Lazy Scorsese is about to release their first EP in three years, Mama Bears. It will take the edge off most of us are experiencing right now because the sound is soothing and the lyrics are based on joy and new understandings from ancient philosophers. You can hear it all live at The Arthouse on May 24, 2025.
Please tell me about the band and how you got together – and how you’ve stayed together for more than 10 years.
We are almost exclusively a Craigslist band! Except for Tyler, who we met in the wild, but he lives in Amsterdam now so we are back to being a Craigslist band. We did take almost a 2 year break, but I think we’ve been able to have some longevity because we don’t have a lot of big egos in our band or delusions of grandeur. We simply play music together because we like to do that. There’s also a conscious effort to fall in love with the process of creating vs any external outcomes; without that I don’t think we’d be able to do this.
You mention the Buddhist expression, protect your joy like a mama bear protects her cubs in the description of your new EP, Mama Bears. Can you tell me more about that?
“Protecting your joy” has been a big part of this season of life for me & naturally fused its way into a lot of the music. Brene Brown talks about this in regards to boundaries, and the original mantra is a buddhist expression that really landed with me, although I can not recall where I first heard it… When you get to a certain age, you’ve likely experienced heartbreaks, people you care about passing, & observed many systemic cruelties. To us, joy is a practice, and a necessary one! ..Unless you want to be hardened & curmudgeonly when you’re old. I hope to be soft, marshmallowy, and in awe at the beauty of the world.
This music has a calming and buoyant effect. Listening to the songs is like a mind cleanser, it makes me feel ready to take on the world. It is a nice balance when so much of my surroundings makes me feel like I need to take on the world. The album was three years in the making; did it start out intentionally centering or did it grow into that?
Wow, thanks! A lot of times these songs are observations of the world, and other times they’re reminders to self. I’m pretty interested in buddhist & stoic philosophies (+ spent a decent amount of time in therapy) so that shapes some of my worldview that naturally bleeds into our songs.
I feel like there’s a story behind or to be written about Mental Gymnastic and Neural Pathways. Neural Pathways is an easy, breezy wandering song, while Mental Gymnastics has a more staccato drive. And in a funny way we do mental gymnastics to build neural pathways. It’s two ways of thinking about similar things – not opposite ways, just a new lens. Do you think you are bringing a new lens to the ideas in these songs?
I think we are providing a fresh lens with the music delivery of the ideas. Most of the ideas themselves however, are regurgitations from wise people that resonated in some way & got repurposed in the form of your local indie-alternative band.
When and where will you be releasing the new EP?
Our EP Mama Bears is out digitally 5/24 and we are celebrating the release with a show at The Arthouse on 5/24! https://thearthouse.events/coming-soon
Mostly Minnesota 