New Nu-Punk darlings Lielack flourish this year with their new infectious and emotionally driven single "Blossom."
A band's story makes up the very fabric of their existence. From creating a name to the journey forward, it's easy to forget with the music we love to listen to how important those stories become. For multi-genre pop-punk band Lielack, their story for how this band started was like most others, but the struggle for how they got there propelled them forward to begin something bold and unique.
“We’ve taken kinda a “fuck a genre” mindset. We like all sorts of different music, I feel most people do, why can't we make different sounds?”- Jason Pascucci (Vocals)
While many bands don't often survive breakups and the constant sway of different creative directions, Lielack would get through on the honesty of their sound and their determination to move forward. Still fresh and new to the scene, Lielack has not been afraid to play with different musical genre territories, and the same is true with their new single, "Blossom."
Stretching their legs and showing off a new side to their sound, "Blossom" is painting us a nu-punk-pop approach to their instrumental and lyrical landscape. While "Blossom" is the only glimpse we have of their new sound currently for 2022, Lielack promised more to come within the year. If "Blossom" is the flowering start to their year, then we can only imagine the garden that will grow when the year is out.
What started Lielack? What inspired the name behind it?
Jason Pascucci (Vocals) - We were all part of a different band before starting Lielack with a different frontman. The band ended up going different ways, and so we started Lielack. My (Jay-Vocalist) wife’s favorite flower has always been lilacs. The spelling is sort of based on one of the principles we as a band and as people live by…honesty (lie…lack…like lacking lies get it?)
What are your musical influences? It has these infectious pop-punk overtones with these cool rap afternotes. How did they make their way into your new single "Blossom?"
Jason Pascucci (Vocals) - Our influences are all over the place. We love everything from metal to classical. I’ve always loved straight-up pop music as well as pop-punk. We have a couple of grunge songs (released and in post-production) but the main sound of Lielack I would call like a nu-punk-pop. We do kinda dabble in the rap and pop genres with some hints of pop-punk but I certainly wouldn’t call us pop-punk. I don’t really know, maybe there isn’t really a defined genre yet. Not sure if that’s a good thing…like we’re kind of ahead of it, or if we’re just completely moon booting and all over the place. I know we like our music and were having a blast making it, so we’re just going to keep doing it.
How was this creative process different from any of your other work in the past? I know "Walls" was more atmospheric and dreamy in terms of instrumental delivery. Even before that, "Cold Sober" felt more grungy and heavy.
Jason Pascucci (Vocals) - Some songs really just write themselves. Lyrically, instrumentally, it just comes from like out of nowhere. This was not one of those songs. There was a version of "Blossom" that had completely different lyrics and themes altogether, that we ended up completely scrapping and re-writing. It was a process. By the time the song was finished, we didn’t know what good even meant anymore. That feeling is so weird but honestly, as a sober person… it's the closest thing I can get to feeling out of my mind on Xanax, haha.
Lyrically where did "Blossom" stem? Where was the mindset when you began to write this single?
Jason Pascucci (Vocals) - It’s gonna sound cheesy AF, but the song is about my relationship with my wife. We started dating in 8th grade and had broken up and gotten back together probably 3 or 4 times since then. One of my favorite books from our middle school reading list was S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders”. I foolishly broke up with her at the end of 8th grade via note to which I closed with the classic “Stay Gold” line.
When she broke up with me in 10th grade she retaliated with a grand slam and left a STAY GOLD at the end of her note too. Either way, our relationship had a lot of distance issues, from her being away at college, my US Navy enlistment, as well as my struggle with substance abuse and subsequent stays in various rehabs and institutions. It was always a distance issue or time restriction thing but somehow we always made it a priority to see each other. This song is basically about the whole history of our love.
What have you taken from these single experiences being that they all are so vastly different from each other?
Jason Pascucci (Vocals) - We’re definitely getting a feel for what people like and what they don’t. Fortunately, there’s a pretty even but amount of different people who like some songs vs. the others. Luckily if you come to see us live and you don’t like our harder songs, it’s a perfect opportunity to take a quick bathroom break or get a drink or something haha. We’ve taken kinda a “fuck a genre” mindset. We like all sorts of different music, I feel most people do, why can't we make different sounds? I think that the culture is changing too…you can see it on the festival bills this year too, you have Rebecca Black playing with Wage War and 2 Chainz all playing the same festival sorta thing.
What is next for you guys this year?
Jason Pascucci (Vocals) - We actually have some pretty big things in the works, unfortunately, we’re not completely able to talk about all of them yet, but I assure you 2022 is totally going to be our year!