Janek van Laak: drumming up a circle of madness

(This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)

LP: I understand you were recently in India.

Janek van Laak: Yes, I came back two and a half weeks ago and was there for two months.

LP: Wow.

Janek van Laak: Traveling around, taking some time off but not taking time off.

LP: Did you experience any music while you were there?

Janek van Laak: Yeah, I did. I played some jam sessions with people. But not really on the drums; it was mostly a mixture of other travelers and some Indian people. Also, I went to a classical Indian music concert. They were pretty young, my age—I would still consider myself young, maybe I will always consider myself young—but they were in their mid-20s, and they said it's more contemporary Indian classical music.

LP: You weren't getting the secret deep initiate stuff. (laughter)

Janek van Laak: There are some modern contemporary ragas, probably.

LP: Yeah, still beautiful, though, right? It's just such enchanting music.

Janek van Laak: It was pretty tripping. I was just lying down for one hour. They played two sets. In the first hour, I was lying down and didn't get much sleep the night before. So, I was already in a kind of trance state.

Yeah, it was really colorful, I would say. Then, I moved a bit in the second set and got up. And at some point, the tabla player did something—there was one moment when I recorded it on my phone, but I haven't listened back to it. There was some pattern he played once or like one repetition; I couldn't get over it.

Like, I'm still haunted by that thing. And I have to re-listen to it. And thanks for reminding me.

LP: We're all documentarians and never go back and look at any of it.

Janek van Laak: How many pictures and videos do I take daily? It's crazy. And people going to concerts and watching everything through their screens and producing data, data, data, data, and yeah.

LP: For the cloud.

Janek van Laak: Yeah.

LP: It's interesting you say that about the tabla, though, because I've experienced that probably not in the same way you did being there, but that instrument in particular, like it can sort of recede and then all of a sudden be very much out front, and it can shoot out these very sharp segments or motifs that are just like, I don't know. It's a very interesting instrument.

Janek van Laak: I also realized why they don't have a bass in that context. They were just a sitar player and the singer and the tabla guy. And the tabla has very low frequencies, like very crazy subs that are produced. And I never really paid attention to that. But while listening to it live, I was like, "Holy! The frequency range this little thing provides is so big!"

And that is exactly what you said. It's like a laser gun, like, (makes laser-like tabla mouth sounds), and then it's just going back to standby, but like keeping the bones and everything, and then every now and then, it's like, "Why? How?"

LP: All with the hands and the different movements, too. It's a very deep instrument. It's crazy.

Janek van Laak: Yeah. But it's primal at its best because the fingers also move differently. And it's like playing the piano but on the drum, but I have never touched a tabla in my life. And I wonder why. I would go back to India anyway. It was good; it was my first time and a good dip to get a sense of what was lying there. This world has a lot to explore, but India is a good place. Have you been there?

LP: I've not been. I've not been. I've always been intimidated, to be honest with you. I consider myself a pretty good traveler. I like to travel and would definitely go, but I would need a travel companion who pushed me to. In other contexts, I'm happy to be the kind of ringleader for the trip, but I think I would need someone to push me over to go.

Janek van Laak: Yeah, it's definitely challenging in some ways because it's a very intense country, depending also on where you decide to go. Obviously, there's a lot of peace to find, and that's why many people go there. But you're definitely challenged with yourself almost everywhere you go there, especially somehow. I haven't figured out why, but it's doable. And the fear is, I don't know, fears are everywhere. I think India probably has a bad reputation for some people, and either you love or hate it.

LP: Maybe, I don't know. I will say everybody I know who's ever gone came back sick. The western gut just cannot seem to handle it. (laughter)

Janek van Laak: Whether in the north or the south, that's the question because I only had one day of some shit going on. Some shit was going on. Yeah. (laughter) It was mostly pretty good.

LP: What's the context? Was this just to go and explore? Is it part of a path, a practice, or a study for you?

Janek van Laak: I try to get out of Berlin every year in winter. Not for the whole winter, but as long as I can afford it money-wise and time-wise. And I would have liked to stay longer, but I have things to do here, and I feel like, okay, I need to keep on my grind here and work on my stuff. But it's more of the reason for curiosity. Like I try to go to places I've never been before. India is known for its music and culture. I knew I would have a good time when I went there. And that was the case.

LP: Yeah. And plus, you had to come back because you have a record to talk about. You have this new work to talk about. You put out music, and then you disappeared into India. (laughter)

Janek van Laak: A new record. Yeah. It's new because it's out now.

LP: New for us.

Janek van Laak: It's new for you guys. For me, I'm already three steps ahead. The second album is already ready. It just needs to find its way into the world now. And in India, I wrote the third one. I will work on that this year and make the fourth one next year. But we are at number one now, the debut. I'm happy that it's out now. And it's interesting to listen to it now because I hear it completely differently, obviously, compared to when I was working on it and when I just finished it and heard the masters and everything. So now I'm more emotionally detached from the work. It's new to me as well now. So, I'm happy to talk about it.

LP: Were you detached from it while you were in India? Is this the longest you've gone without actually hearing it?

Janek van Laak: No. I finished the production in December 2022 of the record. And I listened to the final mixes and masters over the last year, 2023. And then, at some point, I just focused more on the production of the second album, and yeah, the assumption was good. I wasn't really listening to it. And now, when I came back, I was listening back to it now when it's released, and obviously, we're rehearsing the stuff with the band that I put together to play live for this project, and I'm able to listen to the songs in a new way now, which is kind of nice.

LP: I'm curious about something you said a moment ago about how you essentially wrote another record while in India. You or a set of songs for the next, for, I guess, project three or four. What instrument do you typically compose at? Or are you the type that just sits with, like you? Do you compose just in your head and notate? Or are you at a piano? Are you? What's your process?

Janek van Laak: Yeah, I found a cheat to avoid learning to write the right scores. So what I do is I have a groove or mainly like a melody, let's say, in my head, and I record it maybe just demo-wise on my phone. Or maybe it's just in my head. Then, I would go on my laptop, open my software, and choose a piano sound, like a MIDI instrument.

I would mute this one, put on a click, press record, and just type the rhythm of the melodic phrase I have in my head. And then, I would unmute the track and just change the MIDI notes. So I have the melody I had in my head, phone, or wherever. The computer shows you the score, which you can give to other musicians who can read music.

And they will play their part. And then you just say, do an intro here, do this melody here, do a solo here, and then they just put it together.

LP: So you've completely disenchanted me. I thought you were sitting by candlelight with a quill pen and ink and the big sheets of staff paper. Oh, my goodness. (laughter)

Janek van Laak: Oh, I'm this generation of lazy kids who try to achieve everything faster. (laughter)

LP: What does your composition take the form of? Like, do you stop at melodies? Or is somebody getting a full score? Because it's very difficult from listening to the record to actually, and it's something I like and find exciting about it, is that some pieces seem much more composed and arranged. It's hard to tell where the composition ends, and just free playing begins, and that's an element I love in general in music, but I'm curious about you in particular.

Janek van Laak: I would say it's 90 percent all about the bass line. Most of the songs have a very clear, repetitive bassline. I would assume now. I'm not really sure, but I think that's what I noticed. And on top of the bassline, you can basically add anything you want. There are written phrases and melodics. Some phrases and melodics have a length of maybe four or eight bars, so they don't really repeat quickly. Therefore, it might sound more improvised. There are also improvised phrases and solos of other people that are put over it, but it's usually a groove or a rhythmic pattern coming together with a bass line and phrases and melodics on top of that.

Obviously, I would edit later stuff and find ways. Still, usually, when all the songs on the record except one are recorded separately, like all the tracks, I would record the drums first, and then I would invite everyone separately to play their part, and then I would just cut their part together.

The idea was to have the sound of a band playing together without having a band playing together because of my limitations. And my desire is not to bring together 15 people simultaneously to rehearse, go to the studio, and do all that stuff. It's a pain in the ass to do that here in Berlin, especially. You need a lot of money to do that. So, the duration of the songs is fixed all the time. I have ideas when something comes in and when things go out. It's all basically pre-composed except for solos and improvisations. And then everybody plays their part. I would edit it. And then it's a song.

LP: That's not what I would have expected. It sounds so spontaneous. And I would have assumed that most of the group outside of overdubs were simultaneously in the room. It really came together beautifully, and it does not sound inexpensive. It sounds like a beautiful studio production. It really does. It's great, the engineering on it is, it really sounds great.

Janek van Laak: I appreciate it, man. Scarlett Interface, man. I leveled up since then but used the Focusrite Scarlett, third generation, 8-channel one for the first album. Without any preamps and stuff, I would mix it and then bounce out some stems and give them to Tim. He's a neighbor in the studio next door. He's a really great sound engineer and a sound mastermind. And he would put the stems through his analog compression tools, equalizers. We would re-amp some stems through a tape machine, and then, in the end, everything was run through a tape machine again, so it got this kind of sound. And for the second album, I recorded with the RME Babyface Pro FS, I think.

LP: Are you a gearhead?

Janek van Laak: Not really. I would be more of a gearhead if I had more money. (laughter)

LP: So you're a gearhead in waiting.

Janek van Laak: I'm a gearhead on hold. I would say I'm a gearhead but not a gearhead because I have to work with what I have. I also like to invest in gear, but there's so much you can buy, and you have to work with what you have. And it's also nice to surrender to your limitations. And money is not the reason, obviously, why we do that. And it's an eventuality. And who knows? I would love to buy a second or third drum set, new cymbals, and a nice preamp. I mean, you don't need much now to do good music, you know, to produce your music. You need a laptop, an interface, two or three mics, and the rest is in your hands.

LP: It's really incredible. Yeah.

It's interesting to me because the record isn't like a showcase for drums. It's a very organic band-sounding album. Obviously, the drums still sound recorded well, but they're not pushed to the front. So, I guess that sets up my question: what's the difference between this as a solo work under your name versus a band project? Is it simply that you get to execute the entire vision?

Janek van Laak: I do. It's more of a project, but my intent with this vision was to learn to be responsible as a drummer. It's a really interesting process if you engage with an instrument and dive deeper into it. I have another band here in Berlin. We started in 2018 when we only improvised music called Liquid Brain Orchestra. Besides making music for hours and listening to our music after reflecting on it and analyzing it, we also talked a lot, criticized each other a lot, and grew through each other a lot. I often heard that I have to accept the role of a drummer, be more the leader, be more responsible, and be in how I play and engage.

It's a process of finding the purpose of being a drummer leading a band. Even though I played in bands before and I was a drummer, you know, doing that. But now it's about my name bringing together all these wonderful people, but I'm responsible for every hit I play. This does not mean that I put more value or meaning to this project than any other, but it's an important process to accept that role and become the best drummer I can be for all the other future projects.

LP: Yeah, I was going to ask you if you have the vision yet for how the lessons learned in doing this apply in your future collaborative work, not just the work under your name.

Janek van Laak: I mean, I'm open to collaboration, and collaboration is always happening, especially in that project. Obviously, I don't have specific plans for the future besides working with the Liquid Brain Orchestra. I have some friends working on some music, but it's not that I have a schedule or some hired gun jobs coming up. I do it here and there, and I'm up for that, but I see myself right now and realistically maybe for the next three, two, four, five years, exploring more this realm of what's inside me, but simultaneously being open for collaboration. If it's supposed to be happening, it's supposed to be happening.

LP: I'm interested in this notion of responsibility you mentioned. Are there musicians you look to as people that you can say live the role the way I think I should, or is there somebody who's a role model or the way they carry and present themselves? It's like, that's, that's an aspiration.

Janek van Laak: Yeah, for sure. There are a lot of famous people who have that role. I could name a few drummers for you now if you want. But also, there are a lot of friends and musicians around me who are living in that role. And it's not only about drummers but also about how you handle yourself and how you respect your decision-making about deciding to go on with that particular instrument.

It doesn't have to be only one instrument. But the intent, you play your stuff. The whole responsibility topic is not over yet. I think it will never end, and you have abilities and openings to improve not only skill-wise but also the way you live your life and, at the same time, how this way you live your life reflects in the way you play your instrument.

But I think the first drummer I looked up to where I felt like, okay, this is a powerhouse who just nailed it. But I wasn't thinking about responsibility and this role of leading back then, but it was definitely John Bonham. He's still among the most inspiring drummers to me in many aspects, sound-wise, playing-wise, and musical context. He's just incredible.

LP: The sensitivity of the musicians in that band to each other is often left out of the conversation because they are so powerful and very versatile. They can play such a diverse range of music, but Bonham's sensitivity, even though he's so powerful, is so right for the moment all the time. And that's really a gift, but it's also, I believe, something you have to cultivate as well. There's that listening, that feeling, and listening.

Janek van Laak: I agree that training your listening ability is crucial to becoming a master in your instrument. You listen to yourself when you play, and it is not how you sound to someone else who's listening. I mean, you don't play for others, but you also play for others. For me, it's the dynamic range you have on the drums. I don't know how many millions of velocity possibilities you have to hit with a stick. Still, developing a feeling and the perfect touch for every situation is so sensitive. Like you mentioned about Bonham, this is king, and this is what I want. Like not to sound like Bonham or anyone, but to find the right touch for every required moment.

LP: Maybe in that context or more broadly. What's the role of restraint and what's the role of quiet because the goal isn't a fill constantly, and you can say as much by sitting back, right?

Janek van Laak: For sure. The space you don't play, you also play. I don't know who said it, but it's like between every note you play, there is a space in between which makes the note that comes after valuable, and it depends on the context like in an improvisational context, not to play is sometimes more than to play at all.

But you also think sometimes, "Okay, now we're here together. We're making music, and we came together." Why wouldn't I play? But I sometimes feel like if I enter this conversation now, I maybe have something to say, but it's maybe. Obviously, I don't want to overthink it, but it's so beautiful already. And it's the fear of killing that beautiful thing that is already there. Why add something if it's already everything there is in a way?

LP: From reading other interviews with you, I see that there's no one rule for every situation. That's something you didn't say, but I take that from your philosophy that there aren't absolutes. There seems to be a lot about context appropriateness or context sensitivity. Is that correct? Am I picking that up on you as a sort of philosophy?

Janek van Laak: Yeah, I would agree in a way. If you think piece by piece or song by song, it's ideally a thing for itself, which relates in the framework of an album to the framework of the album and the other songs but still stands for itself. But I think there is a red line also going through the pieces, and it's not as wild for me as it may sound to others when you hear it.

LP: Like a common theme or an intention is that…?

Janek van Laak: Yeah, I mean, for the first album, there was not really an intention. The intention was to let everything out there now and see what it is. For the second album, I set a clearer framework; for the third one, I would like more sound restraint in terms of okay. Let's go with only these six or seven instruments. For the third one, I don't want to use drums at all, for example, and just work with my voice and other instruments. So there's an intention of setting a framework, but not really the urge to be super loose and as different as possible compared to what you did before.

LP: What's the role of precision as a drummer in particular? Like, is precision important?

Janek van Laak: Precision, I would refer to as you maybe mean tightness, but I would say, yeah, obviously, it's very important. Still, precision could also be applied to everything else around the drums. How precise or focused are you in your daily decision-making? Precision making. (laughter) But to me, it's very important to be precise with the things I do, which doesn't mean that I cannot have fun, and I force myself to be precise. It's about the intent you put into your work, and our time is limited. The more precise I am with my thoughts, the things I say, the things I want to communicate to other people or say on the drums, I have to be precise to communicate as clearly as possible. Without taking an extra road, it's not necessary to take it.

LP: The question I had written down here, I think my intention in asking it's changing a little bit based on some of the things you've said because what you just told me a few moments ago made me think of things like the value of time, not wasting time, but still finding the opportunity for spontaneity and moments of lightness. There's this balance between seriousness and frivolity that's important in life and music. What role does humor play in your work? Because it's clearly there. And just from talking to you, you clearly like puns and wordplay. How do you think about that in the context of what is otherwise a very serious endeavor for you?

Janek van Laak: Yeah, good question, man. Without humor, I wouldn't be here now, probably.

LP: That says more about your parents! (laughter) What, did they meet at a comedy show?

Janek van Laak: No, but my mom was a comedian, actually, when she was in her early 20s. Then she got pregnant with me and decided to do something else. But they're both really funny in different ways. My father has a sarcastic side, which I internalized well and maybe expanded a bit—I added some DLCs to that package. But I think with all this, like, urge to create and to work on your stuff, it's serious in the way that you are committed to it, and you like to excel maybe, and you have this vision and hunger for creation. But it needs to be funny—anything I do. I don't know, maybe it's my nature, but without trash-talking in the rehearsal room every now and then. I wouldn't be doing it.

There's nothing to realize for me here. It's completely out of any logical sense that it's possible to do music anyway. And to have that privilege, to have the time and the capacities, all the limbs, the hearing, be astonished and laughing about the fact that this is actually happening.

LP: There's something inherently absurd about it.

Janek van Laak: Yeah, it's ridiculous.

LP: I always enjoy seeing musicians playing, and one of them does something. I don't mean like a funny riff or an in-joke or a lick or something like that; I mean they make each other laugh by just the joy of what they pull off musically, maybe in an improvised context or something like that. Maybe that's not quite humor, but it's another manifestation of sort of the bizarreness of the whole thing, like just the magical nature of it.

Janek van Laak: Yeah, it's like when they do something, and they're like, "What? How's it possible?" That's the good thing about it, and I think that's why we do it because we're greedy and want these moments. We want these moments when things can happen, and you surprise each other. We feed off that.

LP: To that end, could you tell me a little about the live shows? What's the presentation, especially given how you created this music? What goes into rehearsing the band and working the material up? What kind of venues do you play at? Are you in a jazz club? Are you in a rock club? Are you in non-traditional places? I'm so intrigued by how this comes off live.

Janek van Laak: We just played one show with that project one day before New Year's Eve last year. We play the release show this Friday. I'm doing that music, writing, composing, and producing all that stuff because I just want to give the listener ideas about how it can sound live. So we can actually start playing that stuff. Otherwise, there's no point in doing it. The venue we play right now is next to our studio. It's like an art space with a capacity for maybe 200 people. But I see that music is happening at festivals, like music festivals and jazz clubs, but not necessarily. But if someone wants to book that for a jazz club, I'm not shying away. There are eight people on stage on Friday. It's a lot.

LP: Wow.

Janek van Laak: It could be less, but it's also nice to have this kind of force of sound and get close to what it is on the record.

LP: Yeah. That's quite a palette, eight people.

Janek van Laak: Yeah. I mean, there are people touring with 50 trucks and building stages, and I don't know, skyscrapers, all that shit. So it should be possible to be touring anywhere with an eight-piece band and 10 other people hanging out with us. So this is just a matter of time until this can be happening. But yeah, it's definitely fun and challenging to play the stuff. It took some time to get the songs worked out, and it was good timing to come back three weeks before the show and put it together again.

LP: Will you play the whole album? Can all of the songs be played live?

Janek van Laak: Technically, it should be possible to play them live. They won't sound like they are on the record because we will extend them sometimes. So, for me, it's more like the songs are structures and frameworks. And when you play live, you can improvise within that and find out how long the song is supposed to be today. Tomorrow, it might be longer or shorter, or that sequence might be longer or shorter, but everyone knows about these cues and moments. So, everyone has a role at some point. Yeah. Maybe someone starts this song, or someone starts that song. I do a certain role or whatever into this part or that part. It's a process of finding the language between each other that's working for that one. And it's really nice because now it's starting to make fun. Today and yesterday were like, "Okay, we're getting there. Cool. Let's keep on doing that."

LP: Yeah. Will you rehearse the day of the show? Or will you step away and approach the stage like totally fresh?

Janek van Laak: Oh, I never rehearsed on a day of a show. That's actually a good idea.

LP: (laughter) I don't know if it is.

Janek van Laak: I think it's not good. We will have a sound check. So we will probably play three or four songs. But then it's also like if something's not working right, then I don't know, everything will be fine anyway. So we rehearsed enough. I think we had five or six rehearsals since I came back, which is not a lot. It's not a lot, but we did well so far.

LP: You don't want everybody to get too stuck in patterns. Yeah.

Janek van Laak: There was a band called Swans. You know them, probably. They used to rehearse next to us last year for the new album. They made a tour, and they're known to be the loudest band in the world, which is another topic. But I talked with a guy, Kristof Hahn. He plays the slide guitar in Swans. We talked about it a few years ago when we met at a movie shoot. And he told me they rehearse one month, six days per week before a tour.

And they usually go to some place and then just get really tight. But they obviously get paid every day for practicing on that project. And once I can do that, I would like to do that. Having five rehearsals per week, everybody gets money. It's a job, a funny job. So if that's possible, I would do it for sure.

You don't necessarily have to get too stuck in your head. Time off is also important to let the brain readjust to the new information that is put in. It's really interesting. Sometimes, if you step away from something and then you get back to it, and then you're like, Oh, I got better. Even though I didn't do anything, I just let it go.

LP: It's such an interesting phenomenon, especially how that works or how a good night's sleep works.

Janek van Laak: It's weird, but maybe this is exactly the thing: you have to let go of your desires and whatever in order to get what you are longing for without having the desire to want it.

LP: People are always worried about what lurks in their subconscious, but the conscious mind is the troublemaker. The subconscious is the one that's like working out everything for you. It's the stuff that's right out in front that's going to get you in trouble.

Janek van Laak: Good point. Yeah. Yeah. Agree. (laughter) It seems easier to work with a conscious mind instead of the subconscious. Therefore, good things happen because I'm learning to control them. And I trust the subconscious. It's about ruling over your conscious mind—not to rule over it, but to negotiate.

LP: Are you aware of or feel you're part of a scene or movement? Because in doing this work on the podcast, it seems like, especially throughout Germany and Switzerland—I guess you could talk about the London jazz scene as well, but it seems more on the continent—there's a real interesting moment now where at sort of the intersection of electro-acoustic music with improvisational elements. It seems like we're finally at a moment where people coming from more of a producer, beats-driven tradition are finally mashing up against people coming from maybe an improvised or jazz tradition, and very interesting things are happening. Are you part of a world like that, or do you operate in a self-contained way?

Janek van Laak: I've never thought about it. I operate in it because we're all here, and we're all doing it and part of each other. But I had a self-talk with myself a few years ago, and I felt I was not really a part of it. I'm more in my own world, trying not to get too much of this stuff that's going on around me too close, which doesn't mean that I don't want to get inspired, but I also find a balance between the creation of others, inhaling that, focusing on your own possibilities. But yeah, it's a pool of inspiration everywhere. It's hard to tell who is who and what is what, but there's definitely a visible movement, and I have nothing against it. However, I also don't feel like a huge part of it.

LP: Do you listen to music?

Janek van Laak: Yeah, sure. Last year, I didn't listen as much as I did in the years before. It was by choice because I wanted to take a bit of a break and focus on what's in me or what is coming through me. But now I have listened a bit more, and it's really good to get back and go to live shows. And I didn't go to many concerts last year and the year before, but I think this year I've seen more concerts than in the last two years together. And it's pretty refreshing.

LP: I find that if I don't go to a live show for a few weeks, I can feel it when I go to a live show. It can be 50 people in a small listening room, or it could be a club, or it could be the biggest extravaganza. Still, I leave feeling so good. It's just that there's something about the live music experience, experiencing music around other people. It's very important for my energy.

Janek van Laak: It's incredible. People on stage communicate with each other, just with their instruments. And they have this energetic exchange and put this wave of sound into the audience. And they both feed off each other, and it's incredible. It's super nurturing. When you play a show that is not really bad, you feel greedy after the sheer fact that you had this opportunity and vice versa. You probably have been to a few concerts that you still think about sometimes, and you have this, "Whoa, that was a special night. There was something in that room. That was just unbelievable."

LP: You mentioned that you have completed the second project. Is it done?

Janek van Laak: The second album is done. There are just a few mix adjustments, and also we have to put it through the tape, I think, again. It's just a matter of getting more funding and waiting for Sam to finish the cover art. Shout out to Sam, you're the man.

LP: It's funny. I thought that one of the things on my list of notes here was to ask you about the cover art. I love the album cover. It's so incredible.

Janek van Laak: Yeah, man. I'm so happy about it. We want to print posters now of it. Sam and I talked today, and he will remove the fonts on the backside of the LP. Then, we're going to make some good paper prints.

LP: Striking art.

Janek van Laak: Yeah, he's incredible, man. I saw his art before, and I was like, he's the guy, but I wasn't expecting that. Yeah, but you can expect even better next time.

LP: (laughter) Well, then I will.

Listen, thank you so much for your time. I love the record. I've been listening to it pretty much on repeat for the last few days. I feel like I hear something new every time, and that's fun. It's really fun.

Janek van Laak: That's interesting. That's cool.

LP: There's this phenomenon: time doesn't work normally with that album. It's interesting because sometimes it feels like a long album, but it's not. It's just that it moves a lot. In fact, some of the songs are rather short, but I don't perceive them that way. I don't know. I'm still knee-deep in the record because I've listened to it often. So, I don't have great articulation, but I'm having fun with it. I like it a lot.

Janek van Laak: Cool, man. I like the time reference because time changes. The feeling of time is so different in the morning and evening, especially when I play on the drums. I practice in the morning or maybe practice in the evening, and the feeling of time is completely different. I'm happy to hear that you have that on the record. Maybe you have a different record than I have. (laughter)

LP: I've only been listening to it digitally. I think I will pick up the vinyl because I think it will add yet another experience. So, yeah, it's great. I'm looking forward to hearing where you go next.

Janek van Laak: You can also put the vinyl and play it only half-time. (makes the sounds of a slowed-down record)

LP: If I can't get enough and need even more, I can. (laughter) Well, that's a good technique. I'll try that with some of my favorite albums.