Lemuria

Saturday August 28th

New Brookland Tavern

with New Found Glory and The Wonder Years

Lemuria-Dog

It wasn’t long ago that we saw Lemuria in a packed out record store in Charlotte and now you are signed to Bridge 9 and on tour with New Found Glory. You’ve been around for a long time with a dedicated following, but now does it feel like a roller coaster has started?

– It’s hard to say if a roller coaster has started or not, but we’re definitely just as excited as we have always been to be playing music and touring. Every tour we go on gets better and better, and we really couldn’t ask for anything more.

It was kind of exciting and surprising to see Lemuria sign to Bridge 9 records, how did that come about?

– Chad from New Found Glory had told me that they were really stoked on our band and had been listening to us a lot over at the the B9 HQ and I sent them an email saying that we were going to be recording an album and they said that they’d love to release it. We were very excited, it was the only label that we courted for the release, they were our #1 choice.

What are the plans for the new record and when can fans expect to hear some new tunes?

– We are already playing a handful of the songs from the new album live. But we’re going to be doing a 3 week east coast tour in January. That will be our first tour on the album, which is released in mid-November. We’ll be playing a good amount of the new album on those shows.

I read in one of your other interviews that you call your van Gary Gashands. How is he holding up and how has tour been so far? This summer heat has been brutal.

– We just spent about 500 bucks on Gary yesterday actually…but it wasn’t his fault…it was brake pads and a bunch of other replacements because of rust. We neglected to give him regular washes to remove the salt from the northern roads. At the moment he’s about 130,000 miles old and we hope we get a few more tours out of him before saying our final goodbye.

It seems like everyone in Lemuria has a life and a lot going on outside of the band. Tell us a little about that.

– Sheena works at a restaurant, my favorite restaurant, Amy’s Place in Buffalo. She also goes to college for baking and pastry arts. Max is constantly on tour with bands working as their sound guy, or tour manager. He’s also one of the main coordinators of Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX. I run a record label and distro called Art of the Underground.

Our website (Scene SC) works to promote up and coming talent throughout South Carolina and the South East. What are some of the best parts about the Buffalo music scene?

– Buffalo has an excellent scene. Shows are usually pretty great, especially since a lot of bands make it over the border, we get a lot of people from Ontario coming down to our shows as well. We have a place called Sugar City, which is a collectively run all ages art space which is great for a lot of bands to play. Buffalo is also one of the cheapest cities in the country to live in, so it’s a great place for artists to be stationed, especially if they tour a lot.

What advice do you have for kids that are just starting bands, or have bands that are starting to get some attention?

– Tour a lot. Don’t expect anything, just have fun with it. Most bands have very slow starts, and don’t let poorly attended shows discourage you. Focus on writing songs that you’re very proud of and that mean something to you. Quality over quantity of course.