By: Andrew Moran

 If you're someone who is not too familiar with the independent music scene, well then you should know it's a growing industry.  Like the independent film scene, where everyone is going into it, so is the independent music scene.  When you have a growing industry there will be a lot of talented musicians and or groups who will go unnoticed. 

Lustra, from a distance, seems like a band with nothing to lose and listening to their music it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.  With the intensity and tenacity that every member plays every time he performs is like watching fire grow, it becomes more intense and a spectacle to watch.  Just listening to the band's music pumps up your adrenaline and the blood rushing to your head.  Words cannot describe this band only listening and watching them can come up with two words; Intense and powerful. Here is a bit of
Q & A with Nicholas Cloutman:

(You can view samples of the group's music at www.myspace.com/lustra)

1. Name of Band:

LUSTRA

2. How did you guys form the band?

Chris (our singer) and I met sort of by accident in a film and video class
in Boston.  Neither one of us had the first idea about how to play music,
but somehow a band happened.  It was a lot like catching a cold that still
hasn't gone away.

3. What made you go into this kind of music?

Viceral compulsion.

4. How did you learn about this music?

Slowly.

5. When did you start?

A couple of years back.

6. Where are you guys from?

Massachusetts, California, and Washington.

7. Where did you learn to play this music?

I'm not sure we have yet.

8. What do you do now with your music?

Anything we can.  It's all about playing and evolving, challenging ourselves
to add a bit more onto what we've already got.

9. How do you compare your music to others? Is it better? The same? No
difference?

Not to sound pretentious, but I've never seen art as a competitive sport. 
If I tell you that this particular band is crap and this one's great, it
would only be my opinion.  Different music resonates differently with
different people.

10. Do you have any albums?

Yeah, but our best effort yet has to be our most recent disc (Left for
Dead,) which recently broke us onto the Billboard Magazine charts with our
'cult-hit' Scotty Doesn't Know (from the film Eurotrip.)  I'm told we're one
of the first Indie bands in history to make it on the Hot 100.

11. Do you have any competition in the genre?

I'm not entirely sure what genre we're in, but if I had to guess, I'd say
we're struggling along side every other band on the major rock radio
stations.

12. What are your group's goals?

Conquer Canada and drink all your beer lol.

13. Where do you see your group in 5 years? 10 years?

I'm pretty near-sighted, but I can guarantee you we'll still be hacking away
at the music thing.  It's the only thing keeping us sane at this point.