"Closer to you", opens up with a 70s inspired guitar riff that will transport you to the sun bathed, palm lined Sunset Boulevard as you cruise past the towering palms in your vintage convertible. In "Closer to you", Bryan Lazar sings of a love stricken man bewitched by an intriguing leading lady that will send good vibrations through your speakers and into your shoes. Bryans' voice secrets a smooth and sly feeling, accompanied by grooving cords and an upbeat tempo. His voice offers the serenading clout like John Mayer and the wailing guitar in the background is reminiscent of Eric Clapton’s"‘Layla".
A talented musician, Bryan Lazar first picked up the guitar at age 11 and played in various bands throughout his elementary and secondary school years, furthering his passion for music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston,where he graduated with a degree in Performance. His musical influences include Peter Frampton and Eric Clapton which fueled his passion in music and as a result, Bryan Lazar has self-released four albums, his latest: "Just Not the Same."
"Closer to you" drops today and will leave you wanting to hear more, check out his latest single and dive deeper in to Bryan Lazar here.
Hi Bryan! What is it about music that makes you so passionate?
There are many amazing things about music, but one amazing thing is that it belongs to anybody. Obviously I don't mean this in a for-profit way, but I love that music gives anybody the right to interpret it anyway you want to. Nobody is the same and we can draw meaning from the same thing in many different ways and I don't really know another outlet that allows us to do this. You can listen to a song and think it means one thing and somebody else can listen to it and come up with something completely different and I think that's incredible. I love that music can cause me to feel certain emotions. It's allowed me to be a part of some life changing performances and situations that have shaped me into the person that I am today. I love that a musical experience can be just as emotional for me as a performer as it is when I am in the audience. I generally care when somebody listens to anything of mine and when that can trigger a reaction, there's nothing quite like it.
What where the influences that contributed to the creation of "Closer to you"?
I found myself listening to a lot of R&B and classic groups like Steely Dan over the past year and started coming up with some ideas in the studio that I found to be more similar to those artists rather than my usual singer/songwriter sound that I've been working on in the past. This was one of the ideas that came in a few about in a session a few months ago and I just really was into it. I think this might be the first track I've done with electric drums and synths, but still having a familiar overtone that won't sound like a completely different project. I'm very happy with how the final product turned out.
How has the California/LA music scene influenced your music?
I don't think there's any doubt that California and LA more specifically comes through as an influence in my music. I was born and raised in LA and always loved my hometown to the point that when I went to school in Boston I was always trying to brag about it any chance I got. There's a laid-back vibe here in So-Cal but there's also a strong presence of talent everywhere you go. It's incredibly inspiring. I could go to a show on any given night and leave there to rush home and write all night long. I think if I was living somewhere else the inspiration wouldn't come as easy as it does here. LA is a city for creation and I love being a creator who calls it home.
What is your favorite part in the song writing process?
I write a little bit differently than most do. I don't think I'm a great lyric writer. I'm a boring person and when it comes to telling stories, I feel that I don't really have anything different to say that hasn't been said billions of times. However, I feel that my strong suit is definitely the musical side of a track when composing. I started playing music as a guitar player and only started singing because all of my heroes growing up were guitar player's that could also sing. Clapton, Hendrix, SRV, Frampton, Mayer, etc. All incredible guitar players as well as singers. But if you were to ask any of these musicians if they considered themselves a singer or a guitar player every single one would say "Guitar player first, anything else second" and that's the same answer for myself. So when I start to write a song the lyrics almost always come when the track is pretty much complete, musically speaking. This sometimes can be challenging because I get so used to hearing the track as an instrumental that it can be a little difficult to start to come up with a lyrical melody on top of the idea. There have definitely been a few examples of when a hook or a line have come to me first but I'd say 9/10 times when I write a song I come up with pretty much a majority of the instrumental first, followed by lyrics.
What areas in music are you hoping to explore in 2019?
As always, I hope to grow not only as a musician and writer but a person in 2019. I recently signed a deal with a new label so I am very excited to see what happens with my new team working behind me and I feel that some of the things that we are coming up with are very exciting. This is the first release of much more and I can't wait to show the world what I've been cooking up. I took some time off to figure a few things out, but definitely ready to come back into the spotlight and kill it.