Lewis Del Mar emerged in summer 2015 when their debut single Loud(y) gained No.1 chart status. The Brooklyn duo, made up of singer/guitarist Danny Miller and drummer/producer Max Harwood, have been extremely busy since. I managed to catch up with the band after their latest UK performance at the Bodega in Nottingham.
Asking them how their performance went, they described it as being “both humbling and eye opening”. They continued: “We’d never been to any of the cities along the festival route, so there was a very buoyant sense of wonder and excitement that accompanied the whole trip. We’re a really young band, so to be far from home and have people singing along to the songs and showing love is surreal”.
Lewis Del Mar’s sound can only be described as fresh; a mélange of acoustic guitar, music samples and Latin American drums. The duo are influenced heavily by early hip-hop innovators and modern folk songwriters, but they’re quick to retort that they “respect and appreciate artists of all types”, and even take inspiration from the “Magical Realist period”.
As for the inspiration for the Latin percussion in Wave(s), it was more family-oriented. Having Latin backgrounds- Miller originating from Nicaragua and Harwood originating from Panama- meant they spent a lot of time exploring Central and South America. Max said: “While we were making the album Danny went to Nicaragua to meet a lot of his family for the first time. He came back inspired by the connection and with the desire to weave more global themes into our music”. On the other hand, Max samples heavily from vinyl, and had already built a small collection of Latin Percussion ensemble records, so the specific sounds stemmed from there.
They were also inspired by New York as the duo tries to anthropomorphise the city where they live, into their music. They refreshed: “A lot of what we do is meant to embody the perpetual pastiche of sounds and identities that make up the city’s cultural fabric”.
The chemistry between both musicians is unhampering, and it is clear they have been performing together for a long time. Asking them when they started making music, they said: “We’ve known each other since we were nine years old. We were both trumpet players in our fourth grade elementary school band. That was the first time we made music together”.
Since then, Miller and Harwood have been working interchangeably, sharing ideas and issues with one another. Max told me: “Everything we do is collaborative every step of the way. There are instances when Danny comes to the table with a song idea, and there are instances when I come in the room with a melody or beat that we craft around. We try to vary it so that there’s always energy to the process. That energy is tangible and transcends the recordings when captured correctly”.
After the wonderful success of their first album, simply entitled EP, Lewis Del Mar are attempting to push the boundaries and create something new.
They want to collaborate with more artists, namely BADBADNOTGOOD. The duo said: “We’ve been into a lot of their new stuff. They had Little Simz out at Coachella a couple months ago. All of those artists would be fun to build something with”.
Asking them how the planned to top what they’ve already produced, they hinted: “We might be writing a global EDM smash with Pitbull”. But they won’t give any more information about the subject, urging their fans to “wait and see”.
The duo’s much-mooted debut album is in the process of being finalised. Asking them what to expect, they said: “The album is an extension of a lot of the major themes we’ve begun to outline in the EP. It delves further into the world of hybrids that we began to explore in the early recordings, and deals thematically with the collage of personalities many people, both our age and otherwise, experience day to day”. Exciting.
Lewis Del Mar will be returning to the UK in August, performing at both Leeds and Reading festivals. In the meantime they’re touring all over North and South America. Asking them if they ever got bored of the nomadic lifestyle, they unequivocally disagreed: “Traveling and experiencing new cities and ways of life is one of the most rewarding parts of this career. You get to see a lot of places that you may otherwise neglect if you were visiting as a tourist. We feel very fortunate”.