Lemuria is a special band. Collecting the warmth of a packed basement show into fuzzy 90s indie rock inflected pop punk these Buffalo, NY natives have carved a special niche for themselves in the notoriously fickle world of punk and hardcore. With their recent signing to Bridge 9 and the impending release of their sophomore album Pebble Patrick McEachnie sat down with the band to discuss the why they feel at home with Bridge 9, vinyl collecting, recording Pebble with J. Robbins, and the finer points of Risk strategy.
Alex – Drums/vocals
Sheena – Vocals/guitar
Max – Bass
Corey – Merch guy
Patrick McEachnie: Last fall, Alex released a solo demo, with two of those songs eventually making it onto a 7” for the Art Of The Underground single series. Is there a way you decide what material you write becomes either a solo song, as opposed to a Lemuria song?
Alex: Well that whole demo was written when Sheena was living in Queens for a while, and I was just like “well I’m just going to record some songs!” The songs I write in Lemuria are far more of a group effort, that demo was just something I did all by myself. Queens is about seven hours away from Buffalo, so it was just sort of the right time for it. I’ll probably make more songs eventually.
PM:Any plans to release them?
Alex: Well I know I’m doing a split 7” with Mikey Erg, and that’ll be out on Asain Man Records.
PM: You just got me very excited. So Lemuria recently signed to Bridge 9 Records, and you essential became one of the few currently active pop-punk bands widely embraced by the hardcore scene. How does that feel?
Alex: I like it!
Sheena: Natural, for some reason. No matter what, Alex and I have always been into hardcore. We’ve both played in hardcore bands, and I think that it doesn’t seem that strange to us because really, we don’t only listen to pop-punk. A lot of the music we listen to at this point is really a lot of everything. It’s exciting though, don’t get me wrong! We’ve had nothing but awesome support from a lot of things B9 related, and I’m pretty pumped about them being related in our band one way or another.
PM: They’ve kind of been on a roll lately. I mean Strike Anywhere and Polar Bear Club (B9’s two most recent signings prior to Lemuria) aren’t really so much like the bulk of what they’ve put out.
Alex: I think Polar Bear Club and Strike Anywhere signing to B9 was sort of the bridge that enabled them to put something like us out. It’s kind of a progression.
Sheena: When we had our first real meeting with the label, Chris, the owner, told us that his first priority was putting out records by bands that he likes. His personal tastes are always developing and changing, and to be able to combine what he likes and what he puts out is exactly what he wants to do.
Alex: I mean he still likes hardcore stuff. And he still puts out hardcore stuff!
Sheena: He just wants to put out stuff.
PM: Which is a ballsy move, because B9 has a seriously dedicated following. It’s almost as if it’s an epicenter of the hardcore culture at this point. It’s a lot of pressure to have.
Alex: Yeah, for sure.
PM: So what can we expect from your B9 debut?
Alex: Well it’s not that far from our first album, Get Better. I think it’s a little darker, maybe a little heavier. Not in a hardcore way, though!
PM: Succumbing to the B9 influence!
Sheena: Yeah, we’ve got some breakdowns!
Alex: Really though, we recorded with J. Robbins and he brought out more of what we sound like live into the recording.
Sheena: Definitely. This record sounds a lot like what we sound like live. More energetic, maybe?
PM: So was it tracked off the floor, or done individually?
Alex: We recorded it all together, except for vocals. Sheena laid down two guitar tracks, too.
Sheena: The vocals took almost a week and a half! We got most of the drums and bass done in the first three
days. Most of the time after that was spent doing vocals.
Alex: Well, mixing was the main part. J. Robbins spends a lot more time mixing bands than most people do. J. told us he wanted to do five days of mixing, and we had mixed Get Better in two or three hours! He spends at least five hours per song, he just thinks about every possible thing.
Sheena: He goes into this weird little station. He doesn’t mind if you’re there, but he’s like, “let me just do my thing!” Then he shows you when he’s done!
Alex: He’d put us in the other room, and maybe every hour he call us in to ask what we think.
Sheena: He has such an interesting ear, too. I swear he hears things that no one else could have ever heard. If he heard something, or he had an idea, he was really good at communicating with us about it. It was really exciting to have someone that I feel really wanted to help us. He’s able to express his ideas without telling us what to do.
PM: So were you on that recording as well, Max?
Max: I was not, no. I came into the band during the mixing process of that recording. The last bass player had immigration issues, and the band had a show coming up in New Jersey, so I flew up from Texas a few days before and started practicing in the studio. Then we played the show. That’s where I came in.
PM: So now you’re a permanent member? Or is it just until the immigration issues are cleared?
Max: I’m a permanent member now.
Alex: Yeah, our old bass player is a Canadian citizen, and he was living and working in the US illegally. Eventually the boarder found out, and now it doesn’t happen anymore! We were really lucky to have Max though, we’ve known him since basically the first tour we ever did, so he’s always been there for us. He was actually on tour with us all summer long helping us out anyways.
PM: So I guess that’s the story behind the lineup and photo change on your Myspace profile a couple weeks ago.
Alex: Yeah, as a band we’ve always been unlucky with bass players. But I think we’ve finally secured it with Max.
Max: Hopefully I don’t succumb to the curse of Lemuria bass players!
Sheena: I mean ultimately, we started Lemuria with the first bass player Adam, who was only with us for maybe 6 months. Then we had a bassist who played with us for about five years. Then Kyle, the Canadian, and now Max!
Alex: Well no one really knows about our first bass player, Jason. He was before Adam, only playing on our demo. He played maybe three shows before moving to Seattle.
Sheena: It’s just really always been Alex and I, and we realize that we’ve been the song writers for this record so we wanted that to be apart of the album artwork and such. Kerns and I started Lemuria, and so we kind of wanted to just keep it with pictures of us for the Myspace profile until we could find a steady bass player. 
PM: So talking about the new record, can I have a test pressing?
Alex: No! I don’t even know if we’re getting test presses! I don’t even have a test press for Get Better. I should ask them…
Sheena: I don’t even own Get Better!
Max: I think if you guys get test pressings, I’m like fifth or sixth in line. So maybe you can be seventh?
PM: Buffalo is not necessarily known for its music scene, given the chance to start over, would you relocate?
Sheena: Goo Goo Dolls! Every Time I Die! Where have you been!? (Editor’s Note: Patrick is from Canada, he did not mean to besmirch the good name of Buffalo’s music scene.)
Max: Buffalo totally impacted me when I was 16.
Alex: Rick James!
Max: Rick James, really?
PM: Well what I mean by that is mostly that it’s distinctly not New York, Seattle, Portland, Gainesville, LA, or New Brunswick.
Alex: Alright. But I don’t think I’d move from Buffalo. I like it there, it’s cheap. And if we lived in a bigger city we wouldn’t be able to tour as often as we do, since it’s more expensive to live there. Living in Buffalo is cheap enough that we can go on tour and still afford to pay our rent. If we lived in NYC our rent would be 10 times as much. It has all the things you’d need in any city, just not 100 options.
Sheena: You’re totally a Buffalo lifer. You own two homes in Buffalo.
Alex: That’s true, I do. It’s super cheap to buy houses in Buffalo!
Corey: I’ve always been kind of happy about your dedication to your hometown. I appreciate it for some reason.
PM: Do you guys have any early calls for record of the year?
Alex: I haven’t heard the Superchunk record yet, but it’ll probably be the best. I know it came out, and everything else they’ve done would have been the best of those respective years. I’ve only heard great things about it.
Sheena: I’d probably agree with that. I mean, I also haven’t heard it! But I’ve only heard good things about it, and Superchunk does not let down.
Alex: Did the Cheap Girls record come out this year? My Roaring 20’s?
PM: That was 2009. What about you, Max?
Max: Hmm, nothing.
PM: Absolutely no good music has been released in 2010?
Max: Well, no. Was Tigers Jaw 2010? Either way, that’s a great record. Definitely best of 2010.
PM: How do you handle the fact that people pay a boatload of money for some of your more rare records?
Alex: Well it’s weird. At first I feel bad, because people spent so much money when it originally only cost this much. But then again, the other way to think of it is that if someone is spending that much money on it, it’s probably in the best of hands. If someone cares that much about it, then I’m glad they have it.
Max: How much are people buying those records for?
Sheena: You’re so out of the loop, Max!
PM: Well the split 7” with The Ergs! had a record release show version, you’d pay about $50 for that, if you can find it.
Corey: I sold that thing for $10! I also sold Team Chocolate, what’s that going for these days?
Sheena: I think Kerns probably still has a package of like 250 of those things left.
Alex: I have like 10!
Corey: Is there a fandom for Team Chocolate?
PM: I can look into it!
Sheena: Don’t.
Alex: You can buy that record for $4. www.artoftheunderground.com
PM: Lemuria did a split with Off With Their Heads last year for the Vinyl Collective “Under The Influence” series. You covered The Pixies. Was that a hard choice to make, or an obvious one?
Alex: We argued in my bedroom for at least two and a half hours.
Sheena: It was so hard, because we all have these little rules as to what we can cover. It was supposed to be under the influence; the whole message behind the series was that this band was influential on you. Jay was in the band at that time, and we all have such different tastes with what our own personal influences were.
Alex: At a point we’d find bands that we all liked, but then we’d be like, “yeah, but that band didn’t really influence us!”
PM: So how did you decide on The Pixies?
Alex: They’re a band we all liked before Lemuria was even a thing. It just sort of made sense.
Max: What were the other contenders?
Sheena: The Lemonheads. We were going to do that All song.
Alex: Yeah, Sheena and I wanted to do an All song, but Jay didn’t want to. Jay and I wanted to do They Might Be Giants. They’re one of my biggest influences.
Sheena: But I’ve never listened to them! The thing is that it has to be influential to us all. It was a pretty intense decision. Probably one of the hardest things we had to do as a band, for some reason.
PM: And there’s another example of a record that people pay a lot of money for. There was a limited pressing of that one that probably goes for around $30. Between Off With Their Heads collectors, Lemuria collectors, or even just collectors of that series, somewhere it becomes something that people are willing to pay money for.
If we were to have a game of Risk in this van right now, who would win?
Alex: I just played two games of Risk last week!
Max: Alex destroyed me.
Sheena: Alex would win, for sure. He wins all the time.
PM: So Alex, I hear you’re pretty good. What’s your strategy?
Alex: You always take over Australia because you get two extra points each round, and it only has one boarder. It’s the easiest continent to hold, and you don’t look like a threat until everyone else kills each other. You just relax and do your thing. You build up your one boarder, and let everyone else weaken themselves. Then you change in your cards, get a bunch of armies, and then you take over!
Corey: I had all of Asia; I had no other contenders!
Alex: I took over Corey, who had a stronghold on Asia, using only Australia!
Corey: He had maybe nine people in the UK, and then the next thing you know he’s just surrounded you. He’s like a sleeping tiger. It’s amazing.
PM: I like going for North America, personally.
Corey: Really!?
PM: Well yeah, it’s more territory than Australia, with three boarders. But you also get five pieces every turn.
Alex: Yeah, but the ratio is still better for Australia, 5 pieces for 3 boarders, or 2 pieces for 1 boarder.
Corey: I have this vendetta. I started with Ontario and Quebec, and someone took them from me! So a part
of my game was trying to take back Ontario, which did happen, but I couldn’t get Quebec. So I couldn’t secure the continent at all, and I eventually fell.
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I think I could give Alex a run for his money in a game of Risk.
Comment by Patrick McEachnie — 20/09/2010 #
Should have challenged him for that test pressing sir. Totally shat the bed.
Comment by John-Michael — 20/09/2010 #
Definitely saw these guys last month, they opened up for New Found Glory at their sideshow at the Stone Pony. I’d imagine that was probably the show where Max stepped in.
Also loved seeing New Brunswick listed as a city famous for its scene. Great write up man!
Comment by Brett Praskach — 20/09/2010 #
Have Sheena and Alex been dating since they started the band? Kinda ruins some of the lyrics for me…
Comment by Some dude — 22/09/2010 #
As far as I know, Alex and Sheena aren’t dating.
Comment by Patrick McEachnie — 22/09/2010 #
Why would that ruin the lyrics for you? Also why is it always the assumption that men and women can’t be in a band together without getting it on?
Comment by John-Michael — 23/09/2010 #