Seven Red Lions are an alternative indie rock band. The members from different parts of the world found each other in London, sharing the same love and dream for music, they started this project in 2015.
“Alt rock with proggy overtones but quite snappy and upbeat all the same, there’s a lovely psychedelic space rock feel at times….” singing lyrics in English and Spanish the diversity of their cultures and influences are reflected in their music, bringing a unique, and innovative style taking you on an imaginary world journey.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Seven Red Lions about their music, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We are an international band; all the members are from different parts of the world but living in London (UK):- David Lion our guitar player and the singer is from Mexico.-Sara Priegue is our bass player and backing vocals is from Portugal.-Chris Coronel is our keyboard player and he’s from Mexico.We play alternative indie rock however we’re open to other music styles like blues, funk, jazz, etc… When it comes to creating process we are open and flexible to how the song naturally takes us.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
We all showed a great interest in music from a young age, David our band leader started to play drums at 15 but as he wanted to create songs, he learned how to play the guitar… we all decided to increase our musical knowledge and went to study music, luckily our paths came across and we meet a few years later in London and we started this project in 2015.Being an independent musician is not an easy choice, we think that the art of Music does not have the deserved visibility in our society yet. However, making music is a way of expression that brings us a certain pleasure of freedom and meaning of life.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
“Citizen” our latest released single is a song inspired by life in a big city. We thought about the problems, pressure, stress, and loneliness which sometimes is felt by all. It brings a positive message, with encouragement, hope, and freedom to move forward in everyday life. It is a shout for the freedom of humanity, it’s a call for the awareness of what’s going on in our world and an invitation for union…With this new single we are not only created powerful and fresh sound. For the artwork of the single, we worked with photographer Sop Rodchenvko ( https://www.soprodchenvko.com) so we want to tell real stories about 12 Londoners. Happiness, anger, sorrow, empowerment and more… these images represent their stories of life in London. They have been shared as a promotion of “Citizen” in our social media.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age?
Being an independent band without big labels promoting us and a huge offer of free music, the challenge is being heard. You have to stick out from the crowd somehow.
How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Technology has allowed us to connect with more people, promoting our gigs, spread our music around the world, distributing our music through various digital platforms without you needed a lot of money and a large entity to push it into the forefront. It also makes it much more economical to record and gets music out of the market much quicker. Utilized correctly technology is a great help for independent musicians.
What was the last song you listened to?
We all listen to a lot of different music, from different artists and styles, but lately, we have been listening to Tal Wilkenfeld with her fantastic album Love Remains. The last song that I listened to it was Corner Painting by Tal Wilkenfeld.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Definitely, Vinyl, because it sounds better than MP3s ever could. Most of the music is broadcast in some lossy format, where details are missed, and the overall quality is reduced Also, there’s something magical about buying records. It’s the type of experience that got lost in iTunes and Spotify generation. It’s the kind of experience where can spend hours aimlessly searching for music. It’s more of a social experience than any app or online music shop could ever be.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
From those options we prefer Spotify because gives you access to discover new music and artists based on your preferences.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
On Spotify to listen to our music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4miIb633tznm49Pu5nWKqE
To discover and know more about us and what we have been doing you can connect with us on our website: https://sevenredlions.wixsite.com/seven-red-lions or Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… by writing Seven Red Lions band
Anything else before we sign off?
We would like to Thank You for including us in your work and for supporting independent music and artists! And we invite everyone who reads this interview to listen to our latest single “Citizen” available in all digital music platforms (Spotify, Youtube, SoundCloud, Itunes, etc) keep on tuned cause the music video will be out soon and it’s a great project that we have been working in collaboration with London Filmmakers. Peace and music SRL
