Erica Lee is the main songwriter and producer of the band I’m in, Thanks Mom. We’ve just finished sixth year of secondary school in Kildare. Although I’ve known her for years, when she was put in my class in fifth year, we became good friends. We had mutual interests – a big one being music. One day on the balcony of the school gym, she begged me to start a band with her. There was a busking event in school that same week, so I just decided to go for it with her. We’ve been at it ever since, now with our bassist Amélie and our drummer Cillian. I’m interviewing her because she’s the main songwriter in the band and leads the DIY songwriting process.
What do you think are the advantages to producing at home?
There’s no one there to judge you. You get to do everything yourself. Like, if you want to make a song that’s just screaming into a mic for three minutes, you can. Lo-fi music is a place to express yourself in the presence of no one else.
What does the band name ‘Thanks Mom’ mean to you?
I like that our band name is nondescript. Like, when you hear ‘Thanks Mom’ you don’t know what it is, it could be folk, it could be lo-fi indie rock – it probably couldn’t be death metal.
We’re a lo-fi band, but not like that girl that’s been studying on YouTube livestream for years. In lo-fi music, there’s a lot more authenticity. The music isn’t perfectly planned out, production-wise and maybe even lyrically, compared to something made in a studio. But it’s true and original, and sometimes that’s what makes it more relatable.
What do you think is so important about an online community in music?
Online there’s complete freedom when it comes to music. I think it takes away the sort of elitism in the music industry where you’re signed to a contract, you have to make six albums, and there’s a guy in a business suit telling you what to do. But online, there’s so many different artists and anyone can do it.
The online music community is giving young people a voice. Compared to years ago where you’d have to pay a lot of money for studio time, now you can just open your phone and make whatever you want, whenever you want, and you can put it wherever you want for free.
Have you had many interactions with other bands online?
There’s one person in particular who’s in a really cool band called Keep it Together. They’re from the UK, and we met in a YouTube comment section under a video of their song. They’re in the UK, but we started a folk band together called Celestial Pegasus. I’ve never met this person. We have a Google slide, and each slide is a song, the title of the song and all the lyrics, and we just upload audio files.
How did you learn to produce music?
It’s a really slow and boring process. First it started on my iPad with GarageBand, and then I’d see someone online with GarageBand on the laptop, so I’d get inspired and do the same. Then I’d see someone with Reaper and then I’d get Reaper. It’s like a spiral of seeing what others are doing, then you want plugins and pedals and so on. It’s easy to just mess around with things and see how they sound – and hopefully get somewhere.
Who’s your biggest inspiration?
Probably Will Toledo from Car Seat Headrest. I heard his lo-fi music, and it was the first time I thought, ‘Oh my God, I could do this’. All of his early stuff was recorded with his laptop and his laptop microphone. It’s really cool that lo-fi music gives a kind of pathway to work yourself up to an actual studio and artists can create their own opportunities.
And Will Toledo’s album Twin Fantasy, which was first recorded on his laptop, was eventually re-recorded seven years later in an actual studio. Even though the songs on the first recorded version are very low quality, I prefer some of those songs over the higher quality recordings.
The lo-fi-ness gives it emotion. The first one is kind of bad, but that’s what makes it so good. You can tell it’s 17-year-old Will in his room, and you can hear the emotion in it. It brings a sort of closeness to it.
How would you describe the music scene in Kildare?
Dead. The music scene in Kildare Town is dead. I actually want to start a riot about it. There’s like nowhere in Kildare Town to play music, and then I see other towns like Portarlington, where they do open mics and battle of the bands, festivals and everything. We need a platform for bands.
Recently we played at Forest Fest 2023, our biggest gig yet. Playing for a big crowd, there’s nothing like it.
What would it mean for Thanks Mom and any other band to have a platform to perform?
Playing actual gigs is a really big motivation to practice – getting ready to perform to an actual audience. That’s how you build a following, because when you’re at home you can do the take a million times, but practising and playing your best for an audience is fun. Those few people might then go to another show, and getting to meet and support other bands is just as good too.
Commuting to gigs is fun and all until no one shows up, because no one knows you, and you don’t have an audience in these places. Our audience is online. That’s where we’re at home.
What do teenagers think about the news media?
This weekend, for the first time, the content of The Irish Times Magazine will be written entirely by teenagers. The six volunteers tackle subjects including the pitfalls of Tiktok, why many young women drop out of sport and what it is like to be a wheelchair user. One of their mentors for the project was Patrick Freyne, who recorded a conversation with them about the way their generation consumes news and the issues they really care about.
It’s sad because there’s so many really good bands, like Thanks Mom, Dopamine, The Mute, Radar, Epilogue, and they all don’t have a space in their own towns to perform. Which kind of makes the online music community cool – but you do need that real-life connection.
Grace Doyle was mentored by Irish Times journalist Conor Capplis
A special Teenage Edition of the Magazine this weekend features articles written by aspiring young journalists on issues that matter to them, from the impact of TikTok on their lives, to accessibility, sustainable fashion, making music, and keeping young women playing sport.
