all photos: Chris Svetlik
How very D.C. is this story: associate producer of a world class investigative journalism series wins Emmys by day then retreats to his carriage house bedroom near Howard University to make perfectly crafted pop songs by night. Think how many people in this city are making music, art and literature that you'll never hear, because they are too busy to play shows, get published, or find time and space to practice and create.
Fritz Kramer aka Long Walks On The Beach, lives the life of a truly outsider artist in D.C in its most literal sense, functioning on the periphery of both the established and underground music scenes whenever he has down time from his day job.
Who's to say a guy in his bedroom isn't an artist.
BYT: How long have you been living in this carriage house?
Fritz Kramer: About 2 years.
How did you find this space?
I was looking for an apartment park. I really love this neighborhood. For me, it's a pretty mellow spot. You can get away from the crowds, but it's still close enough to U Street and it's a part of the city that still in a lot of ways incredibly diverse and it hasn't completely gentrified yet.
You walk like one block and you're in these old Victorian homes that housed the African American elite. It's just amazing.
Have you always just been playing music wherever you live? What is your musical history? Were you playing music in college?
Kramer: No. I played the piano. My parents put me in piano lesson when I was five. I was trained classically, and took lessons until I was 15 or 16 and then I kinda just wasn't as interested. In college, I was too bored to go to the music conservatory to go and play piano. So, I just grabbed a buddy's guitar and taught myself how to play. But, I wasn't playing shows in college or anything like that. I was just really learning. I didn't start recording until after college, so that is kinda of a more recent thing.
Have you always been sort of a moonlighting musician? Have you been in a proper band?
Kramer: No, absolutely not. 95% of the stuff I have done has been completely by myself. Which I enjoy. I didn't really have the chops to be in a band in high school and college.
So you've really progressed since you have been hold up in your bedroom in the alley.
I just don't think I knew enough. When I learned to play guitar, I didn't learn songs, like I didn't sit there and learn to play Megadeath riffs or something. So, I basically just started coming up with my own stuff. So at a certain point in time, the natural progression is to start to record it in some way. It starts out with a single mic and you just record yourself playing and as you learn more, it just becomes more sophisticated. If I want to call what I do now sophisticated. I just have always been writing.
How has your music change since you have been living here in DC?
I can tell you distinctly how it's changed. The majority of stuff I played before I was in DC was completely like acoustic, kinda folky. I have always enjoyed the experimental side of things; so I would mess with vocals and that kind of stuff. But, I never had an electric guitar until Rodrigo Salvatierra (!!!!!! Rodrigo!!!! -ed) left me his electric guitar. He left it and I told him, "Dude, I'm gonna write some killer pop songs on this!". When we initially met I had given him one of my EPs, and he mastered some tracks, but I haven't done much of that since. The concept of doing it in your bedroom is so different than doing it in a practice space or studio space.
Explain.
I mean, the question is: how does you bedroom affect the sound of your music? I mean, it's in the music. There's no separation. That lack of separation can be seen as a complete limitation or just another way to be creative with it.
Does that lack of separation make you more possessive over your music? Do you not want to share it as much, do you not want someone else to mix and master it?
No, not possessive. But, the bottom line is that some one can master it, I just don't know someone who really knows how to master. If someone wants to come in and master my tracks, be my guest, that'd be beautiful. I mean, I headphone mix everything. It's what I know and I'm just kinda doing it by myself.
Scenario: You don't have to go to work. When do you wake up? What are going to do? Assuming music is involved, what would your habits be?
Well, there have been times where I have a long weekend or something. And I can make some noise because my roommate is going to be gone or something like that. I'll just start working on songs that I have a concept of how I want to record. If I have put together a couple of EPs in a couple of days, I would wake up around 8 o'clock like when I wake up normally, because that's natural. Basically when I have a musical idea, I become pretty focused. I usually save vocals to last, because they take me the longest. It's tough for me to like how something sounds.
Do you ever play shows around town, do you find it hard to recreate your music outside of your bedroom?
Relative to the tunes I've been writing lately, the idea of fully recreating them live is something I haven't even considered yet. The first Long Walks On The Beach show ever was just my friend and me blasting through like 10 songs in 22 minutes at last summer's Artomatic.
Recently I've been playing some basement parties here and in Richmond.
Do you find that the demands of your job isolate you from the local music scene?
I'm real fortunate to be a very busy guy. I've got priorities, and it's not like they're static, but you make a good point -- I'm pretty disconnected from the scene. A lot of that is probably because I haven't really spent the time. Like if a have an hour, I'm going to spend it writing rather than heading out to a bands DJ set or something. I just don't really have the luxury to do those kinds of things right now. But, I'm excited about the prospects of being less isolated, way less isolated. So hopefully that's in the cards as this moves forward.
I've definitely been inspired by all the people in the DMV who are dedicated to pursuing and nurturing the arts. Folks going out and creating what they love without false ambition.
+View other editions of Inside The Artist’s Studio:
Adam De Boer
Andrew Wodzianski
Matt Sesow & Dana Ellyn
God loves a cheerful giver.
Kramer's bed looks to be lofted some 6 feet off the ground. That along with a certificate commemorating a successful summit of Mount Kilimanjaro is an obvious dig at gravity -- a clear statment to heights that he just doesn't give a fuck. How refreshing in an age that keeps Win Butler from dancing with the one he loves.
Gravity doesn't work on mountains, Frank?
"bedroom stepladders are the new gucci rags. fall back or fall back."
-Jimmy Jones (capo status)
Rodrigo cameo appearance!
That first shot's really cool, Chris.
Agreed, Kimberly.
Great story overall. Nicely done, and makes me feel not quite so despondent with my own willing exile to the periphery.
Great story. Great photos. Great music.
Kramer has some serious dumbbells under his folding table. How can a gym-rat make such gorgeous music?
LTOWB would be perfect for a Tiny Desk Concert. Can we get some love from NPR to support the little guys?
Great article and pics! And his music is pretty damn solid as well! At the risk of sounding all high and mighty... I love stuff like this that gives some deserved press to groups like Long Walks on the Beach who are too otherwise involved in something else (like a burgeoning film career) to spend their days and nights promoting themselves. Plus, being otherwise preoccupied shields these artists and their inspiration from the banality of the scene itself and helps creates more intimate, personal, and unique expressions in their music. That's what makes this stuff worth hearing. Oh and by the way, are those Dum Dum lollipops on his desk? Havent had one of those since the 90's!
The first time I heard LWOTB, I fell in love with Fritz Kramer. I mean, Fritz Kramer's music! WHAT?!? Look, a wall! *runs away*
Long Walks On The Beach is my new favorite band.
I wonder if the multitasking schedule of artists with day jobs is an advantage as much as an inconvenience. Long Walks On The Beach is a project that has balance, intimacy and purpose—qualities born out of necessity that turn into something really satisfying to listen to.
Who needs someone to master your tracks when they sound so good on their own?! Quit your day job, Fritz
@Girls Everywhere
Yeah, us too.
LWOTB knows how to craft a catchy pop song, but he doesn't do it just to be poppy. It's heartfelt stuff. You can hear it in his voice. And I really wish his earlier, more folksy songs were online. Amazing, growling lyrics over guitar and piano. I'd just hit "repeat" and drive.
I usually only listen to reissues, but this shit is fire.
When's the next richmatic basement show?
LONGWALKSONTHEBEACH 4EVA!
wonderful article and pictures! its looks like a great space for making great music!
can't wait for a new single!
i first was skeptical but now that everyone speaks so highly of this person it is intriguing. Maybe his classical piano training had something to do with it.
LWOTB rocks. Fritz, you rock.
refreshing to hear someone making good music (that track above is solid) without going for a look or a scene. DC could use some more of this...
This is one of the more interesting topics and interviews in a while, and the photos have some real meaning, as they are part of the "bedroom composition" aspect of the music. I really like the songs, but how do I hear more if he doesn't perform and he only composes when he's having a slow work week and his roommate is out of the house? BYT please keep us informed of when/how we can hear more.
Great guy, great tracks, great article (though, for the record, it's "Megadeth").
Awesome article and I love the tracks. This guy is definitely unique and has his own style, which I really dig. I hope to be hearing much more from him soon, some more of that "bedroom" sound.
Need more Long Walks! Fritz is the real deal. Good find! And Fritz, I love that you keep a floor tom and maracas tucked away in your room - just for when the mood strikes.
Keep rockin' Fritz
Great article. Hope you keep us updated on when Fritz has the time to leave the house and play a show. Seems like we'd all like to see him play live.
fritz, what if your heart explodes!? i think a basement show is in order. i like your style amigo, come back to richmond soon!
to see Fritz live would be tremendous
LWOTB is my favorite band. In rating all time best bands ever, objectively, I place LWOTB squarely between the Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin. I only wish that LWOTB was ever so slightly more prolific. I wait for a new single everyday, like a young girl might wait by the phone for a call from a cute boy named Fritz (just as a completely random analogy). As a sidenote, I think the clear next step in the "making music in your bedroom" phenomenon is to hold a full-scale concert in your bedroom. I call dibs on a seat on an upper rung of the ladder!
Great article! I can't get enough of LWOTB's music!
@ Clarence
I'd imagine the Dum Dum lollipops are an astute nod to West Coast lo-fier Dee Dee and her Dum Dum Girls project. The arrangement of the lollipops into a bouquet of color is a clear reference to Dee's work with 1960s girl group producer & songwriter Richard Gottehrer. But Kramer doesn't stop there. Next he jams them in a makeshift vase, what looks to be an Aquafina bottle with it's top cut off. What an undeniable and glorious homage to the work of Phil Ek, symbolized through classic Pacific North West styling, an ode to conservation, recycling, and modern reuse theory.
Who says the bedroom is only where the magic happens...it apparently is also where the music happens too.
Great article and pics.
By the looks of all the accoutrements in Fritz's bedroom one could clearly call him a true renaissance man.
I would relish the opportunity to meet the man, the myth, the legend that goes by the moniker LWOTB!
As I read and reread such an awe inspring article, I kept glancing to the right of the page and noticed several links entitled "BYT Favorite Song of the Day:......" yet nay I did not see one by LWOTB?!?
I vote for "TRUE LOVE or Bust" or "I Didn't Want to Make Out"!
Whose with me?!?
Right on. Like soulful David Wilcox lyrics with the edge of the Shins. I'd like to see if he can really lift those weights though.
@Tex I agree. I would like to watch Kramer lift weights.