Lemonwilde's World: A Special Q & A

This week focused on listening to artists in more than the usual way of hearing their music, but also in peeking a little into their creative lives and struggles. To conclude it, for now, I wanted to return to the band which inspired me to ask these questions in the first place and that is still leaving its mark on my musical life. The members of L.A.'s Lemonwilde (original post here) were kind enough to answer a few my questions.

Q. Lemonwilde is composed of 4 unique members. Can you tell me a little about the group and its inner workings?

A. "We (Joe, Ter, Luke, Henry) create our music by individually bringing pieces of songs to the table. We then work as a group to hash out the sound, idea, emotion, and structure we are trying to convey. From there we work on our parts again individually and bring them back into the mix for final approval. Then we rehearse the hell out of the songs to confirm that we have them the way we want them".

Q. What inspires you to create and make music?

A. "Film, relationships (family, lovers, friends), daily occurrences, occasionally politics, and art in all forms."

Q. Is there a common theme for Red Room? Is there a story behind it and the band's name?

A. "Theme: to awaken those who have been sleep-walking through their lives, and are not trying to inspire anyone. Red room is the name of our studio, which we recorded the EP in. Lemonwilde: A name we gave our "WORLD" to represent tranquility!"

Q. Starting out as an indie band in a world filled with bands can be very hard (but also a lot fun, if you're with the right people). What's your approach?

A. "We spend about 5 to 10 hours daily acting as our own label, manager, booking agent, etc... It can be very exhausting, but since we are a tight knit group it is very rewarding as well. As for the music part of it, that is by far our favorite element (job)".

Are there any conclusions to draw, any similarities to find between how the different artists that have participated in the Q&A work and create musically? Perhaps. If anything, this experience made me appreciate even more the artists' fruits of labor of love and devotion.

Check out Lemonwilde on their official site and MySpace for streamable tracks and gig updates. Buy the Red Room EP on iTunes.

Lemonwilde - Nondeterministic Automation {MP3} (from Red Room)

Bonus: A video preview of Lemonwilde's live performance at Club Moscow (Hollywood)