“I’m trying to put more things into the music for non-musicians, and make the experience a lot of fun for everyone, from kids to adults who have been on this planet for a long time. If they can latch onto the groove and want to sing along, that brings me immense joy.”

The LH Express: Ottawa’s Blues Cyclone 

Formed in Ottawa, The LH Express, led by husband-and-wife team Lucas Haneman and Megan Laurence, have spent more than a decade developing a sound that refuses to sit comfortably inside a single genre. Their music draws from blues, soul, funk, R&B, rock, roots, and jazz, while remaining firmly grounded in the chemistry between four exceptional musicians. Haneman, an award-winning guitarist, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, has been performing since childhood and holds a BFA in Jazz Studies from Concordia University. Laurence brings a commanding vocal presence and soulful intensity that has become central to the band’s identity. Together, their contrasting voices and musical personalities give LH Express its unique yin-and-yang dynamic. Rounding out the group are Martin Newman on bass and backing vocals and Valera Negovora on drums, whose years of playing together with Haneman and Laurence have created a rhythm section that is both instinctive and explosive.

(Photo: The LH Express are Lucas Haneman, Megan Laurence, Martin Newman and Valera Negovora)

Ottawa’s LH Express are back with their most groove-driven, soulful, and adventurous album yet. Born In A Cyclone (October 3, 2026) is the fifth studio album from Ottawa’s LH Express, following the acclaimed Painting Stars. This time around, the band takes their signature blues foundation and pushes it into funk, R&B, soul, rock, and Afrobeat territory, creating a collection that is as infectious as it is emotionally charged. At the heart of Born In A Cyclone is the unmistakable musical chemistry between lead vocalists Megan Laurence and Lucas Haneman. Their voices and personalities continue to complement and challenge one another, creating a dynamic that has become one of the band’s defining characteristics.

Interview by Michael Limnios                      Special Thanks: Sarah French Publicity

The LH Express sound refuses to sit inside a single genre, blending blues, funk, jazz, and rock; as a guitarist and producer, how do you keep the overall sound cohesive without getting lost in so many styles?

Lucas: Earlier on, I consciously blended these styles together because I love all of them, but as the years have gone on, I would say it just happens naturally. It has become our “sound.” I do think about what the public would want to hear, so I draw a little less on the jazz side these days and a little more on the funk/R&B side, but honestly, at this point it’s much harder to fight it than to let the music flow and be what it wants to be. I think music has become a little too compartmentalized, at least when it comes to the “popular” and “traditional” scenes, and we have to do our part to let the music evolve. If we can leave our own distinctive mark and make our music catchy at the same time, then I think we as musicians are doing something right.

Your voice combines soulful intensity with a commanding presence; which vocalists, classic or contemporary, have been your biggest influences?

Megan: My influences are pretty diverse. Everything from the beautiful lilt of Patsy Cline, to the power and beauty of k.d. lang, the emotional vulnerability of Canadian folk-pop singer Jann Arden, and the understated soul of Bonnie Raitt has inspired me. In fact, Lucas and I just saw Bonnie perform a couple of weeks ago, and she was just so cool. I remember thinking, I want to be like her when I’m 76!

The new album Born In A Cyclone is described as deeply personal songwriting; how emotionally demanding is it for you to perform tracks live that stem from such personal experiences?

Megan: There are a couple of tracks on this album that Lucas and I wrote about very personal experiences. In particular, “Old Soul” is largely about my mother, who passed away in 2019, and trying to navigate that grief while raising a young child. Our daughter, Kensley, wasn’t even two years old at the time. Then my father passed away in January 2020, so those were some incredibly difficult years for us. I never expected to lose both of my parents at such a young age.

There are actually references to both of them woven into several of our songs. For me, as a performer, it’s about taking the emotion right to the edge without falling off the cliff. If I feel like I’m going to cry, but can hold back just enough from actually getting there, I feel like I’m doing my job.

The really amazing part is when people come up to Lucas and me after a show and tell us how much one of our songs has affected them emotionally, or how it helped them get through a difficult time in their own lives. That’s when you realize that something deeply personal can become something universal.

(Photo: Lucas Haneman and Megan Laurence)

It is said that your contrasting vocal personalities with Lucas create a "yin-and-yang" dynamic; how do you work together in the studio to find that perfect balance?

Megan: The longer Lucas and I work together, the less we actually have to think about it, thankfully. Our voices are quite different from each other, while still being similar enough to create something special when they blend. One of the biggest compliments we’ve received is that when we sing together, our voices can sound like three or four voices. We’ve heard that from producers and some very respected musicians over the years, so it’s honestly incredibly flattering. I remember Dave Matthews telling us that he loved the blend of our voices when we opened for him in 2018. That was definitely a pinch-me moment.

Lucas has a natural grit and rasp to his voice, while mine has been described as pure or angelic…which I’m never quite sure what to do with! The other big difference is that I’ve been singing practically since I came out of the womb, while it took Lucas substantially longer to really become a vocalist. He started singing lead much more when we first met in 2014, and I helped him a lot during those first few years, teaching him things like breath control and technique.

I’ve also had the opportunity to work with and mentor other Ottawa-area vocalists over the years, including Angelique Francis during the first decade of her musical development and Michelle Treacy, who is now based in Toronto and was signed to Sony Records for a period, with Lucas serving as her musical director. These days, though, the process between Lucas and me is pretty instinctive. We know each other’s voices so well that we can usually tell immediately when something is working or when it needs to be pushed in a different direction.

Following the success of Painting Stars, which hit #1 on the Roots Music Report charts, what did you want to do differently regarding production and arrangement for Born In A Cyclone?

Lucas: We are very happy with how Painting Stars did, and we can only hope that Born In A Cyclone will bring us wider exposure to a larger market. We’d love to make it over to Europe this time around, perhaps sometime in 2027, to do some playing, even if it’s just Megan and me. From a production point of view, Born In A Cyclone is different because we recorded it with modern equipment, but in an old-school way. There is no editing, no cutting and pasting, no Auto-Tune—none of that. There wasn’t much of it on Painting Stars either, but I was feeling inspired after releasing my own solo album, I’m Just One Man, at the end of 2024. On that album, I played all the instruments and mixed everything myself. Though it’s a lot more involved when it comes to mixing vocals, I figured I’d give it a try on Born In A Cyclone as well, so I did all the preliminary mixing, panning, and sound sculpting myself.

Because I’m almost completely blind, this means I have to use specialized software that allows my computer, recording workstation, and text-to-speech software to all work together. That’s a long-winded way of saying that the album doesn’t have as many layers as Painting Stars, or any of our previous four albums. I consciously tried not to do too many guitar overdubs, for example. All the drums and bass, as well as much of the rhythm guitar, were one performance all the way through, live off the floor. Our friend and well-respected musician and audio engineer David PJ Tettmar also helped us tighten up the sound in post at his studio, Railroad Recording Company, in Chesterville, Ontario. We were also very lucky to have had the album mastered by Philip Shaw Bova in Ottawa, Ontario. It’s the LH Express in our most real form to date, and it sounds like us playing in a room together. That room just so happens to be our home studio, and we’ve worked really hard to make it sound as big and full of joy as possible.

(Photo: The LH Express)

You hold a BFA in Jazz Studies from Concordia, but you have been performing since childhood; how do you balance technical jazz theory with the raw, spontaneous emotion that blues and rock demand?

Lucas: To me, the spirit of jazz music is the idea that every time you play a song, improvise a solo, or even sing a lyric, it should be informed by how you’re feeling in the moment. The audience enjoys this because they don’t get the same show every time you play live. These days, I’d say that’s the biggest element of jazz that remains in our music. All of us in the band can play improvised music, and we love to do so when the time is right, but lately I’m doing my best to strip things back and make the LH Express sound more accessible to the general public. I’m trying to put more things into the music for non-musicians, and make the experience a lot of fun for everyone, from kids to adults who have been on this planet for a long time. If they can latch onto the groove and want to sing along, that brings me immense joy.

You have performed on major stages worldwide, from Memphis to London; how has your approach as a performer evolved through these international experiences?

Megan: All of us in the band have been incredibly lucky to experience some very special places in this world through music. For me, I think the biggest change has been becoming much more comfortable simply being myself and relaxing into the experience. I’ve been performing since I was three, so commanding a crowd with my voice has never really been an issue for me. What has evolved more over the years is everything around the music, talking to audiences, connecting with people between songs, doing the schmoozing thing, and all those other little aspects that come with being a performer. The more places we’ve played and the more people we’ve met, the more I’ve realized that you don’t have to put on a “performer” persona. People respond to authenticity, and I’m much more comfortable letting that side of myself come through now.

You have spent time in the legendary rooms of Sun Studio in Memphis; what did it feel like to create music in the exact space where a massive piece of music history was born?

Lucas: Stepping foot into Sun Studio was truly magical. Though it happened ten years ago now, I remember it as if it were yesterday. In a room like that, there is so much history, and I’d say that, as a result, there’s a healthy pressure to rise to the occasion. When we went into the studio, it was at the end of our time at the International Blues Challenge in 2016, so we were well rehearsed and firing on all cylinders, so to speak.

The thing that really stood out was recording vocals with Megan. Standing in the same space where Sam Phillips liked to put B.B. King, Roy Orbison, Elvis, Johnny Cash, etc., when they recorded their vocals was like having an out-of-body experience. We also had our crew of friends, family, and supporters do gang vocals on one of the tracks, “Blind Man’s Blues,” and that memory really sticks out as well, because all of those people are very important to us.

I remember breaking a string…something I hardly ever do…at the end of the guitar solo in our song “That’s the Truth” and having to do a punch-in, which felt like sacrilege in that studio. There are ghosts in that building. It’s both eerie and awe-inspiring.

(Photo: Lucas Haneman and Megan Laurence)

The band's rhythm section (Martin and Valera) has been playing with you for years; how does this instinctive trust affect the way you sing and improvise during live shows?

Megan: It’s pretty special having Val and Martin, and seeing how their musical chemistry has developed over the past seven years. Val joined band in July 2019, and Lucas and I could tell almost immediately that he and Martin had a special connection, the kind where they can be playing rhythmically similar things without actually playing the same thing. Together, that combination is something pretty magical.

Val brings this incredible sense of wild creativity to the band. He somehow seems to have four completely independent limbs, in a way that most drummers probably wish they possessed! We’ve had people come up to us after festival performances and tell us that, without any stage antics, he’s somehow one of the most entertaining drummers they’ve ever seen. He’s always smiling while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of what seems humanly possible behind a drum kit. And Martin is just so solid. He’s always been the meat and muscle of our sound. He’s incredibly dependable, not only as a bass player but as a personality within the band. He’s also the voice of logic and reason on the rare occasions when we hit a stumbling block as a group.

And watch out, he has come up with some bass lines for the ages on this album. I honestly think this is the best bass playing I’ve ever heard him do, and that’s saying something. The blend of Martin and Val pushes Lucas and me to keep experimenting, trying new things and reaching for new heights. Because we trust them so completely, we can take risks vocally and musically onstage without worrying about whether the foundation is going to be there. We know it will be.

The new album is described as "blues with a beat" and "soul with some swagger"; what specific challenges did you face on the guitar to turn up the volume and bring this higher intensity to your sound?

Lucas: I’m always pushing myself as a guitarist to explore new things and, hopefully, not repeat myself over and over again. I tried really hard not to overdo anything on this album. As I get older and, hopefully, wiser, I think the main point of a solo is that it should be singable for a non-guitarist. I really don’t care as much about guitar acrobatics these days. Even though I know there is a time and a place for them, I just try to choose my moments, like the solo in the song “With You.” It’s close to the end of the album, so I figured I’d let loose and have some fun in that moment, but generally, I’m really trying to serve the song.

As far as gear goes, historically with the LH Express, I’m a Telecaster and Stratocaster guy. I have a couple of guitars built by the late, great Gerard Melancon that I just love. Though I used those guitars on Born In A Cyclone quite a bit, this time around I branched out, using a newer Eastman Les Paul, a great newer guitar of mine, for the solos on “The Things You Do” and “With You,” as well as the main guitar parts in “I Love You” and “She.” I played a lot more acoustic guitar on the album as well, particularly on the songs “What About Me” and one of my personal favourites, “6 Feet Under,” which features Megan. Finally, I used an old ’50s Gibson ES-125 archtop that I have on long-term loan from a friend of mine on the track “All We Need.” I wrote this ballad for my wife and daughter, and that instrument has a warmer, more intimate voice that was perfect for the song.

(Photo: The LH Express)

You describe your music as "blues with a beat." How do you keep the raw, authentic spirit of traditional blues while pushing its boundaries into something so modern and explosive?

Lucas: That’s very kind of you to say. Honestly, all my favourite classic artists and bands weren’t stuck in one genre, and it makes their catalogues so exciting to listen to. Think about The Beatles, who put out so much music in the span of eight or ten years, yet every album was different from the last. Or Neil Young, who can put out a country- or folk-tinged acoustic album and then follow it with a raw, almost chaotic electric album. To me, these are people who refuse to sit still, and I admire them deeply for it.

When Robert Johnson recorded his collection of songs in 1936 and 1937, or when Muddy Waters burst onto the scene in the early ’50s, no one sounded like them, and they weren’t trying to be anyone but themselves. Why should modern blues be any different?

Because I listen to all of this stuff, along with pre-12-bar blues and everything from Bob Marley to Billie Eilish and The Black Keys, I draw on all of it because it has inspired me in some way, shape, or form. I know there are people who don’t agree with this sentiment, but the truth is, you can’t please everybody. It’s much more important to be genuine, be yourself, and celebrate the things that make you unique.

If you had to describe the energy of Born In A Cyclone through your own eyes and voice, what is the core emotion you want to leave with the listener?

Megan: To me, Born In A Cyclone is really about what happens when life throws everything at you at once, the beautiful things, the heartbreaking things, the chaos, the love, the loss, and everything in between. There’s definitely a storm running through this album, but I don’t think the core emotion is sadness. If anything, it’s resilience. It’s about being knocked around by life and somehow finding your way through it, carrying the scars and the lessons with you, but still being able to laugh, love, dance and make music.

A lot of these songs came from very real places in our lives, and I think that’s why there’s such a mixture of darkness and joy on the record. Life isn’t one emotion, and I didn’t want this album to be either. Ultimately, I want people to feel something. I want them to hear a song and think, “That’s me. I’ve felt that.” Maybe they’ll dance, maybe they’ll cry, maybe they’ll sing along in the car, or maybe a lyric will stay with them for a while after the song ends.

If you’ve been through your own cyclone and you can come out the other side still standing, still loving, still laughing and still making music, I think there’s something pretty beautiful about that.

The LH Express - Home

(Photo: The LH Express are Lucas Haneman, Megan Laurence, Martin Newman and Valera Negovora)