By Rhiannon Emery
(Disclosure:
Does not include lions with lasers, sorry)
Warning
the following description may feature the use of artistic licence to fulfil a
certain bloggers delusions of grandeur.
Performance,
comedy act, strip show; Lionizer’s performance could be said to be all these
things at their first performance since winning second place in Spaceships December
Band of the Month competition. Winning a whopping 135 Votes this young band has
shown both high levels of musicianship and persistence in their mission to win
against many competing bands who’s followers number in the hundreds (if not
thousands). The fact that Lionizer has made such a successful stand against
much more established bands suggests that Lionizer is well on their way to
musical stardom, or, at least groupidom and eventual alcoholism. I had the
opportunity to sit down with drummer Bailey and lead singer Vez to talk about
Spaceship, music and nostalgia....
Alright this is Rhiannon
with Bailey and Vez from Lionizer. First off congratulations on getting second
place in Spaceships Band of the Month competition; I heard the competition was
pretty stiff.
Vez:
Thanks
Bailey:
Yeah that’s one way to put it. We came second place for December and we were up
against a lot of good bands, but the eventual winner was Spoonful of Sugar and
it turned into a race between us and them for first place and they managed to
out us by about nine votes-
Vez:
In the last f-ing 20 minutes! We tried really hard, but Spoonful of Sugar had a
lot of followers on facebook so I think we did pretty well.
 |
| Drummer Bailey Lion and Singer/Guitarist Vez Litten |
Bailey:
Yeah, overall we’re a bit bummed not to win it, but at the same time Spoon Full
of Sugar are a much more established band and they really deserve to be band of
the month more than Lionizer who are just fresh on the scene.
Still
second place (and the prize that goes with it) is pretty good for a band so
fresh on the scene and it looked like you had a lot of dedicated fans...
Bailey:
Yeah we really had a lot of fans come out and support us and a lot of friends
go the extra mile to promote and share us around with their mates which was
really cool to see.
Vez:
We also ended up with more votes in the competition then we had likes on
facebook so the amount of support we got was pretty incredible.
That’s
great! Ok general question number one: How did Lionizer come to be?
Bailey:
Lionizer started as an idea between Vez and I when we were playing together in
a band called We Build Pyramids. I was asked to join as WBP were winding down-
Vez:
and we were like “this isn’t the kinda of music either of us want to be
playing, lets do something separate.” So while I was in Europe Aaron would send
me song ideas and I would send back lyric ideas and by the time I got back in
January we realised we had something pretty solid early on. And Lionizer was
born!
So, I have to ask. With both of
you coming from strong punk bands why play 90’s Indie rock?
Bailey:
Well, both coming from bigger band where your really just a clog in the machine
moving to a duo you can’t hide behind other band members and so you really need
to stand out more and kinda pull your own weight. So it become pretty obvious
early that we needed to strip it (the music) back a bit in places to play
something a bit more simple and in our range to start with and as we were
experimenting with that kinda style we really liked what we were putting out
and that’s basically where it came from. At the same time a lot of our
influence is coming from bands that we both really like (such as early Jebidiah
and the Weakerthans) and enjoy, the sort of music you want to engage people
with, to inspire and get your message across.
Vez:
Yeah at the end of the day what you listen to is not necessarily what you want
to play. Really it’s more of a matter of picking and choosing what we like from
bands we admire and then making that fit our sound.
Spaceships BOM competition was
held solely online (and in particular Facebook) do you think an online presence
is more important than live gigs these days?
Bailey:
Nope.
Vez:
I think they’re both important, I think they play very different roles in the
music industry. You can have a very strong online presence and still put out a
shit live show that no one would want to go to and that doesn’t make you a good
band if you’ve got a thousand fans on facebook, but none at your shows.
Bailey:
On the local end you’re never going to a be a successful band if your just
online-
Vez:
Yeah if you don’t get people to your shows you’re never going to get paid,
never going to get a following, you’re never going to get people down to see
you play and that’s really why we both started Lionizer to begin with.
Bailey:
Especially in Perth, though you definitely need to have an online presence
because that’s the easiest way for people to check you out. I mean we didn’t
start building our online presence until we had are demo ready and songs for
people to listen. We’ve noticed that seems to be one of the biggest problems a
lot of other bands have who want to play with us or want us to listen to their
stuff. When we try and get online to listen to their music there’s no demo or
songs to let us gauge just what sort of band they are. I mean we have a couple
of tracks on Facebook for free to download, which at times can be a double
edged sword with some people preferring to stay home rather than come out to a
gig. But at the end of the day everything we do is to get people down to see us
shows and listen to our music.
Vez:
At the end of the day you really need both otherwise it’s not going to work and
you wont get your music out there.
Was there a particular reason
you chose to become a duo? Or was it more out of necessity?
Vez:
Well we’ve been friends for a while before we started playing together and yeah
we’ve had a lot of offers for other instruments (or better players for current
instruments) and we’ve turned them all down. It’s not so much necessity it’s
more about doing what we do on our own terms and we don’t feel like we need
anyone else to add to our music at this stage. As we’ve mentioned before we’ve
both come from big bands and it’s alot harder in a bigger band to organise
jams, it’s a lot harder to keep everyone happy and it’s a lot harder to organise
shows. Whereas now, Bailey and I live together so we can’t really avoid each
other and it makes jamming and organising things so much easier.
Bailey:
I think also Vez and I have a clear idea of Lionizer as a band, what it is as a
sound and the sort of possibilities we want to explore. At the moment we’re
just really in synch and we don’t really need to bring someone in to add more
to it.
Do you find it a challenge
going up against bigger bands or do you think being a smaller group has its
advantages?
Vez:
I think being versatile is really important. We were just talking the other day
about how being a twosome is pretty awesome as we can play both small and large
stages which gives as more venues to play at.
Bailey:
Being a small band also lets us tailor our sound to whatever our next gig
requires. We can be the quiet band in a loud set or the loud band in a quite
set, the smallness of our band lets us be more versatile in that regards in
comparison to other , bigger bands.
Thanks guys, any closing
comments?
Bailey:
Just come and check us out, we’re approachable, we play good music, we’re just
good fun. Come down and see us or check us out on Facebook for free, we’re very
cheap and easy. If you like music come down and check us out. Spread the word!
Check
out Lionizers facebook page for regular updates on gigs, singles and much more
Lionizer goodness. Lionizer is appearing this Wednesday
(March 13th) at the Rosemount, a good night out to be had for all.
(March 13th) at the Rosemount, a good night out to be had for all.
