Lung: a new take on punk
Featuring an unorthodox instrumental setup of a drum and cello duo that takes influences from punk, grunge and other styles of rock music, Lung is challenging the definition of what a punk band can be.
In an interview after a show at Satellite Records on Oct. 23, drummer Daisy Caplan talked about how the duo was formed out of the remnants of a former musical project.
“We met because we were in another band together. That band broke up so we started doing this. Also we’re friends,” said Caplan.
To cellist and vocalist Kate Wakefield, their unique style is born out of practice sessions and a passion for several different musical genres, leading them to incorporate many different sounds.
“I’ve played cello on and off my whole life and I listen to a very wide variety of music,” said Wakefield. “I’m into punk metal and rock but I also really like folk, indie and classical.”
To Wakefield, their unique style is born out of practice sessions and a passion for several different musical genres, leading them to incorporate many different sounds.
“We have lots of different ways of going about it. Most of our material comes out of just like being in a practice room,” said Wakefield. “Daisy will play some drums and it will inspire me to come up with different chords and we’ll just jam on different ideas. We write pretty quickly together so we’ll just like come up with a song even if it’s mediocre. It might not go anywhere but we just like to write really quickly and write a lot.”
For both musicians, this process proves to be highly prolific, resulting in many songs that ultimately didn’t make the cut of their album’s final release.
“It’s a quantity thing then we sift through it and figure out what’s good and what’s not,” said Caplan. “The last record we did we brought everything in. We recorded like 25 songs. Not that the ones we didn’t use were bad. They just didn’t fit with the rest of the record. I’m a fan of getting everything on the table then figuring out what goes together and what doesn’t because it’s hard to tell until it’s recorded.”
Lung plans on heading back to the studio soon to release another album and continuing to tour.
