by ANA LEE ? JUNE 26, 2020
Lake & Lyndale were one of the very first bands to reach out to me last spring when the Local Brew was a brand-new show. They sent me a three-song ep on cd. I typically go straight to the liner notes and was intrigued when I saw Jon Estes of Steelism produced it. Lake & Lyndale is an intersection in St. Paul, Minnesota where Channing Marie, Jonathan Krentz, Eric Clifford and Tyler Kloewer first met. Last week they released a song they played for us live last year and another really creative video to go with it. The band's lead singer, Channing Marie and guitarist Jonathan Krentz chatted with me about the video and what's on the horizon for Lake & Lyndale.
Ana Lee: "Still Here" is here! This song grabbed me the first time I heard it, which was last December when you performed it live at 3rd and Lindsley for WMOT’s Finally Friday. I'm so glad this song is now available and was wondering if there is another ep coming or maybe a combination of what you have released along with more new stuff for a full album?
Lake & Lyndale: That means so much to us. We are avid Roots Radio fans and can't say thank you enough for supporting us and our music. We still talk about that Finally Friday show; it was a major highlight for us :) That is a great question. We do have another single recorded and are currently planning the Music Video for that. We have been talking about the possibility of a full-length album; of course, it’s hard to say what a realistic timeline looks like with the current state of things. Honestly, the more we bring it up, the more excited we get about making a record because I think we have a good grasp on exactly who we are now and what we want our music to say lyrically and sonically. We really took advantage of the extra time at home these past few months to do a ton of writing so we have a pretty large collection of new material that we're starting to think "bigger picture" with. Fingers crossed; we'll be able to start working on it soon.
Ana Lee: Your videos are so creative, we'll get into the new video for "Still Here" in a minute, but it seems like you guys have been staying busy during the shutdown with your Covers in the Kitchen series on YouTube. This isn't a new thing for the band, I've seen a few that are at least a year old, right? These are a little different, with social distancing and all. Your drummer, Tyler is providing his part from his kitchen in your recent cover of You've Got a Friend by chopping vegetables?
Lake & Lyndale:I really appreciate that; we have developed such a deeper love for music videos just through working with our videographer/director, Ben Boutwell. I know we'll get into more detail about working with him in a minute, but all I can say is we are very lucky to have found him.
Thanks for bringing up our Covers in the Kitchen series! It was a random idea that Jon had and we had no idea how much fun we would have with these or if people would even enjoy them. The response we got really blew us away and I have to credit a lot of that to Tyler, who is regularly named MVP for his creativity. So far, he's played a toaster, a watermelon, and the chopping of the vegetables in our most recent Covers in the Kitchen video is probably my favorite. With the shutdown, we have done our best to continue writing and making new vids/content as much as possible. The last two kitchen videos we put out were a little different with the social distancing aspect, but I have to admit, I'm glad I didn't have to sing next to Tyler while he chopped up that onion, HA! We hope to continue to grow this series by incorporating more locations and teaming up with other artists. We hope people continue to look forward to these; many more to come.
Ana Lee: The video for "Still Here" is out now. Is this the same videographer you worked with for "There's A Weight" last year? Tell us about the new one.
Lake & Lyndale: It is out! Yes, Ben Boutwell w/Createwell is our guy. Not only is he amazing to work with, but he is always thinking "outside the box" and is not afraid of hard work and putting the time into seeing a vision through. We realized that very quickly last year with the "There's a Weight" video. I won't go into too much detail, but he pushed me outside of my comfort zone with that video by suggesting I learn to sing the song backwards for the making of it, and I'm grateful for that. We have a pretty wild BTS video out with the "There's a Weight" video. The difference between that and the new "Still Here" video is that it was definitely less work on our end while Ben had to do some pretty heavy lifting on this one. As you'll see, the video flows through several different scenes seamlessly; creating that visual for the sentiment of the song. We wanted it to convey that while everything around us continues to change, we're still doing our thing… we're still here. The shoot itself was smooth. We just brought all the contrasting outfits we chose and Ben had everything mapped out. Having a strong music video is so crucial because it gives the song itself a pair of wings; Ben worked some magic on this one. We hope you'll check it out, here's to many more!
Ana Lee is on middays at WMOT, and is also the host of The Local Brew Hour, which airs Sundays at 7am and Mondays at 7pm on 89.5 WMOT and wmot.org.
