BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition June 2019

MUSiC CONCERT PREVIEWS
Psych-rock dream team
PRESENTS
Sean Lennon
talks John and Yoko’s
essential influence
and diving South Of
Reality with Primus
frontman Les
Claypool
By JOHNNY PAPAN
B
y the time Sean Ono
Lennon was born, his
father, John Lennon,
music icon and peace
activist, had already
embarked on several artistic and
philosophical evolutions.
Though Sean’s time with his dad
was short, it was rich, and the
majority of his young life, before
John’s murder, was spent with his
father at his side, the older Lennon
having famously decided to
be a “house husband.”
“There’s so many things I’ve
always admired about my dad,”
Lennon explains. “He never
stayed the same; I think that’s really
incredible. If you look at the
difference between Abbey Road
and Two Virgins, it’s such a stark
transformation. He was always
looking to revise and improve
his worldview and his thinking.
I think that is true creativity, and
it’s true intelligence as well.”
Lennon was only five years old
when his father was killed outside
their home in New York City
on December 8, 1980, leaving a
void not only in his life, but the
lives of millions of music fans and
activists across the globe. Lennon
continued being raised by
his mother, conceptual artist and
activist Yoko Ono. He learned the
guitar by playing Beatles songs
while Ono taught him how to
record and produce music. Ono
also influenced Lennon with her
interpretation of art, which impacted
him during his formative
years.
“She has this philosophy about
art and creativity that art takes
place in your mind, and the medium
in which you express the
idea is unimportant,”
Lennon says.
“It’s secondary. She’s
never really felt like Tuesday, June 25
there was a medium The Commodore
Ballroom (Van)
she couldn’t do. She
made films, paintings,
sculptures, rock
and roll records. For her, it was all
just another kind of paint.”
Now 43, Lennon has drawn
influence from both his parents.
His voice is a ghost-like match
to his father’s, and he explores a
modernized style of psychedelia
in his songwriting. He currently
is part of the Claypool-Lennon
Delirium, an atmospheric
rock group formed with Primus
frontman Les Claypool. The duo
dropped their second record,
South Of Reality, earlier this year.
Many of Lennon’s songs on the
album read like short stories. The
first single, “Blood and Rockets,”
tells of Jack Parsons, a rocket
scientist and engineer who
CLAYPOOL-
LENNON DELIRIUM
with Jim James
Tix: $49.50, ticketmaster.ca
helped develop the
liquid fuel technology
that eventually led
America to the moon.
Parsons was also
enamored with the
occult and practiced
witchcraft. He died in
a science experiment explosion.
“Amethyst Realm” was written
after Lennon watched a TV report
about a woman who claimed
she was having sex with ghosts.
Much like his father, Lennon’s
music is decorated with references
to social discourse. He
feels that social media has been
monopolized, and free speech is
being compromised to the algorithms
of artificial intelligence.
Our “connections” have led to
real-world disconnect, resulting
in the degradation of human empathy.
“A lot of my songs tend to be
based on real life surrealism,”
Lennon says. “The modern world
is so bizarre, it almost feels unnecessary
to make things up
anymore.”
It’s clear where Lennon’s extended
worldview and experiential
artistic style come from.
“Some people feel like, in order
to forge their identity, they
need to reject their parents entirely,”
he says. “Some people
don’t feel that way at all. In my
case, I was prone towards the
latter because my dad died when
I was young. Him disappearing
from my life amplified my
desire to be a part of music. It
was a way of finding some kind
of solace from the void that was
left by him not being around. It
was the only thing that made me
feel like I was still connecting to
him.”
John & Yoko: Above Us Only
Sky documentary reminds
BeatRoute’s MIchael Hollett
of visiting Ono at the Dakota,
page 43.
(CHAM
AKA Baby Cham)
JUNE 6
MOVIE NIGHT
PLAZA THEATRE
MACEWAN HALL
UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
FEATURING
LUCIANO
LYNN OLAGUNDOYE
DELHI 2 DUBLIN
JORY KINJO HAWKEYE
PHONOSONICS
WAYMATEA &
THE HIGH LIFE
SOUND COLLECTIVE
JUNE 8
AFTER PARTY
THE DEN
TICKETS & INFO AT:
WWW.REGGAEFEST.CA
CALGARYREGGAEFEST
REGGAEFEST_YYC
REGGAEFEST_YYC
JUNE 2019 BEATROUTE 25