Like many artistically gifted Minnesotans (including one whose early ‘60s journey is getting the biopic treatment this December), Geoffrey Lamar Wilson hightailed to New York City as soon as he graduated high school.
Wilson didn’t find success with his indie-folk band Jus Post Bellum in NYC, but he did meet his bandmate/future wife and earn a degree there. In 2016, the saxophone-looping folkie returned home to north Minneapolis. Months later, the police killing of Philando Castile provided a “shock to my system,” he says.
"That got my gears turning," says the husband and father to two young sons, noting that Eric Garner had been killed by the NYPD two years earlier. "I'm back here, I intend to raise a family here, and it's not this bucolic, safe, Midwestern city I had sort of idealized. When George Floyd was murdered, that accelerated my desire to contribute to the conversation creatively."
And that’s exactly what he did on Flowers, which arrived last year. The EP grooves with jazzy, coffehouse appeal, but the lyrics, especially on the Castile-inspired single “Say My Name,” wallop the listener in the great, semi-long-lost tradition of protest music. Flowers earned Laamar (Wilson’s middle name, tweaked for an SEO advantage) steady rotation on 89.3 the Current and inclusion among First Avenue’s 2024 Best New Band showcase. It caught its creator by surprise.
"I didn't really have expectations," says Wilson, who works full time at the University of Minnesota. "I was really past the point of making music in my 20s, and wanting to see if I could make a band that was popular to do it full time. Then, suddenly, we're on the Current and getting show offers; I feel really lucky that we resonated with people."
Wilson is ready to seize on Laamar’s momentum, having already recorded a full-length debut that’s due for release early next year. He reports it’s “bigger and broader” than the EP, with country songs, synthy songs, and, generally, larger-sounding songs. The lyrical content remains focused on “racial justice and Black joy.” On the lighter, cuter side, he yields singing duties to his five-year-old son for the chorus of one song.
So, does Wilson consider himself a protest singer-songwriter? This journalist asked, while apologizing for sounding a dumbass journalist addressing Dylan circa 1963.
“Maybe, I could see that,” Wilson says. "It's music that begs and challenges you to be a little more aware of the world around you, packaged in a sound that's easy to listen to and kinda fun."
Explore the entire Picked to Click class of 2024 below.
