The Latest on LugNauT

People that have seen and heard our band lately have asked me why we don’t play out more often. I’d love to do that, but there’s only so much time in a day. We’re all working full time, and we don’t have the bandwidth to be writing new songs, playing gigs and learning covers at the same time. There’s almost no money in music at the moment. We could get on the circuit, but it doesn’t pay very well for the effort involved. There are ways to get there, but we can’t just give up our careers at this stage of our lives. The last reason is the fact that we don’t have a crew. We pack and move all the gear ourselves and it’s a chore. By the time we hit the stage we’ve spent hours making sure everything is set up and working.

I’d love to bring in a couple of young guys and teach them the business, but I haven’t found anyone who’d be willing to work and learn what it takes to put on a show. I wish I had had an opportunity like this when I was younger.

I’ve played with each of the guys in the current version of LugNauT in different bands at some point in the last 30 years, longer if you include my brother, Gary and I and the different music configurations going way back.  We’ve never all been in the same band at the same time until now. When I began LugNauT it was initially with a different group of players, but I had a vision of bringing these three guys together to form a dream team band. I have to say that that vision ended up panning out better than I could have imagined. Each of the current members of LugNauT has a history of writing original music and seeing songs from the beginning stages to a finished piece of music in rapid succession. The members of the group are all hardworking professionals. We’d love to be making money playing music, but we all have careers, and we aren’t youngsters, just young at heart. We play music because we really enjoy doing it. I’d love to bring in one more player, maybe a keyboardist or sax player. It’d be great if they had vocal ability, etc.… Here’s the thing, finding another player that has the commitment to work through the music and produce a song the way these guys can, would be a miraculous feat. It took me years to find these guys. We’ve tried others and it hasn’t worked out. I love this four-piece locomotive that we’ve become. We’re all on the same track doing what needs to be done.  Playing live is such a treat as I know these guys are going to kill it.

Here's a little information about each member of our band:

John Bates is an amazing unique blues influenced player. There is no ego, no B.S. just guitar. He is easily one of the best writing partners I could ever ask for. He takes anything I give him and brings it to a higher level. We overwhelm each other constantly with ideas. He is also a great back up vocalist and I hope to bring that out more going forward.

Gary Dufresne, my brother and musical twin knows what I’m thinking, and does it before I can even say it. He’s a great bass player who plays what’s needed, laying down a solid groove and keeping things moving. His backup vocals are key to our sound. He’s supportive and his hard work has made everything we do so much easier than it’s ever been for me in any other band. He can also play guitar and percussion. I’d love to get him doing more of those things in the future on some particular songs, but as a bass player he’s irreplaceable.

Randy Becker is the best drummer I’ve ever played with. He’s a student of the greatest drummers of ‘60s and ‘70s, but he doesn’t overplay. I can’t tell how rare a quality this is in drummers from this area. Randy can do it all and he does with great taste and balance. Randy is very aware of the song. Randy can sing and play harmonica. I would love to incorporate those things into our repertoire in the future. 

For myself, I’m a fair guitar player and decent vocalist. I think I’m a pretty good songwriter. I don’t practice enough, but I’m usually distracted by songwriting ideas when I sit down and try to work on my craft. People like what we do, so we’ll keep on doing it.

If you’re a keyboard player, sax or other and you’d like to see if we can work together, give me a holler. Our music is featured on this website, so you can check us out. The same goes if you’re a young musician or music fan and you want to learn how to set up and run a show or learn how to record music.

I don’t know how much longer we’ll be playing together, but I hope it’s a long time. We’re working on some great music for a new recording that I hope we can release in the near future. I hope you’ll come out and see us play if you get the chance, because I think you’ll enjoy what we have to offer. I’ll keep you posted.

All the best,

Dan Dufresne