Feature: The Beast Is Back

The Beast Is Back:
The Triumphant Return of Lazer/Wulf

“Lazer/Wulf is my life. I was lost for a year and a half.”

That’s Bryan Aiken referring to his band Lazer/Wulf and the group’s unfortunate hiatus since mid-2009. Formed in Athens in 2006, L/W’s music is a blinding fusion of thrash, jazz, indie rock and funk, delivered at blistering speeds and mind-numbing volume. The band quickly became a local favorite, winning the Flagpole Athens Music Award for “Band of the Year” a mere two years after its formation.

But then things took a downward turn. In the summer of 2009, L/W’s previous drummer abruptly quit, bringing the band’s promising momentum to a screeching halt. Weeks turned into months as remaining members Bryan Aiken (guitar, percussion, vocals) and Sean Peiffer (bass) scoured the Internet for a drummer who not only could keep up with Lazer/Wulf’s insane tempo and mid-measure style change-ups but who also had a like-minded musical vision.

The band auditioned a number of drummers over the course of the year.

“The drummers we tried out were very niche drummers,” says Aiken. “We would have a very stern jazz drummer or a stern thrash or stern indie-rock drummer. We couldn’t find anybody who was comfortable doing all of those things or who was open to that.”

This was not the first time Lazer/Wulf had been dealt a potential death blow. The band has gone through five different incarnations since its inception—a vocalist got sick, a drummer quit, members moved away or left for school—and each time the band was forced to reinvent itself.

“When we took a hit in a way that would kill most bands, we tried to assimilate to that change and turn it into a strength,” says Aiken. So rather than throwing in the towel, Aiken and Peiffer kept up their search for a drummer. Then, in August 2010, they found Brad Rice. A student at the Atlanta Institute of Music, Rice was a metal drummer studying jazz. He wanted to join a band in Georgia and responded to an ad that Aiken had placed on an online music forum.

“I listened to the two tracks they had on their website; as soon as I heard 20 seconds of the first song, I realized this was exactly what I wanted to do,” says Rice. “I immediately got in touch with Bryan, and they had me come in for a couple auditions. I guess I worked out OK for them.”

For Aiken and Peiffer, it was love at first drumbeat. Peiffer recalls, “Brad’s style was that of a hard-rock drummer, but he was studying jazz, so he had those elements, too. It was exactly what we were looking for: someone who was a heavy hitter but also had some chops.”

“Yeah, it was kind of exactly perfect,” laughs Aiken.

With a new drummer in tow, the trio began getting Rice up to speed. They planned on taking it slow; they wanted Rice to have plenty of time to get comfortable with the band’s back catalog. But then something happened.

“Sean and I went to see Cinemechanica and Manray at Caledonia in September,” says Aiken. “These bands were so good; it lit a fire under our asses. We called Rice that night and told him, ‘It’s time to do this.’”

Since then, the group has been practicing three times per week to get themselves ready for their comeback show. Initially, Rice just spent his time learning the drum parts for older L/W songs, but as the trio began working on a new song, it became more of a two-way street.

“It was a lot different than drummers we’ve had before. In the past, it was more like Bryan would say, ‘I have this riff; I was thinking you do this,’” notes Peiffer. “But as we were working on a new song for this Caledonia show, Brad was coming up with stuff and we were shifting what we were doing around his ideas—sort of adapting to him. Songwriting became much more of a collaborative effort.”

Lazer/Wulf even did a short out-of-state tour with Manray to make sure Rice was ready for the Athens return show. “He killed it,” says Aiken. “We’re finally at a place where I can truly say Lazer/Wulf is ready to play a show.”

Caledonia was the obvious location for the band’s return to Athens. Essentially the birthplace of the band, Caledonia has been a catalyst for L/W’s continuous stylistic evolution. “Caledonia has been so great towards us,” says Aiken. “They’ve put us on shows with bands across the genre spectrum… We consider Caledonia our home.”

L/W also thought carefully about whom they wanted to perform with. “Savagist is a crazy metal band, and Manray is a crazy indie band,” says Aiken. “We’re going to play in the middle, and I feel like that’s sort of a paradigm of Lazer/Wulf’s whole existence—that we’re caught between those two genres.”

“I’m just stoked to be playing again,” says Peiffer. And for the many Athens fans Lazer/Wulf left behind in 2009, it’s not a moment too soon.

John Granofsky

First published in Flagpole 1 Dec. 2010: 18. pdf