The Median Man had the pleasure of interviewing James from Livonia.
The Median Man had the pleasure of interviewing James from Livonia.
LIVONIA
What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?
Well we all used to work for the same company and realised that we all had similar taste in music by over hearing each others YouTube or Spotify playlists in the office, as you do. We would often get caught all gathered around one of our desks watching music videos instead of doing any work! At some point we decided to form a band and actually make some music together and we really hit it off. After a few practices we decided that we needed a band name so we went with the name of the street we worked on which was Livonia Street. Livonia really stuck!
As far as influences go I’d say we have all grown up listening to incredible bands like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, You Me At Six, Bring Me The Horizon who all have amazingly unique sounds respectively. Those bands’ individual music journeys have been incredible, their success, their song writing, their prowess are all things that really inspired us to pick up an instrument in the first place.
How do you approach songwriting, are there any themes you are keen to explore when you start off?
Rob is the main song writer musically, he will make a demo track with guitars and some basic drums. He then gives it to me (James) and I write the melodies and Lyrics over the top. Once we have a rough demo we hand it over to the other lads who take their parts and make them their own and tell us where the tracks need tweaking or improving.
As far as song themes we just try and make them as relatable as possible, normally relating to life, relationships, having ups and downs that sort of thing.
RELATABLE
RELATABLE
How do you approach songwriting, are there any themes you are keen to explore when you start off?
Rob is the main song writer musically, he will make a demo track with guitars and some basic drums. He then gives it to me (James) and I write the melodies and Lyrics over the top. Once we have a rough demo we hand it over to the other lads who take their parts and make them their own and tell us where the tracks need tweaking or improving.
As far as song themes we just try and make them as relatable as possible, normally relating to life, relationships, having ups and downs that sort of thing.
OUR EXPERIENCE
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
I think when writing any song we try to write from our experience as fans going to shows, we try and recreate moments or sounds that really make you want to move around and engage with a track. If a beat makes you want to tap your foot, okay, if it makes you want to bang your head, great, if it makes you want to jump and dance around like a mentalist then perfect, we try and get to that point with our tracks when writing.
Pop punk is an amazing genre where you can express exactly how high or low you really feel without any judgement at all. You can dance, headband, mosh and pretty much do anything to the music at a pop punk show I think that’s why we love it so much.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
Well it depends on how long our set is really, if it’s a shorter set we will try and get the most energetic songs into the slot as possible. When we do longer sets we tend to plan out brief interludes and we can play our slower songs and really try and connect with an audience a bit more. Think of our short sets as a steam train smashing songs out back to back at high velocity, and our longer sets are a bit more like a roller coaster with plenty of excitement but just the right amount of breaks to catch your breath again.
TIME
TIME
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
Well it depends on how long our set is really, if it’s a shorter set we will try and get the most energetic songs into the slot as possible. When we do longer sets we tend to plan out brief interludes and we can play our slower songs and really try and connect with an audience a bit more. Think of our short sets as a steam train smashing songs out back to back at high velocity, and our longer sets are a bit more like a roller coaster with plenty of excitement but just the right amount of breaks to catch your breath again.
WHAT WORKS
HATE.RELATE.REGENERATE.
What plans do you have for the future?
Our debut EP ‘Hate. Relate. Regenerate.’ Is being released on 13th March, so we’re really excited to get that out there and see what people think. We’re playing a few local shows to promote that and then who knows – we’d love to get on a festival or two and then maybe a tour later on in the year if we can! I’m sure we’ll get back in the studio at some point as well.