By: Damario Walden
Lung is a band that doesn’t fit the typical image that comes to mind when someone speaks of a band, but that makes them all the more interesting and talented. Akin to a pair of lungs, Kate and Daisy combine to work together to create a blend of genre defying music that can’t simply be put into one box. We had the pleasure of interviewing them while they were in Athens, and got to talk to some of the kindest, most genuine, socially aware people out there about topics from Christmas music to finding healthy work life balances. Check out this awesome interview with Lung.
Hello! Who are you, and What do you do?
Kate: We are Lung. We’re a rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio. And my name is Kate.
Daisy: My name is Daisy. I play drums.
Kate: And I play electric cello and sing
Daisy: We’re pretty good.
Kate: We’re like a six out of 10. *laughter* (they’re pretty awesome)
Where do you get your name from?
Daisy: I think it was just like a weird joke. stuff. Like we couldn’t agree on a band name.
Kate: Yeah, this is the only one we could agree on. And then we both had bronchitis at the same time.
Daisy: Yeah when we started the band we had lung infections, but that’s not the reason but that did happen.
Kate: It might have like spearheaded the idea
Daisy: It was sort of peripheral, but it wasn’t the reason.
Kate: It’s also a cool name for us, because we kind of like, change genres frequently. And like, I feel like the name Lung doesn’t really tie itself to one genre. Like it could be a lot of different things. It’s not like, Deathwish or Happy Kitten *laughter*
With your genre jumping, like, what sort of spurs I guess, the next genre to get into?
Kate: I mean, I think when we write music, we don’t really think of like, I’m gonna write in this style or that style. It’s more that both Daisy and I are really into a wide variety of music, and we both just, like, I feel like whatever music you write is sort of a product of all the stuff you listened to. But we just listen to like a wide variety of stuff. So, you know, whatever comes out, sometimes it sounds a little more poppy. And then other times it kind of sounds like metal or heavy, you know.
Damario: Is there like no process going in. It’s just sort of kind of like, you know, let’s just play have fun with it?
Daisy: Yeah, it’s kind of a process of negation. And just like, we want to do this, we don’t want to do this. We want to do you know, this, this, this is what we like about this thing. But we don’t like this thing about this thing that we just sort of whittle it down until it is what it is. And sometimes that’s I think that’s been like literally every genre you can think of at this point.
What went into deciding the orchestration of the band? Was it like these are the two things that we play and we play well together?
Kate: Bingo. Yeah, I can’t play guitar. I can’t play bass.
Daisy: I can’t even really play drums. So-
Kate: You can play drums, but yeah, so it was just sort of what we both do.
Daisy : Yeah, just sort of happened to happen that way.
Do you have a specific inspiration or motivation behind making this album that you guys are touring right now currently,
Daisy: Um, I guess the motivation was not to, you know, go into complete despair during COVID Because we had another album done completely before COVID that we were gonna put out and then this one just happened.
Kate: Yeah, like, right when everything shut down, we canceled a two month tour. I mean, obviously, everything, everything shut down, as it should have. But with that tour canceled, and like that was what we were used to doing, like touring pretty much full time. Like, we both, I mean, I became pretty depressed. And like, Daisy was very adamant about like, hey, let’s not just sit around and like, indulge in that, let’s at least like, see what happens if we can write music together over the internet. So like, I came up with ideas and sent them to him, and then vice versa. And it ended up being kind of a therapeutic way to handle the early part of the pandemic,
Daisy: Like with this album it was done like it was written, like written to totally record it within that first two months of the pandemic.
What do you think your favorite thing about touring is?
Kate: I love being in a new place every day. It feels like a fresh start and feels just so there’s still that sort of like newness to life. When you see places that I mean, at this point, a lot of the places or places were coming back to but you know, it’s still there’s still so much new because you only were there like for a day or two the time before. And I really love hearing so much music, and just meeting people
Daisy: I think I like the people, like meeting new people, seeing old friends. The community aspect of it, I think is my favorite
What would you say your biggest inspiration is when it comes to making music and the regular aspects of life and stuff.
Daisy: Not having jobs. Just kidding. We have jobs. I don’t know,
Daisy: I like seeing our friends. Like friends succeed and like people we know are just kind of like honestly, it’s never anything big just like people we’ve played with and people we know people we’ve connected with, like doing stuff that makes them happy. I think that’s always inspiring to me. About you.
Kate: Um, I mean, music wise like, inspirations. I really love Tori Amos. And then More Jewelry out of Philadelphia, or have you heard them?
Daisy: I don’t know musical inspirations. I mean, that’s one of the few bands we really grew around as a band, Smart went crazy.
Kate: Oh, they’re amazing.
Daisy: They’re a band from the 90s in Washington DC who I think are probably, I mean they don’t sound much like us but I think like the way they put stuff together like they’re just completely unique like yeah nothing really like them four cents well store like lately or ever
Do you have any dream collaborations we can do past or present, nothing holding you back? Who would they be?
Daisy: I kind of want to do a record and have Chad Clark from Beauty Villains Department Crazy producer because he’s an extremely good recorder producer person. That’d be fun.
Kate: PJ Harvey or Tori Amos. That’s pretty cool. Three part harmonies with them. Pretty awesome.
Daisy: That’d be a fun tour.
Kate: Oh, Garbage. Okay, open for garbage will be fun.
All right we’re getting into Christmas time and stuff like that. (oh no, I’ve dated the interview) Do you have a favorite Christmas song, or one that really gets you in the Christmas spirit
Kate: I really like the Snoopy album, because it’s kind of like, it’s chilly sounding and it’s kind of a bummer. But kind of not. It’s like that wistful Christmas thing. So you can be both in a good mood. Or a terrible mood works with both all moods, you know, on Christmas piano like
Daisy: Yeah. Carol the bells but I feel like the Trans Siberian Orchestra kind of ruined Yeah, cheesy guitar version. Yeah, for those of you who have heard the like, the version.
Kate: Carol bells not, Trans Siberian Orchestra version? Yes. Not our dream collaborators. *laughter*
Daisy: But that’s I feel like that’s the only version you hear now like you never hear the original version just the guitar version and that’s awful to me.
What do you think is the hardest challenge that you’ve had to overcome when it comes to making music so far?
Kate: Health insurance. Kind of the fact that, like, other countries, such as Canada and Germany, have, like government funding at other levels, at any level, actually. Like, we have friends in Canada who are doing, like, what would be considered DIY music here. But like in Canada, you can apply for grants. Yeah. And you could get like a 10,000 dollar grant. Yeah, like 10,000 bucks to go on tour and like, to make your album and, and like, health insurance is also a thing over there versus like, hear there’s there’s not really any sort of way unless that I found it’s very difficult if you don’t have a bunch of financial backing to, you know, to make music work. So yeah, that’s, that’s, I would say,
Daisy: Yeah, like, I mean, basically, we have to, like, treat the band as a full time job and then treat our full time jobs as a full time job. And then most people just have two full time jobs working 80 hours a week anyways, because they have debt or children or what you know, yeah. Feeling failing family members, or whatever.
Kate: Yeah, the country is not terrible just for musicians.
Daisy: Yeah, that’s kind of a big thing we’ve talked about a lot during COVID is like, I think we find the kind of distasteful when like musicians specifically are kind of like, oh, no, it’s so hard. It’s like, it’s hard for everybody. Yeah, yeah, everything sucks. Yeah. So as much as it’s sometimes hard, I don’t want to complain too much. Because, you know, we have a thing we’re passionate about that we do, and we make time for it. Do we have to do for it?
Kate: Yeah. But if any, you know, government officials listening to this, even give everybody health insurance. Good points, just do it.
How do you approach finding a good balance, work wise, mental health wise, emotionally, and all that good stuff?
Daisy: I don’t know, you gotta let me know when you find that. *laughter*
Kate: I feel like if you have a couple of healthy practices that you wrote that you can remember, I mean, sometimes I’ll fall off, and I’ll forget that, like, Oh, if I go on a walk, or if I meditate for 10 minutes, my day will be so much better. And I’m like, yeah, just keeping up healthy practices, and making sure you don’t forget your relationships. My girlfriend is also a musician. And so sometimes, like, we both get lost in our music, and then it’s like, you have to be like, Oh, wait, people, right, you got to get back to that. I think it’s just sort of juggling everything and remembering all the balls that you have in the air, you know, definitely understand.
How do you combat staying motivated, which is a challenge that can sometimes stump a lot of artist
Kate: I think we both really like writing music. And we write a lot of it. Like we both enjoy it. So for us, maybe that’s been a little less of a thing, just because, like, we both just love doing it. And I think we both do it. I know that we both do it, even if we weren’t touring on it, or even if nobody cared at all, you know?
Daisy: You have to make it fun, but also, like, a necessary part of your life. It’s a mix of both where it’s like, if we go wild, or don’t do anything, like start feeling weird. I don’t know why, you know. But like, also if it’s like, that’s not to say that’s the only way to do music. Like if people want to do music for fun, and it’s like their stress release and that’s just as valid of a way to do music. Like I think it’s about finding what your personal relationship with it is. I mean, even if it’s like, that means once a year you sing songs with your family, for example. I don’t know, you have a band with your friends or you do like spoken word poetry or you do like, Whatever, whatever it may be, you know, you do electronic dance project for fun, and you play that on the weekends, like all of that. You don’t have to be like, full time serious band, go on tour to be a valid musician. You just have to have a relationship with music that you have, you know, I guess it’s kind of the way I describe it.
Do you have anything you want to tell prospective listeners or WUOG members when this goes out? Any remarks, comments, concerns?
Daisy: Thanks for listening.
Kate : Yeah, thanks for listening
Daisy: Is it going out today? (Some date in the middle of December)
(Ah, I gotta get it, like processed in Otter. And then I got to like, go through and then type that up. So I think if anything, probably not today, definitely.)
Daisy: Well, in that case, don’t go to the bars the show happened already *laughter* (it indeed has transpired)
Kate: But yeah, thanks for listening. If you want to check out our music, you can find us on any streaming platform if you just look up Lung. “Come Clean Right Now” is our newest album. And then yeah, we have Instagram. It’s Lung the band. And we definitely love to see you in the future. And thanks for having us. This is awesome.