Club Lotus is ready to blur the boundaries of sound

Getting four creatives to see eye to eye on anything is a feat in and of itself. For indie soul outfit Club Lotus, who seamlessly blend their diverse influences and musical backgrounds, finding a name was an important first step in getting on the same wavelength. "In all honesty, it was the first one we all could agree on," said the group's lead singer Anna. "We would dish out random names to each other every week and Club Lotus was the only one that stuck for us."

Originally formed by high school friends and guitarists Dylan and Marley, drummer Justin and lead singer Anna were the band’s final two, but perfectly fitting, puzzle pieces. With their meld of soul, electronica, and rock, Club Lotus are just as much Radiohead as they are Amy Winehouse; connected by their shared jazz and classical music training and anchored by lead singer Anna’s powerful but melodic rasp. “[She] draws heavily on Amy of course, and shares a Jazz background with me and Justin,” Marley said, going on to explain how their growth as a group has led to individual growth for each of them as musicians. “Anna, and then Justin joining the picture certainly altered our creative trajectory. So far they have helped freshen up our overall perspective, and perhaps helped some of our earlier members abandon tropes that they came to rely on after playing together for years.”

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Their debut 3-track EP Lifeline, dives deep into the traditions of each of their influences and create something entirely new in the process. While “Space” contemplates a rocky relationship over blaring guitars, title track “Lifeline” builds a slow-burning groove about wasting time. The subdued production on “sleep6502” lets Anna'a songwriting shine, and tracks like a softly-cooed lullaby. “Saw your genius align, with the stars on my mind,” she sings on its opening verse.

Hinting at upcoming releases with darker rock, house, and reggaeton influences, their current project serves as a pre-cursor to their wider potential. “We’ve so far explored only a few different parts of our collective taste, so you could say Lifeline was a sort of teaser for what’s to come,” Justin said. “We’re trying to challenge ourselves as a group and to go beyond what the easier or more approachable method might be when it comes to writing.”

Despite its brevity, the project was a few years in the making; coming together as organically as its members. “A lot of the instrumentation came from spontaneity and improvisation that was then made into a more concrete structure,” Marley explained. “This is sort of a cornerstone for our creative process."

With some of its earliest recording sessions happening before Anna had joined the group, its songs sat as instrumental tracks waiting for that final touch. “Once [Anna] got involved, some melodies were workshopped together, but with ‘sleep6502,’ she just sat down and worked it all out herself in 30 minutes,” Dylan said.

For Club Lotus, platforms like ReverbNation and BandLab help them navigate new ways to share their work without disrupting their spontaneous creative process. We feel as an unsigned band you have to use every resource you can to spread your message, and [these platforms] are super helpful in streamlining what is otherwise a daunting workload,” Dylan explained. That kind of support is critical for artists juggling both the creative and business sides of their careers. “You are your own publicist, booking agent, music video director,” Anna added. “We’ve needed all the help we can get balancing all of that with simply creating good music.”

With that freedom, the quartet has more time to consider how they want their music to feel. “A new song we just recorded called ‘Videogame’ speaks to the monotony and injustice of everyday life and how to cure it through surrounding yourself with love,” Anna explained. “We want people to feel deeply, whether that be screaming along to our music after getting cheated on or drifting away into a fantasy after another long day of work.”

The fluid flexibility they approach their music with stands as a testament to their willingness to grow along with, and not despite, a world in flux. “Not only could our tastes and musical values change, but the world around us could shift rapidly as well,” Dylan explained. “I guess we can hope to be creating music that gets people moving, literally and figuratively.”