Lemon Drink | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: I love it. I've been looking forward to this. The band is Lemon Drink and the track is Patsy Kensett and we are going to speak with Lemon Drink in just a moment. Welcome everybody. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of WMNH ninety five point three FM and glorious but very very very cold Manchester, New Hampshire on this Saturday morning, the last day of January, January thirty one, twenty twenty six. Welcome. Of course, we are live from the studios of wm and H ninety five point three FM, and you can stream the show from anywhere, go to Matt connorton dot com slash Live.

0:34 Speaker 1: We've got a great show ahead for you. We've got a couple of world radio premieres coming up in just a little bit, but right now we're gonna open the show with our conversation with Lemon Drink. I've become a big fan in a short time because I really really love their sound and I think via Microsoft teams, I think we've got the whole band here. Let's see who is who is with us? Do we have so far? Christy, Lauren and Paul. Is everybody here, Hi, Hey, welcome to the show. Everybody welcome, and you are in Glasgow?

1:11 Speaker 1: Is that correct? Very very good? Is it now? What's the weather like there? Here? It is bitterly cold. Does it get cold there?

1:22 Speaker 2: Yeah?

1:23 Speaker 3: I don't know if it's colder than the Manchester Napster, but it's pretty pretty cold.

1:29 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, oh really, Uh yeah, it's it's just been it's been absolutely brutal here. But but I love that track Patsy Kensitt and uh. At the end of our conversation too, we're gonna play We're gonna play the earlier single, that Demon Child song that I love a lot. And there's another song too that I'll probably play later in the show that I really like, A Drink for You. I listened to that one too and just love it. So everything that I've listened to I've really really enjoyed. But this is coming out, So the single is out Friday the thirteenth, Is that correct, that's right?

2:00 Speaker 2: Valentine's Day?

2:01 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, excellent. Can you tell us about that song because I feel like this kind of a humorous theme there with the lyrics. Tell us about Patsy Kensitt and also too and I'm curious why why you chose this for a single. It's a great track, but I'd like to know the relevance of it in your world.

2:21 Speaker 3: Sure, So, yeah, it was one of the first songs that me, Sophie and Kirsty Casey interchangeable use of.

2:32 Speaker 2: Names and I wrote.

2:34 Speaker 3: Actually so we wrote it years and years and years ago, and we started with the bridge, which is if anyone's ever written a song knows that that's a really odd place to start.

2:46 Speaker 2: With the songs. But we used to.

2:50 Speaker 3: So my mom had been seeing this guy and he was just like comedy gold on Twitter. He was just he was the worst in real life.

2:57 Speaker 4: So we just do We didn't so, I mean, Christie used to go on his Twitter formally known as Twitter, Yeah, and just like laugh at his tweets because they were so unself.

3:09 Speaker 2: Aware and hilarious. But one of the I do is he used.

3:13 Speaker 3: To just randomly retweet selfies of Patsy Kensit without any context. Really yeah, very odd behavior. And he did lots of other very funny stuff on Twitter. But that's where the lyric.

3:24 Speaker 2: About Patsy Kensick came from.

3:27 Speaker 3: Because yeah, we just it was like every fourth or fifth tweet was just like a retweet of a selfie that Patsy Kenson had tweeted, which was odd. But yeah, so we'd written the bridge years ago. It took a long time to then try and get into what the song would actually be about, because just written a song about him felt it was just very niche and too specific. But once we kind of hit onto the theme of just people, but mainly men who are you know, big egos just like to take up the full room with their own self importance.

4:02 Speaker 3: And when someone you know starts dating a person like that, it means that they unfortunately have to be you have to then also spend them on by not through choice. So it's that's the kind of wider theme of the song. And once we kind of got into that more relatability. So when because we wrote this long before Paul and Lauren joined the band in our previous drummer Harry as well, and I think once we brought that theme to the rest of the band, it came about quite quickly because everyone knows someone like that.

4:32 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, everyone unfortunate experience at least once in their life of being around a person like that. So after that it came together quite quite quickly. So and yeah, and that's also why it's called Patsy Kensit just because over here in the UK she is a bit of an icon. So and that because obviously was the catalyst of the whole song. That and you know, we did take the songs a bit teeky and playful, so it just felt absolutely natural that should be the name of the song as well, even know it was technically nothing to do with or about Patsy, not about Patsy Kenzy.

5:04 Speaker 1: Sure sure, yeah, I mean, and there's other examples of that in music, like you know, Rosa Parks by Outcast has nothing nothing to do with Rosa Parks for example. But but so I have to know though, so the person who inspired the song, or at least the you know what what the song initially was, are they still in your life in any way?

5:29 Speaker 3: No, no good. That's why I think as well, it became the right moment to do it. Obviously, if I think until they very thankfully broke up, I think it just like would be a.

5:41 Speaker 2: Bit too close to home. But luckily, you know, they're long long, long gone. So yeah, I'm sure that she knew so that she.

5:48 Speaker 3: Was okay without doing it.

5:51 Speaker 1: Well, she she probably uh, she probably gets a kick out of it, right, Yes.

5:56 Speaker 2: She really enjoyed hearing it for the first time.

5:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's really cool. That's really cool. So I mean this this sound of yours, I mean it's sort of, you know, kind of dreamy. You probably hear that word a lot, you know, kind of that that sort of dream distorted type of sound. And it seems to be the other songs I think have kind of a similar vibe. I mean, but the band has been around for a while, right, and I'm curious if if the if your approach to this has kind of changed over the years. It sounds like the lineup has been pretty stable, right, You've had you did have a different You said you had a different drummer at one point.

6:34 Speaker 5: Yeah, we h.

6:37 Speaker 2: Oh need to learn.

6:39 Speaker 5: Yeah, we had the same drummer for a really long time. I think you guys parted out with him, didn't you, Sophie and Percy before I joined, and he left recently to be a dad. He's such a good dad. He's got a little boy, so understandably he's dedicating his time to that. Then we had a couple of successive drummers, briefly, but we've we settled on someone that we think is the right fit now, which is nice because it means we've got that stability to get cracking again. But yeah, that Paul is a relative, well the public to the public that we're ending.

7:26 Speaker 5: But yeah, that's been a pretty seamless kind of transition adding pauland because he's really good at what he does, and I think has just really enhanced everything that we do, the older songs, new songs that we're writing. Yeah, I think that's really helped us kind of I don't know, just kind of easily find a sound that feels natural to us. And we're kind of finding that we're writing things that we think, oh actually, yeah that kind of line up with that that we've written all this and it's we can feel a progression in ourselves, which is nice.

8:06 Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, yeah, no, that's excellent. And then what's kind of the live situation there? Are are you doing a lot of shows? Are you touring at all? What's what's going on with that? Because I bet these songs sound really good live, I would imagine, Yeah, I.

8:21 Speaker 2: Mean we like to think that they do.

8:23 Speaker 3: I think, yeah, I think just because of all the the drummer changes and kind of getting everyone up speed like. Unfortunately we've not been able to play live shows for a little while, but that's us now, full five key stable line up and ready to hit the ground. So we've got a headline show to launch a single on the twentieth of March at a really great venue in Glasgow called mccool's, really old established venue, independent important especially for the Scottish and British.

8:54 Speaker 2: Independent venues are really important support.

8:57 Speaker 3: And then after that, yeah, the whole is tours, know more more gigging. We just were ready to kind of yeah, as you say, let people hear them live because I think we do have this fun, raw, energetic quality that you know, you just hearing them live, you know, you get that better than anything.

9:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I can imagine absolutely. And then now is this is the single part of an upcoming EP or what's what's the situation there? There's so many different ways to release music now and so many different strategies, But do you have an EP coming up that this is going to be on?

9:32 Speaker 3: This one is a standalone So we're launching Patsy. So Patsy, I think made sense to do as a standalone single because this it definitely hints at the music that's to come. I think the sound if you look kind of our original stuff and then this, it does feel like a more mature, elevated kind of sound than what where we've come from, and definitely hints at what's to come. But the sort of that sort of like vintagey, nostalgic kind of sound probably sits alone with Patsy, but that dreamy, sassy qualities definitely.

10:06 Speaker 3: You can definitely hear that in the other songs to come. So loads of songs kind of ready to go, but Patsy just forms part of her own own kind of special universe.

10:16 Speaker 1: Okay, interesting, and I was reading too. Is this correct? So that you recorded that with Andy Monahana from Santa's Name, correctly, that's correct, but only the single, right, the previous singles you did not record with him, correct?

10:31 Speaker 3: He mixed Demon Child, so the Child we recorded, Yeah, so we recorded that at the Chunky studios, so he didn't engineer and record that with them, but he did mix it for us. So that final sound, the final kind of recording of Demon Child, we worked for Andy on. So that's why we knew we really wanted to do a song from start.

10:49 Speaker 2: To finish with him.

10:50 Speaker 3: Oh, actually, Patsy, because he is he is great what he does, he's fantastic, and he's just he's a really good guy. And you know, we're big fans of Frighten Rabbit as well, of course, So yeah, it was a real dream working with him.

11:03 Speaker 2: So it was great.

11:05 Speaker 1: So as far as the EP, is your plan to work with him on that as well, or are you gonna or is that gonna be a different direction or do you know yet? I don't know if you've started working on it yet, but we don't know yet.

11:17 Speaker 2: I think that's the thing. We've got.

11:18 Speaker 3: All of the songs are kind of still at the demo stages and then all of that still to be worked out. But yeah, plans are a fit, which is exciting.

11:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I mean he definitely captured something here, so that's great. Although I have to tell you that song I really love is it a drink for you or a song for you? Oh? A song a song for you? I really like that one a lot too. I'm gonna try to sneak that one in later as well. Yeah, really really good. Yeah, and I think too, so the debut EP Better Run. When did that come out? Was that four years ago?

11:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, that was twenty twenty.

11:57 Speaker 3: Unfortunately it came out I think four day before the UK locknown Sorry.

12:04 Speaker 2: Time of life not great? Yeah, I think.

12:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, we played our EP launch show on the Saturday, so it came out the Friday, watched on the Saturday, and then Lockdown UK and I think started on the Wednesday, so I think there was also like we held a super spreader event.

12:24 Speaker 5: Oh no, yeah, it was nice to go out with a bit of a bang though.

12:29 Speaker 1: Yeah. This is this has been such a consistent thing that comes up on the show over the past several years. Is so many artists who you know, either just released something or they were about to go on a big tour or something right before everything just went to hell.

12:48 Speaker 5: It's nice to see that people are still kind of trying to come back though, Yeah, which is you know, tenacity is the key I think with these things, and it's really great to see that people still, you know, tried to keep making music and yeah, yeah, derail them.

13:08 Speaker 1: Well, I've always said I always say too, you know when the subject comes up. The pandemic was awful, obviously, but we have to find these silver linings where we can. And I think one of the one of those few silver linings is a lot of musicians found new ways to kind of be creative and and find ways to or find ways to collaborate with others online, you know, from a distance. The technology to do that was all already there, but not everyone necessarily was embracing it. And I think people were forced to embrace it in ways that they hadn't before.

13:37 Speaker 1: So so that's that's a good thing. And and so a lot of people, you know, it couldn't really tour, but you could still make music and and uh and a lot of a lot of great, great stuff came out musically from that. So but yeah, so so what ended up happening? So so right before so you played that show and then everything shuts down. But from what I was reading online, I mean, you still had some success with the EP right in terms of placement and airplay and so forth.

14:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was really well received, and I just the unfortunate thing is not being able to obviously what you want. As event, we were on a really good you know, grassroots you know, getting somewhere it felt really good, and then obviously what you want when you release an EPs to then launch that into tours and playing lots of shows and getting really good support slots, and just unfortunately that none of that could happen. So it was as music. It was well received, but we couldn't really capitalize on it, And because it was our DBP, it was tricky because it just meant there was so little to like work with.

14:43 Speaker 3: Did a follow up single, Demon Child, and that's why we ended up doing this as a standalone again, just try and keep some sort of momentum going. And I think that did even better than the EP, because by that point it was twenty twenty one, okay, but still in Scotland and the UK again, gigs weren't still really happening.

15:02 Speaker 2: It was still very much kind of pandemic y vibes. So again that did really well and.

15:07 Speaker 3: Was welle received, but we just haven't been able to, you know, off the back of those, we just weren't able to do that the dream scenario of getting tours and booking shows.

15:15 Speaker 2: And getting that kind of more you know, the real world. That's why you do it.

15:20 Speaker 3: You like putting up music, but you put music so that you can actually play in front of people.

15:24 Speaker 1: Right, exactly, exactly. Yeah, So it must be wonderful to really be in a position now where you know you continue to have all this, you know, you clearly have a lot of momentum here and to be able to finally really do everything and you know, try to fulfill the full potential for the band in terms of I mean, like I said, it sounds great, but to be able to get out there and play and do all the things you know, obviously, I'm sure you want to do a lot to support the single Patsy Kensitt, which is great and I do love it even more now that I know the story behind it, because because what you said is true, we all know people like that, So I think it's highly relatable.

16:01 Speaker 5: Everyone that listens to has somebody that they picture in.

16:04 Speaker 1: Them absolutely absolutely one. I have eleven or twelve that I can think of. But but Americans are We're a bit narcissistic over here. So well, so where should people? Oh? Actually, before I ask you that question too, I forgot to ask you one of the obvious questions Lemon drink? Where does the name come from?

16:32 Speaker 2: See?

16:32 Speaker 3: I really think you know it's funny we get obvious question, but we've yet to come up with a more interesting story.

16:41 Speaker 2: I don't know, Chirsty, you tell it.

16:44 Speaker 6: I mean, it's it's not a fantastic story. But me and Sophie were just out one night bar in Glasgow getting some amortosuers and they were perhaps the worst amorts we've ever had. It was just they just squeezed some lemon and some memory into a glass. I was like, this is just a lemon drink. And then that's that was it, And like, great name for band, and here we are.

17:11 Speaker 3: Like but also I think at that point it was like to the morning we're probably it maybe felt better, but the next day it's still stuck.

17:19 Speaker 2: So yeah, later is stuck.

17:22 Speaker 1: So yeah, that's not that's not such a dull story. I like it. That's a great name and uh and and here you are going strong with it, So that's that's wonderful. So in a moment, we're going to I'll let you all go, and we're gonna play that track Demon Child, and I'm also gonna I'm also gonna sneak in a song for you because I love that one too. Uh. That's that's such a good song. I really really like that a lot. But where should people go online to keep up with everything that Lemon Drink is doing. Where should people go?

17:50 Speaker 2: All the usual places.

17:51 Speaker 3: We're on all the socials, so yeah, Instagram, Lemon.

17:56 Speaker 6: Drink Band on Most.

17:58 Speaker 1: Okay, Lemon Drink Band.

17:59 Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, and Spotify as well. Obviously get ready to stream stream our new her new single Patsy Kensit, so.

18:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and yet we'll remind people that comes out February thirteenth. Any chance of a video for that.

18:17 Speaker 3: Yes, we're actually shitting it next week and we've got fun a fun concept that, So keep an eye on our socials for us releasing bits.

18:25 Speaker 2: Oh from that too.

18:26 Speaker 1: Oh fantastic, can't wait to see that. That is wonderful. Well listen, Okay, so thank you all of course, Sophie, Casey, Lauren and Paul, thank you all so much for joining us this morning. We're gonna let you go. I'm gonna hit that track Demon Child, and I am going to play a song for you as well. But we will definitely do this again in the future as you're releasing new music. We'd love to have you back on. Like I said, I became a fast fan. I really like your sound and you know, and I like the dose of humor in this track too, or the track that we played earlier, Patsy kensit.

18:53 Speaker 1: But and I wish you much success and we'll talk again soon, I'm sure. Lemon drink. Thank you all so much, Thanks, thank you. Oh you got it all. Bye bye, take care