, but that gave me a good set the bar. Yeah,

like almost intimidatingly high, but brought some neat things out of me, I think.

Wow, that's pretty cool. And what synthesizer wizards did you listen to? Did you listen to any of

the prog guys, you know, the solo guys like Johnny Kuznar? Who are you into? Who inspired you?

Yeah, yeah. That's a one name I was going to mention. The Tangerine Dream Guys,

they've made really brilliant albums up until recently, especially with like some German electronic

producers that are more like up and coming that they've worked with Ulrich Nows and those guys.

I think that some of the guys that were sort of the, I don't know if I have the right now in per se,

but just dip me into some deeper waters, musically speaking, like Joe Zawinol,

Czechorea, anyone who was kind of on the edge of where like Jazz and Rock crossover into one

another and then you're into this kind of space to your progressive anything can happen kind of

space, but like almost in a different planet, kind of floating in a way from the improvisation

type of thing. So that's always something I've been kind of attracted to in general. You know,

bands that could go off the page and come back, I could have the skill to just kind of take risks

and trust each other and, you know, not Graham, you have a degree in music and English from St.

Norbert College and DePierre Wisconsin, and you studied with some great academics including

Late Jazz Director Fred Sturm of Appleton's Lawrence University. Tell us about your your college

music life. Yeah, I was in social groups and stuff, so I was out a lot, but I was also you know

up practicing late most days, I would say at the end of everything. So like I had an odd balance,

but Fred Sturm was someone in the area that I had always wanted to learn more from and before

he was in the throes of like cancer and stuff. I had the privilege to kind of study with him a little

bit or at least like do a form of ear training with him that I thought was really helpful and kind

of like imagistic. For instance, one of the exercises that we would do at his house was we'd

pick out a scene from a movie that either he really enjoyed it that I really enjoyed and we'd

splice out different kinds of music to get a different emotional response. And I always thought

that was a really cool way to to learn music to kind of puts you on high alert in a way as you

cycle through things, but also just like paying attention to all. Okay, so this is like more minor

jazz or this is more major and like bluegrassy or whatever it may be classical.

So you're kind of matching the emotion of what you were seeing in video and putting something

to fill it in an audio. Almost like a text painting in a while. Yeah. Or like a live painter would

do in a sense. That is a very that is very interesting. That's a that's a really cool thing to hear.

Well, let's get to some my music in the layer with Grand Marlos Lake waves trio presented by

the Aaron Weber group. The first song you have for us tonight is called Dance Party in a deserted

parking lot. Tell us about this song before you play. Well, Will and I were kind of a tweener

act for a long time within set in with groups and he produced artists out here and such, but

we got more serious with this project three, four years ago as far as like tracking it,

working the booking, connecting the dots with other like-minded artists, etc. I just kind of working

all of that at once. And there was a previous bass player before Mason. He did the first like

album and a quarter or more or less. He came from a more metal background. Can't really explain

it, but it just sort of fit. We would just get into stuff and come back to it and yeah. But um

I think Mason's more what the music always kind of wanted. As far as the title and that goes,

I guess that's where I might be like going from Aaron to Aaron. I might be in those four minutes

of my work at my break time at work where you get like this little you know flash of writing or

whatever and you can kind of capture the lightning in a bottle if you will. But um I think for a lot

of what we do uh kind of falls into that territory of like jazz fusion like it could be the soundtrack

for just about anything but sometimes it uh it just kind of makes sense. Like it's it's an onion

headline. It's like um similar to something like that you know but uh it really takes you there

before we start playing anything in a way like you're laughing before we you know really

uh I know I know of a deserted parking lot so I can see it right now. So you've already started

the images and it's just like it fits the whole like guerrilla marketing of what we do too a little

bit. There's no other way for me to do it. I think with this kind of music. Nice. Well let's hear it.

This is uh go ahead and jump behind your boards here. We have oh by the way we have a drum set,

a bass and this giant mass of the keyboard mountain over here, the grams playing.

So uh let's hear it right now. This is uh dance party in a deserted parking lot. This is

Graham Marlowe and Lake Waves Trio, Maxine Cretio, we're live in the lair.

Five in the leir,

Graham Marlowe's Lake Waive Trio all this little local service brought you by the

Aaron Weber group the first but first Weber the most reliable name in real estate

move to Madison dot com rocker I'm gonna tell you that was pretty amazing

just just watching what's going on with all the keyboards first of all there's

a mountain of keyboards okay it's okay then you're tweaking all the keyboards

and changing the sounds and just wow yeah just blown away that was pretty

incredible yeah and and the bass player man each of you just don't stop man no

not at all not at all and I want to mention here I don't know there's like

like 12 buttons down there lots and knobs I want to hear these guys do the peanut

song yeah yeah that's what I was thinking man yeah right oh man Graham you

often play solo but tonight you've brought in a band and we'll get to know your

band members individually but what does performing as a trio add to your music

and I actually know because we had you in the leir solo not too long ago and it

was very it was very kind of mellow but this is like wow yeah the I think the

solo thing is naturally more ethereal a lot of times I'm incorporating like

found sounds or sampling myself on a different keyboard tone like playing

against that or there's like an acoustic electric that you know thing but um

yeah I always felt like Lake waves trio was kind of the full calorie full

realization of my imagination you know like kind of where the music was kind of

meant to go you know it's kind of like we kind of take hardware as far as it

can without incorporating software I feel and I think they take some pride in

that especially since there's a lot of the electronic music school of thought

that I kind of operates around that where it's like you know try to make the

sounds like organically yeah yeah you're really playing the sounds you're

changing the shaping things as I put it down and then and then playing it on the

keyboard expressing it it's not just like a pre-programmed track or loop or

something I think that would yeah and I think that would make me feel a little bit

naked I don't I don't feel naked in the solo sets but like you know having

operate off of like samples and triggers only or primarily I think you know

that would kind of like pigeonhole myself almost but it's just with this kind of

rhythm section like anything's possible and I feel like every week that we meet

are we kind of you know scratch it that a little bit somehow like yeah because

there's that you know element of psychedelia that element of you know just

ambient like new age music yet you know it's over this like jazz rhythm you know

yeah exactly even maybe I don't know a little like boogie to it or you know a

little I think that bass that that's what makes your butt wanna shake to this

like almost like ambient music right yeah it's kind of interesting circles

around the Sun or you know one of those like modern instrumental groups that kind

of came out of the you know grateful dead family if you will feel like kind of

a mellow and a desk you learn and wouldn't or right right yeah there's a

inspiration on us just the the possibilities that they you know kind of

unlocked through their their albums and their shows and just the interest

in vintage keyboards and vintage sounds and equipment and all that like that was

built into the mix there so yeah that's pretty cool I'm glad to hear well let's

get back to live music in the layer with grand marlos lake waves trio

presented by the Aaron Weber group the next song that you have for us tonight

is called punches fly over prom princess tell us about this royal induced braw

well the we were at at at at separate more or less at practice earlier in the

year and I was combing through was supposed to be like you know synthwave

vapor wave experimental locked around a kind of artwork I found a few people on

Instagram was trying to find you know some of their some of the material they

were quoting like artists was anesthetically and just kind of stumbled upon it

but this photo came up I don't even remember what I had in the search bar

was basically like throwing punches at prom more or less and then you know I

got what I asked for in the search bar because like one of the headlines that

came up was like punches fly over prom princess and then I looked at you know

the date on it it was like Cincinnati Ohio October 81 I'm like this kind of

takes me somewhere like and we could kind of fit the bill on this and like

combing through that we track right to tape and practice a lot just to make

sure we capture or remember you know come back to things and that was just one

of those things where it was just pretty fully composed as a first take thing

and that title just kind of fit it so well because it was it's kind of like the

flaming lips you know they're their song titles are bonkers but it's like you

don't you don't really know how serious to take it until you're to the end

like wow that was that was really cool yeah well Frank Zappel was that was a

guy who had some pretty bakers sounds like that and and then you listen to the

Frank Zappel music and it was you know very intellectual you know and we're maybe

some people at the time where you know parents were like what is that guy but it

was pretty high level music it very similar to this in fact when you guys are

warming up I was like what Frank Zappel is back up band like playing or one for

sure well let's let's hear it this song is punches fly over from princess from

prime prince I can't get it right guys oh here we go this is a grand marlow

and lake waves trio here on maxing radio you're listening to live in the

layer

maro lake wave trio on maxing radio live in the layer brought you by the

Aaron Weber group power by first Weber learn more at move to Madison dot com

you found Wisconsin's local music authority this is maxing radio we are local

music the grand maro lake wave trio was all maxing

radio's live in the layer brought you by the Aaron Weber group powered by first

Weber learn more at move to Madison dot com rocker wow what a journey so far

wow it's been a quick half an hour too we've only had two songs that's very true

it's very true but this is just some some really good pro jazz rock I don't

even know what to call it it's just a fusion of all different kinds of

things and among the keyboards a drum set and a bass guitar a five string bass

guitar at that Rob you know that last song punches fly over from princess

I could see I absolutely sit back you'll listen to the tune you absolutely make

the connection your head you can well let's get back to grand marlow here we're

going to talk about your song titles a little more dance party in a deserted

parking lot so far punches fly over prom princess they sound like headlines from

the onion I think you've been mentioned that but tell us about your Zach

gallopheniac in song titles I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right yeah

I just I just meant like Zach alphanacus gallophenacian

can gallophenacian in that it's just it might just be like a big splatter of a

non-sackwood or like it might not like David burn it might not necessarily like

make sense but it's kind of often right field the kind of like punches in the

face a little bit who is Zach oh Zach alphanacus the actor oh like the the

titles are you know the kind of like an un-in headline territory you know all

right well tell me this what is impressionistic Carter administration mellot

melloticism well that last one was I think like a perfect example because it

could be you know some dance party in October of 1981 it could be right now I

like kind of the ambiguity of what we do like you don't necessarily know what

the the date stamp is on anything or that we're drawing from if it's something

that we're covering but it's still instrumental or whatever I like the being

out kind of out of time or the timelessness or just losing your sense of time

through the music so that's always kind of made sense to me but it's kind of

like you know kind of making fun of ourselves a little bit but also pain

respect to you know like the risks that we're taking with the improvisation

and such well let's get to know your band members and we'll start with

bassist Mason Mamo Aminstal Mason tell us about how you became involved with

music and the story behind the name Mamo Mamo Mamo goes back to when I was a kid

my stepdad was Bob oh I'm not playing by the rules here and my mom was

Mamo and I became Mamo I shunned it for a lot of years and then my buddy Chico

made me kind of wear it with pride and that's that's where that came from well

tell us your backstory how did you become involved in music sure I've always

loved music my uncle is a was one of the string bass players for the mad Eugene

symphony orchestra so I've always kind of gravitated towards bass and I wanted

to play trumpet when I went to middle school middle school in Colorado is

when you could start playing playing instruments in the band and so I I wanted

to play trumpet and the trumpet there the band directors as well we've got

too many trumpet players so I went across the hall to Ms. Wino's class

Wano class and picked up the upright bass nice well that that makes sense

because I can really see you're playing on an upright bass in fact it a lot of

your stuff sounds like it's up for your bass yeah so do you play other

instruments or now is it only bass I do I play currently in a band called

sort of a male I play acoustic guitar lead guitar in that band bluegrass band

and I have a I play a little dobro not much but primarily it's basing guitar

and what other bands do you play with or have you played in the past that we might

know about sure I started playing in Madison with a group called Ghost Town

Council and that was many many moons ago with my buddy Brian Napp and Nate

Penny and Tim Case who's Tim Case is making some amazing music out no

of a player hopefully we can get him down here for this and then

played with them for several years and then took a break for a while and then I

played started playing country teams with my buddy Willie Jones he's in sort

in the mail with me and we did like country cruners

herland fusky and you know like all these old you know old country guys raise

price and stuff like that and then I went and saw fish for the first time in

like 21 years and I bought all these pedals and I bought a new electric bass

and I thought it was time for me to you know kind of move in that direction a little bit

and you're playing this very interesting purple uh purple specter guitar

yes with five strings yes that looks like a special bass it's it's it's it's pretty great I like

it a lot I do have a custom order coming in and it's also a purple bass and I've my families

just like oh yeah I guess you're gonna be the purple you're wearing a purple shirt

you like purple a lot I like I like colors I like purple yeah nice nice very good

well let's get back to live music here in the layer presented by the Aaron Weber group

the next song you have for us uh gram it's called hamburger glor comes out of retirement hamburger

glor has always been my favorite MacDonald land uh character tell us about this song

yeah that was uh I think the inspiration was like coming from a different a few different

sources one was just um kind of doing a quick edit on what we had done uh for a rehearsal they're

like you know tracking right to tape and that's the title that kind of hit me um but we at the time

that we made that there were a lot of memes out with this uh kind of like hamburger essentially

hamburger comes out of hamburger comes out of retirement and was just it was kind of like a meme

where kind of like in New York where they do like these these public stunts and mass like

everyone stomps their right foot at the same time at the bus station and freaks you out or like

that kind of thing and I we were seeing a lot of that and it just kind of hit the imagistic note

or whatever as as that came out of us but yeah kind of like this darker funk vibe like he was

kind of coming out of wherever you know he had been for I don't know like unemployment whatever

nobody knows but like no one probably wasn't in jail probably at all and I think the other

thing was uh I'm at TV they had a thing called clops where they they rift on cops but it was all

claymation and it was like you know the planners peanut we've got arrested um the California

raisin was a wino that got pulled over as I thought it was brilliant and hilarious but uh yeah

that was another like secondary source I guess well let's uh here right now this is grand marlow

and hamburger glared comes out of retirement you're listening to live in the air on maxing

radio

The Graham Marrow Lake Wave Trio on Max Inc. Radio's live in the

later brought you by the Aaron Webber Group, powered by first Webber, learned

more at move to Madison dot com. All right, we are back that. That was

pretty amazing. It was wasn't it? I could see the hamburger there, man.

Yeah, absolutely. I still don't know why you retired. I still don't, I don't.

Uh, and, and, and just the use to all the equipment is, is incredible.

Graham, will you ever sing? Will there ever be there to your music?

Um, it's something I would like to venture into a little bit, because oftentimes it's just like

me and my car, you know, like a, a few dozen songs that I know I can hit the range over whatever

but not really doing anything with songs on the radio. Well, yeah, but, um, or you're on.

I've just always kind of worked on the more instrumental side of things over the years,

dabbling in film scoring, um, extra tonality, whether it was like, you know, uh, uh,

someone with a gujang, like a 21 string harp tuned in all whole tones that was on campus

that year, uh, back in the day or something. You know, I was like, um, those kinds of like

sonic experiments, but, um, I'm sorry, what was the, well, will you ever sing?

Will you ever get a singer or? Well, I think the only reason I haven't, um, really

exercised the muscle a whole lot over the years. Yeah. Like just living in an apartment buildings

and that over there, not having like a studio to work on that piece, specifically.

Like after a few minutes, no matter how good you are, you'll, you'll start to hear while

punching that fine. So like, that was kind of like the end of that project, I guess, um, in some ways,

but, um, I don't know, I guess my gifts were more instrumental. I was always around people that

had such a range, vocally and did it like so much better than I could, um, picture myself doing

that, I guess it's just kind of, you know, fulfilled that role, um, more than others over the year.

As an instrument. No, I saw you do wordless covers. What does that mean? I kind of know, but tell

me about your wordless covers. I was always really attracted to like, uh, Helmiles Davis would like

take a print song back in the late 80s, early 90s and turn it inside out or just kind of

instrumentalizing, um, of vocal song in a neat way or like just rearranging it in a way where

it was like, okay, now this is a cool instrumental experience. Um, I think like for record labels and

stuff, there was like a market for that that was more traceable, but it is still there. Um,

and I think there's bands out there doing like only, like instrumental rap covers and doing

like alms, uh, doing really well. Like they, they're not necessarily like full jazz players,

but like they can do jazz type stuff and it really kind of works. It just like to sit on a group

like that, but um, yeah, um, as far as our particular group that I don't know about like singing,

possibly, um, I've been kind of flirting with that for a while, I guess.

Well, we'll be waiting for it. Or you might get a singer. Do you ever considered that's another

thing I was going to mention is like, um, some vocalists have cycled through our social circle

and stuff that have expressed interest. So I think it's just a matter of like finding

couple studio days and trying some stuff on that works. Um, or just cycling through some ideas

and lining on something, but I don't know that it would involve that much more than that, but

then we have to think about like, you know, the live element is that could be part of that or whatever,

you know, so I think it'd be fun to think I'm open to it. Yeah. Well, let's give the drummer some,

uh, Will Bailey. You are also an audio engineer, a record producer. Tell us your backstory.

How did you get involved in music? Well, I've always been playing, I've always been playing since

fifth grade, signed up for band class because I could do study hall or band class.

And, uh, well, they wanted me to play the big, huge bass drum, like the concert bass drum.

Oh, yeah. And so I was totally into that. I can make a ruckus in school.

That's funny. Yeah, I can like,

hit an object in school and be loud and like, not being trouble. Signed me up. So I did that.

And, uh, yeah, you know, that was my musical foundation I learned.

And, you know, a little bit a lot from that. And then in high school, I did a jazz band and I played in

like punk bands. That was my thing when I was in high school. Like, you know, really was into like

playing as fast and as complicated as I possibly could. And then I kind of went big and I kind of

went the other way. And I was like, well, what if I don't do that? What if I learn like all the

other styles of music? So I kind of went down the rabbit hole of like, how many different ways of

drumming are there? And how many can I be proficient at? So I went kind of insane learning Latin

music, African music, um, you know, all the stuff that interests me now. And it's been a great

journey playing with a lot of people since then. So did you play in the bottom? How many are there?

No, yeah. Uh, so the thing about drumming is that it's a limitless journey. Uh, you can never

refine or play every drum beat. And everywhere you go in the world, everyone you meet,

that's a drummer will play differently. And every two drummers will play the same beat

differently. You can, you can write it down on a piece of paper and say, this is the drum beat,

hand it to people and hand that to two different drummers. They'll interpret it and have a field

that's completely their own. And that's kind of, that's kind of amazing. I like that about it.

That drives audio engineers and record producers crazy, doesn't it? No, no, because as long as it's

good, as long as it sounds good, it's good. That's the, that's the, that's the record. That's

the engineer kind of saying that you went to MMI, which was just kind of now defined. Tell us

about going to school there. Yeah, that was great. So, um, well, my parents were a potter. So I

like grew up being a potter. I did pottery. And I loved that. But I was more interested in like

the band that I was in. And so I like bought like a cheap interface to record our band and like

had a couple cheap mics. But I didn't know what I was doing. So I kind of tried to plug it in

and I tried to get it to work. And I was thinking, this is way over my head. I don't know how to do

any of this. So I looked into, you know, schools and stuff. And I said, okay, you know, I'm interested

in this. I'm all in. Let's go learn about it. And then I got an audio engineering degree. And then

yeah, I learned from some great people there. That was, it was a great school. It's sad that it's

closed down now. Madison Media Institute. Boy, a lot of people came out of there that are

right here in the Madison music scene. I know that for sure. You said your parents were in a pottery.

But did you grow up with the potters we had at home and a killer? Yeah. Yeah. They had a shop in

Lake Geneva. And they learned, um, they lived in like a pottery village in France. Uh,

wow. Or they moved to America and they like learned from like pottery masters or whatever.

So it's kind of insane. Like I grew up, uh, kind of working in the shop and kind of being an

apprentice and like getting my pottery skills. I'm still also interested in that. I'm continuing to

do it. Maybe I'll have a pottery website as well soon coming up. Uh, so get your music on your

pottery too for one. Yeah, right. Tell us, uh, tell us something about pottery that, you know, we

probably don't know. Um, something you don't know about pottery. Yeah. I mean, what's like the,

the secret life of a pottery person? Um, you like playing in mud?

It really has to cool down. You can't just take it and you know, right off. Really, you told,

you told me about how the history of the humanity can be traced to pottery. That's that's a,

that's a cool story. So yeah. Uh, you kind of put me on this spot with that one. But,

no, I was telling, I was telling, uh, I was telling Mason about how, um,

the study of like the movement of peoples and ancient civilizations and migrant migrations

of populations, the archeological record can a lot of times only be found with the pottery

that they left behind because there's not like DNA evidence left. There's only bones and like,

a lot of the stuff had been smashed or broken. But if the pottery is in like an enclosed

space that's like not been messed with, uh, it survives. And it never kind of breaks down. Maybe

that's only you don't know about pottery. It basically lasts forever. Like it's not kind of like

biodegraded, you know, or whatever. So that's kind of interesting. It's the world's history book. So

yeah, right. You can get a 10,000 year old piece of pottery and it can, it can tell its story,

even if it's broken. Uh, it has a story in it. All right. Well, let's get back to live music in

the layer with Graham Marlow's Lake waves trio presented by the Aaron Weber group. The next song

you have for us tonight, it's called sketches of a bank robbery and getaway drive. Tell us about

this song before you play. Yeah, this was, um, the first one that Will and I had kind of tracked

together as this group more or less. Um, and this was actually more of a duo. It just kind of, um,

gave the, the semblance of there being a bass player in there. And then we just kind of ran

with that and it's worked since. Well, let's get right to it because I see it's 956 already.

You're listening to maxing radio. This is live in the layer. We'll finish this night out,

sketches of a bank robbery and a getaway drive. Listen to maxing, uh, after hours and any 45 are

coming up next.

You've been listening to live in the layer on maxing radio brought you by the Aaron Weber group

powered by first Weber on the civic media radio network.

you