Biography
The Sound Lemon is a band formed in Palmerston North, New Zealand in June 2018. Originally formed as a solo cringe-comedy project by multi-instrumentalist Oscar Severinsen, The Sound Lemon released a single called "Child Slavery" which consists of Oscar playing random notes on guitar, bass and spoken word about the slavery of children. This track was created for Severinsen's social studies class.
Shortly after the release of "Child Slavery" Severinsen's project caught the attention of Cameron Robinson, a drummer from his school. After Robinson joined the band they decided to record an entire album in one take for their next social studies project. This album would later be called "Dolphins".
After the release of "Dolphins" Robinson became complacent with this musical project and left.
Anthony Massarotto helped create the Dolphins album art with Severinsen. When Robinson had left the group, Severinsen approached Massarotto to join the group. Massarotto stated, "I would like to be the Pat Smear of The Sound Lemon".
Severinsen and Massarotto now started a new project called "You are a Pyromaniac" which later turned into the album "Period 2". The album consisted largely of long experimental tracks and cringe-comedy. Period 2 featured "Spaghetti Bolognase" which was later rereleased on the double-single "Bon Appétit" in late 2020. Severinsen and Massarotto played live for the first time after the release of Period 2 playing most of the album live infront of a small group of people on the 10th of December 2018. This performance is available on their YouTube channel.
During this period Jimi Brider and Severinsen had their first musical encounter when they were asked to play to promote their school. Brider recalls, "Oscar Severinsen could not sing."
For a brief period after the release of Period 2 Robinson rejoined the group however this was only for a short time and nothing came from it. Around this time Brider became more involved in the group by playing "Wish you Were Here" live with them, Severinsen states, "I couldn't sing and we needed a singer." Brider sat in on a 'Sound Lemon Noise Session' and started creating lyrics for what Severinsen and Massarotto were creating on Guitar and Bass. This song would later be called "Get Chunky", after this followed a tenuous cult-like ceremony where Brider permanently joined the band. Severinsen recalls, "Me and Anthony were just jamming and Jimi just stood up and started spitting fire, it was then that I realized we need him on this project." Brider stated that "I was just singing random things and I guess something stuck."
The trio decided that it was about time they had a serious practice to write and play as a band. So they all went around to Severinsen's house, this would mark the first time they had practiced. Even though they decided they were going to practice the three ended up finishing their third album "Mr. Shiitake's Demise".
Mr. Shiitake's Demise was largely improvised with only a few songs being written, Brider recalls, "It just happened."
Before the release of Mr. Shiitake's Demise Severinsen woke up with an idea of playing a 24 Hour Show however the show was shortened to a 12 Hour Show. The 12 Hour Show was performed on the 17th of August 2019 from 9am till 9pm. It was a wonderful event that the whole group loved, Lost footage from practices had the band talking about how it was going to be a concert of a lifetime.
The band used the 12 Hour Show to promote Mr. Shiitake's Demise which was released in September 2019.
Nearing towards the end of the year the band released multiple irrelevant releases, including "Jmi", "Dream House City", "Green Bunny and The Showman", and "Spooky Christmas"
At the end 2019 Severinsen bought a microphone for recording this was a monumental moment and prompted Severinsen to approach the music he was making in a more serious way. This lead to Severinsen coming to the band to talk about becoming serious and stopping their cringe-comedy, the band agreed, with Massarotto swiftly after giving a chord progression of a lifetime. Severinsen unreleased all previous releases in early 2020.
The band started writing and recording singles after this with the intention of releasing one single every week. Over this period Severinsen and Brider started forming a very keen writing relationship, which showed each of their diverse skills. With this bond they began writing most of the bands material at the time.
In January 2020 the Brider-Severinsen writing duo wrote tons of songs which would later become Sound Lemon classics, including "True Cost", "Insanity of the Creative Mind", and "Tulip Blister". Brider states, "We just have a burning passion for making music, we love it."
From these songs the band decided to start working on their "debut" album despite having released music in the past, this was part of the effort to become a "serious" band. This album was originally thought up to be called, "Stupidity of the Creative Mind" later changed to ""Insanity of the Creative Mind" but then the band scraped that idea and gave the album the working title, "October Album" because it was to be released in October.
The album was to contain singles that had been released that year however due to the COVID-19 pandemic the band could not record together to release singles every week. Also because of the lockdown and personal reasons The 12 Hour Show 2020 was cancelled. Despite this difficult period for the group the Brider-Severinsen duo continued to thrive with them writing a number of songs including, "Meloncholy". After lockdown Brider and Severinsen meet up weekly to write and refine many songs that would later end up laying the foundation for their "debut" album. During this period the band played a set at their school ball along with other shows. The Sound Lemon was promoting their 2020 album to be released in October however they still had most of the album to be recorded since September. Severinsen made a plan to take a whole week and do nothing but record the album, the band agreed however Massarotto was absent. The album titled "The Sound Lemon" would be released on the 9th of October 2020. The album was a success gaining 6,000 streams in the first month. After the release of the album the band relaxed for a while. Towards the end of 2020 Severinsen and Brider were planning to release at least two albums in 2021 with the first one being released in April. However with their increased skill with writing music Severinsen and Brider finished writing the music needed for one album in marely a number of days. This prompted the band to release the album in Janurary. The album is called "The Mystic Ship".
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