Today, Thursday, January 18th – We are proud to present our second Artist Of The Day: Memphis based indie rock band -Lemon’s

We are not exactly sure how we stumbled upon Lemon’s ( probably one of our world famous late night music discoveries) , nevertheless we are so excited that we found them .

Lemon’s have a unique fresh sound that is certainly welcomed in today’s otherwise musical landscape.

The Whole Kameese : Thank you all for taking a moment to chat with us here at The Whole Kameese

The Whole Kameese: let’s get started, Could you introduce yourself and tell us your role in the band?

Ben Spiegelman:Hello, my name is Ben Spiegelman. My role for Lemon’s includes playing guitar, singing, and driving. I joined Lemon’s about 9 months ago, and am honored to be in this band.

Susie Hydrick:Helllo! My name is Susie Hydrick, I write, play guitar, and sing in Lemon’s. I also manage the band, run out social media channels, website, and handle booking (for now).

Jackson Williams :I’m Jackson Williams. I play drums in Lemon’s. My role also includes the occasional harmony. I’ve been with the band since 2020, though I feel that my involvement really grew in 2021. Susie and I have been playing together since high school so it feels a little bit like we’ve been in this band forever. Ben may joke about it, but I also passionately enjoy loading the trailer up. I love the trial and error of finding the best way to safely pack our gear and I think that also bleeds into my role in the writing process… there’s always another way.

The Whole Kameese:How did you become a band? What’s your origin story?

Susie: I have been writing songs since before I could even play guitar and went to high school with Jackson Williams and Luke Braswell, who is no longer in Lemon’s but does a lot of our visual work. In high school we were in a music class together where we became best friends and band mates in our school’s commercial music ensemble.

After high school, I left Memphis and went to Louisiana State University for one year, but while I was there, Luke, Jackson, and our old bass player, Aidan, who I met in high school through School of Rock, where we took guitar lessons, and Luke knew from Church, got a cover gig at a local venue.

Around the time I saw they got this cover gig I have been writing a lot and talking to Luke about how I wanted to do music for a living, so I came back to Memphis and booked another gig for the group Luke had put together and proposed the idea of making the group an actual band that writes and records originals. Two years after our formation, Ben officially joined the band, although he had been filling in for aidan on bass and luke on guitar at various gigs, and jackson and I had been performing with Ben for his solo music.

The Whole Kameese: How did you come up with the name Lemon’s for the band .

Jackson – Once upon a time, we were called Janice and the Lemons. Janice was our former guitar players Jeep Cherokee that had seen better days… a true lemon. She was precious to us for years and never let us down, though she threatened it daily. Down the line it became confusing; people thought Susie’s name was Janice and to be honest it was just too long of a name. We lopped off the front end and threw in an apostrophe for search-ability and a constant talking point… and thus, Lemon’s was born.

The Whole Kameese:If you had to describe your sound to someone who has never heard the band, how would you describe it ?

Jackson – We call ourselves indie rock, but I would say we walk the line between indie rock and alternative rock on a daily basis. Its music you’ll want to roll the windows down for. Bouncy driving bass lines and guitar parts with powerful drums reminiscent of the alternative rock we listened to as kids mixed with more modern melodies and vocal tones of the indie sound today. It’s like if Young the Giant and Cage the Elephant had a band baby; it’s well thought out where it needs to be yet rough around all the right edges.

The Whole Kameese: We, love your song “Don’t Leave” Can you tell us what it’s about and how it came to be ? Did the melody come first or did the lyrics come first .

Susie – Firstly, thank you! I’m glad you like it, I was very pleased with how it turned out. The melody for the song came together very quickly for me. I was messing around with ideas on my acoustic guitar as I do on a regular basis, and when I thought of that melody I really liked it so I recorded it immediately. The words for the first half of the chorus also just came to me as I was singing nonsense over the melody which gave me the idea for the song topic. It’s about falling in love and being able to see a future with someone, truly believing they are the one, but knowing that the future is out of your control, nothing is certain and they could leave you. Maybe from a breakup, life circumstances, things out of anyone’s control but Gods… these are all things I think about, as Ben and I have been dating for a couple of years. The last piece of the song was the bridge which I did not think of until the week we recorded it. I just knew I wanted it to be something repetitive that would build well with the instruments. Ben and Jackson’s parts really added the emotion to the song it needed and that all came together in the studio.

The Whole Kameese: What is your go to meal before a show?

Ben- A chipotle burrito bowl (white rice, pinto beans, chicken, veggies, corn, medium salsa, and light sour cream)

The Whole Kameese: If you could all choose one band to tour with , what band would that be ?

Susie – This one is a three way toss up for me between Nothing but Thieves (my favorite band) Young the Giant (another one of my favorite bands) and 5 Seconds of Summer (who are… who could’ve guessed, my other favorite band) I would have an out of body experience every-time I stepped on stage if we were to open for any of these three groups.

The Whole Kameese: If you could play anywhere, where would it be ? And why?

Jackson -The obvious answers are MSG, Red Rocks, and Wembley. Who wouldn’t want to play on the same stage as legends? And to see those venues packed to the brim full of like-minded music lovers would be so special… But to give a more personal answer, I want to perform everywhere more so than anywhere specific. I recently saw an article about how Jack White is one of the few artists to have played all 50 American states and all 13 Canadian provinces and territories. What a cool accomplishment. No stone left unturned and reaching everyone… even if it meant playing a show to 15,000 in Ontario back to back with a show to 600 in Nunavut. That’s what I want to do.

The Whole Kameese: What is your go to beverage?

Susie – A latte (more specifically, a dairy free Spanish latte with Oat Milk from The Hub in Memphis) and water

Jackson – Sweet tea never fails

Ben – I run off of water, coffee, and coors banquet

The Whole Kameese: What can we expect from Lemon’s in 2024?

Susie: More music! our main goal this year is to increase the output of music we record and release. we are always writing, so we have songs, recording is just an expensive process. More live shows in cities we have never played in before. We have a mini tour coming up. To start that off, we will be playing in New Orleans, Oxford, Birmingham, Chicago, Charolette, and Memphis! and finally selling online merch. but as far as things out of our control, go always hoping to end up on Spotify curated playlist and on tour with one of the bands we admire.

Thank You so much for chatting with us here at The Whole Kameese , We hope you have an amazing 2024

Check out Lemon’s on Instagram Here and on Facebook Here You can also check out their website Here

Get lost in the magic that is “Don’t Leave” on Spotify Here and on Apple Music Here

Be Sure to check out Lemon’s Live!!! You can find out where they are playing next Here