FVMusicBlog

Photo: Matty Hoffman

We were fortunate enough to catch up with musician Lemonboy following the release of his superb self-titled album. Enjoy the interview below!

Hi Lemonboy, tell us about yourself.

I’m a queer singer-songwriter based in Washington, DC. Originally from the small town of Putnam, CT, I’ve been writing songs for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid, I loved to come up with melodies and lyrics on the bus ride home. Music has always felt like a way to explore big feelings—grief, joy, and wonder, you name it.

The nickname “Lemonboy” started as a joke in high school. I have a lot of dietary restrictions, and back then, I wasn’t sure what I could safely order while out with friends. So, to avoid getting sick, I’d order water with “extra, extra” lemons, and I’d snack on those. The nickname stuck, and over time, it became this precious reminder of the community that shaped me. I told myself then that if I ever formally recorded any of my music, I’d honour my chosen family by doing so under the name they’d given me.

What is your songwriting process?

I think a random observer would describe my songwriting process with phrases like “curiously haphazard” and “What’s he even doing?” As someone with ADHD, my approach can seem a bit scattered. Sometimes, I’ll get an idea, and the song just pours out of me faster than I can write it down. Other times, I start writing for the sake of writing and end up hyper-fixating on a hook idea for several hours, and suddenly, the sun’s gone down. For example, I wrote ‘Autopilot’ in 10 or 15 minutes, while ‘Lemonboy’ went through a dozen different iterations over several weeks.

I’m not a big fan of the phrase, “Write what you know,” because I think there are a lot of really cool things I don’t know about yet. But, if I had to distil my process down into a phrase, I’d say it’s best described as, “Write what you feel.” Every song on this album came from moments when my feelings felt so big that I had to get them out of my body. Songwriting was my way of giving them shape and honouring them. That’s one of the reasons it’s been so humbling to see these songs resonate with other people.

Tell us about your latest full album release, ‘Lemonboy’.

‘Lemonboy’ is a reflection of compassion, identity, and self-discovery. It’s human. To me, it also feels like this love letter to the chosen family who helped me bring it to life.

The project has felt like one giant leap of faith after the next! In the summer of 2023, I submitted my song “Bright” for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s soloist cabaret. At the time, my life felt like it was falling apart, and songwriting was how I was dealing with it. The audition notice asked us to pair a song with a personal photo and story, so I chose one of me as a kid, dressed for church and grinning ear to ear. I shared a story about growing up gay in Catholic school and how confusing it was to internalize these lessons of unconditional love and kindness, only for many of the people who taught me those lessons to reject me for my sexuality later on.

Honestly, I still don’t know what possessed me to do it. I hadn’t shared my music very widely in over a decade. I didn’t think it had much value outside of the joy I found creating it. So, when I was selected as one of the 12 soloists, it felt like the universe had glitched. And when I was also asked to perform a second song as we took the show on tour to other cities and venues, I felt this profound, exciting, empowering sort of whiplash.

As a teenager, I often joked about wanting to record an album of my original music before I turned 30. That seems so far away when you’re 16 or 17. I mentioned this in passing to GMCW’s artistic director, Dr. Thea Kano, and she smiled at me with this glint of determination in her eyes. She asked, “Are you 30 yet?” I was just shy of 29. “So,” she said, “we’ve got a year to make this happen.”

With the support of an incredible community of close friends and musicians, I recorded the album in July 2024. With the support and guidance of many dear friends, I released ‘Lemonboy’ just after my 30th birthday.

You recorded with Grammy-winning engineer Charlie Pilzer; what was that process like?

Terrifying, at first! Charlie Pilzer is a wizard. I’d met with Charlie and played him some of my music long before I even realized that he was a Grammy winner. When I found out, I suddenly felt this overwhelming sense of imposter syndrome. But Charlie believed in the project, and I’m grateful my first recording experience was with someone who approached the project with the same level of care I was putting into it.

What message do you think your music conveys to your fans?

There is strength found in quiet things: in kindness, in tenderness, in wonder, in reflection and growth, and in honouring where we are in the moment.

Who are your musical influences?

I pull a little bit of influence from a lot of seemingly random places. I love Sara Bareilles. She’s my ride-or-die. There’s something deeply authentic in her songwriting that I hope to one day achieve. Sonically, I’ve always really enjoyed the Indigo Girls. I think you can hear that a lot in the arrangement of ‘Ribbons’. Then, lyrically, I definitely take a lot of inspiration from Taylor Swift’s storytelling, the raw honesty of boygenius, and (one of these things is not like the others) the incredible Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim’s use of creative internal rhymes and alliterative language has always been so impressive to me. I love trying to weave all these different elements into my own work.

Who are your non-musical influences?

What an interesting question! I have to really think about this one…My community is definitely something I carry with me in everything that I do. The bonds in my life are so vital to my identity, both as an artist and as a human. In all aspects of my life, they’re inextricably woven into the fabric of what I do. That’s why, in the context of the album, it felt so important to invite my people in to share the experience with me. There’s something so uniquely soft and wonderful about feeling truly seen and known by another person. I wanted the wonder of that connection to be reflected in the music.

Beyond that, despite the rejection I faced when I first came out, I still hold onto the idea that kindness is the essence of a good life. That conviction is at the heart of “Bright.” I believe that the simplest and most meaningful way to be a good person is to be kind—to others and to yourself. In a world that feels increasingly hardened, moving through it with kindness feels more necessary than ever. I hope that message shines through the music.

What scares you most when releasing music?

I think my biggest fear is probably the same as most people are when they put something out into the world: that I’ll bare my soul, and people will hate it. That I’ll find out it sucks. People don’t like what I have to say or how I choose to say it, and it’ll simply be boring and uninteresting.

I pour so much of myself into my music that it’s hard not to internalize feedback as though it’s somehow reflective of me. But I have to remind myself that I’m not creating music for everyone—I’m creating it for me. Remembering that is very grounding for me. If there ever comes a time when making music doesn’t feel like it’s for me or it stops bringing me joy, then I’ll know it’s time to step back and recalibrate.

What do you think are the biggest obstacles for bands/artists today?

We live in the age of social media. So much success in entertainment feels tied to how successfully one can generate content: TikToks, Reels, eye-catching images…If you’re like me, it sometimes feels kind of silly. Like you’re pretending or putting on a show. Sometimes, when I’m drafting a social media post, I feel like I have to check in with myself to make sure I’m not diluting myself to be more palatable.

You are a hard-working, authentic artist; what advice would you give to other bands/artists starting out?

Early on in this process, my dear friend and collaborator Jack Zornado (ROMXN) said something that really stuck with me: “If it’s not collaborative, it’s not worth doing.” That moment stands out in my memory just as much as when Thea told me we had a year to make this album happen. Jack’s advice became a guiding principle for me. It gave me the confidence to lean on my people when I needed guidance (see also when I started to cry in the studio because I was overwhelmed and felt like a total fraud). Through the bonds and connections in my life, I feel like I’ve found my own strength as an artist. It was the greatest honour and joy of my life to hold my people close to me as we built a community within and around this music.

I’ve always struggled to see myself as a “real” musician or songwriter. But here’s the truth: if you want to make music, make music. If it brings you joy, then that sounds pretty real to me. It’s never too late to do what brings you joy.

What are your hopes for the next two years?

Oh, goodness. When you find out, let me know! Truly, I’d love to record more music, whatever that looks like. This project ran with such unanticipated momentum that it felt sort of like I was building a plane during takeoff. Now that it’s released, I suddenly have all this extra bandwidth to consider other projects – and I’ve got so many ideas.

A few folks have been nudging me to write a musical. I don’t think that’s something I feel pulled to do immediately, but probably eventually. There are ten or so other tracks that were at one point slated to be on “Lemonboy”, so I’ve toyed with doing a B-side type of thing. But I’ve also been writing a lot of new music that I’m really excited about, and there are a lot of old favourites in my backlog that I’d love to revisit. I practically chronicle my life in song. Emily Zorando, another one of my collaborators and co-producers, is one of my dearest friends, and we’ve written so much music together over the years. Maybe we’ll dust off those archives or create something entirely new.

It feels like there are a lot of paths to explore or weave between in the next two years. Whichever direction (or directions) I walk next, I know that I want to share the joy of every step with my friends, building community through the journey.

https://www.lemonboymusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560233082756
https://www.instagram.com/lemonboy.dc

FVMusicBlog January 2025

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Also! Check out the awesome other artists on the ‘Discovered This Week’ Playlist!