[notdevice]
[full_width padding="0 150px 0 150px"]
There's a common misconception that the internet has no heart. That anybody who has grown up with the internet shares an image of themselves with the online community that is not true to who they actually are. 18 year-old Eddie Johnston, who releases music under the name of Lontalius, provides a good counter-argument for that. He's an artist that has kickstarted his career with the internet using social media to make connections, create a fanbase and share emotions whether that be through covers of originals. His debut album I'll Forget 17 is likely to be one of the most honest albums of the year, recalling the most formative years of his life with fragile detail using sounds that he feels the most nostalgic about. Its release may have been made possible by the internet but its heart doesn't match the internet's vanity.
Lontalius kickstarted his career by uploading R&B covers of everyone from Ciara to Drake and while that's still one of his main influences, it's not the genre that I'll Forget 17 trades in. Instead, he's reached back towards some of the indie rock sounds that permeated his teen years to accurately portray that feeling of being 17. With tinges of electronica also threaded through it, it's an album that's nostalgic as well as forward thinking looking up to emotional producers like Ryan Hemsworth and Noah "40" Shebib.
We spoke to Lontalius on the phone as he was sitting in the Wellington bedroom where the record was built and spoke about translating music from the internet as well as being 17 and attempting to remember that feeling.
Where was the majority of the album recorded?
The majority of it was done here in my bedroom really. I went to Bristol with this guy Ali Chant who is a great producer and we finished it together which was really cool and I was very excited considering I'd been working on it for a year in my bedroom. To take it elsewhere was really good.
Is it difficult to go from recording covers and making music by yourself in your bedroom to sharing your ideas with somebody else?
Yeah, it is very hard. I feel like I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes and I want to do everything myself and have everything sound perfect but it's a very important thing to share it with someone else and hear what they hear. It's not all going to be you listening to the album, it's going to be a lot of different people. It was hard, there had to be a lot of compromises but it was really cool.
Looking back now on sharing that experience with someone else do you feel like it was beneficial?
Yeah totally. If I listen to the demoes, they don't sound nearly as good as the finished product does. I'm glad that it happened.
How long have you been working on the album for then?
Quite a while really. I've probably been working on it since the start of 2014. I finished it about midway through last year. It's been a long time sitting on these songs. I have to make sure I don't accidentally upload them to Soundcloud.
It sounds like it's developed quite a lot since the first songs that you started uploading. Did you go into the album with a sound that you wanted to achieve?
Yeah some of it was natural but mostly I wanted to capture all of my influences and all of my experiences from the last five or so years of my life which is why there are a lot of guitars on there. I don't listen to that as much indie rock as I used to but I wanted to make sure that I was true to what I grew up listening to. I listen to R&B now but I didn't want to make an R&B album, that wouldn't be as honest a depiction of my teenage years.
You've worked with quite a few impressive producers but were there any in particular that inspired you along the way?
Yeah. Ryan Hemsworth was a big help personally and, he's part of the reason that people started hearing my music which is a big confidence boost. I've been idolising 40 who produces for Drake. A lot of stuff really. There are some old Coldplay albums that I still love. I drew on a lot of different influences.
Like myself, you've grown up with the internet and particularly with streaming we can listen to any song we like. Do you think that diversified your music taste?
Yeah totally. I grew up listening to rock music and R&B and hip-hop, that was all scary and I'd never listened to it in my life but when I was 13 or 14 and really started listening to music on the internet I discovered Drake and discovered all these people that really resonated with me. It was music that I never would've listened to without the internet. It's such a privilege that people of our generation have.
[/full_width]
[full_width padding="0 150px 0 150px"]
New Zealand and Australia are so geographically removed from the rest of the world. Can you even imagine having to start your music career without Soundcloud and social media?
There's no way. As I said, Hemsworth was a big thing. He heard my music on Soundcloud and started sharing it around. More people started hearing it then. The majority of my plays on Soundcloud are from America which is crazy to think about. I got signed to an American label. They had never met me in real life and never heard me play live. That's such a crazy thing to happen and I'm really thankful for it.
The traditional way to kick-start your music career is to gig a lot. Do you think you would've had the confidence to do that?
No I don't think so. I did more shows three or four years ago but my music was nothing great and people didn't really care but now that people do care, it's harder to plays shows. It's hard when people know who you are and they want to hear their favourite song but it's also really humbling seeing someone who knows the songs. It's really cool.
A lot of the community you've built has been online but what's the music community like in Wellington?
It's been cool. especially when I was like 14 or 15 I started going to a lot of DIY and local shows. That really grew my musical palette just as much as the internet did like when I started meeting musicians and I started realising that it wasn't just me who was obsessed with music. It's really beneficial and amazing as the internet is nothing can really beat the music community when you're 14 or 15.
The album title is such a profound statement to come out of the gates with on your debut. What was it about the age of 17 that you kept coming back to lyrically?
For me, it was the most emotional year of my life. It was a year that, for me and a lot of people I know, was a formative year when you're starting to understand the world and where your place is in the world. It's really exciting and really interesting. That's why I was obsessed with it - the feeling of having such intense emotions but knowing that in a few years you might not care.
The lyrics are so personal, is it surprising for you to read about people who also connect to your experiences?
Yeah, it's really cool. I find it really awesome. Especially if the songs are especially honest. If I read the lyrics to myself I'm like how could anyone else relate to this, it seems like such a personal experience but I think people relate to the music because it's personal, not because they relate to it specifically, but they relate to the feeling and they relate to someone being so honest. That's one of my goals to be as honest as possible in my music.
Now you've poured out your heart on the record, do you feel a sense of relief about finally releasing it?
Yeah, totally. I'm so glad that I did it and I'm so glad that I decided to put it into an album. A lot of the feelings I felt back then I can't really remember them and they don't feel as strong now. I'm so glad that I captured that and I think I'll be really thankful to myself that I captured that in 20 years time when I listen back to it. I'm really proud of it and I'm excited to hear what people think of it.
There is a division in our generation of those that are still captivated by albums and those that couldn't care less. Was listening to an album a profound experience of your childhood?
Yeah definitely. But I'm not the world's biggest album advocate. For someone like Rihanna it's not always going to be appropriate. But I thought presenting these songs as a piece of work really made sense. I'd gotten pretty used to uploading songs to Soundcloud and seeing what happens but I made a choice to hold these songs back and present them as a piece of work.
[/notdevice]
[device]
There's a common misconception that the internet has no heart. That anybody who has grown up with the internet shares an image of themselves with the online community that is not true to who they actually are. 18 year-old Eddie Johnston, who releases music under the name of Lontalius, provides a good counter-argument for that. He's an artist that has kickstarted his career with the internet using social media to make connections, create a fanbase and share emotions whether that be through covers of originals. His debut album I'll Forget 17 is likely to be one of the most honest albums of the year, recalling the most formative years of his life with fragile detail using sounds that he feels the most nostalgic about. Its release may have been made possible by the internet but its heart doesn't match the internet's vanity.
Lontalius kickstarted his career by uploading R&B covers of everyone from Ciara to Drake and while that's still one of his main influences, it's not the genre that I'll Forget 17 trades in. Instead, he's reached back towards some of the indie rock sounds that permeated his teen years to accurately portray that feeling of being 17. With tinges of electronica also threaded through it, it's an album that's nostalgic as well as forward thinking looking up to emotional producers like Ryan Hemsworth and Noah "40" Shebib.
We spoke to Lontalius on the phone as he was sitting in the Wellington bedroom where the record was built and spoke about translating music from the internet as well as being 17 and attempting to remember that feeling.
Where was the majority of the album recorded?
The majority of it was done here in my bedroom really. I went to Bristol with this guy Ali Chant who is a great producer and we finished it together which was really cool and I was very excited considering I'd been working on it for a year in my bedroom. To take it elsewhere was really good.
Is it difficult to go from recording covers and making music by yourself in your bedroom to sharing your ideas with somebody else?
Yeah, it is very hard. I feel like I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes and I want to do everything myself and have everything sound perfect but it's a very important thing to share it with someone else and hear what they hear. It's not all going to be you listening to the album, it's going to be a lot of different people. It was hard, there had to be a lot of compromises but it was really cool.
Looking back now on sharing that experience with someone else do you feel like it was beneficial?
Yeah totally. If I listen to the demoes, they don't sound nearly as good as the finished product does. I'm glad that it happened.
How long have you been working on the album for then?
Quite a while really. I've probably been working on it since the start of 2014. I finished it about midway through last year. It's been a long time sitting on these songs. I have to make sure I don't accidentally upload them to Soundcloud.
It sounds like it's developed quite a lot since the first songs that you started uploading. Did you go into the album with a sound that you wanted to achieve?
Yeah some of it was natural but mostly I wanted to capture all of my influences and all of my experiences from the last five or so years of my life which is why there are a lot of guitars on there. I don't listen to that as much indie rock as I used to but I wanted to make sure that I was true to what I grew up listening to. I listen to R&B now but I didn't want to make an R&B album, that wouldn't be as honest a depiction of my teenage years.
You've worked with quite a few impressive producers but were there any in particular that inspired you along the way?
Yeah. Ryan Hemsworth was a big help personally and, he's part of the reason that people started hearing my music which is a big confidence boost. I've been idolising 40 who produces for Drake. A lot of stuff really. There are some old Coldplay albums that I still love. I drew on a lot of different influences.
Like myself, you've grown up with the internet and particularly with streaming we can listen to any song we like. Do you think that diversified your music taste?
Yeah totally. I grew up listening to rock music and R&B and hip-hop, that was all scary and I'd never listened to it in my life but when I was 13 or 14 and really started listening to music on the internet I discovered Drake and discovered all these people that really resonated with me. It was music that I never would've listened to without the internet. It's such a privilege that people of our generation have.
New Zealand and Australia are so geographically removed from the rest of the world. Can you even imagine having to start your music career without Soundcloud and social media?
There's no way. As I said, Hemsworth was a big thing. He heard my music on Soundcloud and started sharing it around. More people started hearing it then. The majority of my plays on Soundcloud are from America which is crazy to think about. I got signed to an American label. They had never met me in real life and never heard me play live. That's such a crazy thing to happen and I'm really thankful for it.
The traditional way to kick-start your music career is to gig a lot. Do you think you would've had the confidence to do that?
No I don't think so. I did more shows three or four years ago but my music was nothing great and people didn't really care but now that people do care, it's harder to plays shows. It's hard when people know who you are and they want to hear their favourite song but it's also really humbling seeing someone who knows the songs. It's really cool.
A lot of the community you've built has been online but what's the music community like in Wellington?
It's been cool. especially when I was like 14 or 15 I started going to a lot of DIY and local shows. That really grew my musical palette just as much as the internet did like when I started meeting musicians and I started realising that it wasn't just me who was obsessed with music. It's really beneficial and amazing as the internet is nothing can really beat the music community when you're 14 or 15.
The album title is such a profound statement to come out of the gates with on your debut. What was it about the age of 17 that you kept coming back to lyrically?
For me, it was the most emotional year of my life. It was a year that, for me and a lot of people I know, was a formative year when you're starting to understand the world and where your place is in the world. It's really exciting and really interesting. That's why I was obsessed with it - the feeling of having such intense emotions but knowing that in a few years you might not care.
The lyrics are so personal, is it surprising for you to read about people who also connect to your experiences?
Yeah, it's really cool. I find it really awesome. Especially if the songs are especially honest. If I read the lyrics to myself I'm like how could anyone else relate to this, it seems like such a personal experience but I think people relate to the music because it's personal, not because they relate to it specifically, but they relate to the feeling and they relate to someone being so honest. That's one of my goals to be as honest as possible in my music.
Now you've poured out your heart on the record, do you feel a sense of relief about finally releasing it?
Yeah, totally. I'm so glad that I did it and I'm so glad that I decided to put it into an album. A lot of the feelings I felt back then I can't really remember them and they don't feel as strong now. I'm so glad that I captured that and I think I'll be really thankful to myself that I captured that in 20 years time when I listen back to it. I'm really proud of it and I'm excited to hear what people think of it.
There is a division in our generation of those that are still captivated by albums and those that couldn't care less. Was listening to an album a profound experience of your childhood?
Yeah definitely. But I'm not the world's biggest album advocate. For someone like Rihanna it's not always going to be appropriate. But I thought presenting these songs as a piece of work really made sense. I'd gotten pretty used to uploading songs to Soundcloud and seeing what happens but I made a choice to hold these songs back and present them as a piece of work.
