It’s electronica month for The Indie Music Database, as we feature another electropop artist for Fresh from the Post. Check it out as Logan Lynn shares his view on indie music, who and what his music influences are as well as two tracks from his album From Pillar to Post released under the Dandy Warhols label Beat the World –
We’re curious to find out how other artists define the term ‘indie music’. How do you define it?
That’s kind-of a tricky one to answer these days as independent music gets to be more popular than much of what’s being offered by many major labels. I definitely think that those lines are blurring and that my answer will probably be morphing as it changes. Those sorts of shifts in the industry are totally AWESOME for folks like me who are having a sort-of grass-roots experience on a smaller label. I tend to think of indie as being an all-encompassing term which can be applied to any project that doesn’t have shit tons of money pumped into it to start…bands which control their vision and direction and are, ultimately, not bound to the old testament law of the music industry.
Yeah, definitely. This new record was only possible because of countless favors and luck, really…there was literally NO budget. We were lucky to have The Dandy Warhols get their hands on some of my older material and the demo version of what eventually became "From Pillar To Post" and they signed us. Carlos and I got to come into their studio and their world with their engineers starting in 2007 and it has largely been a dreamworld from that point on…but very much still an indie dreamworld.
I was always singing and writing songs as a kid, then I got heavy into DJ-ing in the 90’s. The two combined I guess at some point in college and the sound which I’m now largely known for was the result of that. That sound has changed throughout the years as I have grown and started working with people who actually knew what they were doing. My first record came out in 2000 but things didn’t really hit until 2006.
How do you describe your music? Who are your musical influences?
I think it’s safe to say I fall somewhere in the electropop genre…I get "emotronic" a lot. I think it’s a combination of tons of styles all mushed together into something which people can get serious with or just dance to. Carlos brings all of his hip-hop and techno influences in and mixes it with my singer/songwriter raver damage and we get what we get. I love "The Innocence Mission", "Lori Carson", "The Cardigans", "Liz Phair" and "The Sundays" so I come from a heavy background in sensitive lady singers…that has shaped my writing style for sure…I also took a lot of ecstasy at raves in the 90’s, so the two genres must have gotten mashed up together in my head from all of the dancing.
Could you tell us more about the two songs that you’d like us to share? Any interesting anecdotes that you can share when creating these two songs from your album From Pillar to Post?
Well, those two songs are actually the two songs from before that we decided to re-work, re-record and re-release once we got our shit together and got into The Odditorium to make my new record the right way…the real way. It’s been cool to bring them back to life in completely new ways. I’m excited for people who may have never heard me until now to still be able to be a part of what has brought me to this point with my music. It’s a journey and those two songs are representative of that journey. My songs tend to be about love, loss, sorrow, joy and the complexities which come along with. I think they give a good glimpse into what’s coming this fall with all of the changes in my sound on "From Pillar To Post" without giving any big secrets about the rest away!
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I’ve never been much of a fan of the ’emo’ label since I always associated it with angst-ridden teens desparately seeking for things to whine about, so I’ll kindly defer calling Logan Lynn ’emotronic’. Interestingly, the tagline in his official website does say ‘putting the disco back into discomfort‘ – which is exactly what he does with his music – a nice juxtaposition of fun-happy with painful-heartbreaking via music and lyrics. It’s a nice mix actually – electropop and angst, and with Logan Lynn’s take on it, you don’t need to be in a brooding mood to appreciate his music. It’s like a candy coated bitter pill, best taken while wearing your dancing shoes and a neon glow stick in hand. You’ll have to wait till the fall to experience the whole album though, but in the meantime let these two cool tracks keep you company.
