And The Board Reads "You Like Sophisticated Lemons!"

From left to right: Spike(drums), Radu(lead vocals), Alex(bass), Andrei (guitar)

The first thing that strikes you about Sophisticated Lemons is that they are young. Only 18 and 19, they are the youngest band on the Romanian alternative scene. But they’ve already been around for two years, put out an EP on the internet so they could get their music across, had a line-up change, a number one on an alternative music radio and know what it takes to get people to listen to your band.

No Wave: Every story has a "There once was...". What comes after "..." in your story?

Radu Osaciuc (lead vocals): There once was a boy named Andrei Drăguşanu who was forced by his parents to learn how to play an instrument. How his great father said, he used to hold the guitar like a man would hold a woman. [the rest laugh, Andrei protests] Everything started with Andu, our former bass player, and Spike [our drummer]. They met Andrei and Andrei asked me to sing with them maybe something works out. And it did. Andu left because we had different interests, he didn't really want to focus on this thing and wanted to do other things. And we thought we shouldn't stand in each other's way. We didn't fight about it or anything. And now we have a new bass player, Alex Marinescu, who satisfies us musically.

Andrei "Spike" Popa (drums): Satisfies us on many levels.

NW: What do you mean by "other things"?

Radu: Musically we got along very well, just that we wanted to keep playing as a band and he had other plans, management, to go abroad. Different future plans.

Spike: Of course, in the beginning, this was a hobby for us all...

Radu: But when we started making millions of dollars... [the band laughs].

NW: When did you realise you want to keep doing this?

Spike: The first five minutes of playing with Radu.

Andrei Drăguşanu (guitar): No, no, the first few days...

Spike: We recorded some songs really fast. When Radu joined the band, it felt like a breath of fresh air. We recorded some songs and realised it was ok so we decided to continue in this formula.

Alex Marinescu (bass): I realised I want to do this the day I was born. [the others laugh and applaud but Spike stops them]

Spike: We are in a serious place, this is how we do it. [puts on a serious face and hits the table with his hand]

NW: Why Sophisticated Lemons?

Radu: I had a lemon when I was small.

Spike: Andu had a fetish for lemons...

Radu: He thought it would sound fresh.

Andrei: He had a lemon when he was young that would never rot.

Spike: And I said that is would be really fun to call ourselves Sophisticated Lemons.

Radu: No, you didn't! We initially wanted to call ourselves Crates and Lemons but that didn't work. And then I thought of Sophisticated Turtles. And then we combined them and got Sophisticated Lemons. It's not a story like "mum had a dog that flew and it was named The Flying Dog". We thought of a name and this was the one we all agreed with.

NW: Your first concert. Do you remember it?

Radu: Our first serious concert... Because we've played before to see how we're doing. There were unplugged concerts and such at the Folk Evening in Fire Club if I'm not mistaken. And the first time we played, two years ago I think...

Spike: It was unplugged...

Radu: No, no. I was with a friend who said we should play. And we did Wonderwall, a song anyone can play. That was the first time.

Spike: Oh, when you played a gig!

Radu: No, Andrei came as well and we sang Rihanna's Disturbia, an unplugged version. And then we talked to the guys there "You know, we have a band, we can bring in drums, stuff". They were "Sure, ok". And we did but it didn't go ok because the people there listened to folk and when you dive folk people plugged instruments, they don't like it. Our first serious concert was the one in Control, with Omul Cu Şobolani. They asked us on MySpace. And we said "Ok". That's where it all started, the internet reviews and all.

NW: Do you have any special memories from that concert?

Radu: I think that's when we had our first encore.

Spike: I remember that is when we met one of our favourite sound technicians, from Rain District.

Radu: And we've worked with him for our latest concert in Fabrica. Thing is that there were many people there who listened to us and didn't throw stuff at us. I mean, we had confidence but we didn't think the OCS crowd would like us.

Sophisticated Lemons - Scrambled

NW: Is there a song you wish you wrote?

Andrei: Dragostea din tei [by O-zone].

Spike: Well, it did make millions of euros.

Radu: Each one of us has his own favourite bands.

Spike: I wish I wrote Porcupine Tree's Sound Of Muzzak

Radu: I don't know, what do I like and has made a lot of money? There are plenty of songs you hear and say "man, I wish I wrote this one". Many Kasabian songs, Arctic Monkeys. I don't have just one. For instance, Kasabian's Fire, Arctic Monkey's I Bet That You Look Good. I wish they were mine but I'm happy with what I have right now. I hope that one day one of our songs will be make someone say "God, I wish I wrote that song".

Andrei: Financially, any of the big hits. Now, from the stuff I like...

Radu: Mozart! [laughs]

Andrei: No, Bach, I wish I was Bach and wrote what he wrote. [the band laughs]

Alex: Queen, what was it called...? Fahrenheit!

NW: What inspires your songwriting?

Radu: Food [laughs]. I don't know, you get a certain feeling and pick up the guitar and you see something comes out. Or not. I don't know, it depends. We don't have something special.

Spike: I wish I know more instruments. When I get an idea I can't always play it. I mean, I can recreate the sounds in Fruity Loop but I can't actually play them on an instrument.

NW: How did you pick the songs from your EP, Pleased To Meet You?

Radu: We thought we had some songs and how can people listen to those songs. And the easiest way was to put them on the internet. Some were already recorded. We thought of doing some more.

Andrei: We had recorded them before as in "Look, man, I did a song out of nothing and let's record it fast"

Radu: It's not an actual EP taken out by a label. It's done by us, uploaded on the internet, hey, listen to it.

Spike: We did so we would have something out there on the internet. Half of the songs were already recorded.

Radu: People actually listened to it. We were amazed.

NW: How did On My Own get to be on Guerrilla Radio?

Radu: We went with our EP to Guerrilla and asked them to choose a song, the one that they wanted. On My Own ended up on the airplay and we didn't expect that. We were new entry at number 44 and the next week we were number 1. We just couldn't believe it.

Andrei: We were on the second position for two weeks and now we're number one again.

Radu: And now we're trying to send it to other radios that might play it. I don't know, City FM.

NW: Have you thought how your first video should be like?

Alex: Either something pop art like the photo on the EP. Filmed and passed through a filter so you could see just the shapes. Or black and white photos. Stop frame.

Radu: I thought of something simple. Just me.

Spike: In the bathroom, under the shower.

Andrei: And I can show up once in a while, just a frame, as a subliminal message.

Radu: With a board that reads "You like Sophisticated Lemons!"

Spike: I was thinking of something like Magheru Avenue and a camera coming down

Radu: And a drum set at the end of the avenue. And really cool cars that all stop to watch you play drums. And water on the drums, so when you bang them drops jump. Andrei can do a solo off The Intercontinental Hotel. Alex on the Triumph Arch. And I on the People's House. Really, man! Let's make some phonecalls and it's done.

NW: As the youngest band on the Romanian indie scene, do you have any advice for younger kids who want to make music?

Andrei: Of course, they should work hard.

Spike: And not allow others to walk over them.

Alex: Most of the ones who want to make music don't because they give up after three-four months. In the beginning, you can't get any satisfactions because you can't actually play something.

Radu: You have to start playing. We are the youngest on the Romanian underground scene. I don't think it's hard to do this. You just have to work and if you work and believe in what you do, it can be done.

Spike: Success comes with time and if you are aware of this and work hard, satisfaction will come.

Andrei: You have to build a solid base because many of them do the mistake of putting out something that is not exactly ok and people will automatically get a bad impression. You have to work until something good comes out, something others would listen to as well.

Radu: At our first concert, we could've played a lot of covers. Any band can cover other songs. During our first concert, we played one cover from Arctic Monkeys and we had tried not to include it on the setlist either. That we would play only our own songs. It's ok if you don't play covers because there are a lot of bands that do great covers. What matter is what you have done, your creation.

You can download their Pleased To Meet You EP here