Radio UTD: So you’re on tour right now?
Lee Fields: Yes we’re doing a series of short runs until we finish the new album. In fact, I was in the studio the day before yesterday, and i’m very excited. the band is just.… they decided to take it to another level, so I’m excited for this.
Radio UTD: That’s super awesome. I felt like Emma Jean was already on another level. It was an intense album already.
Oh thank you! Yeah, I’m looking forward to coming to your region next week. The people are so loving; everywhere we go they show so much love. I guess it’s cause we get caught up in so much negative vibes in the air due to the election, and the people are showing so much love and it’s a beautiful thing. I think love is the foundation man… Love is the building blocks of the future. So hate is the demolition of the future, it’s abolishing great possibilities. and it just warms my heart so dear when the audience shows so much love.
What love does, is it creates a solid footage, so when i see negative things I’m able to take it with a grain of salt and still believe the future is gonna be better than ever. Im very optimistic about the future. We got to love our brother, we got to love our neighbors just as we love ourselves.This is a spaceship man, the earth is actually a space ship traveling to god knows where we’re going because everything in the cosmos is moving…. if you were on a ship, there was one whip where you had a lot of greedy people and there was another ship that you had the option to be on where you had people that was concerned about every body on the ship, which ship would make their destination?
Radio UTD: Definitely the second one.
Yes! Because everyone would do things in order, but if you got a bunch of greedy people its gonna be a bunch of tricks, lies, anything to get more. Greed can be good if you’re greedy for everybody. And we do everything we can so that the world would go on. For probably an infinite period.
So with my music, i try to sing about change. Cause you hear so much music about people singing about how much money they got and those other things. Now I’m not knocking anybody’s music. Art is art. You’re supposed to art is supposed to provoke passion – invoke passion. It’s supposed to bring out the passion in the person where they can see things from a different standpoint. So whatever angle a person decides to approach art, I’m all for it. But in my case I think I chose the role of living about the positive things. Because there’s not too much out there today. I said well, music now, the same that we need food for our body. Because the spirit and the body are two different entities. So just like we need food in our bodies to stay healthy, we need to put good things in our mind to have a healthy mind. Because if you fill your mind with nothing but negatives and bad… so we should be wise enough to know what is a bad thought and a good thought…
When I see these people going out to the shows, i cannot describe what a marvelous feeling that generates. To see people just having a great time in pure unadulterated happiness.
Radio UTD: So do you feel like you bring the aspect love and authenticity to modern music?
It’s not necessarily me. It’s a combination of what the band plays. It’s a combination of the moves of the people that are getting what we are saying in our music. And it’s also appreciating what we are saying in regards to the content. I think it’s the combination. The people bring as much to the show as we do because when they show up and tell me after the show it’s the best time they’ve ever hard, you know that’s a big statement there. That’s a big statement there. I look at them and tell them “Are you serious?” “Mr. Fields that’s the best time I’ve ever had.” It’s inspiring and great compliment and I get that on a consistent basis. But I attribute that to not me but the combination of the music that the band plays and the people in the room, cause we try to set the setting so that people have a good time.
Radio UTD: So you view it as a relationship between you, the band, and the audience? It’s a big relationship that everyone has a part in?
Everybody has a part. I mentioned somebody at the edge of the stage, standing back afar, they’re just moving like they’re having a great time, and the expression on their face is generally positive energy. The room is filled with so much positive energy. I do believe that there is a place in our minds called euphoria where we extreme measures of joy. And joy is really what we live for. Joy is the state of being just happy. That’s what it’s all about. If a person is hungry and you give them a plate of good food, that person in that moment is pretty happy, you know what I mean?
Radio UTD: If you put a plate of food in front of me, I’d be in a state of euphoria for a while.
That’s what I’m saying, so when people come out to the venues that we play, the band, the music, the set, the place, and the audience is feeling it, and the words that I choose to sing in my songs, basically the human feelings that they have are from a point of maybe once sad but now are in a state of being happy. And I try to say this in a way and melody so it’s real. I try to project that realness. Every song I sing, I become the person in that story. I’m singing a song about the reality that life is not all joy because there are sad moments, and the sad moments are really the moments that make you appreciate the things you need to make you appreciate that you really got it nice now. This is a good condition to be in, it makes you recognize what happiness is. When you know what sadness is, then you know when you happy. The sad songs that I sing, those sad songs are setting up a position now for a song to take you to as happy as I can take you. It’s a whole night of emotion and these are true emotions because every song that I sing, I am actually on that stage living that moment. And sometimes I might crash. I’mma tell you something, I don’t like seeing people cry. I don’t like to cry, but sometimes, depending on what it is, I’ll cry and… release. Release opens a chain of emotions and and unless you really let it out, you won’t feel that. So some songs I sing, some of the songs on the album, some of them were dedicated to my late mother. So when I sing certain songs, I become so emotional about her passing, that it really makes me choked up. These are true emotions. So if we go around touring happy all day, then somebody gonna call the wagon on you, somebody gonna call 9-1-1 on you. So it’s got to be a combination to make it work, a balanced combination. So we try to adjust or move things in there.
So I’m hoping when we come through, I hope that we go to that place of euphoria. If we’re gonna go there, it’s still gonna be a marvelous time because trying to get there, the joy itself of trying to get there. If we can just touch euphoria just for a moment, you can tell when it happens because you look around the whole room and see nothing but joy. You can see it.
Radio UTD: So do you keep that in mind before you play a show? Do you think “How am I going to get these people to euphoria?”
I don’t really put effort. It’s gotta be a natural process. Joy is like a contagious thing. They used have these little boxes where you could turn them and the things started laughing and after a little while you would laugh. Joy is a contagious emotion, so what I try to do is I try to become happy. So when I walk on stage I’m glad to see the people and I start to sing and I try to vocally become a part of the music until I fill it up and feel good. Once I start to feel good, the audience feels it. And then we just go on and on and on, until we can feel as good as we can. Some nights are just unbelievably good, but it’s a process that has to come natural. If I try to make an audience feel good, I would never be able to do it. Because it’s all about being real, and people think the artist is really feeling great. Cause they start to feel great. The music and the contagiousness of joy it comes on to someone quick.
Radio UTD: You play at huge shows and festivals all around the world. Do you feel like the ability to get that joy and spread across the room is innate in humanity
Yes. Just the purpose of life is having a good time, with the time that you have here. Now the ultimate good time, as I said, is if a person wants to turn greed into good. They should be concerned about everybody and then their generation, and then that generation and the next generation so that they have all of this wealth. If they’re greedy, they can do something to make money so future generations. In order to do that, you have to cultivate these values. The joy of other than just making money will come to you, because you have so many other people. And then future generations will get that return. That’s what you call the ultimate greed, but a good greed. The same thing applies to music. I’m not concerned about myself, I’m just in a place where I’m happy. I’m creating to create an environment where it spreads, where I want everyone to feel just as good as I feel. For those who may not have gotten what I’m saying, just come to my show. Let me know after the show how you feel. Did you feel anything?
Radio UTD: Yeah, soul music to me used to be both sad and happy songs, but as I grew up, I was able to start empathizing with them.
Oh yeah. When you hear a song you can relate to, like something in your life, it moves you. So the music is more to us. When you get the chance to go out here and make music and make a beautiful thing in our lives, you get a chance to bring something others and make them feel better, make them feel positive. What people get when they come to my show when I’m in their region, I want them to tell me how they felt, because we want to give and take on another level. It’s so much fun when you play music for that purpose. The audience generates the energy, not us. We just bring the melody and just set the mood, so that joy can be disseminated among everybody in the room, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.
Radio UTD: I never thought of it that way, I never viewed it as not just the band.
Yeah, it’s the audience! The audience is just as much, matter of fact, more the show. The audience, I would say, a much greater percentage than the artist, in my case. Now some artists may differ, but in my case with my band, it’s all about the audience. Cause our goal is to try to put them in the mood, try to set the mood, to go to that place. To go to that place called euphoria, and if you’re trying to get there you feel better and better and better. If they’re lucky and you get there for a moment, it’s gonna be unbelievable joy. The same thing they do in church, the same thing they do for centuries. And people need that in their lives.
Radio UTD: I guess it’s a spiritual and sort of natural thing to want, that joy.
Yes. I’m a believer, I’m a Christian, and I believe that Jesus and Lord was raised from the dead. But I also believe that any religion that tells you to love their neighbors as ourselves and do unto others as you’d have them do unto you… if you love the spirit, that religion is alright with me. If you follow at least those two, you can follow any instruction of any deity in the name of goodness. It’s all about love, man.
Radio UTD: Well, I’m excited to see you when you come to Dallas April 2nd. I’ll definitely catch you afterwards and tell you if I feel that sort of euphoria that night.
Well, do that for me! We go all over the place, but I enjoy doing it just for that reason. It all boils down to love.
