“Genre queer” is the term the band Sons of an Illustrious Father have settled on to describe their sound, which is a little bit punk, a little bit folk, and a little bit elemental. The trio is comprised of Josh Aubin, Lilah Larson, and Ezra Miller (yes, that Ezra Miller). The band is now set to embark on a tour of the American South starting today in Raleigh, North Carolina. For the Sons, it’s been a long road to this point.
After releasing two albums and an EP, the band, which formed in 2009, unveiled their latest experiment last June, “Deus Sex Machina: or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla.” It’s a prismatic collection of nine songs that showcases the glorious absurdity of the band, in which the members frequently trade instruments.
“I think part of what defines us as a band is our determination to eschew definition,” Larson says. “We are constantly pushing against the boundaries that we perceive as genre ideas; we’ve constantly tried to avoid those sorts of restrictions, and that in large part [is] what characterizes us and our new album.”
Miller shares a similar sentiment. “We don’t sit around thinking about how we can defy genre; we make the music we want to make, and base it on the ideas we want to communicate, and ‘genre queer’ is a result of that,” he says. “We’ve long since abandoned the effort to self-categorize, and that’s been a huge help. It’s been a wonder for our process of expression.”
Larson and Miller met in middle school, Miller says, and reconnected in high school when they began playing music together. Larson created Sons of an Illustrious Father before Miller was involved. “I always thought it was the coolest band even before I was in it,” Miller says. “It was clear they were the greatest.”
Aubin “materialized in the back of [Miller and Larson’s] car through a wormhole,” according to him, and though he was originally meant to be the band’s touring bassist, he became a permanent fixture. The band makes music for their younger selves, they say. The very first track on the new album, titled “U.S. Gay,” makes this abundantly clear.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEpmWuq1%2BowbC%2B2GiqqKajYrynecCnZKKknKrAtb7IqKysZZaWwamx0WaenqaimnqywcSeqWalpai2pA%3D%3D