Mad Lasso is the sick and wicked brain child of Franklin Smith Ellis, a sick man searching for a wicked sound.
I sat down with Franklin to talk about their first musical experiences, playing the piano at an early age and the journey that led to writing and recording music as Mad Lasso which you can enjoy here.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you growing up and what artist and bands did you enjoy the most?
Franklin-I stole Shaggy’s 2000 album “Hot Shot” from my older brother when I was five and played that CD on repeat really having no clue what the hell he was singing about. I just remember being enamored. The song “Angel” came on somewhere a few weeks ago and I wasn’t prepared for the shit it brought up. Never realized he was singing about loss of innocence and having a good lover or friends to help ground you through the heaviest parts of life. I write about pretty depressing stuff and like Shaggy, I often feel obliged to dress up my sorrows in catchy cool sounds that make my dumping of emotion feel like a more even exchange with the listener. I’ve gotta get a lot of this stuff out of me but it doesn’t need to feel like a dump.
On the opposite end of things, being from Austin I found the music of Daniel Johnston pretty early. He didn’t dress up his songs with smooth production. He aired it all out there for anyone willing to listen and it didn’t really seem like he had a choice in the matter. He needed his “demons”, for lack of a better word, to live somewhere other than inside him so he put them to music. When I was twenty I spent a summer wandering the streets of Austin busking god-awful manic tunes that I usually made up on the spot or had written during various stents in mental hospitals. I was frequently accompanied by an array of psychosis induced ghosts, Daniel Johnston being one of the key figures. He had done the same thirty years prior and that felt important.
CMM-When did you first start playing instruments and what led you to making music as Mad Lasso?
Franklin-No one in my family plays music, but my parents are the type of folks that got a piano when I was 5 or so just cuz it looked nice in the living room. I was obsessed with it and started taking lessons when I was 6 and soon after, through my teacher, I got roped into the world of competitive piano with cash prizes and all that shit. Did that for a while before becoming completely disillusioned from that world and music in general as I was going into high school. I still loved piano but started exclusively playing improvised songs. Then I joined a band in college playing keys and fell in love with music all over again. Around this time I started playing a little more guitar and writing songs but not singing them. I’d never sung in front of anyone but following the manic episode I mentioned above—-in which psychosis led me to believe I was a highly successful professional musician—I gained the confidence I needed to sing and never stopped.
After college I got soberish for a while and was heavily medicated and attempted a solo pop project that was devoid any heart. I gave up on that towards the end of the pandemic and moved to New York City with a girl I loved, got my heart broken, got back heavy into drugs and booze and then ended up back in a mental hospital/rehab which I guess got my head clear enough to finally write songs I didn’t hate. I started releasing them a little bit after I guess mostly because I needed them to exist somewhere other than inside my head or my song book. I had the name Mad Lasso for at least a year before I released any music under that name. I couldn’t get my shit together and kept changing names and de-committing from projects so in a moment of divine impulse, and I guess an effort to commit, I decided to get a lasso tattooed around my scalp.
CMM-Your latest E.P. “New Mexico Sun” is one of my favorites of the year so far. What was your process and approach with everything that went into making the record?. Any particular gear you used that really stood out during the recordings?
Franklin– I recorded the bulk of Sad Lasso Pts. I & II, as well as New Mexico Sun over a two week period immediately after being discharged from the rehab in New Mexico in my buddy Stephen’s living room in east Atlanta. Stephen played bass in the college band I mentioned and my friend Jonny who played drums in that band played drums for my first three Mad Lasso EPs. Ethan, a new friend from Atlanta played pedal steel. New Mexico Sun is comprised of the five songs I needed most and wasn’t ready to let go of, so I guess I subconsciously kept delaying their release. I ended up sitting on mostly-done versions of the songs for over a year, obsessively adding and deleting bits and listening over and over until they started to drive me mad. At the time I was living out of my van bouncing from different talented, musically inclined friends’ backyards and would record little bits of my friends doing parts here and there. Mostly lead guitars as I’m not really much of a guitar player. The songs were getting quite messy with all the parts I was adding and deleting and I needed some outside help so my friend Greg from Meadowlark Studios in Atlanta gave em a final mix and master and one day last month I woke up and I didn’t need the songs for myself anymore so I put them up on Bandcamp.
Releasing music is typically a very anxiety inducing and unpleasant experience for me but this release felt very cleansing. New Mexico Sun will be out on all streaming platforms April 14th and available for purchase on tape a little after that.
I’m not really a gear head but on 15 of the 16 songs I have out now I played the same shitty little nylon string guitar my mom bought from a little shop in Santa Fe after she drove with me from New York to that rehab in the New Mexican desert so I’d have something to do while I was receiving treatment.
CMM-If you could compose a score for any film director who would it be and what would the film be about?
Franklin-Hmmm maybe Passion of the Christ part 2: THE SECOND COMING. But instead of Mel Gibson, because he’s a big ole angry racist POS It’d be Nicolas Cage directing and starring in the lead role. It’d be a completely biblically accurate adaptation of the entire book of revelation. I’d love to one day cause the kind of Devil-worship-hysteria I’ve read about from the 80s, so the score would have some spooky shit in it if played in reverse.
CMM-What do you have coming up next? Writing or recording anything new? Playing any shows?
Currently recording my favorite songs I’ve written from the past year at Meadowlark Studios in Atlanta with some friends. Excluding the bouts of deep depression I fall into, which granted isn’t infrequent, I try my best to write everyday. Your message found me at just the right time as I was trying to ease back into things. I’m playing a benefit at Grant Central East in east Atlanta on April 14th and another on May 4th at Smiths Olde Bar also in Atlanta with Nashville based Joelton Mayfield. Assuming my head stays alright I’d really like to tour later on this year.
