Meet Sean Lazer

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sean Lazer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sean below.

Sean, so happy to have you with us today. You are such a creative person, but have you ever head any sort of creativity block along the way? If so, can you talk to us about how you overcame or beat it?

The overall life cycle of a creative idea usually starts with pursuing the initial idea as much as you can in the moment, and then getting space and only coming back to it when you are in the right headspace. The initial idea doesn’t have to be fleshed out too deep at the start but the spur of the moment inspiration has to be taken seriously and acted upon, even if it means recording a voice memo in a bathroom while on a first date because that one vocal melody or guitar line could be killer later. When you then come back to those nuggets of inspiration that you’ve laid out for yourself, it cannot be stressed enough that if the song doesn’t want to be written at that time, it won’t be. If you feel like you’re hitting a wall, you probably are. Get up, get away from it, do something that inspires you or will help you in your life. I think a lot of writer’s block comes from a lack of confidence, even if we don’t feel that way in the moment. We often forget that putting a pen to the paper or pursuing a creative idea in any way takes bravery and forces you to confront the possibility that you may not know how something goes. You’re laying down the tracks for the train as it barrels down the metaphorical passageways of your creative brain and in that uncertainty is where some of the best ideas come from. We can’t get to that comfortable point where ideas flow unless we are confident in ourselves to be right, wrong, or somewhere in between. So in those moments that nothing is coming to you, get active, go to the gym, read a book, or have a genuine moment with another human that you love. Do anything that makes you feel good about who you are as a person and your brain will be tricked into believing that you might be good enough to be creative too.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Sean Lazer and I’ve been playing music for 15 years of my life and now lead the space themed alternative rock band, Astronaut Class. It’s honestly a dream band to be in and I think anyone that plays music wants to be in a band like ours. The camaraderie between each member, the creativity that the band premise gives, and the flair of the costumes that we wear live for every show I think really gives us an edge on standing out in today’s musical landscape. The space theming of our project doesn’t just stop at appearances though, sure the Halloween costumes that have been retrofitted with custom patches and identifiers for each band member look neat, but the real soul of our band comes from the willingness to explore themes of love, life, and rejection all within the playful and mysterious world of outer space. Our 12 song debut album, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” releases on all platforms August 9th and is worth all 46 minutes of your precious time. You can also hear the album in full from start to finish live at our album launch show at Cult Classic Brewing in Stevensville, MD on August 17th.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Confidence, compromise, and fun are the three skills that have helped all of us on our musical journey. You need confidence to even continue with what you’re doing in the first place so that takes the cake as the most important skill I’d say. This confidence can from many different areas of life with the most important one being yourself. Speaking from personal experience though, that takes the longest and is no easy feat to learn. Instead, I got enough friends and family together to timidly show them what I had been working on and the excitement that they showed me was all the confidence that I needed to continue writing. Slowly but surely with each song I wrote, I was able to find more comfort in my voice and ability to write, but it was my loved ones that helped me get there in the end. Compromise is an extremely vital skill to be good at in a band I’ve found. One of my favorite bands, Guster, in an interview years and years ago said something along the lines of “… being in a band is one of the most unnatural things a group of people can do.” They said it in jest of course and seem like they all get along just fine but they were also highlighting many of the unorthodox behaviors that band mates will have to put up with. That’s where the compromise comes in. If you’re not careful with your words, actions, or anything in between, feathers will be ruffled and emotions will get high. Most of the time though, it’s the situation that creates these uneasy moments. Moments like traveling in a small van to a show or using your last two cents in your bank account to go out and record an album where every second is literally money being stripped away come to mind. All that matters is that in these uncertain and unorthodox moments where stressors are naturally at an all time high, that everyone remembers to compromise and believe that the other person is on their side. Fun is the final and most important skill. What’s the point in any of this if you’re not having it?

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

I think the number one obstacle we’re facing right now is figuring out how to navigate the current music landscape and how involved social media is to the equation. None of us are very savvy with trends or really any of these apps and if anything, I think we want as little to do with them as possible. We grew up in a very different time where playing shows and then playing more shows after that was the most effective way to “make it big” but now there are algorithms, trends, and all sorts of factors that we’re trying to figure out each and every day. We obviously think the music should come first and speak for itself but it is foolish to think that it can be heard in more traditional ways without the assistance of social media. That’s why we’re focusing on sharing our music and ideas in a way that still feels genuine to us in this online world. Shows will always come first to us though and honing in our live performance is always the band’s top priority. A video won’t be able to capture that kind of energy.

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Emily Cooksey

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