My daughter Áine recently participated in a talent show at her school. She and her girlfriends decided to form a band. One of the first things they did was work on finding a name for their group. They went through a bunch of them and found out their favorite, the Lemon Drops was a group back in the 90’s. The same with the Lemon Heads. They then, in 11-year-old-wisdom, decided to call themselves The Lemon Zests.
The Zests turned out to be a great collection of girls. All the kids are first of all, friends. Second of all, they all are of different and in most cases, mixed ethnicities. They had a cool look on the stage for a bunch of fifth graders. Finally, they worked hard at rocking it out. For the talent show, they went way back into the 1980’s and chose to perform the Go-Go’s version of "Our Lips Are Sealed.” I was surprised by the choice, but when you look at the video of that group, they were a bunch of young women, having a great time in a world that (especially then) was dominated by a lot of male rockers.
A couple of times they rehearsed over at our house, out in our “Nillis Hall”, the Airbnb that originally was going to be a music studio. I was happy that the girls made it be briefly the space it was intended for.
The girls worked on getting the song perfect. I gave some dad-like pointers and encouraged them to develop a little bit of stage presence.
With a few breaks here and there to gorge on Oreos, chips, bubbly water and the like, they managed to pull together a group.
I brought the speaker system over to the school for the run-through. The girls got up on stage, this time with all their instruments, including Helena’s full drum kit. I told them it would be cool if they yelled out their name, “We Are The Lemon Zests” at the top of their voices and then have Helena click her sticks four times over her head to get the beat going. As soon as they did this, a small group of third and second graders wandered over to sit and watch them perform. The magic was happening.
I was told that I had to pick up the girls' t-shirts. The Lemon Zests had a band uniform!
Áine created a logo and after picking up the shirts, I went back to the school to set up the speaker system for the big show. They had a dress rehearsal and this time; the school staff and a few parents were nodding their heads along with the Zests as they performed their song.
Unfortunately, I missed the official showcase of talent. I had to watch the video Annie shot while I was on the road performing. But the Zests came through on their debut to the world. You can enjoy a bit of their show by clicking here.
Now, I wonder what will happen. Will these girls literally band together to keep on playing? Ruby will be moving to another school next year. That’s hard for any band, but it is also what drives a band forward. Perhaps they will continue to at least play and practice together regardless of whatever school. Will Koto and Áine start writing songs? Will Alexa and Ella stick with being co-lead singers? Was it all just a flash in the pan? Maybe or maybe not. But I am a proud musician poppa that these girls took on the idea of forming a band, rehearsed, chose a name, made a logo, bought t-shirts and performed as a real band. And their schoolmates loved it. Yes, my hope is that this will not be the last we hear from The Lemon Zests. The world needs them right now.
READ MARTIN'S OTHER BLOG HERE.