Get To Know Mourning Lotus

Mourning Lotus is a local NC metal band that has been thriving in the metal scene this last year.

We had the honor of sitting down and diving into discussions with the incredible musicians that make up Mourning Lotus!

Bethany: First off introduce yourselves and your band

Zack: I’ll go first. I am Zach and this is Mourning Lotus we are comprised of five beautiful people. Introduce yourselves, my lovely friends.

Jared: I’m Jared, I play guitar and scream. 

Mason: I’m Mason. I play bass and I don’t scream. 

Jameson: I’m Jameson. I do clean vocals and drums.

Justin: I’m Justin. I do keys and will be doing harmonies. 

Bethany: Thank you guys for this. I really appreciate y’all taking the time to sit down and chat with me. So I know that this year has been the year you really launched yourselves. So tell me how that experience has been for you guys, From January to December of this year. 

Jared: Back it up further than that. I mean, we’ve actually been a band or trying to be a band for about three years now. The first two years were jamming in our basement, writing songs, and trying to find musicians who were dedicated enough to want to stick it out, and it took a while. We had some flip-flops around with different members going in and out and then just writing and scrapping a ton of music.

Mason: By the time I joined they had an entire album’s worth of music written and recorded. And we kept like 2 or 3 of the 12.

Jared: We kept ourselves busy with writing a lot and it wasn’t until Mason joined and kind of kicked our ass out of the door to go start playing shows. 

Jameson: We were so determined. We were thinking, we needed to have three singles recorded and ready to put out, and then a whole album ready to back it. And Mason was like y’all are crazy. And so in March, we played our first gig, and it was in a small basement And then I think we had a second gig at the end of April, and then once May hit it we started playing shows like this, and thankfully, people have liked us. I mean, the last gig that we did was with Miss May I, and we had someone come up and say, “Hey, I came here to see you guys, and the first time and the last time I saw you guys was in a basement.” So that was really cool.

Zack: I joined in November of last year. We found each other on Facebook, from a post in the past. And I sort of showed up as if it was a job interview and I presented myself as an employee of sorts, trying to sell myself to this group so I could be a part of it. 

Jameson: I’d say this entire experience has been, at points, a little overwhelming. I don’t think we were expecting to do nearly as much as what we’ve done. It’s been like 14 gigs for our first year. It’s been pretty cool and we’ve got gigs now until April of next year, so we’re just gonna keep riding the wave.

Bethany: Since you guys started in basements, what has been your favorite venue so far that you’ve played?

Zack: That’s an awesome question.

Mason: I really like Hangar. I think Hangar is really well rounded and the sound guy is really good. 

Jameson: We’ve played quite a few shows here now (The Hangar), and it’s really, really cool that we’ve had the opportunity to play here as many times as we have so far throughout the year. But there are a ton of great venues around here for local bands.

Jared: Kings, in Raleigh, is a great place.

Mason: Chapel of Bones in Raleigh

Zack: That was my favorite. Like the venue set up with their decorations. I love their aesthetic.

Mason: They are very tailor-made for our type of show. 

Bethany: If you could choose any venue across the country what would be your dream venue to play in?  

Jared: Red Rocks, PNC Arena, Greensboro Coliseum.

Zack: Does it have to be a venue?

DB: No, it could be any place you would want to play.

Zack: Dude, I want to play ShipRocked. It’s that cruise where they have like 12 to 15 metal bands and they are dressed head to toe in floral attire. And then they all have their sets on a cruise ship and it's really cool. 

Mason: My dream venue, which doesn’t exist, would be a really small venue, like a 200 top venue, but it looks really good and has good audio technicians. I love the feel of basement shows and how intimate they feel. 

Bethany: If you could pick your lineup for a tour, who would you pick?

Mason: Loathe, they have to go in there. 

Jared: Sleep Token needs to be in there. And we’ll drag Enemies and Allies with us! 

Mason: Yeah yeah, Enemies and Allies have to be with us. 

Jameson: Harm. There are so many good bands it’s hard to nail it down

Mason: If you see this Harm please take us on a tour with you! 

Zack: Knocked Loose, Bad Omens. I know we are we’re not a hardcore band, we aren’t beat down, but I like to play with Matt Honeycutt 

Bethany: Going along with the dream theme, who would be one person you would want to collaborate with?

Jared: Vessel from Sleep Token.

Zack: Noah Sebastian from Bad Omens. I, personally, take a lot of inspiration from Noah. I love his music and I look up to that man heavily. 

Mason: I’m holding out for the Kevin Shields feature. If you are reading this buddy, I know you’re like in your 60s and don’t like leaving the house or talking to people but….

Jameson: Any member from Toto would be fantastic. 

Mason: Why don’t you get Hanson in here while you’re at it? 

Jameson: Yeah scrap everything I just said. If I could hang out with Hanson for 5 minutes that would be great. 

Bethany: So I want to circle back for a minute since you said you’ve been trying to be a band for three years now. How did you guys come together as you are now, was it just all through Facebook, or were there other things that led y’all together?

Jameson: Well those two are brothers (Points to Justin and Jared)

Justin: Yeah he roped me into the band

Jameson: Me, Mason, and Jared all went to high school together. And we played in separate bands before this. We’ve had some years culminating up to this point. This is the first time any of us have played metal music. A lot of us come from different backgrounds. I like jazz and stuff. 

Bethany: I saw some of your Spotify wrap-ups and they are all so versatile, with so many different types of top artists for each of you. So with such creative backgrounds, how do y’all create your music together? How does that process look for you?

Jameson: It’s painful. (Laughs from everyone about this). Because it’s rewrite, after rewrite, after rewrite. 

Zack: Alter, alter change, discrepancy, fix it.  A jam is something we are just playing for fun and fuck it we like it and want to work on it. 

Jared: We like to jam too. Just see what happens. Sometimes we pull things out of nowhere.

Zack: Like a string plucked and then out of thin air it turns into this ensemble of sound. 

Jameson: There are several different ways we write. We’ve written some stuff together, we’ve written a lot of stuff separately. Jared has written his songs. I’ve written my songs for the band. Mason has written his stuff. Zack’s written complete lyrics. Lots of different ways we’ve gone about writing.

Bethany: How did y’all decide on your band name?   

Jared: I wanna give you an in-depth answer but there’s really no depth to it. 

Mason: It sounded cool

Jared: Yeah we were just throwing things around and were like yeah that sounds good. 

Jameson: Google will give you a really nice AI description for our name. But the truth of the matter is we were just sitting in Jared’s basement and throwing names at a wall pretty much, and that’s the one that just stuck. 

Bethany: It’s like naming your first child

Jameson: Yeah and thank god we chose something good because this has become like our child. 

Jared: Yeah we don’t even know what the hell mourning lotus means. It can be up to you to interrupt. Same with a lot of our music. There can be multiple meanings to what we write. 

Zack: I think a misinterpretation would be that we all agree on everything. When it comes to music we are torn in a lot of different ways, because it sounds a bunch of different ways. And so that’s why, I think, people sort of receive it in different ways too. A person to my left may receive it a different way than the person to my right would. 

Bethany: How do you see your music evolving over the next few years as y’all get more and more into this?

Jameson: Probably just become more refined. I think we’re on a pretty good path with our music. I think we have our sound down. I think it’ll be an evolution of technique. 

Zack: You’ll see us doing things that take more skill. And it will be my goal to learn surprising things. My favorite thing is after a show and these people come up to me and say “Wow, you’re like 5’7 and you’re a pencil how did these noises come out of you?” 

Jared: Our sound will keep changing too, it’s always changing. 

Zack: Yeah if you listen to us you’ll never have the word stagnant in your mind. 

Mason: I feel like even once we’ve recorded a song we’re still evolving it always. 

Bethany: I think to bring all these different styles into one band is what is gonna set you guys apart in the future because you’re always going to have that unique sound because of the diversity you all bring to your band. And so speaking about your music, how has launching your debut song Hypocrite been for you guys?

Jared: It was like the 16th song that we wrote

Jameson: It’s the only one we have out. It was really just like dipping our toes in the water. People want to listen to something so we knew we needed to put something out there. But since we do this all DIY there isn’t more, but more is coming. 

Bethany: So to round things up, this year for you guys, I think has been awesome. From seeing you for the first time in August to now it has been a phenomenal experience. What would you guys like to say to anyone reading this?

Mason: Start a band. It’s really fun. It’s a lot of work, but it’s really rewarding. 

Jameson: Be good to everyone. If you’re looking to be a part of something, whether it’s just like a group of friends or just a community to be around, definitely get yourself involved. Don’t be shy to come out to a metal show. 

Zack: These guys have taught me a very valuable lesson and that’s time. It’s not going to be a one-day, one-week, one-year thing. It’s gonna be an effort and it’s gonna be hard, but don’t let anyone in any position tell you not to do it or that it’s foolish.  

Bethany: Thank you guys so much for sitting down with me, I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I can’t wait to see you kill it on stage! 

I highly recommend that you get the opportunity to come catch these guys at a show! You can follow them on their Instagram to keep up with all their upcoming shows!