A House for Lions is an emerging LA indie folk-rock band in the vein of Band of Horses, Ryan Adams and My Morning Jacket. Not cheeky and knowing but straight forward and earnest. Energy abounds! Vocals soar! Ladies swoon (gents too, probably)! We recently had the chance to catch up with vocalist Daniel Norman on his favorite gig, what he hopes fans take away from the Lions’ music, and where you can check them out next.
What do you hope listeners will get from your music?
The music is about our hopes and dreams and our fears and uncertainties. Hopefully people hear something of themselves in the music. We say, 'don't you also feel this way?' and they say 'yes we do!' - maybe that's the thing that makes you play a song over and over again.
What’s the best gig you ever played?
Our favorite gig was definitely when we played the El Rey Theatre in LA. We’d only been a band for about six months but the great producer Jacknife Lee had gotten hold of our music somehow and asked us to open for a band he was working with called Tired Pony, which featured Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol and Peter Buck (!) of REM. Great sound, huge crowd and we played alright too. Peter Buck told me my band was good! I can die now.
How has social media affected the way you market/promote your music?
Social media is the primary way we market and promote our music. We’ve gotten invaluable press through Sonicbids, released our EP through Bandcamp and promote all of our shows via Facebook. You gotta play shows and meet fans and put up posters but the way most people find music these days and the way they interact with each other is on the internet - hopefully over the years we'll find more and interesting ways to show people who we are.
What’s a creative way that you interact with your fans? Live? Online?
We’ve done a couple of promotions online. Most recently in the run-up to our one-year anniversary show we offered our EP via Bandcamp as a name-your-price download, which was great. Mike, our lead guitarist, designs our posters and such and we print those up and give them away at shows. Mostly we just look to connect with people. We respond to comments on Facebook and our website, we answer emails and we try and meet people when we play. Onstage I make an effort to talk and interact with the fans. I don't think I want to be one of those bands that just gets onstage and plays the songs. Ultimately the experience should be that we're all in it together. We’re not there yet but we're getting there.
What’s your next big gig coming up? When/Where?
Our next show is on July 20th at Central S.A.P.C.
Check out more on A House for Lions here.
