GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Drawing comparisons with the David Bowie, Elton John and fellow New Yorkers the Scissor Sisters, Keyth Lawrence and the Purple Circle have been playing the nightclubs of New York for a decade now, but only last year did they release their first album, "Figures". I caught up with Keyth during a recent visit to London.

QP: Keyth, You have a quite a long history in music, having started at a fairly young age; what first attracted you to writing music and songs?

KL: I began studying the piano at age 6, and by age 11 nearly had a mid-life crisis: my private teacher relocated and I was suddenly no longer studying with her. It was sort of as if my feeding tube had been abruptly removed and I felt as if I was no longer being nourished. Furious, I didn't touch the piano for 2 years. When I returned at 14, I returned as a composer. I hadn't realized it then, but what was happening was that I was composing in my head for that time period. I understand now that I needed the separation. I was so intrinsically linked to the instrument from such an early age that I wasn't sure I'd be capable of surviving without it. What kept me alive was the fact that I was unconsciously writing and figuring out who I was away from the piano; how to walk down the street or go to bed at night without the safety net. I learned how to become a storyteller in those two years.

QP: Listening to your music, there's a distinct style to it. Many other acts, like Shpongle, Kosheen or Enya, also have the same kind of distinctness of style, such that someone who knows their music well will be able to recognise a new track as being by them even if they know nothing about the track beforehand. I guess you could call it an aural fingerprint, unique to each artist. Is this aural fingerprint something you strive to achieve, or is it something which 'just happens'?

KL: An ?aural fingerprint? is precisely what musical style is. I think consciously trying to create it is where so many artists can go wrong. Style is merely a visual representation and manifestation of what is happening inside; on a canvas that is just not tangible. So the striving is not in trying to contrive; it is in trying to be a better person, trying to make myself better or my relationships better. Hunting for truth, pining for an understanding ? these are the actions I take as a PERSON. So the music is a direct result of that. The songs become the teachers and the trail maps that bring me to these places.

QP: In ?Mission?, from your debut album ?Figures?, you mention ?flying with a girl called Wendy?, who is Wendy, what is the song about?

KL: ?Mission? was written at a time when I just was not for the life of me able to understand certain realities; simple natural realities like aging or human contact. I decided to turn to the Bees. The bee kingdom has always fascinated me, and if the upshot of this kingdom is honey'well, I figured they must be doing something right. So in the song, I send out a butterfly to bring me ?the diary of the bee? in hopes of stealing their secrets, so to speak. I wanted to also create some honey in my own life.

What I realized once I got into the song was that the main difference between myself and a bee, and the reason why I wouldn't be able to work the way that they did, was that I couldn't fly. I couldn't travel at that speed and in turn be as industrious as them. So Plan A of stealing the secrets from the diary was just not going to be enough. I had to figure out how to fly myself. And who better to turn to than the Peter Pan Clan? Plan B became about traveling with them. So when I sing, ?There are no guarantees when you're flying with a girl called Wendy ? it's windy here with Wendy?, I've gotten to that place in the sky, I've learned how to travel, but more importantly I've learned how to believe and how to have faith. ?Mission? opens the second side of Figures. There is a restoration of faith here that is so vital because so much of it was lost during the first half of the album.

QP: You've had some recent success with the track ?Leaving? included on the soundtrack for a film, tell me more about that.

KL: This is true. ?Leaving? is currently being featured in the final scene and closing credits of an indie film called OpenCam (Lil? Coal's Big Pictures). This film is part of the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival here in the states and just premiered in Washington DC.

Here! TV's new series, ?Dante's Cove? also recently included the track in their first episode. It is particularly exciting for me because ?Leaving? was chosen as the first single from Figures, and there was a specific moment while I was writing it when I realized that the song was literally changing my life. It took on a shape that no other one had before. I sort of felt as if the earth was shifting beneath my feet, allowing my perspective to change entirely for the better.

QP: You're working on your second album at the moment, I've heard three of the tracks and they sound very hot, what kind of focus have you got for this collection of songs?

KL: I recently spent a week up in the woods on a Dairy Farm during hunting season. Although I wasn't hunting deer, I was after something entirely different. The songs were already alive there. The focus was entirely different, as I literally had to leave my element in the city and go out hunting. From a production standpoint, I new I need to record them in a different manner as well. We recorded Figures live in the studio, so there wasn't much room for sonic freedom. I was telling a specific story in this record, so it was important to keep that batch of songs somewhat linear. The new tracks I treated as little pieces of architecture, building them from the foundation, upwards.

QP: Over the last few years there have been quite a few very successful new bands come out of New York, such as the Strokes and Scissor Sisters; what has your experience of New York's ?new music? scene been?

KL: I started performing in the cabaret clubs here in NYC, almost a decade ago ? just me and my piano. Over time, I got bored on stage alone and slowly started to bring other players on stage with me. Soon I realized I was playing in a rock band. NYC has always been a generous mother in the sense that whatever it was you were performing, she would welcome you and feed you. Whether you were a spoken word artist, or juggling torches of fire, there was a venue for you. Over the past few years, the concept of the ?band? was rediscovered. In a time where so many artists are lip-synching and incapable of even playing an instrument, this was very important. People who have been composing and performing their works for years have finally been given a stage again.

QP: You've been in London for a few days now. How much of the city have you seen and, as a native of one of the world's premier gay cities, New York, what do you think of Europe's biggest Gay Capital?

KL: Believe it or not, this is my first trip to London. I spent my first 3 days here in bed with the flu, and the remaining 2