Lullatone are in love with life’s little moments. They soundtrack the ordinary to make it extraordinary and turn the mundane into magic with their optimistic melodies. More “home music” than “house music”—more “commuter music” than “computer music”—Lullatone’s Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Seymour have found the sound to turn your life into a scene from a movie.
Lullatone’s Shawn Seymour and Yoshimi Seymour
VCFA Chair Ian Lynam takes some time to chat with Shawn about music, design, and how the two intersect in their vibrant, Nagoya, Japan-based practice.
The amazing web app Patatap, a sound visualization program designed by Jono Brandel in collaboration with Lullatone. (It is highly recommended that you navigate to the Patatap site immediately and play!)
1. Design seems as important to Lullatone’s aesthetic as the music itself. Why and who are your inspirations?
Thank you. We probably think about design as much every day as we do music. I’m sure I would have become a graphic designer instead of musician if I learned those tools first. Most of our close friends are designers instead of musicians or artists. Actually, I feel like graphic designers now are what fine artists were a few decades ago (and a lot fine artists are like the people who sell fake Rolexes on the street, not everybody though).
Some of our influences are Bruno Munari for being playful but still intelligent, Dick Bruna for keeping it simple and Casey Neistat for showing that DIY is always cooler than off the shelf.
Lullatone – Let's Split a Banana Split from Lullatone.
2. Your guys’ music shows up on design-oriented podcasts like 99% Invisible, as well as others—it’s as if your music is innately tied to design as a cultural concept—why do you think that is?
I think (hope) it is because we approach our tracks with a strong sense of art direction. So we think a lot about texture, setting, filtering and not just beats and melodies.
Lullatone – Experiments Around the House from Lullatone.
3. Your website says, “Let’s make every day an adventure.” What was today’s adventure?
I came back from the studio with 30 minutes to spare before dinner was ready. So our son Niko and I took a bike ride around our neighborhood to search every rice field and drain for frogs and small fish. But it was too dry, no dice…
Lullatone & a Mechanical Drummer from Lullatone.
4. What are career/life milestones you guys haven’t hit yet?
Hmmm… we have been really lucky to get to work with clients we really like on sound projects for Google, Apple, Target and more. And we made a ton of albums, too. But I think it is dangerous to be satisfied. Anytime a project or album wraps I am ready to start something new the next morning.
Lullatone for Google
5. What are some things that you think graphic designers in graduate school should be listening to, looking at, reading, or observing?
More things that aren’t on a computer or screen. This advice is for me too!
Target: School of Baby (music by Lullatone) from Lullatone.
Oh, one more pro tip: sometimes that best ideas come when you are cleaning something up.
Thanks for the tip, Shawn! Check out Lullatone’s new EP “The Sounds of Spring” and tons of their other music (which you can stream for free) on Bandcamp!
Stay tuned for the next installment of “Huh?”, coming soon!Buy Sneakers | Nike Air Max 270 – Deine Größe bis zu 70% günstiger
