Spotlight: LaMP
Photo: Andrew Blackstein
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It took forming their own trio for veteran improvisational rockers Russ Lawton, Scott Metzger and Ray Paczkowski to see their names in lights. A few letters, anyway—the band’s moniker, LaMP, is a portmanteau of their last names. Yet each letter represents a vital part of the band’s DNA, so the marquee now simply reflects the music and its creators—direct, bold and unapologetically their own.
The members of LaMP are best known by many as key players in others’ eponymous projects—Lawton and Paczkowski have played drums and keys, respectively, with the Trey Anastasio Band since its earliest incarnations while Metzger is well-known as a founding member of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. But with LaMP, they’ve stepped into the spotlight with a project all their own, defined by shared leadership and unbridled creativity. “The biggest difference is that LaMP is our baby,” says Lawton. “It’s a partnership between the three of us. We bring in all our ideas and turn them into songs.”
LaMP released their self-titled debut LP in the summer of 2020 and followed up with their second album, One of Us, in March 2025.
However, the first iteration of the band was born many moons ago when Lawton and Paczkowski began playing as an instrumental duo, Soule Monde, to complement their work with TAB. “I really love holding down the bass line,” Paczkowski says of covering the low end in the absence of a dedicated bass player. “It focuses me on the groove, and I can drill down on harmonic ideas to reinforce it.”
“His bass playing has a lot of air to it, which I like,” says Lawton. “We’ve really built up that sixth sense of what we know fits or works, and we can really lean on each other.”
Paczkowski echoes that sentiment: “We’re like one mind, rhythmically. I often know where he’s headed and can make musical choices accordingly—in the moment, on the spot.”
In 2018, Soule Monde’s booking agent, Pat May, suggested that the duo connect with Metzger, also a client, which led to a one-off show at Nectar’s in Burlington, Vt., that December. “Right from the first show, playing with Scott was perfect,” recalls Lawton, highlighting the immediate ease of their musical connection. Paczkowski agrees: “It was like finding out you have a long lost brother.”
“I think it suits my personality well,” Metzger says of joining an existing project. “I like it when there’s a foundation that’s already set, musically, and I don’t have to be in control. Then I can come in and add something to it as opposed to building it up from nothing. Both things are great, but I really enjoy coming in and being the new guy.”
The trio’s collective energy ignited a new creative fire, leading to the birth of LaMP and a commitment to exploring their fertile musical partnership, which has evolved since that first gig.
“Having toured for a few years, I think our writing and arrangements have evolved between albums,” says Paczkowski.
Lawton agrees: “The difference with the new album is we have played more shows, giving us more edge. We’re comfortable playing with each other.”
That sense of ease has helped them flesh out their creative process, too—LaMP recorded their second album over the course of a week as compared with the first album, which they tracked in just two days. (In addition, their catalog also includes a live set, recorded at Nectar’s over two nights in November 2023.)
Metzger describes their songs as “very listenable, pleasant and accessible.”
“LaMP is purely an instrumental band,” Paczkowski observes. “In TAB, I’m trying to play in a way that supports the lyrics, both musically and, more important, emotively. LaMP, on the other hand, can’t use the ethos of a lyrical idea to get across an emotion in the music, so it has to be done purely instrumentally. It’s a challenge of sorts, but also freeing.”
He likens improvising in LaMP to driving a sports car, signaling out the trio’s ability to change direction on a dime. It’s a change of pace from larger ensembles like TAB, where jams can develop inertia that takes the rhythm section deeper and deeper into a groove.
“LaMP focuses on the groove and the momentum of that groove,” offers Metzger. “I can really lean into being a guitar player.”
For the guitarist, that sometimes means stopping entirely to let his partners do their Soule Monde thing, taking a page from the jazz tradition of musicians stepping back to let an improvisation evolve without their active input.
“Scott understands space. And when he comes back in, it hits the next level,” says Lawton. “As Prince once said, there are f ive musicians up there—the fifth one is space!”
Paczkowski agrees: “I know he’s about to return to the fold and let loose with a new idea, and say, ‘Let’s go!’”
