Interview: 2016 Must-Know - Lontalius

Having released music since the age of 13, the now 18-year-old Eddie Johnston is set to release his debut Lontalius album next year [and play Laneway Festival 2016!], bolstered by recent praise from the likes of The Fader and Spin magazine.

"Love, Or, Night Times Are Lonely If Ur Sad :("

COUP DE MAIN: 'Kick In The Head' is sonically quite different from the other music you've released previously. What inspired you to explore in that direction?
LONTALIUS: I guess I've always been making more indie rock-ish music and 'Kick In The Head' is an older song of mine, so it was like I was giving the song the full instrumentation it deserved when I wrote it. I grew up listening to Wilco, Liam Finn, etc... the more electronic production I've been doing recently is something that's come out of my teen years.

CDM: Is the rest of your album more in the vein of 'All I Wanna Say'? Or 'Kick In The Head'?
LONTALIUS: A bit of both, I tried to create middle ground between those two different sounds. I'm interested to see what people think.

CDM: When in 2016 is your album coming out?!
LONTALIUS: March!

CDM: How does your songwriting process work?
LONTALIUS: I generally sit down with a guitar or at a keyboard, and play and sing random things. I'll record instruments and loop them on the computer and mess around with them.

CDM: Do you write your lyrics specifically for the songs, or do you write poems or prose and then evolve them into song-form?
LONTALIUS: Occasionally I'll have lyrics that I've thought of and saved on my phone or in my brain, but generally I write them when I'm writing the melodies. My head works in a more musical way than a lyrical way.

CDM: Lyrically, what's your favourite song that you've written?
LONTALIUS: Great question! There are some lyrics on my album that I'm proud of, but I'd have to say the music I've been writing since finishing the album have been my favourite lyrically. My songwriting is improving the more I write!

CDM: What do you think is the difference between a good song and a great song?
LONTALIUS: I think it's just when every aspect of the song clicks together. I don't think there's any way to really explain it, there's no perfect formula. It just happens.

CDM: At what age did you write your very first song ever, and what was it about?
LONTALIUS: I was around ten to eleven, it was about Summer or the beach or something. it was quite good tbh.

CDM: What do you hope for people to take away from listening to your music?
LONTALIUS: I hope that listening to my music takes them out of what they're doing or where they are, and takes them somewhere else. Not sure where that is though.

CDM: If L.O.N.T.A.L.I.U.S. were an acronym, what would each letter stand for?
LONTALIUS: Love, Or, Night Times Are Lonely If Ur Sad :(

CDM: What's on your bucket-list?
LONTALIUS: I really wanna fly a plane. I've always wanted to fly a plane.

LONTALIUS' single 'Kick In The Head' is out now - click HERE to purchase it via iTunes.

Watch the 'All I Wanna Say' music video…

P.S. Click HERE to check out more of CDM's 2016 Must-Know artists in CDM Issue #17!