Photo Credit: Raz Azraa
Formed by hitmaking trio Evan Bogart (Lil’ Punkin), Amanda Warner (DeepKutz), and Peter Wade (Norman Crates), writing collaborative LVCRFT’s latest release, Scream Warriors—in collaboration with producer Christopher Young—has raised the bar yet again, this time recording, mastering, and presenting their work in Dolby Atmos for a truly immersive experience.
With independent songwriting success including hits for Beyoncé (“Halo”), Rihanna (“SOS”), Mark Ronson (“Bang Bang Bang”) and Flume (“Like Water”), Warner and Wade first worked together under Warner’s artist moniker MNDR, linking up with Bogart through the Los Angeles songwriting circuit. Still working in various collaborations, the sweet spot seems to emerge by putting their heads together. “At a certain point, if you're lucky, you just write with your crew,” says Bogart. “You want to be open to new opportunities, but predominantly your schedule is filled with the people you have the best chemistry with.”
Bogart “accidentally” wrote Rihanna’s hit “SOS” while working as an agent, and Warner started on a farm in North Dakota, recording on her dad’s 8-track in the basement and obsessing over Carole King. “I was all-in, but the path to how you do that when you live in North Dakota is a wild ride. Luckily, I landed,” she confesses. Discovering music in high school, radio deejaying, and producing bands in college while studying engineering, Wade began as a Sony Music runner after graduation, adding that his “secret sauce” was always his attention to detail, putting his best efforts into every job—big or small.
The purpose of a songwriter is twofold, explains Bogart: to write songs that become the fabric of people's lives, and to be successful enough to continue to write for the rest of your life. ”Once you tap into the ability to write music, you can't ever stop,” he says. “It's more cosmic and universal than people give it credit for. In their last moments of life… you play a song from the 1930s [and] they don't know who you are, who they are, but they can start singing the melody. That is bigger than all of us.
“We're alchemists. We walk into a room with nothing. We walk out with something. We're magicians, and once you have the ability to create magic, I feel like you're compelled to always create magic.” Wade adds (referencing Musicophelia by Oliver Sacks) that the science behind the brain’s interaction with music is something that pre-dates language.
“It's a very demanding, illogical business—it's constant gambling,” emphasizes Warner. “It suits my personality, but it's not for everyone. Be prepared to hear ’no’ 99% of the time and still wake up excited to connect emotionally with someone… The community is what will feed your soul.”
“Don't be afraid to say no—it trains the universe to who you are and what you love,” adds Bogart. “What makes you special is what makes the song special.” Reveals Warner, “I've never done anything that isn’t 100% me. A lot of careers are built on what you say no to—and I certainly was a ‘no’ person.” Songwriting doesn’t follow dogma, she says. “The feeling is what people connect to. If you get too smart about it, then you’ve fucked all the feeling out of it—and now we’re flipping pop burgers.”
Obsessed over everything spooky and horror, LVCRFT recognized Halloween music as diverse. 2019’s This is Halloween - Volume 1 was a tongue-in-cheek poke at the NOW compilations. Months after its release, Spotify provided a marquee and radio takeover spot and Netflix added placement in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. No one expected to be releasing spooky music four years later.
“To have over 70 people—in the year 2022—sit in a theater in the dark, listening to a weird, intense, immersive album for 40 minutes without telling them—and them cheering after songs. … There were tears,” confesses Warner. With ongoing film and tv projects and live events, LVCRFT is evolving again. Adds Bogart, “We've been making horror, spooky-inspired music. Now we want to make music-inspired horror content.”
