MUSIC

Vacations at lake inspire band name

Lord Huron
Lord Huron

The name Lord Huron suggests a Great Lake, perhaps made even greater. But in truth, Lord Huron is just Ben Schneider’s preferred performance name - or band name - chosen to honor the lake where he spent many a happy youthful vacation.

“It’s a big, beautiful place, mysterious,” he says. “Lake Michigan is much more of a tourist destination than Huron. I spent part of my childhood near Sheboygan and also grew up in the Lansing area, but we went to Lake Huron a lot.”

Hearing his father play an acoustic guitar as the family sat near a campfire was a defining experience for Schneider, who lived for a time in France and New York after he grew up.

“I moved to Los Angeles eight years ago, but would still go back to Michigan to visit family, and I started writing songs on a trip back three years ago,” he says. “I’d just let the landscape and the mystery of the lake inspire me.”

Lord Huron, begun by Schneider as a solo project, but now a group effort involving musicians, most of whom are friends since childhood, will be making its first visit to Arkansas Thursday. The band continues to promote its first full-length album, Lonesome Dreams, released last year. Schneider’s dreamy songs are brought to life with him on vocals and acoustic guitar, Mark Barry on percussion and vocals, Miguel Briseno on bass and percussion, and Tom Renaud and Karl Kerfoot on electric guitars and vocals. The album incorporates a theme based on a fictional book of the same name by a fictional author, George Ranger Johnson. A video of one of the album’s songs, “Time to Run,” even incorporates a fictional language in subtitles that accompany the song.

“We had a lot of fun making those songs and videos,” Schneider says. “It was a chance to craft a little universe around them. We’ll be on the road the rest of the year, except for a break in October, so we’re getting our music out the best we can. It’s hard to foresee the future, but we’re working on the next album when we can, and hopefully will get it out next year.”

Prior to assembling his group, Schneider, as Lord Huron, began recording in 2010, releasing two EPs that year: Mighty and Into the Sun.

Schneider cites as his influences Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and the world music of Paul Simon.

“I try to get out in the world as much as I can, and I’ve been lucky enough to have done a lot of traveling,” Schneider says, mentioning trips to Indonesia and Mexico. Before taking on music full time, he worked as an artist, and his songs incorporate many of his ideas about landscapes and of course, water, along with such traditional song topics as lost love.

Movie soundtracks have helped inspire him, from “spaghetti Westerns” to Bollywood extravaganzas, and his sound has been compared to Fleet Foxes, Peter Gabriel, My Morning Jacket and Animal Collective. Lord Huron music has been used on Shameless, a Showtime TV series, plus episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and American Idol.

Lord Huron has performed at notable festivals, including Coachella, South by Southwest, Outside Lands and Lollapalooza, and was headed for Bonnaroo to perform before continuing on to Little Rock. In July the band will perform at the prestigious Newport (R.I.) Folk Festival and in August will do shows in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Lord Huron

Opening act: Escondido

9 p.m. Thursday, Stickyz

Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack,

107 River Market Ave., Little

Rock

Admission: $8 advance; $10

day of show

(501) 372-7707

stickyz.com

Style, Pages 27 on 06/25/2013

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