Steve Interviews Lyon Tide

Lyon Tide are a 3 piece from Birmingham formed in art class and comprise Daz (Voice & Guitar), Jack (Words & Keyboard) and Gizmo (Bass & Drums). To date they have released 2 albums and are about to release their 2^nd single, Clinging to Satellites, taken from their forthcoming 3^rd album.

1, Hello Lyon Tide, tell us about your sound. How would you describe it to someone who has never had the pleasure of hearing a Lyon Tide song?

Hmm, we’re starting off with probably the most difficult question here. We are such an eclectic threesome, we all come from differently similar tastes in music and therefore we bring that to each song. Daz is into 80s electronica, Jack; 90s and noughties Britpop and Gizmo is all about heavy rock and metal. So, put all those together and you get our overall sound. Obviously some styles are more prominent than others in different songs. That said, if you like synth-pop-rock then that’s probably the most accurate Lyon Tide description, at least from our perspective.

2, Is the songwriting shared between you all or is that responsibility down to one of you? 

It’s mostly Daz that does the overall melodies and production based off a fit to Jack’s lyrics and then Gizmo adds his wild electric guitars and drum talents. So it’s how you might say, all for one and one for all.

3, How does your songwriting process start? Lyrics or music? Which do you prefer working on?

Lyrics. Always. Jack comes up with some lyrics with a specific mood for a song in mind then Daz will fit them to a melody, usually completely changes the mood in the sense that an intended deep depressing lyric will end up as a lively banger, take ‘Life Pop Bang’ as a prime example. On rare occasions, the mood bleeds through the words into the music… and we get tracks like Alone.

4, Your last single You are My Movie is such a gorgeous song with really wonderful lyrics and a wonderful The Cure like bassline. Is it written about someone in particular and do they know?

Thanks! Yes, it was written specifically for someone who has a very special place in one of our lives. The song was presented via a bouquet of flowers and a QR code as a surprise for Valentine’s day, so the person in question definitely knows.

5, Tell us about the new single Clinging to Satellites. What is it about?

This may be subjectively debatable but we feel that this is our best track yet in terms of structure, melody and lyrical meaning. Jack loves to play on metaphors in his words and this track does just that. Basically, we all have satellites around us and we are all satellites to others, loved ones that depend on us and we depend on them, we co-exist with one another and possibly wouldn’t be able to function without the other, the same way the earth and moon depend on each other in natural symbiosis.

Clinging to Satellites is what we consider to be a cinematic pop/rock love ballad. 

6, Who are your musical influences? Either directly or indirectly. Do you have a favourite era musically?

As mentioned above in the first question, each one of us has very different musical influences. Apart from experimental artists like BT, Daz has a weirdly deep obsession for John Lennon, Abba, Erasure and Jon Bonjovi. Jack is more into his infinite collection of indie Brit pop; Keane, Kodaline, James, Snow Patrol, Placebo, Embrace, The Verve, Morrissey… three hours later. Gizmo is a straight up metal guy, from Iron Maiden to Metallica. However, we are sure that to the discerning ear, it’s possible to hear all of these influences combined in most of our songs.

7, If you could collaborate with any artist past or present, who and why?

Well, if you ask Daz, he would undoubtedly say John Lennon and Paul McCartney for their overall songwriting abilities. Jack would say Morrisey for the iconic lyric writing and for Gizmo it would be Steve Harris (the bassist from Iron Maiden) because, you know, Metal! 

8, Looking at your website, I can see you are incredibly creative. Are videos and art important to the band? Who comes up with the ideas?

Oh yeah, first and foremost we are creatives and that’s probably where the music comes from. In answer to your question, yes, videos, writing and art are a quintessential part of everything we do. As you know, we all met at art Art college and each became professional designers in various fields; Daz specialises in web design and video. Jack in screenwriting, video direction and interface design. Gizmo is an all round designer, basically good at everything. However, in Lyon Tide’s case, it is usually Jack that designs all the cover artwork and comes up with the video concepts. 

9,  Seeing as you all met at Art School, presumably you are all Art fans. Who are your favourite artists?

For Jack it is Jean Miro, no questions asked. He went to the Miro museum in Barcelona a few years back and got hypnotised for at least half an hour by a six foot long pencil squiggle. For the rest of us, we don’t have a favourite artist as such, we just like stuff that gives you that strange inner emotion of being unable to take in how good it actually is.  

10, Obviously Alone is your favourite song written so far (well, it’s mine!), but what is your second favourite song of yours?

Alone is definitely a favourite, maybe not ‘the’ favourite. It’s difficult to say which is our favourite, I think we like all of them at different levels of intensity. If we didn’t like them, we would probably just give up as musicians. At the moment, Clinging to Satellites is our favourite with Alone, Vibration, Life Pop Bang, Welcome To The Other Side and Gold being very close behind. It is our intention to release a ‘Best of…’ album in about three album’s time so we’ll see, then, which are our real favourites. It will probably be a double album.

11, What are the Lyon Tide members go to Karaoke Songs?

For both Daz and Jack it’s got to be ‘A Little Respect’ by Erasure. Gizmo is way too cool for Karaoke.

12, How do you feel about Social Media for Music Promotion? Is it a help or hindrance to you?

Hmm, good question, this. Definitely a help to a certain extent but also feels like work. It’s mostly Jack that deals with all that. We find ourselves on Twitter the most as there is an excellent community of musical artists, podcasters, DJs and all round music lovers who genuinely support and interact with emerging indie artists and we are very grateful to be a part of that. The real problem on most other social media platforms is that everything requires dumping large amounts of cash if you want to get really noticed and even then, nothing is guaranteed plus in the indie music business, the spend never justifies the return. Also, we get frustrated with outlets like Spotify that offer tools to help new music get heard but it is constrained to artists who already have large followings which seems very contradictory. We feel it is bands with small followings that need these tools to amplify their voice in the world and get more recognition, not the artists with large budget labels behind them.

13, Who are your favourite artists in the new music scene?

Through Twitter and the aforementioned community, we have discovered some really talented people. Of course, Lines of Flight, we love their lo-fi electro stuff to the point of doing a collab track with them earlier last year, ‘Held In Our Hands’ – found on the Life Pop Bang album. Then there’s Punchlove and The Maias. Two excellent bands that are sure to make it to the big leagues.

14, When can we expect the 3^rd album? Are there any other plans for Lyon Tide in 2023? Gigs maybe?

The third album, ‘Asides’, as in theatrical narration to the spectators, will probably be out around the middle of September or early October based on our label’s judgement. No gigs, Daz doesn’t perform in public (facepalm emoji). Maybe one day we’ll get him to do a one off. Other plans for 2023, hmm… sleep, wine and hols… oh, we do have another collaboration with Julia Faulks that will probably be released towards the end of the year and maybe even a Christmas song. Who knows?