While looking for acts to play Forget the Box’s five year anniversary party, our music editor got me in touch with the band Po Lazarus. Friday, April 11, I headed down to Grumpy’s to meet the up-and-coming Montreal folk band and get a sense of what they’re all about.
While drinking pints on the back terrace, I learned Po Lazarus are a charming group of young men who like to cry, have nicknamed their jam room and whose musical theory education consists mainly of YouTubeing.
Stephanie Laughlin: So let’s get the boring first-date questions out of the way first… How did you guys get together?
Joshua Carey: Paul and I started the band four years ago when we were at Champlain College together. It was a very slow evolution into what we are now; we’ve only been playing as a foursome since December. Folk is definitely the soul of this band but adding Marco [Novak] on drums and Luc [Delisle] on lead guitar means now we can play around with our sound a bit more. Elements of country and rock n’ roll have started to find their way into Po Lazarus, and that’s been pretty exciting.
SL: What’s the song writing process like for you guys?
Paul Mascarenhas: Josh and I write all the songs, but input from everyone is always encouraged. We like to write about crucial elements of the human experience… you know, like love and getting drunk. [Laughs] Seriously though, our songs are about the feelings and issues that come along with being a man in a contemporary world. What can I say? We write about what we know. No one in the band studied music, unless you count watching a lot of YouTube.
Luc Delisle: I love playing around with the songs that Josh and Paul have written. I like to joke that our jam space (a.k.a. Spit Bucket) is where “the magic happens”. But where we really thrive is playing live. Like Josh said, we haven’t been playing together long, but damn it if there hasn’t been a single gig we’ve done so far that hasn’t gotten me a little teary-eyed.
SL: What’s coming for you guys in the future? Anything exciting info you want to share with FTB readers?
JC: Well the big scoop I guess you could say is we recorded an EP this past March — Lazarus Rex — and that’ll be coming out soon. We’ll make sure to play songs from it at the FTB show!
Po Lazarus perform this Thursday, April 24 at Honey Martin (5916 Sherbrooke o.) at 10 p.m.
