Cool Top 20: In the spotlight – Lyon Tide

by Lean

https://cooltop20.com

An Englishman, an Indian man and an Italian all walked into an art class at college. They messed around with a couple of paints, life drew a few nudes then decided to form a band and make music. Today they are known as Lyon Tide — an unsigned alternative pop/rock band from Birmingham (UK). They have recently delivered their euphoric debut single ‘Closure‘.

“Lyon Tide is a band of creatives, not limited to just music but all aspects of art direction and creative writing. Darren, our vocals and lead guitarist, would bring in synth-pop instrumentals he had created in his spare time. Anthony had been thrown out of an indie band clutching a handful of lyrics so he and Darren decided to write a couple of songs together. Girish was kind of a one man band who was already writing and producing rock metal tracks so we brought him in to help with drums and bass.”

Is there a story behind the band name?

“We were looking for something totally original, something unlike any other band’s name in the hope it would be easily found on the myriad of streaming services out there. So, while randomly researching Anthony’s great grandfather, whose name was Jack Lyon, he came across a phenomenon that periodically occurs over the French city of Lyon; a tidal effect caused by electromagnetic waves due to the excessive cellular antennas in and around that area. This phenomenon is known as the Lyon Tide. It has a certain three syllable ring to it that we feel reflects the type of music we create — so it stuck. Also, if there are any fellow designers out there with a discerning eye, they may notice, our band name ‘logo’ shows the antenna with the combination of the Y and the I but that’s just us geeking out over design minutia.”

Your debut single ‘Closure’ was obviously influenced by Snow Patrol. What other bands have influenced your sound? Are there any bands you’d like to be compared to?

“Our sound probably comes from an amalgamation of our various musical tastes, Darren’s dependence on eighties synth, Anthony’s fixation with nineties Brit-pop and endless other unknown bands; James, The Origin, Trashcan Sinatras while also being a huge fan of bands like Snow Patrol, Keane and Kodaline. Girish is basically into anything that falls under the rock metal genre. As we release more music, we’re sure listeners will identify the various influences subconsciously used in each song. In terms of comparison, we usually describe our sound as Snow Patrol meets Massive Attack after a painful divorce from Erasure.”

What inspired ‘Closure’?

“Most of our songs are about the intricacy of a relationship, ‘Closure’ is about one that has ended and how breaking up and moving on is never easy, especially if it was long term. We feel the lyrics, “Letting you go was so much harder than I could ever imagine” harness a common emotion that most can relate to in these situations. We’ve been asked if ‘Closure’ is about someone in particular — maybe it is… We also chose to release this particular track as our debut on the first day of the new year as a metaphorical “up yours” to 2020 and the awful relationship everyone has had with it. We figured stepping into 2021 was like coming out of that bad relationship and it was time to look back and get closure. We all know how that worked out, seems like 2021 is the bunny boiler woman out of Fatal Attraction, she just won’t let us go.”

Are you happy with the response to ‘Closure’?

“As a completely unknown band that woke up one morning in November and decided to release a debut single on the 1st January, you could say we’re pretty amazed by the response so far, yes. We are eternally grateful to all the international airplay and podcast inclusion we’ve received, the amount of blogs and playlists the track has been added to and of course the unexpected inclusion in music charts like the Cool Top 20. It’s definitely hard work trying to get recognition and numbers on our side so we are sincerely honored by all the support. That said, we hope the next single, ‘Blind’ – out on 19th February 2021, will give us even more of a boost on everyone’s music radar.”

‘Closure’ is accompanied by a beautiful animated video. What’s the story behind it?

“One of our creative friends who specializes in animation and VFX made the video for us based on a storyline idea and artistic direction from Anthony. Basically, it attempts to capture the sensation, that urge we have to embark on an aimless wander to try and clear our mind after an emotional attack on the senses. The rain reinforces the solitude as we see many other people out in the streets with the same emotional stress. The black hole he enters represents the ‘what if’ place we all go to in our mind, the retreading of the past, good and bad, the replay of events that led up to the relationship’s end. This is where he gets his closure and once back out of the black hole, he’s ready to move on.”

I always love hearing about the creative process, so I was wondering if you could give me a glimpse into that. What inspires you most?

“The lyrics are always the starting point, that’s Anthony’s domain and yet it’s always in the most inconvenient place that the ideas will flow, like while in the shower or driving the car, places where it’s impossible to note anything down. Who knows how many lyric riffs have been lost due to his inability to remember what he’s come up with. Once the lyrics have been established, they’re passed on to Darren. After that, days or months can go by until Darren gets his ‘calling from within’ to sit down, pick up his guitar and let the magic happen. He’ll work out the structure, lay it down in the studio then build on it. Once there’s something there, cue the keyboards, bass and drums. Each of us bring our own take on it until there’s a universal goosebump “Yeah!” feeling when it’s played back through the speakers.”

To what extent do you draw influence for lyrics from areas outside music? 

“Anthony writes a lot, lyrics, screenplays, creates concepts — so a lot of the words in our songs come from situations or stories that are in his other works, you might say they’re a by-product or accompaniment, similar to a soundtrack. As we mentioned earlier on, most of the lyrics are about relationships, some from experience, some from just good line pairing or an idea for a good title. However, of course, there are also a few tracks about the state of society, we have one track we plan to release between albums around the middle of this year titled ‘Change’ which underlines the fact that despite everyone wanting change in relation to violence, wars, racism etc., we as a human race are seemingly unable to do so.”

You mentioned the new release ‘Blind’ earlier. What can we expect? Will it have a similar vibe as ‘Closure’?

“The next single is coming very soon, it will be out on the 19th February 2021 with our debut album, ‘Beginnings Of Ends’, following around the end of March. In terms of vibe, while ‘Closure’ is quite melancholic and pushes emotional buttons, ‘Blind’ is a lot more electro-rock-pop, let’s say happier and more energetic with a chorus line that will hopefully have you singing along after a few listens.”

So a new single in two weeks and an album in March. Any other plans for 2021?

“We have a schedule laid out in pencil at the moment, our current aim is to release five or six singles and two albums throughout the year, we have a lot of material and we’re determined to get it heard. That said, who knows what will happen.”

Can we see Lyon Tide live (once live gigs are permitted again)?

“Maybe, who knows. There’s nothing planned yet.”

What’s your favourite song in the Cool Top 20?

“Oh wow, that’s a difficult one to pinpoint, they’re all so frickin’ awesome! However, we do prefer the tracks with more of a chill vibe; ‘Sweet Lies’ from Shimmer Johnson and ‘Fiesta’ by Oliver Beardmore in last week’s chart are probably our top picks, then again ‘The Girl I Used To Be’ by HOL is really nice, we have a track that would probably sound a lot better with HOL’s voice on it. Dean Dovey’s ‘Journey To The Sun’ and ‘Sea Salt’ — Sophie & Alex Dorsten. What can we say, the Cool Top 20 team have excellent taste!”

What song would you like to add as a bonus track to our chart and why?

“Another difficult choice, probably ‘Come Say Hello’ by Superhumanoids, first for the title, secondly for the sound of the track which brings the chill electro, soft tone vocals and harder indie rock vibes together which are evident, although separately, in most of the Cool Top 20 playlist tracks.”

(This article first appeared on Cool Top 20 on 5 February 2021)