Hi Resolution L Lopez
Interview
Lance Lopez
Texas Blues Guitarist
Solo
Supersonic Blues Machine
Rock Show Critique: For those who may not be familiar with you can you give us a quick synopsis of who Lance Lopez is?
Lance Lopez: I’m a Texas blues rock guitar player. I’ve been playing professionally since I was fourteen years old. I grew up in Louisiana and Texas in the rich culture of the blues and rock music down here. I got my first real touring gig with soul singer Johnnie Taylor when I was 17. When I was 18, I played with modern Blues legend Lucky Peterson. When I was nineteen the Buddy Miles Express.
The last fifteen years or so I’ve been doing my solo band which consists of the power trio. Some of my early work is very Hendrix inspired kind of works and I moved back more into my roots of traditional kind of Texas rock and Texas Blues rock. Mentored by Billy Gibbons and Johnny Winter both Texas guys.
RSC: What have you currently been up to?
LL: I have a live album coming out on Cleopatra Records. It’s called Live in NYC. It 
was recorded at BB King’s club in New York City at Johnny Winter’s seventieth birthday party. I performed there and recorded it and we’re releasing it as a full length album. I also got a new band that’s based out of Los Angeles called the Supersonic Blues Machine. It’s myself along with legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff who was with John Mellencamp and John Fogerty and producer bass player Fabrizio Grossi who’s worked with Steve Vai, Leslie West and Glenn Hughes. We have an album called West Of Flushing, South of Frisco that just came out on Mascot. We have some pretty stellar special guests such as Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Robben Ford, Walter Trout, Eric Gales and Chris Duarte. So it’s a big supergroup guitar album and we are looking forward to touring that this summer overseas and possibly back in North America in the fall.
RSC: I have heard your Live In NYC CD and I must say it sounds amazing. How did you come to work with Paul Nelson the producer of it?
LL: Through Johnny Winter. I’ve toured with Johnny over in Europe together several years ago. We did a lot of shows in Europe together and during that time Paul was watching us play every night and wanted to work with us. We eventually began working together. Johnny wanted me to play his birthday party. It was such an honor to be asked to do it. Paul recorded the set and handled the mixing and mastering of the album. I was out there giving it everything I had. After Johnny passed Paul contacted me about the recording. He said it’s phenomenal and I would like to present it as an album. I said I trust you Paul, he had just won a Grammy for Step Back, Johnny’s last album. I said “do it to it I know you’re gonna do a great job.” We’re really happy with the results of it. It was a very special moment in time that I’m very glad was documented.
RSC: Are you working on writing more material right now?
LL: I am actually. I’ve got tracks that I’ve been recording the last couple of years. Tracks that I’ve done in L.A. with Fabrizio Grossi, tracks that I’ve done with Paul Nelson up in New York and Connecticut. So I’m amassing a lot of material between NY and LA. I’m refining it, writing and dialing it in so when it’s right it will be right. I’ve been working on it for the last three years or so. Every several months or so we record some more material. I’ve had a studio album in the works for a while. In the midst I was working on the Supersonic Blues Machine record.
RSC: Do you have your own studio?
LL: No I do not. I do a lot of work with Fabrisio Grossi out in Los Angeles at Command studios.
RSC: How many dates do you play a year on average?
LL: The last two years I’ve been home quite a bit. The last five years I was touring heavily over in Europe, I was doing 150 dates a year. Now I’ve been home for the last two years regionally around Texas. The Texas market is so huge you can work it very extensively. The last five years or so I was on the road non stop. I took some time to get back into my Texas roots and my Louisiana roots in the regional area down in the Southeast. Now I’m beginning to branch out and with my new band and I’ll be back on the road this summer.
We’d like to thank Lance for his time and John Lappen for setting us up with the interview.
For more on Lance and the Supersonic Blues Machine check out the links below
Lance Lopez
Website: http://www.lancelopeztx.com/
Supersonic Blues Machine
Website: http://supersonicblues.com/
