Lemonchill - Interview

Today I sit down with Idan Or aka Lemonchill, to ask a few questions, about his life, his music. Also I try to dig into his ontology about  reality.

• So let's get the formalities done, could you give me a quick resumé of who you are and what you do?

My name is Idan Or my project (stage name) is Lemonchill, my music style is electronica although many people “tag” my music as chill and downtempo. I personally think it is more electronica oriented.

Yeah, it's really hard to label music, the borders between genres are very hazy and often there is not even any consent of the span of any specific genre. This is especially noticeable in experimental areas of music creation.

• What was the pivotal reason that made you decide to release your first album “Sentant”?

Hmm.. many asked me that question and it is still hard for me to answer that, I guess I should thank a very special lady I met at that time that was the “muse” for creating and making the album “Sentant”. Just as the album title says I had to release the feelings and express what I felt at that time. I think many people can relate to the feelings and emotions conveyed by the tracks on the album. It was a hard eight months period when I created the album, very intense and personal. I isolated myself from almost everybody I knew and from everyday life, I barely had time to eat or sleep just persistently working on the tracks, but I think the end result was very satisfying.

• Your second album “ Journey through an electric garden” was released with a very short time span succeeding your first release. Was there an abundance of tracks or did you just have a very creative period?

Well “Sentant” was complete around the end of 2007, the album “Journey through an electric garden” was complete around mid 2008 so there is a big time difference and those two albums also represents two different time periods I had. You can hear the changes in vibes between the two. “Journey through an electric garden” is more upbeat, I would call it more experimental and minimal compared with “Sentant”.

• How come you have released (relatively) such a large amount of remix albums?

Been asked that a lot. I think it is a unique remix project where each album concentrate on one music style. The first one “Sleeping with giants” released by Ricochet dreams records, was downtempo chill electronica. The second “Conversations with god” released by Altar records was progressive trance style. And the last one named “Room 305” progressive house style was released his year on Bonzai progressive records.

Personally I am extremely satisfied by this remix project as I listened to some very cool remixs to my tracks.

I can imagine that, it must be very interesting to hear other artists interpretations of your own work.

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  Do you have any favorite artists of your own and if so which ones?

Cant really say if I have any particular artist, I love many music genres although I do have my own favorite songs and tracks but I guess everybody has their own loved songs. I do love what bill leeb and his music partner ryhms fulber ( conjure one,delerium, front line assembly etc) has been creating in the past 20 year

• Can we expect to see you on any festival this summer?

Yeah sure hadra festival in France 7-10 July this year and the aurora festival Greece 23-29 august this year.

• How do you regard music? Is it just a natural thing for you to create or is there also some kind of genuine idea or concept you want to convey with it?

Most tracks I made started from a sound, a phrase, from a movie or some emotion or experience. I had that I wanted to express, I always loved music and always “played” tracks and music in my head, I am glad I had the opportunity to learn how to create and produce it so people can listen to it too and hear whats been going on in my mind.

That's nice, then you are actually trying to express yourself with your music, that is something that really can't be said of most music these days. Speaking of which, what is going on in your mind as of now? Are you working on anything new?

A new remix I made for martin juha new ep named :” memento” will be released early next month.

It has a more space ambient vibes and I am really loving this remix martin was satisfied by this remix too, so I hope the people will react the same. I am also working now with an artist form Israel named salva, we already created a few demos. The demos are much more raja ram, shpongle style so I think it is a good direction I am taking. I am currently busy trying to promote the remix albums so I dont have much time to create new tracks but I already have new ideas as to how the next album should sounds like and what vibes and atmosphere I would like to create there.

• What do you think the psychedelic experience is? Does it have any ontological relevance or is it more like watching a movie, just something that happens in your mind, a story, a fairytale?

I think it is a very unique and personal experience that changes from each person. Each person can have its own psychedelic experience and it will not be similar to what his friend had cause we never know what he or she experienced and what went in his mind at that moment.

• But don't you think that is a possibility to sort of generalize the experience, and in some way attack it with a scientific attitude? That there is something in common for everyone that experiences it?

Have to say no, I don’t think you can generalize people and the psychedelic experiences they had. You got the religious experiences you have the LSD experiences etc. I still think any experience is unique to the individual. The only thing I can think about is that all those people that do have it or go through this stage seek something more then the ordinary life or reality, I do think they this can “altar” the way you see life and especially the person own life and experiences.

* Allright :) Well thank you very much Idan for this interview and I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavours!