Since their inception in 2018, Dresden, Germay-based LYR has shattered conventions, placing collaboration and unity at the forefront of their creative journey. Emerging from an impromptu cover session, the quartet – Linda on vocals and keys, Chris on guitars, Max on drums, and Franz on bass – has catapulted itself into a realm where musical boundaries cease to exist.
The name LYR, a neologism echoing a shared emotional resonance among the members, serves as a testament to the extraordinary synergy fueling their artistic prowess. Specializing in a genre-blurring fusion of post-rock and alternative elements, the band crafts a sonic tapestry laden with atmospheric soundscapes, potent riffs, ethereal guitar tones, melodic bass lines, intricate drums, and occasional synthesizer embellishments. Linda’s celestial soprano voice, wielded both lyrically and instrumentally, imparts a singular quality to their compositions. Her contributions on the piano inject a classical elegance into the band’s post-rock core.
Collectively, LYR invites you into a spellbinding musical realm, where each note is a testament to their shared talent and unyielding commitment to pushing the very limits of contemporary music.
Let’s dive into the featured track on the compilation. Can you share the inspiration or story behind “It”?
We do holidays as a band where we basically rent a cottage, set up our gear and rock on for a week or so. When we wrote „It“ we did that in a secluded home at the north sea right next to the water. We started jamming and when we felt like we captured the mood, the landscape and the weather, „It“ was born. To us the Song will always sound like this place.
Walk us through your creative process. How do you typically approach writing and composing music? What was your creative process like for your recent, self-titled album in comparison to your previous efforts?
We always start by grabbing our instruments an improvising together. Someone may bring up a melody or a riff, or it just appears in the moment. In that stage we record almost everything. Then we create songs from the parts we really like. This process is a fun thing to do but it takes really long until an actual song is created this way. Out of the songs we created this way, our album LYR contains those we loved the most.
Who or what are your major influences in progressive rock? How do they impact your own musical style?
We all like slightly different music, but our tastes always overlap. What fascinates each of us flows into the way we make music. Linda likes to be inspired by female artists who are leading the way in rock music like Chelsea Wolfe or Emma Ruth Rundle, but also softer genres with great pop voices like Susanne Sundfør. As far as composition is concerned, Linda loves heavy and melodic bands like All Them Witches and Elder.
Franz played double bass, both jazz an classic, for many years and stays inspired by the way bass works in those environments when playing. Artists like Stanley Clarke or Victor Wooten, Oceansize, Amplifier and everything that derived from Kyuss really led him to the way the basslines are with LYR.
Max loves complex rhythms and beats and was heavyly inspired from bands like Sikth, the Dilligner Escape Plan, Karnivool, Leprous and The Hirsch Effekt.
Chris likes heavy guitar riffs and ambient guitars. The Ocean is one of his favorite bands.
What challenges have you faced as an artist in the scene, and how have you overcome them?
As a young nearly unknown Artist it‘s often hard to get venues to play at. In order to that we had to write tons of mails and put a lot of effort into booking. Although we can go on holiday together as a band, we all do regular jobs which makes this additional work hard and time-consuming.
How do you see the scene evolving, and what role do you believe your music plays in that evolution?
Puh, that’s a tough one: I think it is an absolutely exciting time for not only progressive music but music-making people in general because of all the crazy and easy to use tools out there, that even empowers unexperienced people and people without any musical education to make music. We think thats great because it has the potential to open musical worlds that are not “explored” or just new to our conditioned ears.
Our role here is simple: trying to reach a musical vibe together that form new songs. New to us and maybe also new to someone else.
Share with us some of the most memorable moments in your musical journey so far.
The holidays we took together were certainly formative for our sense of community, which then has a positive influence on making music together and, above all, songwriting. We all have fond memories of these times. This kind of time together, which isn’t just about making music, is irreplaceable and very important. The Corona period and the lockdowns also welded us together. We were still a band, working together remotely and sending each other song snippets.
The biggest highlight was definitely the release party for our album on 9.12.23. For us it was the best musical performance so far and a great audience. We are happy that our music is so well received.
Do you have a personal favorite among your own compositions? If so, which one and why?
That changes from time to time. But we can all agree on the song that we first wrote together: We still love playing “Palim” and are very proud of it. Why? It flows, is heavy, melodic, emotional and a real banger. Everything that we ourselves like about (prog)rock – check it out!
Can you give us a sneak peek into any upcoming projects or collaborations you’re working on?
As our writing process is very united we record nearly every studio jam session, listen to that afterwards and extract the parts which work as a new song for us. So we have a bunch of ideas for new stuff we can
work with. The current record was just the beginning.
Compilation Involvement: What does it mean to you to be a part of our compilation? How has the experience been for you?
It is our first time to be part of a compilation and we all think that it is a great opportunity to spread our music and maybe get some feedback and some interessting connections in the scene. We will see. Discovering and being inspired by bands from our musical corner through the compilation is also exciting for us.
Is there a message you’d like to convey to your fans who will be discovering your music through this compilation?
Make yourself comfortable, take your time and get into the songs. They don’t convey a message, they convey a feeling. That can mean something different to everyone, the lyrics are deliberately left open. Maybe you can hear that the interplay and interaction is very important to us, nobody is in the foreground, we see ourselves as a unit.
Quickfire Round
If you could collaborate with any artist, living or not, who would it be?
Maybe not collaborate but watching the idols how they write a song from start to finish and how it is produced would be a great experience.
If you had to pick one instrument (besides your primary one) to master, what would it be?
Linda: There are many, I’m interested in everything. But practically speaking, I would love to be able to play the guitar and use it to accompany my singing. Unfortunately, pianos are very heavy instruments.
Max: Guitar and piano.
Franz: Drums.
Chris: Drums as well 😉
What’s your all-time favorite progressive rock album, and why?
The four of us can’t name a single album. Like we said earlier, we all love slightly different music and that has a positive influence on the music we make together. But to name a few examples:
Linda: Elder – Innate Passage.
Max: Karnivool – Soundawake.
Franz: Oceansize – Effloresce.
Chris: Pain of Salvation – In the Passing Light of Day.
Are there non-musical influences that find their way into your music? (e.g., literature, art, science)
The lyrics are influenced by Linda’s experiences and emotions, which she abstracts and brings together with the sounds. Apart from that, it is always the pure moment in which a jam is created that makes the
music. We don’t orientate ourselves on literature or anything similar.
Any final thoughts or reflections you’d like to share with our audience?
Thanks for listening to our feature in this compilation – if you like it, listen to the whole album. Stay true to your favourite acts and continue to go to concerts and buy albums, then we can all continue to
enjoy such great music in the future. Stay proggy.
Where can our audience find more about you and your music?
Website: http://www.lyr-music.de/
Bandcamp: https://lyr-music.bandcamp.com/
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/36gSB5ByyocYJjmemMz0Zu?si=5lX62oadQAKHlyq0JOtpjg
ITunes: https://music.apple.com/de/artist/lyr/1719361630
Deezer: https://deezer.page.link/hq4U4yHPwAYX6ti8A
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lyr.band?igsh=MnNzM2ZzdjhxMDZy
