5 minute read
Do the Monster Mashup
Do The Monster Mashup
LOST WAX IS A HUMAN PARTY PLAYLIST ON SHUFFLE
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By Emma Hilboldt
At the end of April, everyone was watching the NFL Draft. At the forefront of the draft was the band Lost Wax—a group made up of 40-50 local musicians, each with a unique talent in their respective area of music. Given the number of people within the group, it allows Lost Wax to rotate performers based on the vibe of the event they’re booked for.
The Pitch was able to sit down with a few members of Lost Wax to talk about how they came to be and what their last year of success has been like.
Chris Davis, one of the founding members of Lost Wax, has been in the industry since 1998. He’s been in other bands and has traveled all across the country on tour but settled back in Kansas City and started Lost Wax in 2010. Taking ‘70s funk and merging it with ‘90s hip hop, Lost Wax has created a unique new genre of mashups that wasn’t so popular when they first started doing it. When they moved into the bar scene, they wanted to create a different flow than usual for live bands. Instead of taking a pause between songs, they keep a continuous flow of jams throughout their performance.
Starting out as a five-piece group playing long, non-stop sets at Kelly’s and O’Dowds, Lost Wax has grown to become a mosaic of local talent that allows each individual musician to perform on stage and pursue their own careers outside of the group.
“We’re like a big family. There’s no competition. We just support each other in all of our individual successes.” Davis says.
After doing private events for a few years, Lost Wax was approached with the opportunity to be the house band for the 2023 NFL Draft. While they jumped at the chance, it left them only three weeks to prepare hundreds of songs to play throughout the weekend.
“We had a 14-piece band, and the concept was that we would do a 10-minute opening set, and while every team was on the clock, we would play,” Davis says. “I’d have a producer in my ear counting down to when the commissioner would come out, so we had to stop on a dime.”
What may sound chaotic to some was handled smoothly by Lost Wax.
Courtesy photo
“They would announce the pick, and we’d go right into an instrumental song, so you’d have to have three songs per pair with about five to seven minutes to fill—that’s about 100 songs. We ended up having 100120 songs prepared for each of the three days.”
The NFL Draft had never had a band like this before. Previously, it was just a band playing background music and nothing more. With Lost Wax on the stage, it was definitely going to be a different experience.
“We were running out into the crowd and getting them to sing along to ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ and ‘Sweet Caroline’ and just really getting them to interact with us,” says Lost Wax member Eboni Fondren.
Fondren is a jazz singer for the group and does gigs around town when she isn’t performing for Lost Wax. With a weekly jazz jam at the Uptown Lounge and regular gigs at the Phoenix, she’s set to release an album with the City Jazz Orchestra in September, which will have two of her original songs on it.
“It’s not a sacrifice to give up a Friday or Saturday night jazz gig to do this because I love it,” Fondren says. “I can do a jazz gig on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. It all works together.”
Davis first saw Fondren perform at the Levee when she was unknowingly auditioning for another band. He had been looking for a jazz singer for a while, and when he saw her, he knew she would be the perfect fit.
“I had been following Lost Wax as a fan for a while at that point, so when Chris asked me if I’d like to join, I was like, ‘Absolutely,’” says Fondren.
The attention they got from performing at the NFL Draft is something that benefited not only the band as a whole, but the shine was reflected onto each of the individual performers as well. The entire group has big things planned for the near future.
Before too long, they’ll be releasing a new album—50 minutes with 50 songs that Fondren dubbed a “mega mashup.” It’s a new type of album for the band that will string together all of these different songs cohesively. They recorded it in a way that would allow them to recreate it exactly the way it was recorded when they perform it live.
Lost Wax will perform at The Ship in the West Bottoms on Saturday, July 29, with Breakfree Hip-Hop School. The event will include will be B-Boy battles, DJ scratch battles, MC battles, and all-style battles with a $500 cash prize for each. It’s a night hip-hop lovers will not want to miss.
