Lemuria is an American self-described indie punk band that’s getting ready to release its third full-length album, The Distance Is So Big, on June 18th on Bridge 9 Records. The record was produced by J. Robbins, and Lemuria is poised to go on a tour of the U.S. and Canada starting on May 4th in support of it.
Listen to the audio of an interview I did with Sheena Ozzella of Lemuria below:
Lemuria is releasing a limited edition 7” on May 21, and one of the songs, “Brilliant Dancer,” is streaming at SPIN.com.
Transcription
Sheena Ozzella sings and plays guitar in the band, and Disposable Underground sat down with her in the alley behind her place of work—that she’s quitting to go on tour—to bone up on Lemuria.
Speaking of the new record, she says it’s awesome and that she’s excited to tour on it. We begin with what in fact is awesome about the new record.
“What’s awesome. There’s cello. That’s awesome. There’s also, I think, more well-thought-out percussion additions. And J. Robbins, on this recording, we asked him to take more of a producer role on it, so he was very open into giving us ideas on some songs, and really I think got way more invested in the recording than he did on Pebble, when we recorded our second record there. So I think you can hear a little bit more of, like, maybe his grittiness, his kind of rock. He’s got a lot more rock than Lemuria has on his own, I think. But yeah, he was great.”
When Lemuria started, Sheena says she didn’t know how to play guitar, but learned over time in the band.
“Now I know how to play guitar, and now I write guitar parts and full songs, and I think my personal addition to the band is, like, grittier, you know, naturally. I mean, when Lemuria started, I couldn’t even look at people in the eye when we played, you know, and I was really—learning how to play guitar and sing in front of people was one of the hardest things for me to learn, you know, but now I’m confident. You gotta have that attitude, gotta be a little sass.”
Lemuria are road dogs and have been known to share the stage with bands that are on the more extreme side of the spectrum.
“I’d say in the span of the time that Lemuria’s been around, we’ve played with so many bands that were, like, ‘Really, you’re playing with them? That’s kind of a weird mix.’ Lemuria used to play, I think we used to play maybe a lot more hardcore shows than we do now, not for any reason, um, other than we are being more viewed as an indie band now than before when we were viewed a punk band. I don’t know why, I don’t know what happened, if our sound changed or whatever, so maybe the people that first started with listening to us when we were really poppy think we’ve changed because the stuff we’re writing is maybe a little bit more heavy and noisy, I guess, than it was before. I really like playing mixed genre shows. I think it’s refreshing and it helps people open up to new things.”
And finally, as an experienced player, Sheena leaves us with parting words of wisdom.
“I think it’s important when you’re a musician to constantly feel like you’re getting better and that you’re challenging yourself and that you’re using, maybe, your musical gifts to the best that you can be using them by writing songs you want to hear and writing music that makes you feel better. I think that’s the point in which Lemuria is at, you know, and I’m very grateful for it.
