LaMP Featuring Scott Metzger, Russ Lawton & Ray Paczkowski Share ‘Clipse Dog’ Video: Exclusive Premiere

LaMP, the newly formed supergroup of Trey Anastasio Band keyboardist Ray Paczkowski and drummer Russ Lawton, with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead guitarist Scott Metzger, shared a video for their song “Clipse Dog.” The video for the track, which appears on the group’s forthcoming self-titled debut album, premeires exclusively below.

The band takes its name from the first letters of each members’ surname and made their debut in December 2018 with a show at Nectar’s in Burlington, Vermont. Studio sessions were then held last summer, resulting in the LaMP album that will be released next Friday, May 29. LaMP previously shared the lead single “Some Days.”

JamBase caught up with Metzger for a brief Q&A regarding the project and new track:

Who, or what inspired this track?

Scott Metzger: This track is inspired by a wolf stuffed animal that was gifted to me by a fan at a show on the night of the wolf moon eclipse. I brought him home, and his name started off as Eclipse Wolf, but Eclipse got shortened to ‘Clipse, and then my girlfriend (now fiancé) determined that he identified as a dog more than a wolf. Clipse Dog. He’s kinda become our house mascot. We came up with a personality for him and everything – kind of a smart aleck, a wise guy, mischievous – but endearing, a smooth dancer, and a real hit with the ladies. I thought he deserved a song, and why not a video?

LaMP is geographically separated and each member has a busy touring schedule. How has this impacted the songwriting and recording process?

Scott Metzger: Right, I’m in Brooklyn, and Russ and Ray are up in Vermont. We wrote everything via the internet. We figured out telecommuting and working from home before it was fashionable [laughs]. We’d usually start with Russ sending around a drumbeat he was working on, then Ray and I would put down ideas and we’d send them back and forth, editing everything as we went along. When we finally found some time to record, I drove up to Vermont, we took a day to flush everything out and rehearse, then spent two days recording.

You are a part of several projects across multiple genres but LaMP seems to be a new stylistic frontier for you. What do you enjoy about exploring this new style? Have you encountered any challenges?

Scott Metzger: With Russ and Ray being so much of a team as they are – they’ve done who knows how many gigs together – it’s been a good challenge to join them to try and add something to their Vulcan mind-meld level of music-making while adding something to the foundation they’ve built.

Animated by Josh Clark, the video for LaMP’s new single “Clipse Dog” can be viewed below: