Lonesome Skeleton Band is the solo project of Charles Urban, created after stepping away from a traditional band setting and into something more solitary and self-directed. Writing and recording on his own, Urban uses the project as a space to explore ideas, emotions, and sounds without the filter of collaboration. What emerges is music shaped by independence and intention, rooted in a desire to follow instinct rather than expectation.
SNQLX: When did Lonesome Skeleton Band stop feeling like a project and start feeling like an identity?
LSB: From the inception of the project, I knew to better serve the music I had made, and wanted to make it visually distinct as it needed to kind of create a mood and persona within the project itself so it’s very intentional departure and some say I have a bit of a personality change on the stage itself to inhabit that character.
SNQLX: Your music often feels stripped down to its emotional bones. What did you have to unlearn, musically or personally, to get comfortable leaving things that exposed?
LSB: That’s precisely the point! I’m glad you say bones, because thats naturally The simple elements that can fill a song with none of the blood or flesh That would bind it together. Simply the skeleton that I can create on my own in a live setting, is what I would like to best represent, and the recorded works, save for some overdubbing myself.
SNQLX: There’s a sense of solitude in your songs that feels intentional rather than accidental. Is loneliness something you’re documenting, protecting, or transforming?
LSB: That is entirely fair to say as I’ve probably mentioned by now my previous band died a possibly premature death, but a necessary one for the time. But it is in that singular self discovery, that I was able to quite literally dig myself out from within myself to expose the nakedness of intentional solitary writing. The ‘skeletal remains’ One could say. Of course, I can always count on myself when I cannot always rely on others.
SNQLX: How much of your songwriting is about telling the truth versus creating a mood that feels true?
LSB: Oddly enough, I feel I never quite understand the songs until some time has passed and I’ve lived with them and performed them over and over again, and I will then find new depth and meaning in the words and intention. Almost a bit prophetic. At times, I will find myself in various situation‘s that the songs I’ve previously written, seem to have been foretold. So it’s all true, eventually.
SNQLX: The word “skeleton” implies what’s left when everything unnecessary is gone. How does that idea show up in your creative process?
LSB: For me to strip the song down to it’s bare bones or necessary elements- the rhythm, the key, the melody. to ‘trim the fat’ and not rely on too much excess. To allow for the messaging to tell the stories and find the mood from there.
SNQLX: Detroit has shaped countless artists in very different ways. What did the city teach you about survival, patience, or sound?
LSB: Having played in and around Detroit for many years, I think persistence (maybe to a fault) is the biggest lesson. You often won’t get recognized or appreciated right away. But given enough time, paying your dues and believing in yourself and your art, even when no one has given you any reason to.
SNQLX: When someone listens to Lonesome Skeleton Band for the first time, what do you hope they feel before they even understand the lyrics?
LSB: I aspire to invoke a spirit of the past in what I do. With the intention being for the listener to be drawn in by the often theatric presentation and overall sound so that they may get past some of the more dark and disturbing messaging that’s underneath.
SNQLX: Looking ahead, do you see this project staying minimal and solitary, or do you feel it slowly asking for more space, more voices, more noise?
LSB: In this iteration of my work, lonesome skeleton is intended to be a solo endeavor. The songwriting and majority of performances are being simply myself and the best representation of that. However, it’s not outrageous for me to be seen collaborating with other artists along the way, and having guest musicians here and there, but this project should always be one skeleton, making multiple noises all by itself.
Now that you’ve had an introduction to Lonesome Skeleton Band, the conversation continues on video. Meet Charles Urban and hear about the project in his own words, and his own voice.
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