Oklahoma creative Landon L. Rogers – an author, songwriter, family man, and renowned rock legend on the local scene – recently launched his confrontational and boldly topical new single Beneath The Dome.
The song is a self-defined cerebral and sardonic refence to the incoming dystopia of modern life, and it takes subtle influence from a handful of different nostalgic corners of rock.
We were blessed with the chance to interview Landon, to find out more about the song, his journey so far as an artist, and his plans for the months ahead. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi Landon – great to connect with you, and huge congrats for the new single! We’ll get into the poignant concept shortly, but stylistically, who or what first inspired this musical direction?
I tried to create a dystopian landscape for Beneath the Dome with elements of industrial grunge and grit, which I created with alternating guitar riffs. For me, my music begins with a union of words with either guitar or piano. So, for this it all started with the line “A satellite for every home,” and the guitar refrain you hear throughout the song, which I just recorded on my Boss loop pedal and I filled the rest in from there.
The lyrics meander between clear topical issues and some more poetic images and reflections. What was the ultimate point of inspiration for writing this song, and why now?
Beneath the Dome was a muse of many colors. I was outside one night with my kids and we were relaxing looking at the stars and then a fleet of satellites passed over us and obscured the sky and I just imagined how odd it was that this is what some people call progress, a world inundated by radio waves so that there’s no inch of the earth where you can be untethered from the network of things, and I thought there really is a group of people for whom this is their genuine dream, a people whose motto would be “a satellite for every home,” and that’s how that lyric was born.
The refrain “we all like it here in paradise, everyone you meet is very nice, no nightmares, no dreams, no one hears your screams,” was another early motif that helped push the direction of the song forward. It’s the reflection of that dystopian feeling, that eerie feeling that everybody is so similar and hollowed out in their actions and thoughts, but they’re okay with it. They’re at home in the milieu that is lauded by the commonwealth, the distributionism, the 3 acres and a cow reference.
There’s just a lot to unpack, and I admit it’s kind of complex and intricate; and then on the flip side, I think the verses and the riffing kind of vocalise the theme and simplify it. At its base it’s just a protest song. A wake-up song. A three-minute riff about how our dystopian ambitions just might be turning us into robots.
There’s an interesting balance between gentle melodies and gritty, industrial tones and rhythms. What was the artistic intention with this approach, and do you employ a full band, perform everything organically, or program some instruments as a solo producer?
My music is always my own creation, for me that’s the fun and cathartic part of being a musician or artist, creating the sonic landscape. Lately I’ve leaned heavily on my Fender Stratocaster and an array of amps, pedals etc. If you hear piano in my music that’s me playing on my Portable Grand Piano (DGX-660).
For drums I use Roland drum machines, or a GM drum map program in my DAW. Sometimes you can reach a blend between organic real instruments and synths, and sometimes they just don’t mesh, for Beneath the Dome I kept everything relatively organic because I was looking for some grit without muddling the production.
In 2024, you realised the stark opposite of this song – the intentionally optimistic Good Vibes. Is there also a hopeful undertone to this new release, or is it purposeful doom and gloom to bring home the weight of our situation?
I like that question, two very different songs! I’m an optimistic person and I like to move in the general direction of the light, but music is my opportunity to address whatever vibe I’m dealing with, be that something dark, hopeful or just ambiguous, and I think Beneath the Dome captures all of those things. It’s not all doom and gloom, at least not for me, I think it’s just addressing the reality of the situation as I see it, which of course is subjective to me.
One of my favorite authors, GK Chesterton, once said something along the lines that a bad book will tell you something about the author, but a good book will tell you something about yourself.
“Music is so subjective, and at the same time, I paint with broad strokes, I don’t feel the need to put a period at the end of every line, I want the listener to draw their own feelings.”
A lot of the time my work is referred to as allegorical, and I love that because it means that people are drawing their own inferences from it, or that it’s speaking to them on a deeper level.
What’s been the reaction so far to the song, for those who’ve been gifted an early listen – and do you want mixed reactions, shock factor, something more? Do you consider your audience when you write, or is it simply a therapeutic process?
Reactions have ranged from love to bewilderment. The lyrics are, admittedly, nuanced. I don’t expect many people, especially here in the United States, to understand the ‘3 acres and a cow’ reference, and most don’t.
That’s the great benefit of being an indie artist. I can write for whoever I want, most of the time it’s simply a catharsis, and sometimes it’s a message I want my kids to have, like “The Road the Knows the Way” or “What Kind of God Are You Looking For?”
How important is live performance for you as an artist, and will you be hitting the stage in the coming months?
My live performances are generally acoustic sets. As a right brained artist my joy with music is in the creation not recreation, but that said, I do perform live time to time and enjoy spreading those performances apart so that I can come back to my own material with fresh eyes and new ears and kind of exercise that creative muscle as I build a setlist.
For a list of live shows stay tuned to my Instagram or website, landonrogers.com
You’re also an author, and a painter – how do these creative disciplines compare, and how do you decide whether to write a song, get visual, or pen something more in depth when you have an idea or inspiration strikes?
My kids and my wife tell me I’m happier when I make music, haha, so I’ll have to keep that in my mind, but truthfully I feel the writing bug coming back.
Once the ink starts flowing, metaphorically, you just go with it.
I have to really force a break in between projects, because often times if I rush into something I may try to tell the story the way I should write a song, or perhaps worse, try to write a song the way I tell a story.
One thing I do when I’m writing a novel to help rid me of my musical wanderings, is I will write a motif or soundtrack for my novel or story that I can listen too from time to time and this way I don’t feel so neglectful of my musical muse.
What’s your biggest ambition right now as an independent musician – where do you visualise things going?
As an artist my ambition is in the creative process. Making music. There’s a major paradigm shift taking place in the music industry. I’ve had music managers and labels reach out with offers that are contingent upon me making myself the center of my musical gallery, so to speak, they want me to agree to make 2 or 3 video posts a week just talking about my day or what kind of coffee I got at the local chain.
“That’s the change that’s taking place. People today don’t want to hear the artist, they want to see the artist.”
For me that’s devastating, because I’m the right brained artist, I speak through my music, not over it, but that’s the direction I see things going, a world where we laud our influencers as artists and expect our artists to behave as influencers.
What’s next for you – any longer projects, collabs, videos to come?
It’s a secret 🙂
Is there anything else we should know about this new release or your plans for the rest of the year?
Not that I can think of, thanks for taking the time to learn more about my music and art!
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Find Landon L. Rogers on Instagram & his Website.
