Leeds duo, Menace Beach are back with their second album ‘Lemon Memory’. Liza Violet and Ryan Needham were picked up over two years ago before releasing their debut album ‘Ratworld’, which had rocked the music community and had them being regarded as rising superstars. ‘Lemon Memory’ is no different. We spoke to Ryan from Menace Beach about the album.
‘Lemon Memory’ is your sophomore LP. Which can often be branded as ‘The Difficult One’. Has ‘Lemon Memory’ been difficult in terms of writing or in fact easier?
We’re just continually working on music and songs so that part of the process was pretty easy, but then the production and the way the record is kinda presented was definitely approached with a ‘lets not use all the same tricks again’ kind of vibe. We’ve been in the studio quite a lot now so that experience definitely gives you a bit more confidence and frees you up creatively.
What sets ‘Lemon Memory’ apart from your debut album, ‘Ratworld’, if at all?
Well most of Ratworld was written by me and this one was pretty much Liza’s record so thats kind of a fundamental difference. Its an often repeated line but the first record was just a collection of all the best stuff we first wrote together without really much consideration as to how they would work as an album, whereas this one we wanted to have more subtle movements and shifts in tone between sections.
The two tracks which you have already released, ‘Maybe We’ll Drown’ and ‘Give Blood’ offer two very different aspects from a song. How does the overall energy and intensity of the album compare to these two songs?
I guess those two songs are a good indicator of how much the record shifts around. We like to try things out and the challenge is keeping it at least coherent as ‘menace beach’ even if we tried to throw some tonal twists into the album. The difference in these two songs is a good example of what happens when you record song by song in the studio, finish it, and strip the room and start again, rather than the more modern approach of building the songs from the drums up.
In today’s music society, we consume music in many ways, Streaming, Downloading, CD’s, Vinyl, Live Performances. Please could you rank these in order of importance to you and explain the reasons?
Live performance is top for me, both seeing and playing shows, just because there is a direct connection with the music and the universe and I love the ritual and energy of a show that can never ever be recreated.
Then Vinyl would be second, just as a collector of records it’s the only medium I really get what I want from in terms of audio and design.
Then streaming I use for BBC6 Music and maybe Spotify for exploring an artists back catalogue before committing to buying a physical copy.
Downloads and CD’s i’ve no use for at all really.
Your hometown is Leeds and we all know that the city boasts a huge DIY music ethic. How strong would you say the music industry within the city is currently.
It seems from slightly afar to be stronger than ever. I haven’t really been able to do any socialising for about a year for various reasons so I do feel totally out of the loop and have contributed nothing lately. I need to sort that out really, but yeah, it seems we’re certainly still not short of great people doing artistically and socially worthwhile things up here.
