An interview with Green Lemon

Green Lemon has been named 2004 New Home Grown Band Of The Year by the Home Grown Music Network, listed as one of the Top Bands To See Live in 2005 by Jambase.com, featured in Relix Magazines On The Verge column, where they were labeled A Band You Should Know About, and more recently, Relix named Green Lemon One of the 10 Summer Star Bands to Watch.
Green Lemon is:
Matt Fioravanti - Bass/Vocals
Wayne Allen - Guitar/Vocals
Lincoln Greenhaw - Guitar/ Vocals
Jonathan Cordero - Keys/Vocals
Chris Cox - Percussion

Interviewed by  Colleen "Bean" Mulcrone

HGMN:  Who were your biggest influences growing up and has it changed much since you started touring with your own band?
Matt: We were all influenced by the democratic ideas of Thomas Jefferson, the Talking Heads, Hendrix, Floyd, Radiohead, and originally "jam bands" such as The Disco Biscuits and Phish but that changed slightly after we hit the road. Now after we have been on the road and grown into our selves a little more, all of our musical tastes are very different from one another.

HGMN:  You seem to cover a wide range of cover tunes, including some not-so-serious musical experiments. How important are cover tunes to your band or to the execution of your performances? What songs have you always dreamed of covering? What covers have presented challenges to your musical abilities?
Everyone: What Covers?!?!? Do you have lawyers or something??? More talking heads, Any Hendrix, Any Zepplin, Thomas and the Jeffersons, Creed. What Limit? You know we be 450 double tall sippin' on Cristal.

HGMN:  What cartoon characters do each of you relate to?
Chris: Foxy Brown, The black chick on Drawn Together
Jon: Raphael of the Ninja Turtles
Wayne: Papa Smurf (Smurfs)     
Lincoln: Frilock (Aqua teen hunger force)  
M.J.: Harvey Birdman (Harvey Birdman Lawyer)

HGMN: on your self-titled album, "Intergalactic Cigarette" follows a song titled "Intergalactic Intercourse". Do you believe that your music possesses orgasmic qualities? What emotions are you hoping to elicit with your songs that are absent of lyrics? In these two particular selections, were you really trying to convey sexual energy?
Matt/Link: Yes. We have done tests, lots of tests. Jim Morrison once said that everyone lives in a circular city and in the center of the city is sex. We live in that city. We own a record store downtown. The second part of the question....The thing about music with no Lyrics is that the thought path remains undirected without lyrics to tell them what to think. Therefore people create their own experience and see their own visions. It's not like we feel we have nothing to say, its just that sometimes people say it better for themselves. Third part...All energy is a manifestation of sexual energy.   

HGMN:  What is your favorite music festival that you've participated in? How would you describe the experience of being a part of this type of musical gathering? Are their any memorable anecdotes that you are willing to
share?
Everyone: WAKARUSA!! Beer every twenty yards......oooooh.....beer.............GREAT BANDS!!! Not just Jam Bands, which was great. Very diverse scene musically. An over all enjoyable experience. Kinda like a southern California gangbang. Third part.....From Wakarusa? We all applauded Robert Bradley for going to the Port-o-pottty, and met many of the musicians we greatly respect. That was the most meaningful, lasting part of the festival.

HGMN:
Some reviews imply that you would rather not be classified as a "jam band." Wayne is shown to have said, "I personally don't think we're a jam band, but we get a lot of jam band fans at our shows." Why do you think you attract such a fan demographic? Do any of you consider yourselves to be a jam band? Do you feel that the label of "jam band" carries certain ominous stigmas?
Wayne: The reason I said that is because I feel, as well as the rest of the band, that "jam band" is a very bland way of describing a groups musical approach. We experiment live but a lot of the time when the term jam band is brought up, a picture of The Dead or Phish pops in to the mind. Although they both are great influences on us, we are not anything alike. The one thing we all agree on is we are as much a "Jam Band" as Cat Stevens is a Terrorist.   

HGMN:
If each of you could suddenly acquire the talents of any one musician throughout history, which would you choose?
Wayne: Trey Anastasio   
Jon: Art Tatum    
Lincoln:  Jimi Hendrix
Chris: Charlie Hunter on Tambourine    
M.J.: John Lennon

HGMN: Have you built a connection with your yellow school bus? Does it have a name? What goes on in that schoolbus?
Jon: We love our bus so much that it breaks down every 2000 miles. It actually has become who we are......Unstable and operating only on faith. Second Part....Duppy Conqueror. Third Part......What goes on in the bus is not proper for print or human ears.

HGMN: What is your favorite album of all time? What is in your CD player now?
Wayne: Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon
Lincoln: Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the pink robots
Jon: Radiohead - Kid A
M.J.: Counting Crows - Desert Life
Chris: Queen - A Night of the Opera

In the CD player.....
Wayne: CD player is broken
Lincoln: Moondance, Van Morrison
Chris: Chromeo
M.J.: The Eels, Bright Eyes
Jon: Sam Cooke, Live in Harlem 1963

HGMN: What do you usually do for fun on your off-nights?
Link: We have sex with neighboring galaxies and then never call them.

Learn more about the band at www.GreenLemonBand.com