Lullatone makes the magical kind of music that inspires you to lay in the grass barefoot with a makeshift rubber band guitar and play Philip Glass. With the tagline "minimalism is cute!" they weave together mesmerizing pop songs using unusual instruments and sounds, including toy drums, ukuleles, and computer-generated sine tones. In addition, they design music for an assortment of companies, like fellow OC collaborators Target and Levi's, and the MoMA. Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida, the duo that makes up Lullatone, were kind enough to let us pick their brains on their influences and give us a glimpse into their world, which is as fun as their music.
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Patrick Wilson: Your music really captures the often overlooked magic of daily life. What everyday things excite you the most and inspire your songs?
Shawn James Seymour: So many things! Riding bicycles, grass stains, spinning in circles, graph paper, nice handwriting, English as a second language... I could go on and on!
PW: Your music has a very cute, child-like quality to it. Yet it certainly isn't just enjoyable for kids. Do you have an audience in mind while you are writing and recording your music?
SJS: Yes. I once read an article about marketing for bands and I found out that we needed to "pinpoint our demographic." I think I came up with the following: people who like white space in design, people who like construction paper, and people who like other people.
PW: Minimalism also plays a big role in your music and design aesthetic.
SJS: We always hope to show that minimalism doesn't have to be stark and cold. Someone recently commented "sunny minimalism" on a photo of our studio. Isn't that a great description? Isn't the Internet awesome for letting people share nice thoughts with you?
PW: Who are some of your favorite designers and composers?
SJS: Bruno Munari, for incorporating playfulness into everything he touched; Dick Bruna, for limiting himself to eight colors and making it work; and Charles and Ray Eames, for putting their own touch on every medium they encountered.
PW: Your first album, Computer Recital (2003), was recorded almost entirely using sine tones. Since then, you've adopted an array of instruments for your recordings, from ukuleles and glockenspiels to splashes and snores. What is your instrument collection like?
SJS: For three years we were on TV every week here in Nagoya, teaching children how to build instruments from things around the house (see the video). So we have a big collection of rubber band guitars, aluminium foil kazoos, balloon bongos, and more. We tend to sneak little bits of those sounds onto our albums too, adding texture behind the real instruments.
PW: What, if anything, do you consider your main instrument?
SJS: Brian Eno famously said that musicians need to treat the studio as an instrument. Since our studio is in our house, and a lot of our tracks have a strong domestic feel, I guess our house is our best instrument!
PW: I've spent hours playing your Raindrop Melody Maker game. Where did the idea came from?
SJS: I first
______________________________________________________
Patrick Wilson: Your music really captures the often overlooked magic of daily life. What everyday things excite you the most and inspire your songs?
Shawn James Seymour: So many things! Riding bicycles, grass stains, spinning in circles, graph paper, nice handwriting, English as a second language... I could go on and on!
PW: Your music has a very cute, child-like quality to it. Yet it certainly isn't just enjoyable for kids. Do you have an audience in mind while you are writing and recording your music?
SJS: Yes. I once read an article about marketing for bands and I found out that we needed to "pinpoint our demographic." I think I came up with the following: people who like white space in design, people who like construction paper, and people who like other people.
PW: Minimalism also plays a big role in your music and design aesthetic.
SJS: We always hope to show that minimalism doesn't have to be stark and cold. Someone recently commented "sunny minimalism" on a photo of our studio. Isn't that a great description? Isn't the Internet awesome for letting people share nice thoughts with you?
PW: Who are some of your favorite designers and composers?
SJS: Bruno Munari, for incorporating playfulness into everything he touched; Dick Bruna, for limiting himself to eight colors and making it work; and Charles and Ray Eames, for putting their own touch on every medium they encountered.
PW: Your first album, Computer Recital (2003), was recorded almost entirely using sine tones. Since then, you've adopted an array of instruments for your recordings, from ukuleles and glockenspiels to splashes and snores. What is your instrument collection like?
SJS: For three years we were on TV every week here in Nagoya, teaching children how to build instruments from things around the house (see the video). So we have a big collection of rubber band guitars, aluminium foil kazoos, balloon bongos, and more. We tend to sneak little bits of those sounds onto our albums too, adding texture behind the real instruments.
PW: What, if anything, do you consider your main instrument?
SJS: Brian Eno famously said that musicians need to treat the studio as an instrument. Since our studio is in our house, and a lot of our tracks have a strong domestic feel, I guess our house is our best instrument!
PW: I've spent hours playing your Raindrop Melody Maker game. Where did the idea came from?
SJS: I first