(Unsigned)
Genre: Metal/Hardcore akin to Endwell or A Jealousy Issue
Interviewed on: 1/2/08
From: Queens, NY
www.myspace.com/lostandnooneknows
1. What are your names and roles in the band?
Band-
Originally it was me, Alex, and Jon. We started as a simple side project when we were all in St Francis Prep high school. We were all in other bands at the time so we never really thought we would go anywhere. All we wanted to do is play music that we had never played before in any of our other projects... heavy, brutal, hardcore, metal ass music, haha. We eventually started playing some local shows just for fun and I guess we just caught on! When we all realized we could actually make something out of the band, we quit all of our other projects and dedicated ourselves to LANOK. That was about three years ago and so far its paying off!
2. How did the band form?
Band-
Originally it was me, Alex, and Jon. We started as a simple side project when we were all in St Francis Prep high school. We were all in other bands at the time so we never really thought we would go anywhere. All we wanted to do is play music that we had never played before in any of our other projects... heavy, brutal, hardcore, metal ass music, haha. We eventually started playing some local shows just for fun and I guess we just caught on! When we all realized we could actually make something out of the band, we quit all of our other projects and dedicated ourselves to LANOK. That was about three years ago and so far its paying off!
3. You filmed a video for "Cellphone Romance" awhile back, how did that go?
Band-
Besides being up for almost 20 hours straight and working/driving for about 18 of them, it was a lot of fun. The parts of the video where you see the band playing live were shot about two hours away from us in Danbury, CT at a Railroad Museum. The owner was nice enough to let us in at 7AM to start filming in exchange for a small donation to the museum. The parts of the video where the female vocalist was on the train were filmed there as well. They actually let us have an entire train car to ourselves to film those beginning scenes, and had one of their engineers drive it around the yard for us. The rest of the scenes were filmed around Brooklyn and Queens, NY. Over all it was a whole lot of fun doing that video. Suzie Zeldin, the female vocalist in the video and on the recording, was awesome enough to wake up at 5AM to go shoot this with us! Knaight, the director, is one of the coolest guys we have ever worked with. I have to plug him... his myspace is myspace.com/knaight. Any bands that want a video done should most defiantly check him out!
4. "Cellphone Romance" also features female vocals, how did that come about to have a guest singer on the track and who is she?
Band-
There’s actually a great story behind this. The beginning part of Cellphone Romance was written for a while after we had already worked out the vocals for the main part of the song. But we could never quite figure out what we wanted to do for that part vocally. I tried so many different vocal patterns for that part and nothing ever seemed to work. We brought it to our producer Bryan Russell, and he said without hesitation that "This needs some female vocals." We immediately knew he was on to something. Locally, his girlfriend Suzie Zeldin, was (and still is) an incredibly talented female signer/song writer. The very next day we had her in the studio with us to start brainstorming. We played her the track and told her the motivation behind the lyrics. Within seconds she started to come up with a melody and the beginnings of some lyrics. The very next day she put down her parts perfectly. We got the chills when she was done, it was just meant to be. What a lot of people don't know is that those beginning lyrics were written by Suzie as a response to Joe's lyrics, who was our vocalist at the time.
5. What can we expect from the new album, name of the band and possible upcoming tour?
Band-
Oh man... all I can tell you is to expect a lot more than we have ever given before. This new album is a huge accomplishment for all of us. It is a huge step up from anything we have ever done in the past. A lot of people have been worried that we are going soft for this new EP... but that couldn't be farther from the case. We still have our 2-steps, we still have our breakdowns, and we still have sing-alongs. The only difference is we brought all of it to a whole new level. We have influences ranging from bands like Panerta, to Every Time I Die, to The Bled, to Meshugga, and a whole lot more. We just can't wait to release it.
As for the new name of the band, we can't quite tell you that yet. We are keeping it a "secret" until sometime before the EP comes out. A lot of people don't like the idea of this name change, but we really feel that it is a necessary step we have to take. We have changed a lot since we adopted the name Lost And No One Knows, and it really doesn’t fit us as a band anymore. There's more regarding our reasoning on the name change that you can read about in our blog on MySpace.
And finally, our upcoming tours. Right now we are totally focused on making this CD the best we can possibly make it, so shows and touring took a back seat to that. All we are playing currently are local shows and short weekend tours. But this summer we will be back on the road again... with WHO is the surprise! News on that should be released around March.
6. Any good show stories?
Band-
There are way to many show stories to write down here, haha, but I can defiantly tell you our very first good show story. It was about two years ago and we were on our very first tour. It was the last day of the tour and we were playing in Sayre, PA. We have never even heard of this place before and didn't really expect it to be much of anything. The rest of the tour was pretty decent and we were just out to have some fun. When we got there, we were the first band to arrive. At 5PM when the doors were supposed to open, there were about three people there. It was a bummer, but shit like that happens all the time to every band out there. By the time it was our turn to hit the stage, there were about 20 kids in the room. We set up, tune up, and ring out. As we were setting up, we didn't even notice the 200 kids that wandered in. When we started playing the place absolutely exploded. It was the first "big show" experience we have ever had out of NY city, and it was the most amazing feeling ever. After the set we were signing autographs left and right like we were Fall Out Boy or something, it was just an amazing experience. That show really gave us the courage to keep touring and getting our name out there, because if a town we had never heard of before made for such an awesome show... imagine what the rest of the country can do for us.
7. What's your favorite song to play live and why?
Band-
Personally, my favorite song to play live is Stay Sexy. I'm not necessarily saying its our best song, but its defiantly a lot of fun to play live. The entire song is nothing but 2-step and breakdown, and it’s relatively easy to play which makes getting into the song a lot easier and a lot more fun. And people usually go the craziest to that song (aside from Cellphone) so its really fun to watch the audience.
8. Being from Queens, there's a lot of hardcore history that comes from NY, who are your influences?
Band-
Well we grew up with the guys in Endwell and Without Reason and Emmure and Stifling Neglect, so they really gave us our first taste of hardcore when we were young. Of course Hatebreed were really the first ones to blow up out of our area so they were defiantly a reason to play what we play. But these days, our influences are all over the place. Jon is more into the classic metal era (Metalica, Pantera, ect.), Alex is more into the death metal scene (As Blood Runs Black, Black Dalia), Eric is way off the charts with a lot of the prog-rock he listens to but he still keeps his routes with hardcore, Pell likes pretty much anything that’s brutal, and I am more into the post hardcore and southern hardcore scene (Every Time I Die, The Bled, The Gorgeous, The Acacia Strain).
9. What are you currently listening to?
Band-
Currently we are all addicted to The Big Dirty by ETID, the new Black Dahlia album, and the new Bled Album... but we always try not to be on one thing for too long, haha.
10. What's next for Lost And No One Knows?
Band-
Nothing but bigger and better things for us! New tour, new EP, new merch, our new line up... new and better everything. We really keep good updates on our myspace (myspace.com/lostandnooneknows) so most of the news for all our upcoming stuff will be posted there.
11. Any shoutouts?
Band-
To anyone who has read this interview up to this point. Thank you for caring about a little unsigned band from Queens just trying to get people to hear our music :)
And if anyone thinks they should have been individually noted here... they should shup up because they know we love them. And thank you Mike, for doing this interview with us!
