Aaron Mader, known professionally as Lazerbeak, is a Minneapolis-based artist and producer. Aside from being a founding member of the Doomtree collective, he is also the CEO and General Manager of Doomtree Records, handling the day-to-day operations, management, and inner workings of the crew and label. Over the past decade he has collaborated with everyone from reigning pop queen Lizzo (producing her entire debut album), bluegrass heavyweights Trampled By Turtles, mythological indie supergroup GAYNGS, and the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra, all while continuing to build and create with life-long comrades from his own Doomtree artist collective and notching production credits on everything from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton Mixtape to the dark electro-pop of Banks’ critically acclaimed III album. With his solo work, Lazerbeak has recently adopted a more minimalist approach. The joys of becoming a father of three combined with the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rest of the world’s chaos necessitated a curiosity toward mindfulness for the producer, leading to a trio of albums named after his children. These seven-track records lean more on ambience than ambition, peace than punch, space than speed. Instead of throwing in “everything and the kitchen sink” on these projects, Lazerbeak exhibits maturity and restraint by stripping it all away to focus on the barest of essentials. Now ten years removed from his first beat tape and having scratched the ambient itch, Lazerbeak is ready to return to the anthemic instrumentals he first became known for. His newest project, Lava Bangers II (available now from Doomtree Records), is a 20-track victory lap of sorts showcasing Beak’s myriad talents behind the boards. “It sums up the artist I am right now,” the producer says. “It’s everything from dance music, house, electronic. Of course, there’s still some hardcore hip-hop and nods to the ‘80s and ‘90s R&B that I love.” It would be reductive to call Lava Bangers II a return to form. Instead, it’s a marriage of all the producer’s lessons learned, a culmination of a musical journey marked by curiosity, joy, and passion.
