Artist Spotlight: Trip To The Morgue

Old-school thrashers, Trip To The Morgue, have been using Lutefish to stay on track while navigating crazy schedules. The band’s shiny new record deal and national tours don’t leave a lot of time for onboarding new band members or creating new songs—but the group found a way. We caught up with Trip To The Morgue’s lead guitarist, James Patrick McCosar, to learn how playing together online using Lutefish has kept the band productive and even allowed them to add on a new guitarist who lives hundreds of miles away.

Lutefish (LF): How are things going for the band?

James Patrick McCosar (JPM): Trip To The Morgue has really taken off in the past year, with not only recording a new CD but getting signed. Now, we're actually getting on booking an actual full tour and working on other videos and things of that nature. So, things are really taking off for us. In fact, now we're getting asked to do like national tours, parts of tours, and things like that.

And the crazy part about it is, in between all of that stuff happening, we've been working in a support guitar player, and the best part about, you know, utilizing Lutefish was it was just fortuitous. It all came through together. Our backup guitar player lives in Las Vegas, and we're based out of Orange County, California. So it was just in the nick of time that Lutefish came within our possession to be able to say “this is going to work out perfectly…”

JPM: He was actually able to, not only, you know, practice with us via Lutefish, but like three weeks later, he actually played a live gig with us in Vegas for like four songs of what he had learned so far, so perfect!

I mean, he was blown away by it. We're planning on just continuing with it. When we do go out on the road, he's going to be our backup guitarist.

…It's been super easy for us to not only collaborate on with working with a new guitar player. But also with being able to write new music and being able just to practice and get things up to speed for everything that's happening so quickly.

LF: With this new guitarist in Las Vegas, you guys went from online practicing on Lutefish straight into a live show?

JPM: Absolutely, we never once had a live practice.

I guess I should preface this. We did plan on actually having a live rehearsal with him, but it didn't work out. Something happened at the last minute.

His name's Jamison Jackson. He lives out in Vegas, and he was like, dude, I feel good with it after playing on Lutefish. I feel good with playing with you guys, let's just go out and do it.

And we're like, hey, if you feel good and confident about it, then let’s just do it. I felt confident about it. He's a really good guitar player, and he's been friends with the band for a long time.

But yeah, never once had a live session with him where he was standing in the room with us until we actually played with him live that night in Vegas.

LF: When you guys did finally play together in person, did it feel similar to when you were playing on Lutefish?

JPM: Absolutely. It was seamless. It didn't seem any different at all, except for maybe the volume, of course. And then you know, having James over on my left-hand side.

But as far as like timing, as far as like being able to listen to each other and play off of each other and being able to pull back and stay in the pocket and really just feel like you're part of a band, it was literally seamless for us.

And the magic that happened afterwards, like after the gig! We were telling people… We were talking to the other bands about, you know, hey, we've never practiced together, and everybody else was blown away like. “You guys never practice in a room together?” We're like “no man, we did this all over Lutefish.”

We started telling everybody about it and showing them the videos of the product and the device [the Lutefish Stream]  and, you know, going into it.

We've had a lot of people reaching out to us saying, “Hey, we want to do the same thing!”

And even at other gigs, people have been asking “Hey, you know, how do we get that device 'cause, you know, I'd like to take a guitar lesson, or I'd like to be able to get on and watch you guys as you practice” and things of that nature.

So, I mean the word of mouth and the positive effect, it's not only had on the band, but on, you know, brother and sister bands that that are going out on the road with us; they're like “that sounds amazing, just the fact that you guys can get together anytime you guys want.”

It’s something that I think all of us kind of desire: that, just at the drop of a hat, we can meet and collaborate whenever we need.

LF: With the band's activity picking up a lot this year, your schedules must be a lot tighter.

JPM: Yeah, Dave, the singer of Trip To The Morgue, we talk about that a lot because, as musicians, we don't really think about, or I guess I never really thought, about how much your time just doesn't become your own after a while.

You get signed, and you start having management, and you start having, you know, promoters, and bookers start reaching out to you. You spend probably about 50% of your time.

[With Lutefish] you don't have to worry about, you know, the other extraneous things that just kinda eat up your time as a musician. You know, sitting around just talking about what your plans are and things of that nature. When you're on Lutefish, we know when we're on and we're recording or we're practicing, that this is dedicated time to just practice.

LF: Trip to the Morgue has a lot of precise movements in the music, where snappy timing is pretty important. How is Lutefish performing in those instances?

JPM: Absolutely. In fact, you know, one of the things, especially when we're practicing, I call him JJ Jay. Jay out in Vegas. Like one of the things he's always amazed about:

He's like, “I can't believe this thing is like no latency. Like I feel like you guys are in the room with us” and you know, just like you're saying, you know, a lot of the picking rhythms and a lot of the time changes that we have in the music. Having him be able to say OK. Stop. Let's go over this section again.

Or Jay, can you show me that picking or Dave during this part, when we do this transition, you're doing something on base? Show me what you're doing, and I'm going to play my part, and then all I do is sit back and watch and watch him get it. Like, that's something that I don't think people can really appreciate.

Like, I didn't even really appreciate it until afterwards, when I'm sitting back and thinking, “wow, we just like plowed through one whole song that he's got under his belt now, now we can move on to another song to get him stage ready” and everybody's just been so blown away with the fact that, you know, no latency.

I can see you when I'm playing. We can meet when I want to. And even the more beautiful fact is, you know, if JJ wants to meet with me alone, we can schedule a Lutefish session, and it can just be me and him. Or it can be the whole band, or it could be him and the drummer--and it's any time that we want at the snap of a finger. As long as the person is available. It's the latency. There's virtually none there that we've ever had to complain about.

The availability of the system has always been super reliable. To be able to get on and schedule something, and there's just not enough good things I can say about it. At this point, it's just. It's just been nothing but a huge positive for the band.