Oh, so you thought this label only
released burly, noisy, weird aggressive music or something? Yeah, we did a Lemuria 7” too. I mean, they were such nice people.
Something about a friend of a
friend, or something like that, had been telling me I ought to go see this band
Lemuria from Buffalo because they were quite special. They had been playing all over the place, and already had a
few records out, and at some point they finally landed in Syracuse, and played
someone’s basement. So I checked
it out. To say I was immediately
taken by their music may have been an understatement. They kind of got lumped in to a pop-punk sort of thing,
which I thought was certainly not accurate. Between the atypical song structures, drumming that chose
some very interesting rhythms, lyrical content that got awkward (and definitely
went beyond the standard ‘you broke my heart, boo-hoo’ woe-is-me-isms), and
guitarist/vocalist Sheena Ozzella’s exceptionally heartwarming and upbeat voice
they were definitely doing their own thing.
Pretty soon they got to be regulars
around town and beyond. Many house
shows were played, my band at the time played a handful of shows with them, and
their growth as a group felt very natural and organic. It helped that they were a non-stop touring unit, booking it
all themselves, often releasing their own records, and just going for it. Nothing against their music, which was
wonderful, but I really think that a lot of their success came from just how
kind, friendly, and genuine they have always been as people. It really goes a long way. There’s just something about the music
of Lemuria, and the people who create it, that gives you the warm-fuzzies. They make you feel like things are
good, even if they’re singing somber tunes. I’ve never left any of their shows (of the probably dozens
of times I’ve seen them) not feeling like my best self. They truly can bring out the best in
people as far as I’m concerned.
So it was at some juncture around
the time their first proper full length, “Get Better” came out that I
approached them about doing a 7”.
By this time we were all friends and I thought it would be a really fun
idea. However, I wasn’t sure what
they would think about doing a record with a label known for releasing a lot of
really heavy stuff. But it’s that
local connection- I had lived in Buffalo for a couple years and visited
often. Sheena worked at the best
damn diner in all of Western NY (Amy’s Place for those looking for a place to
go should you end up in Buffalo) and drummer/vocalist Alex Kerns lived upstairs from it, and I would
see them regularly. Lemuria played
all over NY state and myself and friends often went to see them if they were
playing anywhere within a two hour radius. And, as if the point needed to be driven home, they played
Syracuse all the time. They were
surprisingly into the idea of doing a record and so, several months later, we
started getting ideas together for what became the “Ozzy” 7”.
Maybe I’m just being biased, but of
all the various records Lemuria has released (and they have a pretty thick
catalog) I think “Ozzy” stands out as one of their best recordings. That song, in and of itself, stuck
around in their set list for years and is one of the most heartfelt songs they
ever wrote. That record also had a
great B-side, “Expert Herder”, as well as a third song that was a download-only
track that came with the record (“Race the Germ”).
Since that time Lemuria have
released several more records, done a heck of a lot of touring, and have gone
through a number of changes. Right
after “Ozzy” came out bassist Jay Draper exited the band, and was replaced for
awhile with Canadian nice guy Kyle Patton before he stepped aside to make way
for current bassist (and also incredibly nice guy) Max Gregor. They also added a fourth member in long
time contributor Tony Flaminio, who has done some manner of back-ups on various
instruments on pretty much all their records, but now he’s officially in the
group. The band is spread out all over the US these days with Max down in
Austin, Alex out in Las Vegas, and Sheena in Washington DC. So while it’s a lot tougher for all of
them to get together I did manage to catch up with my old pal, and professional
dog-mom, Sheena Ozzella about that specific record and stuff happening around
that time.
During the time that the “Ozzy” 7” came out what was up with
the band?
Oh my god Hex, what was that? 2010?
I think it was 2009?
I remember recording at Watchmen (Studios). I remember the song “Ozzy”. I had to look up what the other
song was because we have so many fucking seven inches.
It was “Expert Herder”. I had to look it up too.
(laughs) That’s
very funny. I couldn’t
remember. So yeah, we were up at
Watchmen, a Buffalo studio that everyone has gone to. Doug White runs it.
He’s been a local gem forever.
He likes to do super-polished, clean recordings. But he mostly does metal stuff. Every time we went to him- there’s a
lot of his recordings that we really liked- he seemed to lock in the Lemuria
sound pretty early on.
But we were also just trying to tour as much as we could at
that time as well. I remember when
we released that seven inch, though, I had written “Ozzy” and the lyrics for
“Expert Herder”. But “Ozzy” is one
of my favorite songs we ever recorded.
That was a song about your dad, right?
Yeah, I wrote it for my dad. My dad is still doing well. My dad adopted me when I was about 6 months old. Him and my mom started dating when they
were 17 and I was 6 months old.
And by the time they were 21 they got married, and they had three kids
already, which is insane. It’s
crazy. And then my dad legally
adopted me shortly after he and my mom got married. I know it was a different time back then, and people did
things a lot earlier. Plus, to
adopt a kid that wasn’t even his!
And he was starting a family and all that bullshit. It really showed me how great and
wonderful a person he is. So I
really just wanted to write a song for him.
I know a lot of people lose touch with their parents, I know
some people who are very fortunate to have cool parents, and my parents are
great people. So writing a song
for them is the least I could do to show that I’m thankful for them.
And my dad is a really simple, pretty normal, small-town
man. He has a mechanic shop, he
does everything himself. He’s a
very stereotypical man. But in
that simplicity there was no pressure to write anything prolific. You know with some people you want to
write a love song that’s never been written before. For my dad it was more of… he’s just a simple guy, he loves
whatever I do, and is always very supportive, and it was refreshing to be able
to write a song about him that came very easy. There was no pressure, or anything, I just wanted to show
him that I loved him.
It’s not really punk to write a song about liking your parents.
(laughs) I
know! I’m so not cool! It’s not very punk. But, to be fair, I have years of being
punk and my dad and I hated each other for about three years. I cut all my hair off and he was so mad
at me. But then I realized he’s
actually a pretty good guy. He deserved the song.
That’s the make-up song. The ‘I’m sorry for writing angry songs when I was a
teenager’ one.
Right! It’s the
‘I’m sorry for having been a fucking turd for a long time, and I love you’
song.
(laughs) And also at that point everyone in the band was
still in Buffalo, right?
Yeah. I think
Jay Draper played on that too, so, yes, we were all in Buffalo. We were all practicing a couple times a
week, we were doing a lot of shows, playing a lot of weekends, we were pretty
busy.
So not long after that you made the transition to having
Kyle Patton play bass, who didn’t stick around too long. How did he come into the picture?
I think we met through shows. Lemuria played Canada a couple times, since the border is
right there. So I think it was
natural. We knew who he was, and
he liked the band. And honestly,
when he did join the band Alex and I had the idea that whoever was playing
bass, or not, we were going to do Lemuria anyway. We were the main songwriters and we still very much wanted
to play music with one another. So
when Kyle joined the band we set it up where it wasn’t necessary for him to
write with us, we just needed someone to play the songs with us. Even the record that Kyle did play on
Alex and I would write the parts.
We were also a little afraid to let someone in permanently. Playing with Kyle was really great
though, and we were really grateful that he wanted to play with us. It allowed us to tour and do a lot of
stuff that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. But we were really stubborn about letting someone join the
band after Jay left. Eventually we
eased up. It sounds stupid, but we
opened our relationship to Kyle, and that then allowed Max to end up playing
with us. Max had roadied for us on
a tour Kyle played on, which is how he came in.
I think Alex and I would both say that Max ended up becoming
something, obviously-
Yeah, for sure.
Max is definitely the third member. He has his own voice.
Yes. For
sure. We all love him. Max is very much part of Lemuria and
whatever we do after this break we’re on.
I don’t think any of us are really sure what’s going on, we just need a
break. But I recently went out to
Las Vegas and hung out with Alex for a whole week. Max is busy taking care of stuff on his own in Austin. But there’s no weird drama. The break definitely feels more like a
break than a break-up.
So around that time of the 7” how was the writing being
handled? How was it being decided
about who would be doing vocals, since you and Alex both were writing parts and
lyrics.
For that 7” specifically, I brought in “Ozzy” as it was with
the music and lyrics and vocals.
We then brought in bass and drums.
For “Expert Herder” the riff was a part I brought in on guitar, and then
we played it with drums and bass.
But typically with Lemuria we don’t write vocals, or lyrics, until after
the music is completed, and that’s for pretty much all our stuff. There are some songs where Alex has
written vocals, guitar parts, and bass altogether. He’s one of those annoying people that knows how to play and
do everything. But for that 7”
specifically, it worked in the way that we had the music before we put the
vocals down, and then basically if there’s a song that I wanted to write lyrics
to- “Ozzy” was the song I wanted to write lyrics to- we would sit down together
and arrange how that would go.
“Expert Herder” we did together to figure out how the melody would go
and how the lyrics would fit the melody.
How did Ben Sears get roped into doing the artwork?
We met him on tour.
And we know he was a person who did art, and we had seen some of the art
he had done, and we just asked him to do this. I think it was real simple. We just asked him if he had any art
that we could use for this seven inch we were doing, and then we picked that
image out of some random stuff he had.
His art has changed drastically since then.
Yeah! And he
has done a lot of stuff for Lemuria over the years and it’s quite a bit
different than a lot of the other stuff we have released over the years, but
it’s very cool and it worked. I
like how it was screenprinted (ed.- only the first pressing), and it’s
striking, and very aesthetically pleasing.
So at what point was everyone starting to move to different
places? It seemed to kind of start
with Kyle, since he was in Canada, but when Max entered he was in Pittsburgh,
right?
Kyle ended up having some border problems, so that kind of
put an end to that. Max was a
friend who had been on tour with us as a roadie while Kyle was in the
band. It was pretty natural. We knew he played bass. He was in Pittsburgh, and pretty
desperate to leave, but with the idea that he would still have a place to live
when he got back because it’s cheap there. He ended up moving to Buffalo pretty soon after that though
because we were touring a lot, and the band was the main priority at that
time. But pretty soon after that,
maybe after a year or two, he moved back to Austin. And then I lived in New York for awhile, and then I moved
back, and now I live in DC. But
Alex is the only one who consistently lived in Buffalo for the majority of the
time. Now he lives in Vegas, but
he was in Buffalo for a long time.
Did it make it where you couldn’t do weekends anymore, just
tours? Or did it feel as if it
wasn’t too affected?
We have to do super-concentrated stuff. So when we recorded “The Distance Is So
Big” and “Recreational Hate” we would spend weeks together, typically in DC
because they could work from home.
They were typically a little more flexible with their work life. But we would spend weeks in a garage,
or a pie shop. We spent a long
time in Austin just renting space.
We couldn’t really do weekends anymore, unless it was a
special occasion, like if we were playing a festival or something. That would pay for us to all get to the
same place. So touring was really
the only way we could do it. So
that’s how we did it. There were a
few shows where we didn’t have a chance to practice together beforehand and it
showed! (laughs)
But yeah, we had to hammer down when we have plans to do
stuff and we just lock ourselves in our room for 8 to 10 hours and that’s all
we do. And that’s how it happens.
I don’t think it’s my preferred way to do it, personally,
but I think Max and Alex love it. They can spend all day in a dark room with no
windows just looking at each other.
Some people really like it, but other people need a break every couple
hours.
What’s been the best thing about the band and what’s been
the worst?
The favorite things have been the crazy-ass places we have
been. I can’t believe some of the
places we have been! International
touring, and the ability to do that is such a privilege. It’s something any of us take for
granted. We travel really well
together and I think we all really appreciate that outlet, and being able to do
it for so many years.
The worst part being in Lemuria? I guess the amount of time you
have to be away sometimes. It’s
kind of a double-edged sword. When
you start getting older I feel like it’s hard… I don’t know.
We started Lemuria when we were all in our early 20’s and we said ‘fuck
it’ all the time and we would really just play anywhere, any time, and that was
fun and awesome. But 15 years
later you start to get really cranky after 6 weeks on the road.
Yeah, I can imagine so.
But it’s hard because it’s a privilege to go on tour, so I
want to tread lightly on complaining about not getting good sleep for a little
while. But it gets hard and then
you take a break.
So, in the last few years I have released the rights to "Ozzy" back to the band because, to be completely honest, I just didn't feel like repressing it anymore. So it has never been up on my bandcamp page, nor will you find any digital platforms hosting it under my banner, and the physical version is way out of print. So they own it and can do whatever they want with it. However, for this week only, it's up on the bandcamp page and it will be a fundraiser where 100% of the sales will go to Planned Parenthood because it's a good cause. So you can get the 7", plus the bonus track and put some money towards a good thing all at once. DO IT. We are all better for having a little Lemuria in our life.
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