Ep.321 – Harmonies of Resilience: Laura Lee Schultz (from Down the Lees) on Music’s Power to Heal and Transform

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Like so many of you, we battle depression through life's ups and downs.

Music has always been the one thing we could rely on to get us through the tough times we all face.

Follow us on our journey as we discuss the healing power of music, share our stories through songs and lyrics, interview.

Musicians and other artists, break down joggers.

Deep dive into band biographies, and much, much more.

This is the wooden word tale music.

Speaks podcast with Blake Mosley, James Tux, and Amanda Dolan.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Wooden Words tale music speaks podcast where we fight depression with the power of music. I am your handicap host, James Cox, and I have a wonderful, wonderful guest with me today, Laura Lee Schultz. Did I pronounce that right?

Yeah, you did.

Okay. Because sometimes. Whoa. Right here. Sometimes I have a hard time pronouncing my own name, but. All right, so she is the Lisa of David Lee's. But first, let me tell you about the band. Originating in Vancouver, Laura Lee's Schultz solo project down the Lees transformed into a vibrant live band exploring post rocks, slowcore and no wave genres. With three albums, an ep and a collection of singles already in their discography, the project made their mark internationally during their time in Belgium, giving birth to the clean beard slam album, which is great, by the way. Listen to that. In collaboration with Steve Albany. A l b I n I. Albini. Albini. Thank you. Missing on the authority. All right, well, I'm in the pandemic though. The project returned to Canada, farming a new trio with Andy Ashley on drums and Chris Carlston on base. Carlson. Yes. Carlson. How you doing, Miss Laura?

I'm doing great.

All right. All right.

Right.

So, uh, you are a. Okay, so you started this band solo act, right? Because what I would ask you right now is, um, do. Okay, so you like the band food fighters? Alright.

Yes.

Their first album, they did all the depart solo, right? Is that what you did? You did like the first. All the solo and then you did so. Okay, good, good. Yeah, because I wanted to ask you about that.

Yeah. The first album was.

I think, buried the sun. Right.

The first album was. No, actually the first album was 360 and a quarter.

Okay.

And that was in 2006. I've had this project since 2006.

Okay.

It's been a solo recording project for a long time and not a live performing act for a long time. So the first album was me writing everything and performing everything. So drums, guitars, bass, everything, just like the very first Foo Fighters album.

He did everything.

And then the album after that. I had guest musicians come in and play some parts for drums and some for bass. But for most, mostly, I did everything. And then the buried the sun album. I was living in Belgium at the time, and I found some musicians to actually record that album with Steve Albini in Chicago. And then we started touring that as a live act.

Nice. So you're like a jack of all trades. You play guitar, bass, and drums. So which one of that would be easier to. If you say, James, pick up. Pick up something, what would you say? What is the most, I guess, profound instrument that you. That you love playing more than anything else?

Well, I want to say there's two instruments, because I always, always wanted to play the drums. I asked my parents for drums since I was, like, ten, and they never got them for me. And then one year, I found a guitar under the Christmas tree when I was 13 or 14, and they said this, you can plug headphones into. So then that started my love with guitar. But I always love playing drums. I find drums to be very therapeutic. It can be a way to release your frustrations. It can be a way in any way. It doesn't need to be super rhythmic. It could just hit them. Right. I find them a very therapeutic instrument.

Let me tell you. My friend. My friend had got some drums, right? Cause his mom took him to the drug store and she heard him play him, and she's like, idiots. It's not so loud these days. Would be fine in the garage, you know? Cause guitar was such a big, big area, you know, this is how the sound goes, you know? But once she got up home and she's like, oh, my God, these need to go, you know? Cause he was found in slow, loud. She couldn't take it anymore. So that. Yeah, but. But they do release stress, for sure. Because when you're under stressful circumstances, you want to beat things from especially kind of the music.

Kind of music I like, which is heavy, right?

Yes, yes. I kind of got the vibe that. Okay, so you're, um. The new sundials is great. I love it. I kind of got the vibe of, like, a more grunge, uh, like a three piece band, you know, obviously, like, silver chair and nirvana. Was. Was that the, uh, cuz because your, um, barrier descent album is very mellow according towards this daos, uh, single. Yeah. So, uh, when did you want to do a complete 180 and go like the heavier side from. From very discern.

Well, I wouldn't say it was like a 180 departure. It was. I was already going in that route. I'm very attached to not sticking to one genre I like to just explore. The very first album was very soft. I had some heavy elements, but I think being in Belgium and being around musicians who really like heavy and noisy and post metal music inspired me to do the same, so. And I was in a band called Queasy in the. In the mid nineties, and it was a very grunge riot girl kind of band. And so I kind of have gone all over the place. But this one I really wanted to play with the sounds of metal and in a haunting kind of way.

Right.

That's. That's kind of what the. The theme of the album is.

Who is your favorite metal band of all time? Oh, God. Okay. Okay, so instead of that question, let me. Let me ask you this, okay? I'm gonna give you two bands to pick from, and you just tell me which one's better for you. Okay, let's go with. My go to question is always Deftones or incubus?

Deftones.

Thank you. I love incubus, but I love, love, love the Dev. I don't know what it is.

You know, I think it's. I think it's their ethereal creepiness about it.

Yes.

Is what I like. That's up my. That's up my alley.

Yeah. White Pony is the album for me of all time, you know. Okay, so we got another one, which is my also go through. Now, this is the longest competition, really. It's Megadeth or Metallica.

I'd probably say Metallica just because of familiarity for me.

Right.

I haven't listened to very much megadeth, and I've listened to so much metallica, so I'd say that.

Nice. Nice. Yeah. I was a huge metallic fan for longest time back in high school, but Megadeth has been. Has been consistent, you know, every year, boom. You know, I expect another Megadeth. Not so much with Metallica. Metallica's been a hit, you know, five years. Three years.

Yeah, exactly.

Come on now. You know, you know. Okay, so, so with so many genres out there, you have subcategories. Right. And it's hard to keep up with all of them. Right. So I've never heard of slow core. And this is your. Your bio says, like, your slow core. Could you explain to me any audience what that is? Because I personally never heard it before.

Okay, sure. So slow core kind of borrows from hardcore sensibilities, hardcore rock and really slow down music.

Okay. Kind of like sludge metal.

Kind of like sludge metal. But I also consider bands like low to be slow core. They really play with being able to draw out progressions in a very uncomfortable, comfortable, and beautiful way. So it's just very slow. So our latest release, downplay, which is a single from the album that's coming out on May 3, that is a version of slow core. So it's the very slow at the very beginning, and then at the end, it gets very, like, hardcore and. Wow. So that's. That's what I consider slow core.

I'm just writing down the. Yeah, dude, your. Your new album coming out May 3, which is called downplay, and I'm. Can't wait to hear it. Yeah. But, yeah, so thank you for explaining that to me. Now I can go down to slow, cool, rapidol and. Cuz I know there's, like, a lot of bands that are also slow. Slow core, too. So.

Yeah.

All right, I have a few more questions, and then I'll let you go and eat something or, you know, whatever you have to do. Okay. So if you had to choose one of your songs to be the official anthem for unexpected events, like a groundbreaking scientific discovery or the arrival of new species, you know, aliens, because they're failing at that there. Which song will you choose for the. For the anthem and why?

So, from our new album, you mean any.

Anything you want?

Yeah, anything from any. Wow.

Any of your songs? Yeah.

I would say the title track, dirt, it's the very first song off the album, and it is about climate change and human beings responsibility in it. And it kind of is another example of what we call slow core, but it's more post metal because it's very metal. Halfway through, it's. But it's very stark. So it kind of. It kind of feels like it would make a good song for a video that features aliens landing or.

Right.

A major apocalyptic event.

Yeah.

Yes, because I feel like we're getting towards apocalyptic events.

Yeah. And. And he just. And it just released fallout, the tv show. So hidden messages.

For season two.

Right. Everybody's, like, aching for season. I haven't watched it yet, so. Yeah, I'm gonna watch it sometime soon. Um, so a lot of musicians are very comfortable writing their own lyrics. And their own songs. Is there a time where you're. You're in the creation of one of your albums where you felt completely outside of your comfort. Outside of your comfort zone for writing.

Lyrics or the music?

The lyrics.

Oh, yes, I can. One song on the album is called dead and over. And it. It really is a vulnerable song for me because it was the first song that I wrote out of the pandemic. I didn't have a band at the time because I moved back from Belgium to Canada, and I didn't have band members, and we were all locked away, and musicians couldn't do anything, and we couldn't do anything, and venues were closing, and I was like, my career is over. My career is over. It's dead and over. So I wrote about that and what it felt like to be a woman and an older woman in this industry and having my career disappearing overnight, that it was a very vulnerable space for me to put down. And so I wrote that, and then I intended it to be my last song. I was gonna be ever. I was gonna, like, put it out there and go, that's it. I'm done. I can't do it anymore. And then it actually did the absolute opposite. It made me want to do it more. So I think that shows what can happen if you actually dive into being vulnerable. And really owning that, I find that.

Music does that with a lot of artists, because I've been talking to musical musicians for four years now, and a lot of things, just like you said, you know, I. I thought my career was done. And then this one song I wrote, like, took off and made me. Made me, like, realize that I, you know, I still have to do this for, you know.

Yeah.

For. Yeah. So it's nice that you shared it with us. Yeah. So three more questions. Who is your mountain rush war? Four bands. Four bands of your mount Rushmore. Who would they be to play with?

Or just my favorite bands of all time?

Favorite bands of all time. There gotta be four of them. They gotta be four of them because this is your Mount Rushmore.

Okay. I have to name PJ Harvey because she was very influential to me as a solo woman artist. I have to name unwound, which is a noise rock band from the northwest of America who really kind of paved the way for noise artists. Love, love, love them. I'd have to say low, which is the slow car artist that I named earlier.

Yeah, one more, one more, one more. Any band.

I'll say Nirvana, because they really. They were the last band to me. Yeah, that really changed the game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I can say how much I love you so much right now. Nirvana. Nirvana. Is it for me, man. You know, it's like. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think. I think in the nineties, everybody was a nirvana fan. I don't care who you were, you know, and what we're doing, you know, so. All right, all right, so last question, and this is the hardest question I'm going to ask for you today. Okay. Are you ready?

I'm ready.

All right, so this podcast is called when word shell music speaks.

Yeah.

And that can't be further from the truth. Right? So is there, like, a artist, an album, or a song that you can listen to, but you can't tell me or your bandmates how it makes you feel deep inside your soul.

An artist, an album, or a song that hits me so deeply that I feel uncomfortable telling people how deeply it affects me?

Well, not uncomfortable, but you. But there's no words to process what you. What that song means to you.

Oh, my gosh.

It's a hard question, then. Yeah.

Okay. There's a band. There's a band from the Pacific Northwest called 300 six, and they're around in the nineties, and they released an album called Tyke, I think, or Adamantine. I can't remember what it's called, but the song Adamantine, it has always resonated with me, but even more so because I know that the bass player singer died, and it was a very. It was a very vulnerable, raw track. So every time I listen to it now, I think about him. I think about the vulnerability of musicians, various different struggles. This 27 club, which is what Kurt Cobain was part of, and how a lot of the times, musicians have such a hard time dealing with things that they go to the darker side of being a musician or a rock star.

Right.

And so that scares me that I don't want to get to that point. Um, and so I would have to say that that would be the song that, uh. That kind of creeps up to me.

Well, you answered it perfectly, you know? Perfectly. Not that other part. Because technically, there's no way how you can explain it to me. Like, yeah, yeah, you just answered it perfectly for me. So, yeah, you. All right, so as we wrap up, it's down at Lee's. Laura Lee Schultz says, leslie Singer. Man, you've been awesome with us today. Thank you so much for coming on, James.

I really appreciate the time you've given me to be on your podcast.

Well, I appreciate you. So we have douse, go check out the single Dallas, we talked about buried the sun, which is a great album. Everybody needs to go. Go download it or stream it.

We still have some vinyl available, so just go to Bandcamp and we have a bunch of merch there.

I love vinyl, dude. I'm gonna pick one up right now. I love vinyl. Vinyl back, you know, so. And then we have downplay, which is a brand new album coming out May 3.

It's actually dirt is the album.

Okay. Okay.

Downplay is the track that I was talking. The song that I was talking about. That's a slow chord.

Okay. Okay. So my bad. I'm so sorry. All right, so everybody go to the website. It's offwhite House records.com. Artist slash down the lease. They're on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and. And Link. Link. Tree on down the Lee's. And I'm. And I'm so jealous that you got down to Lee's on everything. Cause I have the.

I started this band so long ago that I could use all of that stuff. I'm so happy I don't have to go down the Lees the band.

Right.

Music or whatever we do.

And I hate it. I'm like, oh, my God, dude, this was trash, you know? But, yeah, so I should have started at the same time you did. So we honestly do love you to death. I love you just for Nirvana, you know, talking. And we honestly do want you to come back anytime you want to.

Perfect. Thank you.

So, with that, everybody remember, when words fail, music speaks. Bye, guys.