• Music & clubs
  • “I have the time of my life”: Lemongrab’s Léonie Dishaw on playing Synästhesie Festival

Verbatim

“I have the time of my life”: Lemongrab’s Léonie Dishaw on playing Synästhesie Festival

Read Lemongrab band member Léonie Dishaw's thoughts about shifting genres, close friendships and a long-awaited gig.

Lemongrab performing. Photo: @anemonelovesyou

I don’t think any of us really knows what genre Lemongrab is specifically. I’m always describing it as punk, but just the other day, our vocalist Gaëlle [Cordeau] said to me: “No, I realise that we’re a pop band.” But I really don’t agree. Different people are always coming in, and they are all creatively involved; I think that really makes the band. It’s constantly shifting and that’s what keeps me interested.

We’ve been together for about six years, and the music we listen to has changed from psychedelic to post-punk, and now I just really enjoy punk. What has always stayed has been the low-fi energy. We’ve always recorded our albums with friends and in a very short amount of time. It’s basically been live every single day. I don’t know, we’re just having a fucking good time.

I’m proud of her. She’s proud of me.

It’s weird, Gaëlle has been my best friend since I was three years old. Every time we hit a new milestone or accomplish something we dreamed of when we were teenagers, there’s always this moment at the concert where we look at each other with this really cute smile. I’m proud of her. She’s proud of me. We really like to play DIY venues where the people are on the floor like Loophole or Bechereck, but this time we will play at Synästhesie Festival.

Performers at Synästhesie Festival in 2019. Photo: IMAGO / Votos-Roland Owsnitzki

When I first moved to Berlin, I’d been here for two months and I bought the tickets to go because whoa, the line-up was fucking crazy! Stereolab, Black Lips, Deer Hunter and all these amazing bands. I thought, “Yeah, you should be playing this.” And now we are, and I’m very, very proud and very happy to do it with Lemongrab – because I have the time of my life there every year.