We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Who Shot Lulu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Who Shot Lulu thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
We all grew up with a background of music. Through our diverse backgrounds the soundtrack to our childhoods varied, but there was always the middle ground between us of a love for music. The formation of our band is actually an interesting story. Jenna and Halle met at music major orientation on the first day of college at New York University. A few days later we were introduced to Tomy, and the three of us started drafting songs, and the addition of David and Julen from class solidified the lineup. Writing music together is always a unique experience because we are approaching the songs from different angles. This creates a genre-bending experience for our listeners. The most essential strength of Who Shot Lulu’s dynamic is our process of collaboration. We are all coming from different places and can come together with an open mind of how the song might turn out. This did make it challenging to define our sound because we scrapbook so many concepts together, but we were able to prevail because of our tight-knit relationships within the band. When we wrote ‘Stupidly Stagnant’ we definitely had a “this is it” moment.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Who Shot Lulu is an eclectic and danceable musical supergroup based in New York City. Jazz, rock, tango, funk, and pure pop combine to create a powerhouse made up of powerful vocals, compelling guitar riffs, prodigious drum patterns, delectable bass lines, and smooth and unique saxophone. This supergroup masters a genre-bending mix of sounds from different parts of the world. Formed within the walls of NYU’s music programs, these five musicians discovered we had something special. After spending five months on curating songwriting that is deeply rooted in our unique personalities, we had to make the music move. One really special aspect of our live performances is that they have energy to make you dance. In 2023 alone, we played 10+ shows in the New York City rock scene. Our strength is our headlining concerts, private events, and spotify presence. Our recording process is distinctive to our sound. Our most recent single, ‘Pretty’ is recorded live, with few overdubs. Multi-tracking live isn’t the standard nowadays, but since our live show presence is so strong it made a lot of sense to try and capture that feeling in the studio. Our instrumentation is also personable to our band. Our bass is fretless, our drummer plays jazz and flamenco, we have a saxophonist who is “jazz-ically” trained, our vocals are a one of a kind mix of delicacy and euphonious power, and our guitar is a funky attempt at alternative rock. We try to make our production style as “out-there” and genre bending as we can, which will be evident in our coming singles. Who Shot Lulu is a curation of stories from our unique perspectives and collegiate instrumental backgrounds coming together to form an unforgettable musical experience.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Our music is storytelling. Compositionally, lyricism is the main inspiration for our music and the accompaniment is what brings them to life. If you listen to the lyrics of our music, it conveys a storyline or perspective that is intended to resonate with the right listeners. For example our newest release, ‘Pretty’ is a queer pop anthem with empowering lyrics that explore the internal struggle of coming to terms with your identity, while coming of age. The most rewarding aspect is to see our storytelling resonate with the audience through their own individual experiences and interpretations of the song. There’s really nothing that compares to the feeling of strangers singing along at our concerts and collectively feeling the music with us. Regarding the production of the music, it’s always a thrill to achieve the sonic and tonal qualities that we envision for each song once we step into the studio. The influences for the songs are extremely thought out, and being able to embody and combine records and artists we love through our music is always fulfilling. The most rewarding aspect of Who Shot Lulu is telling our story and creating art with our best friends.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Support is the largest thing small artists like us need to thrive in our creative ecosystem. Whether that is emotional support, creative support, or financial support, it is all essential to make the creation of music more accessible. Accessibility is a large challenge in the music industry for independent artists producing their own music. Releasing music is expensive and time consuming, between the hours of recording hundreds of takes in the studio, to mixing and mastering, to album art, copyright, promotion, social media presence, and performing the music live. Having access to these resources doesn’t come easily and if there was a way to make these things more public, it could greatly benefit artists across the globe. One thing that Who Shot Lulu strives for is to have our music be as accessible as possible to our audience. That there is no barrier between us as musicians to our listener, we are one unit of creative expression and impression together.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/whoshotlulu/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhoShotLulu
- Soundcloud: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4pU9YrkWEXHxfGwtxPpbSk?si=4z_uX9qDTwmDivXL-LjDgQ
Image Credits
Hunter Matthew – Black and White Photoshoot
Who Shot Lulu – Film Cameras