Little Red Lung

"The act Little Red Lung took its first real breaths in Knoxville.

In 2008, Zoe Ruth Erwin, who then recorded solo as Little Red Lung, decided to join music friends in Knoxville and spent the next two years as part of the local art scene. She also recorded the EP "Get On the Boat."

"Right before I left I put out a page on Facebook saying I wanted a new line-up — meaning some people other than just me!"

Within three weeks of arriving back in Los Angeles Little Red Lung had gone from a solo project to a quartet. Guitarist Ali Nikou was a longtime friend from when the two taught music at the same school and joined immediately and was followed soon after by bassist Rob Hume. A drummer signed on as well, but was replaced a little later with Nathan Kondor.

The group spent four months woodshedding and then played upwards of eight shows per month to get the band's name out. The group has since expanded to perform outside of the city as much as possible." - The News Sentinel

"Little Red Lung is a four-piece outfit from Los Angeles, CA. On October 26, they’re coming to The Dome in Ashland, MO—135 miles west of STL on I-70, just south of Columbia—to rock your face. Little Red Lung was started by singer and keyboardist Zoe-Ruth Erwin in 2007. She has gathered consummate musicians around her to craft a unique, dramatic and often eerie sound. With a marked originality that cuts through an often superficial L.A. scene, their self-titled album may be the West Coast’s best of 2012..." - Eleven Magazine

"Fans of Knoxville music, you will not want to miss the fantastic trifecta of music to be performed at The Well this Thursday! knoxmusictoday.com favorites Hudson K and Fine Peduncle will provide their typical can’t miss style shows and if you follow this site on a regular basis, you will understand what we are talking about. Check out our introduction to Hudson K here, our buzz about the latest Hudson K video here, and our notes from a Fine Peduncle performance here. But wait! There’s more! Joining them will be a fine band from Los Angeles, Little Red Lung, that features a former resident of Knoxville, Zoe-Ruth Erwin. People, you are not going to want to miss this show!..." - Knoxville Music Today

"First, I want to clarify what I mean by “creepy” girls. I’m calling out to those of you who, like me, appreciate things that deviate from the norm. This is a departure from that which is fluffy and sweet. There is nothing wrong with all things cute, but there are some of us who are in touch with a dark and romantic aspect of our personalities, one that is slightly visceral and intuitive. There are those of us who aren’t afraid to look at something that challenges our perception of reality and makes us twinge a little and makes us walk away without regret.

Despite all this, I hope that even the non-creepy kids are interested in taking a look and a listen to this video and this band, Little Red Lung. I learned about them last year and have since been to two shows here in Los Angeles. I am beyond impressed by what I’ve heard and I think you will be too. Think about how impressed you were when you first heard Florence + The Machine, and you’ll hear a familiar talent in Zoe’s own powerful voice.
Little Red Lung’s prowess transcends the high quality production of their record. Their live shows demonstrate a true sense of musicianship with a sound that envelops the audience and takes everyone’s imagination for a spin with songs like “50 Fingers” and “Into A Landfill.” Zoe’s voice is controlled yet passionate and comes through with beautiful clarity whereas other live bands lose their singers in the rattle of the drums. My admiration of this band has a lot to do with the red-haired siren. Though she plays a keyboard on stage, Zoe’s truest and most powerful instrument is her voice.

Little Red Lung played on Friday, June 22, 2012 at The Center For The Arts in Eagle Rock where they also released the video which you can view above or here. Do not pass up this or any chance to hear them live if you are in the Los Angeles area. And even if you live too far to see them, you can still enjoy them on their official website, which is how I first heard their music.

On a more personal note, I felt it was important to share this band with everyone because it’s made up of good people. They’ve been very friendly and respectful via social media and they have also been very generous. At a Hotel Cafe show earlier this year, I came home with a beautiful poster and stickers that I grabbed for free on my way out. They put a lot of work into what they give to others through their music as well as visual media..." - Hello Giggles

"Months ago, the members of Little Red Lung made the long drive from L.A. to the woods of Felton, north of Santa Cruz. They met with photographer Sarah Sitkin in the middle of the night in a little cabin hidden deep in the woods, using their cellphones as makeshift flashlights, to shoot photos for what would become the cover for their self-titled EP.
The cover (pictured above) shows the band members wearing costumes created by Sitkin. It's an excellent visual description of the group's sound: Slightly gothic, slightly Victorian and reminiscent of cabaret. Think of Tori Amos jamming with The Dresden Dolls and Florence & The Machine and you're on the right track.
Little Red Lung began in 2009 when singer Zoe-Ruth Erwin left L.A. for eastern Tennessee to work on her photography. She wrote, recorded and released her debut album, Get on the Boat, in the fall of 2010 while still in Knoxville. The album was a collection of haunting, beautiful melodies filled with piano, strings and many layers of Erwin's voice..." - LA Weekly : West Coast Sound

"Little Red Lung are not only a wonderfully complex pop project, but very creative with how their music is packaged. Beautifully detailed artwork on their website, flyers and demos. They’re newest video for my favorite song of theirs, “50 Fingers“, was directed by Sarah Sitkin and is both beautiful and haunting… and just in time for Halloween..." - KCRW

Years ago, in a cold, dark cavern beneath Los Angeles, an ancient coven of witches met in secret to bring to this world something it had never seen before. Born from the sacred fires of magic and witchcraft, summoned from the greatest depths, Little Red Lung came to be. Actually, it didn’t happen like that at all, but it might as well should have.
Little Red Lung is Zoe-Ruth Erwin (vocals/keyboard), Ali Nikou (guitar), Nathan Kondor (drums), and Rob Hume (bass). There is something about them that is ethereal and otherworldly–somewhat like a waking dream or an imaginative walk through an eerie surreality. The voice of Zoe-Ruth Erwin is chilling and cuts through the concocted cacophony of instrumentation. The band’s self-titled album marks its first release.
The album creeps in with “50 Fingers,” a slow, haunting dirge that marches steadfast into layer after layer of dissonance. Erwin has a way of balancing the wire between complete discord and something that is clean and polished, which one might think would not work out so well, but she somehow manages to marry the two effortlessly. Breaking through the murky clamor, “Ink Blot” takes a narrow and more uncomplicated path than the previous track, with shimmering, poignant vocals. “Rare Bird” and “Fang” carry much more of a melancholy tone than the rest of the album, which seems to be driven mostly by a bitter disdain. “Fang” stands out more than the other tracks; stylistically, the song is quite a beautiful-sounding bit of music, without complicated layers or a thick atmosphere. “Into a Landfill” is a ballad of bitterness, marking the central theme to this release.
Erwin has this frustrating, trembling passion to her voice as she speaks of ripping up memories and throwing them away: “I shred it all into a landfill / So stop asking me.” The final track, “Strangling Tree,” starts with nervous, racing, mallet percussion with a fat brass that forms slowly, keeping a pace that chases the heartbeat-like tempo, finally catching up to it and ending with three desperate cries of “strangling tree.” This might have been the most interesting piece on the record–purely in how it was crafted, as it sounds very much like the song itself is caught in a deadly chase to try and save itself from its inevitable end.
Little Red Lung is marvelous at creating an atmosphere in the listener’s mind, and there is definitely a lot of merit in that. Where the magic fades, however, is when it comes to the overall lyrical substance. Most lines do not seem to go along with the next, sometimes even thematically, so that the message is a mixed sort of a hodgepodge of pretty-sounding words and phrases. Perhaps I didn’t get the memo, and the lack of clear definition in songs’ words are meant for listeners to define for themselves. With lines that mostly don’t carry weight and only sound good, the listeners are left wanting more. For instance, the lyrics in the song “Ink Blot”: “You think that you’re a storm cloud in heat / Vertebrae, a thousand daggers deep / The wet air cracks your mouth to speak from battles, line’s long suffering / In worn custody burning the seeds.” It’s difficult to make any sort of connections between the lyrics.
The less-than-striking lyrics remain my only major criticism. Though most of the lyrics seem nonsensical, the music itself is still defined enough to create masterful something on its own. For a debut release, it’s an impressive record, and it’ll be interesting to see this band progress and build off of this material. Little Red Lung has the makings and potential for something great, maybe it’s just a matter of getting a hold of some witches and having them shake their black magic around a little. - The Bomber Jacket

From the first swirl of noise you know you are in for a listening experience that probably has no borders. When the lyrical warbling of Zoe-Ruth Erwin kicks in, along with that Brechtian-style of discordant/industrial/cabaret melodies, the drenched atmosphere makes you feel like you are in some underlit cellar club with bricks on the wall and a single candle on each table. Think Hotel Cafe, but underground...and in Europe. (I happened to see Little Red Lung there for the first time back in January) Listening to the album one is immediately struck by the distinct assurance of this weird amalgam of American/English Punk, Berlin-style Cabaret, Lewis Carroll upside-down logic, and Broadway theatricality. Zoe-Ruth Erwin has obviously been a student of all these genres and ultimately distills them into her own personal style.

Just as they do at their live shows, they transport you to another land, full of new and unusual sounds and surrealistic lyrics. Dripping with mood and always bolstered by a large and varied assortment of guest musicians on instruments like the violin, xylophone, wood blocks, cello, even a trombone, the sound is always surprising and unexpected. Zoe-Ruth's mastery of the keyboard and piano is the leading force along with the regular musicians who form the basic solids in the stew. Ali Nikou on guitar, Nathan Kondor on drums and Rob Hume on bass, but it's Zoe-Ruth's voice, and stage presence, that is just witchy and weird enough that she reminds me of Stevie Nicks.

Soaring melodies and graceful harmonies take off in the first song, "50 Fingers" who' s subject matter remains mysterious as you're lifted up by the clouds of music, the ascending chords wrapping you up in their atmosphere. Six songs later you're astonished at the range of skill and wanting more. Charlene Huang' violin and Cecilia Miller's cello are welcome additions to the orchestral nature of the compositions, both live and on the record. Ali Nikou recorded and mixed the record beautifully at Master Blaster Productions and it's rich and clear sound is at a highly professional level.

I don't know that I can single out favorites yet, but the variety of songs afford opportunity to explore, from the haunting "Fang" to the confrontational "Into a Landfill" to a kabuki-like "Strangling Tree" . I've come across a lot of wonderful music in the last few weeks, but this one is a stand out. It's music like this that keeps me thinking that Rock and Roll as a genre may only now be hitting it's creative apex. Or is that just a hallucination brought on by listening to this Little Red Lung record too much.
- Feed Your Head

One would be hard pressed to find bands in Los Angeles that are willing to transplant themselves to the hills of Tennessee in order to focus on their music careers. Fortunately, Little Red Lung did just that in 2009, only to find their way back to California within recent years to release the self-titled EP Little Red Lung.
From the album cover of the self titled release (to the left), you might guess that the music is a bit…theatric. And, it is. Much like releases from Glasser, Austra, lead singer Zoe Ruth-Erwin sings with a range that is complimented beautifully by strings, horns, and a solid rhythm section.
Only 6 songs, Little Red Lung is the perfect commute album this week, coming in at 23 minutes even. With every listen one may feel as though they are a part of a play in which Little Red has crafted a soundtrack full of organic and living songs. It’s as if the band knows where to place every trumpet swell, each staccato violin note, and when to create a simplistic mayhem within the rhythm.
The band will be touring California in the upcoming weeks, but for the time being you can check out a few tracks below. - The Owl Mag

The vivid orchestral brushstrokes on Little Red Lung’s self-titled EP (released this week) are like a watercolor in motion one moment, and an Edvard Munch come to life the next. At the center of the quartet’s serpentine arrangements — augmented by cello, violin, euphonium, trombone, vibes and other percussion — is singer-keyboardist Zoe-Ruth Erwin, an enchantress armed with dark imagery and a dramatic sense of wielding it. The core group, which includes guitarist Ali Nikou, bassist Rob Hume and drummer Nathan Kondor, has been cultivating an album’s worth of songs for over a year, but with Nikou handling production, the EP’s half-dozen (including standout tracks “Ink Blot” and “Rare Bird”) are now fully realized. Haunting, in a seductive sort of way.
- BuzzBandsLA

Genre-defying Little Red Lung came to us not through Zoë-Ruth Erwin, front and center of the project, but because of drummer Nathan Kondor who also plays with RFSL faves George Glass. George Glass is dyed-in-the-wool boy rock—the pleasure in the music is in seeing how far down and around the block a guy can take a guitar line. It’s like trading baseball cards, beauty in the detail and knowledge of minutiae, which on its own terms is an excellent, but quite distinct flavor.

Little Red Lung, who release their self-titled EP at The Satellite tonight, is something else entirely. It’s about the broad epic sweep of sound, aural space not as a small soundproofed practice space, but a sweeping cloud-churned landscape that requires a wide horizontal expanse. The self-titled EP is dramatic and orchestral in its breadth and ambitious in its construction. Credits include strings, brass and a percussion section of marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone and woodblocks in addition to drums. These arrangements evoke a deep dark velvety chocolate night, a gypsy feel with a nod to Devotchka, the 7”, 45 rpm operas of Roy Orbison, and the windblown moors of Kate Bush.

You’d swear that Erwin has the kind of voice you’d have if yours would only cooperate. Her vocals play as an instrument, their power to convey emotion in restraint--to connect with the listener by holding back, rather than through a struggle against the body to get a sound and a feeling out. On songs like “Ink Blot” and “Into a Landfill” lyrics are ambiguous, yet rich with imagery that suggests misinterpretations, miscommunication and love gone wrong, and in “Into a Landfill” a wish that the narrator could have identified deal breaking flaws a bit earlier in the story. This is an outstanding record from a band that is not afraid to be itself, ambitious and unreserved. - Radio Free Silverlake

Female-fronted art-rockers Little Red Lung achieve a singular style whose allure is by turns eerie, intelligent and vampiric. And there's a cabaret-like theatricality to "50 Fingers" and "Ink Blot" with gallons of reverb and cool electronic textures that fans of Bjork will doubtlessly take a shine to. But it's all a warm-up to the affecting, elegaic chamber-pop gem, "Fangs." Carried by acoustic guitar and the beautiful voice of Zoe-Ruth Erwin, the song's memorable, angelic hook is a complete winner, a natural for a bloodsucker movie soundtrack. - Music Connection Magazine

Masterful, moody and mysterious, this is what to expect from Little Red Lung’s new E.P. The California band has used an array of sounds on each track to create an overall psychedelic feel.

“50 Fingers” has a melancholic intro, which introduces some superbly eerie vocals from lead singer Zoe–Ruth Erwin. The vocals supplied, simply ooze sophistication from beginning to end. This is a haunting piece of music that leaves shivers on your spine as it comes through to the listener that the track easily reflects the emotions of the singer and band. Little Red Lung are trying to take a different approach on the traditional indie sound, they are able to do this, however not completely destroying the overall indie feel to the track. It’s really clever and it works.

Have you ever been in that situation when you just can’t get to sleep? And you feel like you are going insane? “Strangling Tree” is a 2 minute and 39 second track that has been cleverly produced to make you feel like you have insomnia and have literally gone crazy.

The captivating sounds and percussion that band Little Red Lung have created can have easily help them to make their mark on the sound of 2012. This is a track that has that extra slice of magic which has the ability to make you want to listen to it over and over again. 2012 is an exciting time for music if this track is anything to go by. “Strangling Tree” is going to sound amazing live on tour and certainly going to be a crowd favourite.

The band, formed in 2007 as a musical exhibition, have certainly showed critics and music producers that they are serious and determined to succeed in the competitive music scene.

If singers Lana Del Ray and Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) were to form a band, then Little Red Lung would be the final product. Both women are powerful, passionate and have a stage presence that fans are intrigued by and want to hear and see more. This links me into track “Rare Bird–Master” an outstanding piece of music showcasing Zoe- Ruth Erwin as a passionate and stylistic front woman. Every lyric is note perfect, as a listener you can certainly hear that she is a perfectionist.

Adding the extra spices to “Rare Bird-Master” is the percussion; it doesn’t over power the guitar or drums used and you could say that it completes the track. It helps this to become a track leading to a fresh new sound.

I recommend Little Red Lung to anyone who fancies a change from the original sound of Indie and wants to sample something new and fresh.

[Editor's note: We received an advance copy of three singles from the future release of Little Red Lung. While this review does not cover the whole album. scheduled for a March release, we hope it gives you a taste of what you'd get with the whole package.] - Indie Music Reviewer Magazine

Little Red Lung create melodies that are almost as twisting and turning as saying their name three times fast. Their song "50 Fingers" is as beautiful as it is somber. Zoe-Ruth Erwin, the band's vocalist and keyboardist, almost dances around Charlene Huang's eerily bittersweet violin. Also comprised of Nathan Kondor on drums, Rob Hume on bass, and Mike Agentis on euphonium, they create their own upbeat melody by working as a nice juxtaposition to that lingering feeling that there's something more going on, which Zoe and Charlene do such a great job in conveying. Close your eyes. Let Little Red Lung immerse you with their dark imagery and chilling atmospherics. Something most bands cannot do these days. - The Deli Magazine

A nice crew of familiar faces dotted the audience here in the heart of Hollywood on a week night. And as has been the case at all the shows I've attended since the first of the year, there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air at this show too. Hard to assess and even harder to explain, it's as if people are reaching out for something out of the ordinary or striving to expand their horizons. Maybe it's just a response to the bad economy, or the mad political circus going on until November. Maybe it's just the spectacle of seeing Newt Gingrich have a temper tantrum worthy of a seven year old.
Whatever it is, this show had the effect of making one forget the outside world and just concentrate on the journey these musicians were taking us on. Little Red Lung is a musically ambitious project headed by Zoe-Ruth Erwin which stretches and expands the boundaries of what is known as indie-rock. Heavily European in its influences, it mixes sweeping cinematic arrangements with quirky, unpredictable melodies supported by Zoe-Ruth's lilting soprano. She plays keys as well with impressive concentration, yet never neglects engaging the audience with her natural charisma.
With Charlene Huang offering gorgeous support with her violin, she often provides the glue which holds together the disparate style and varied musical instruments that are colliding and crashing into each other and constructing the towering edifices of sound that make Little Red Lung sound so unique.
I heard some in the crowd say they weren't sure what they were hearing at first, but that once they relaxed into it, the music began to make sense. That's an apt description of what, at once, sounded like part Kurt Weill, part Jacques Brel, part Claude Debussy, even part Stephen Sondheim. There's a certain theatricality about it that's mixed with an ambiance that recalls a smokey, dark Parisian cellar. It seems simultaneously mannered and natural. Though how you achieve both is a mystery to me.

Begun in 2007 as a project aimed at offbeat clubs or art galleries, the band then moved East to record and tour, eventually landing back in L.A. with a serious intent to break out into the club scene. With a fair amount of buzz backing them they have been playing a lot of shows around and acquainting audiences to their genre-defying musicality. It took me into musical places I haven't explored before. - Radio Free Silverlake

2011 would have been a pretty ho-hum year for new music if it were not for a one Little Red Lung. Moreover, their new album Get on the Boat might have been the debut record of the year except that it ain't coming out until January 2012 -- obviously making it our most anticipated record of the new year. Why such high praise? Well, perhaps because vocalist/keyboardist Zoe-Ruth Erwin has seemingly been summoned from the collective wombs of Tori Amos, Amanda Palmer, and Florence Welch with as much artistic depth of her own to gain the type of devoted following each of those women have. Yet there's something a bit more sinister about the musical magic this band conjures up, a seductive witchery of waltzes that would incite even the most devout crossbearer to do the devil dance. They're brilliant. The band is releasing free tracks up until the release of their new album through Bandcamp. You need to download them all. - la-underground

How to traverse this sonic world created by Little Red Lung? By horse and buggy? Fast cars? Computer-powered hovercraft? The Los Angeles sextet’s inviting hybrid of chamber-pop and folktronica is difficult to pigeonhole, but over a backdrop of strings, guitar, keys and electronic beats, singer Zoe-Ruth Erwin (pictured at last weekend’s Eagle Rock Music Festival) fashions a lyrical netherworld that feels at once like a diary and art project. The band, which includes guitarist Ali Nikou, bassist Rob Hume, drummer Nathan Kondor and string players Charlene Huang and Cecilia Miller, is working on the re-release of an expanded package of their 2010 album “Get On the Boat.” And two new singles, released in August, sweeten the pot.
- Buzz Bands LA

Interview: Little Red Lung

by Joe Fielder

You should go see LA's Little Red Lung. We like them. Their music is, well, unconventional without being inaccessible, interesting but still catchy at the same time.

They're playing at The Eagle Rock Music Festival, which next weekend on Saturday, October 1st from 4 tp 11PM. It's cheap (or free if you suck and don't donate), full of good bands, and you get to walk around in the middle of the street like a zombie.

We spoke to Little Red Lung lead Zoe Ruth Erwin recently to learn more about the group and she pulled in bandmates Ali Nikou and Rob Hume to help answer our multitude of questions.



I've always known you as a really talented photographer. How long have you been a musician as well?

Forever really. Though, for a lot of years I struggled with debilitating stage fright which would often times leave me throwing up before, after(and sometimes both) I got on a stage. I think that's why I really dug into photography as much as I did. It was a way for me to be close to what I so desperately wanted to do, but didn't have the stomach for. I spent years learning about audio engineering and recording other people's music for the same reason.

How did Little Red Lung come together?
A couple of years ago, I was driving through Tennessee during a photo tour of the South I had designated to myself. I spent 3 weeks photographing deteriorating architecture, flush landscapes, and some terrifying back roads of the bible belt. At the end of which, I drove through Knoxville, TN. On a whim, I decided to stay there. Over the course of a year or so, I wrote and recording an album's worth of material. Most of it with my phenomenal cellist Cecilia Miller, and master percussionist Steven Rodgers. Shortly thereafter, I tackled a 3 week co-headlining tour with Stars Regardless(aka Mike Agentis who played Bass and Euphonium on the record). Upon returning, I knew this was what I wanted to do. Forever.

With that in mind, I decided to return to my home stomping ground of Los Angeles and nose dive into the scene I had so adamantly adored for so many years.

I put up a shout out for possible bandmates online shortly before I headed back to town. The first person to answer was Nathan.

He simply said to get ahold of him when I got here. And, after listening to the work he'd done with George Glass, I was both honored and completely pumped that he wanted to be involved.

The second person to get on the boat was Ali. We had been friends for several years but never formed any official musical partnership. I had spent a lot of time waist deep with recording and photographing other bands, and he was committed to his long-time band, Veiled. However, the moment we met up for the first time again, it was obvious that we were creatively/musically made for each other.

After a few weeks of being back in town and working lightly on arrangements, I put out one last post online asking for a bass player.

Within two hours, Rob Hume shot me an email. I had met him the previous week at a Satellite show he was playing with Death to Anders. I remember being in awe of what a kind, warm person he was face to face, and how fierce he was on stage. Basically, the most ideal bandmate you could ever ask for.

As for our resident rip-the-tears-straight-out-of-your-eyes violinist Charlene Huang… She is a long time friend and someone I have been photographing for years. Weather it's with One Trick Pony or dressing her in 1930's attire, she is one of my favorite people to get on film. When this project began to really solidify, I couldn't imaging asking anyone else but her.

What are the backgrounds of all the folks in the band?

Zoe-Ruth Erwin: I'm a Los Angeles native. I'm often spinning between writing/recording my own music, recording the music of others, and photography. Without one, they all die. I spent a really long time being terrified of what I wanted. Now I'm taking it by the throat.

Ali Nikou: I've been in Los Angeles working as a musician for the last twelve years. Through doing hired gigs, I started getting into production work, and have been fortunate enough to open my own studio and production company. It's really nice to go back to playing guitar in a band, but on the creative end still be the producer for the end result. I've never had so much fun and gotten so much done with ease in a band before. Mutual respect and trust is really what makes this whole thing work so well. We give each other tasks knowing that the other person is going to take it to a better place.

Nathan Kondor: I played drums and sang in the punk/hardcore scene of the early 90s in Tucson. Most notably in Hobart. I left for the bay area a couple of times in '94 and then for longer from 1996 to 2006. Took a couple years off from drumming when I got there. Roadied for a bit during what was beginning to look like post-rock. Then I played in some indie bands, recorded some demos and proper records, had a small label put some stuff out, and went on a few west coast tours. I moved to Los Feliz in 2006 and eventually navigated the changing scene, and got in touch with the guys that were forming George Glass. They needed a drummer, and we had similar musical ideas for our next project. Those guys had mentioned Zoe-Ruth, but I never met her before she moved to TN. I saw Little Red Lung put a post up about moving back to LA and wanting to put a lineup together here. I knew I wanted to get involved.

Rob Hume is the tall dutch guy with the bass guitar. His real name is Jeroen. He also plays bass in Death to Anders. He likes german shepherds and cloudy days.

Charlene Huang, a violinist since the age of 4, is a native of Colorado and graduate of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Charlene presently lives and works in Los Angeles, where she has been working in the film music industry for over the past 7 years and indulging her lifelong passions for music and the movies. This year, she became a full-time performer, teacher and freelance music production manager. As a professional violinist, she has worked with famed artists such as Dr. Dre, Adele, Eminem, and has recorded on blockbuster and indie films alike. She is also a prominent recording artist and creative personality in the indie music community of L.A. Performing 100 shows a year or more on average, she is associated with the alt-country/Americana band Leslie and the Badgers, who have toured extensively, and indie rock band One Trick Pony, both groups, which have had national radio airplay as well as placement in film and television. She has recently joined Little Red Lung and is excited to be along for the ride during the band’s debut this year in L.A.

I saw you post a message the other day saying "Just because you go out of your way to make your music overly-complex, muddy, and generally weird, doesn't mean it's good."

I'm guessing that has some relevance to your philosophy behind making music as Little Red Lung...

Zoe-Ruth Erwin: Oh boy… I wrote that in a temporary moment of rage after hearing new material from a great artist that I won't name. It seems to happen a lot now with indie music. There's this fixation on noise, weirdness, and forced complexity that just ruins the integrity of what so many songs were conceived to be. Instead of really taking the time to develop a beautiful melody to compliment equally pungent lyrics, they get tangled up in webs of unnecessary failed noise experiments and sporadic meter-shifting. It turns into a song that's strangling itself, and struggling to cover itself up, rather than allowing itself a framework to covet its intention. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE noise and complexity and weirdness. But not if it doesn't belong. There has to be more of a reason than "just because." Maybe that's really un-rock of me, but at heart I think I might be a purist…

Ali Nikou: Well, for instance, with the song that Zoe and I recently wrote together, one guitar and voice recorded on a computer blew me away more than some of the biggest productions i've ever heard.
It all comes down to what you can convey emotionally.

I prefer to be minimalistic in my instrumental input, so that I don't disrupt the essence of things. I'd rather arrange whatever instrumentation conveys the emotion, rather than just playing something for the sake of playing something. Particularly on our single "Strangling Tree," i didn't feel like there needed to be any guitar on there. I'd rather focus on arranging the horns and cellos than throw something in that would take attention away from what should have focus in the song.

Who are your influences, directly or indirectly?

Zoe-Ruth Erwin: Tom Waits, Peter Gabriel, Rasputina, Radiohead, Why?, St. Vincent, One Trick Pony, Wovenhand, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Neko Case, Jeff Buckley, The Kinks

Ali Nikou: Pink Floyd. Cinematic Orchestra, Beck's "Sea Change" is one of the best modern records I've ever heard. I aim to make that record with every record I make.

Rob Hume: Neil Young, John Jameson, Johan Cruyff, Cesar Milan

You've recorded a number of songs already. How long have these been in the works? Who did you record with?

Initially, I did all the recording/mixing myself. But, since returning to Los Angeles, we've been adding to/remixing/re-masterting our first album "Get on the Boat" at our guitar player's production studio, Blastermaster Productions. Ali is producing, engineering and mixing both the first record, and our second full length record, due to come out in Summer 2012. We're really lucky in the sense that we have our own studio. So we can really hash things out without the anxiety of having to get things done under restrictions.

What's next for the band?

Weeeeeell…we were selected to play at this year's Eagle Rock Music Festival! We'll be playing on the Ship Stage at 6PM on Oct. 1st.

Aside from that, we have all kinds of plans in the works. We will be re-releasing "Get on the Boat" in the first weeks of 2012. And, to celebrate, we're putting together a tour to Austin's SXSW Festival and back. From there, we will be releasing our second full-length album in the Summer of 2012. Then, supporting it with another Eastern US tour. In and in between all these little mile markers, we just want to keep playing shows on a constant basis. Now that our sea legs are getting strong, it makes no sense to slow down.

What's the status of your photography work?

It's always ongoing. It is incredibly rare to ever see me at a show without a camera in my hand. I also like to keep the photography integrated with Little Red Lung by continually coming up with new concept art.

Last question: What are you listening to right now?

Zoe-Ruth Erwin: Austra - Feel It Break

Ali Nikou: Dirt Bird - Summer Night Hours

Rob Hume: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak

Okay, one more. What are your next shows?

OCTOBER 1ST : EAGLE ROCK MUSIC FESTIVAL
- Ship Stage
- 6PM

OCTOBER 3RD : THE BOOTLEG THEATER
- 8:30PM

OCTOBER 21ST : LOT 1 (Hosted by la-underground)
Time TBA
- Radio Free Silverlake

The artist known as Little Red Lung finds her muse in East Tennessee

By Steve Wildsmith
stevew@thedailytimes.com
Destiny wouldn't be denied when it comes to Zoe Ruth-Erwin.

The local photographer and musician who performs as Little Red Lung fought it without realizing she was doing so. But fate was insistent that she meet East Tennessee musician Wil Wright of the band Senryu, with whom she would forge a lasting friendship. Because the encounter with Wright would lead her, eventually, to East Tennessee, where she's created a new life for herself and is preparing to release a new album titled “Get on the Boat.”

And it almost didn't happen.


“Wil's band Physics of Meaning had played in Los Angeles three or four times, and a lot of my friends kept telling me, ‘Oh my God; you have to come see this band with me! They're so good!,' but I always told them, ‘I have work to do!'” Ruth-Erwin told The Daily Times this week. “One night, totally by accident, I was out seeing another band that a friend was in, and Physics of Meaning just happened to be playing afterward. I saw them and thought, ‘They look amazing while they play; I'm going to take photos.'

“After the show, I went up to Wil because he was playing in these powder-blue disco pants, and I told him I had taken photos. He offered me a CD, and he e-mailed me the next day and asked, ‘Do you want to be my friend until the end?' And I said, ‘Yeah.'”

It's a weird story, she admits — but not to those who know Wright. His charisma and creativity combine into an impish charm that's magnetic to like-minded musicians and artists. The friendship was a lasting one, and a year and a half ago, Ruth-Erwin would stop through Knoxville to see Wright during a photo tour of the South.

“I went to one semester of art college and realized it definitely wasn't worth $14,000 per semester to study things I wasn't interested in mostly,” she said. “My dad offered to send me on a tour of the South because I'd always wanted to photograph deteriorating Southern architecture, so I rented a car and drove all over. I came through Knoxville because Wil and I were friends, and the last time I did, I just really, really liked it — so I just never left. I had my mom ship all my stuff to me.”

She found herself in Wright's merry band of artists and scenesters, and she quickly established her photography business on a local level. Gradually, the flames of desire to create music — a fire she thought she'd extinguished years earlier — began to smolder. It wasn't long before she took up songwriting again.

“I was actually really into writing and wanted to be an English teacher originally, but that switched when I was 17 or 18, and I was like, ‘I want to sing!'” she said. “I went to a music school for vocals but didn't really like the vocal program, so I got into recording. I went to two different recording studios and recorded a lot of bands.”

Upon moving to Knoxville, she hadn't tried writing a song in several years. Even then, the thought of performing them in public was terrifying — crippling stage fright had, in her past, led to bouts of nausea both before and after a show. But in Knoxville, she built up her confidence at Senryu performances — singing at many of them, accepting Wright's encouragement and bonding with the other musicians in his circle.

Once she decided to pick up the pen again, the floodgates opened. The end result, “Get on the Boat,” is an album of swirling beauty, a collection of songs much like her self-titled EP, released last year. On that album, Ruth-Erwin's voice flows through each song, shifting tone and pitch from an ache so deep the listener feels it in the chest, to the weary meditation on the nature of God. The new album, she said, may be cryptic on the surface in terms of meaning, but it's drawn from personal experience.

“It's basically pulling from the dysfunction you have in every single relationship you have with every single person in your life,” she said. “I've taken all of those things and interpreted them into things having to do with animals and with weird imagery, deconstructing it and then reconstructing it in a way that makes sense. It's just really one of those things where I just sit down and either exactly what it should be comes out, or else it's complete crap — and if it's that, I'll know within five or 10 minutes of working on it, and I'll stop and work on something else.

“I don't even really think about what I'm writing when I'm writing it. I'll write it and then interpret it later, and it makes sense. Every song that's on this record was one of those songs that, when I finished recording the vocals and the piano, I knew it definitely was it. This album is kind of a group of my winners.”

The official CD release is Saturday night at The Pilot Light in Knoxville; it caps a short run with local outfit Stars Regardless, and it's a homecoming for Ruth-Erwin in more ways than one. After all, the artist known as Little Red Lung — the name lifted from a mostly forgotten dream she had in the back of a car while on tour with Senryu — wouldn't be an artist at all if it wasn't for Knoxville.

“I was really unhappy in LA the last couple of years I was there, mainly because the pace is just so fast and so demanding, and when you mess up, it feels like a thousand pounds,” she said. “When I came to Knoxville, everything was a little slower, and people are a little nicer. There's kind of this universal courtesy of the people next to you that everybody abides by that doesn't really happen in LA.

“I'm enchanted by it. I don't think, if I hadn't moved to Knoxville, that I would've written this music.” - The Daily Times

A very sophisticated blend of programmed beats, keyboards, strings and expressive, imaginatively phrased vocals, Little Red Lung presents that rarity, a totally individual, completely coherent artistic vision. They really don’t sound like anyone else, although there are moments when a hint of something shines through, a whiff of Portishead or a distant rumble of Suzanne Vega… Excellent stuff throughout. - Live Unsigned

We all love legal free music, but sometimes it baffles me why unsigned artists give their music away for nothing. Do they lack confidence that someone would part with a few PayPal pounds for their latest EP? Are they simply trying to grow a fanbase by snagging them with free goodies? Maybe garner attention from a major label? Probably most motivations are different.

One free EP I’ve come across lately is Little Red Lung and for this I’m not complaining.

Little Red Lung, aka Zoe-Ruth Erwin from Knoxville, Tennessee has an affected presence on her self titled – and free downloadable – EP. It shifts from forlorn heartbreak, to smug bitterness, to ominous predator, in no less than 5 tracks. There’s something dark yet charming about Little Red Lung EP. It’s not big or flashy – no bells or whistles. It mostly meanders, expands and retracts with bowed strings, slide guitars and twinkling pianos, occasionally throwing out moments of true interest. The main focus here however is Zoe-Ruth’s engaging voice, vulnerable lyrics and delicate harmonies; executed with an endearing slight Southern drawl. - 2unedin

Erwin grew up in Los Angeles.

"My mom and dad were major hippies, and I grew up with all this older music - Carole King, Aretha Franklin, the Band ... "

Erwin studied vocals and keyboards at the SAE Institute in Los Angeles but was more drawn to the audio engineering and recording program. Her final project was an EP of her own music, which is available for free download at www.littleredlung/bandcamp.com.

Photography and visual art had also become a passion, and Erwin traveled to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, while doing a photo feature on the group Death to Anders. She also began engineering recordings for local bands.

It was, in fact, while traveling through the South taking photos of deteriorating buildings and houses that Erwin first visited Knoxville two years ago. Erwin had friends in town, "and I decided I was happier in Knoxville than Los Angeles, so I never went home," she says.

She also found it inspirational.

"I started writing the new album when I got to Knoxville," says Erwin.

Still, Erwin says she's happiest when she's traveling and touring.

"I get really impatient and bitchy when I stay in one place too long. If I can just keep recording and traveling around I'll be happy." - News Sentinel

On the same tour, and also supporting a fantastic new album, is Little Red Lung (aka Zoe-Ruth Erwin), from Knoxville TN. Her new album, Get On The Boat, is a beautiful and brooding full-length, anchored by some compelling (and thick) walls of leaping vocals. Piano, violin, brass and electronic beats, along with quite a bit of floral ambiance, make this an album that offers you new, previously unnoticed sonic gifts. Erwin is a very capable studio workhorse and her production skills shine through on every track.
Stars Regardless and Little Red Lung are acting as one another’s backing band this month, bringing their impressive looping/harmony-driven live shows to:

Oct. 13 – Darkroom – Chicago, IL
Oct. 14 – The Hair Hole – Columbia, MO
Oct. 15 – Foam Coffee – St. Louis, MO
Oct. 16 – Sneaky Beans – Jackson, MS
Oct. 17 – Circle Bar – New Orleans, LA
Oct. 19 – Go! Bar – Athens, GA
Oct. 20 – Jessee’s – Carrboro, NC
Oct. 21 – The Green Bean – Greensboro, NC *
Oct. 23 – Pilot Light – Knoxville, TN - The Music Slut

The title track Beware from Little Red Lung's upcoming full length album of the same name opens with an ominous drone as a chorale of backing vocals quietly lift Zoe-Ruth Erwin's vocal performance to the forefront. Her presence is as powerful as it is pained and vulnerable. The opening track feels majestic, mysterious and a bit out of this world. It feels like a giant monster awakening and by the second track that monster roars.

That masterful second track is Porcupine Sheet and in my opinion is the signature track on this album but let's step back a bit. The kind of progressive rock that L.A. based Little Red Lung crafts has been mined before and like all great genres it will be mined again. This kind of music that conjures up flash and fantasy and has a pure melodramatic cabaret sense about it would fall into that baroque pop rock label or art rock with experimental rock around the edges. What makes Little Red Lung different than other forms of this musical genre is that they blend in such a mix of progressive rock, orchestral rock, glam and indie sounds. As I listened to this album I thought of Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, The Dresden Dolls, Radiohead, Flo and the Machine and more. As Rob Hume's dirty bass opens Porcupine Sheet as a tortuous pound, Erwin's over modulated vocals take center stage. As the time signature changes the song free falls as Ali Nikou's lead lines and Erwin's keys stair step down while John Broeckel highlights each emotional shift with such well placed drum fills. This stair stepping style is repeated throughout the album in spots giving the album a cohesiveness, making it feel like a concept album whether it is intended to be or not. Nikou's guitar work truly shines throughout this entire ambitious project but the melodies he teases out on this track truly captivated me.

Get on the Boat prances with a bottom heavy cello sound (I think courtesy of Hume's ultra heavy and effected bass). Dead Weight shifts from a kind of light free rock sound to a luscious half time chorus and back again. Rock opera comes to mind when I listen to the Bell Tower. It has an art rock appeal and some of the musical melodies made me think of The Beatles and the wide cinematic scope of a Cirque Du Soleil show. Other songs stir other flavors. Civilian Tiger has a mid-eastern sound with faint hints of Andalusian melodies. The musical break is so engaging and mesmerizing and gives away to a spartan intimate end where you only hear Erwin's intimate vocal performance (even if other sounds exist). This track is so encompassing and has such an arc to it's story that it makes you realize what Erwin and the boys have achieved here. This might not be a concept album after all. Instead, each song feels like a concept album unto itself taking you on it's own journey. Each song shape shifts into something else.

Our Ghost truly feels like a fable, like a movie could be written and based on this song alone. It feels like science fiction that is retro and new at the same time. Operate has a decidedly 80's New Wave Romantic feel with it's sultry catwalk cadence. A dirty fender Rhodes sound opens Bad Blood. It is a trippy art rock waltz and for me, inhabits this place between Dresdon Dolls and Muse (when they venture into the glam feel). "Beware" ends with Tightwire Spinning and something about it made me think of Lena Lovich circa 1979, at least the upbeat parts. Of course, it does not stay in that mode for very long. Zoe-Ruth Erwin ends the song and the album with yet another side of her multi-faceted vocals. She tends to sing with an almost classical presence and yet here strips that style completely away. In that instant I had the sense that any artful pretense fell away, like the stage actress removed her make up.

On "Beware", Little Red Lung spins a kaleidoscope of sonic stories that seem to traverse time and space. While my musical tastes are pretty eclectic, I can tell you that this kind of art rock has not been (as of late) my normal cup of tea. Over the last few years I have been steeping in the raw immediacy of proto punk, punk pop indie sounds, That being said, Little Red Lung's brew which feels as if it is spiked with absinthe is a trip well worth taking. - American Pancake

Coming to you from the big city of Los Angeles is Little Red Lung. Singer and keyboardist Zoe Ruth Erwin may be small in stature, but possesses a voice that can fill the largest opera house in the world. She began composing tunes as a solo artist under the name Little Red Lung as far back as 2007. Eight years and a full backing band later arrives Little Red Lung’s full-length debut album, Beware. The group is releasing the album track by track, on the first day of each upcoming month. Entitled “Porcupine Sheet,” this month’s release perfectly encapsulates Erwin and her bandmates’ evolution over the course of the two EPs released prior to Beware. Cloaked in the sinister, Victorian vibes of a Guillermo Del Toro film, the quartet whips up atmospheric and enchanting sounds reminiscent of Tori Amos, Florence + The Machine, Amanda Palmer, and even a little Grace Slick. - MTV Iggy

Little Red Lung’s debut full-length album “Beware” took me a few listens to process, and I mean that in the best way. It’s a piece certainly worthy of its “art rock” label; the album’s dichotomous nature of taking what is classic, doing it well, and twisting it into a slightly darker avant garde is extremely effective. I gave “Beware” three solid listens before taking any notes, and when I did, the first note I wrote was “psychedelic orchestra.” Most often when reviewing an album, I find myself picking out the thematic story presented and following along. As far as “Beware” goes, I have to be perfectly honest with you: I got lost inside of it far before I could have picked out a story. The good news is that when I say lost, I mean the best kind of lost—swept away, lost at sea with just music and my mind. It is entwined with nautical references, and patterns exist, but they come like waves. Time signatures and dropped keys burst in all throughout, and in those moment everything changes; it’s off-kilter in a delightful way, and a piece of recognizable music twists just so that it shifts from day to night with no hint of a hitch and leaves you spinning. It happens over and over again, but each time is unique and invigorating.

“Beware” opens with its title track, which offers airy female harmonies reminiscent of sirens at sea. It’s gentle and ethereal, and it lulls the listener into sleepy comfort just before the second track, “Porcupine Sheet” busts the door down with dirty bass setting a thumping new tone. Vocalist Zoe-Ruth Erwin brings a really cool mixture of power and grace. This was a wonderful track in that each piece of Little Red Lung is so well showcased; John Broekel flawlessly picks up on drums what Rob Hume started on bass, and Ali Nikou’s guitar melody is full of unpredictable choices with gorgeous execution. The lyrics fall into a box labeled “Curiouser and curiouser”—where exactly are we and what is going on? At this point, the journey is fully set. Erwin’s vocals paired with Hume’s harsh bass elicit such a wonderful balance in the third track, “Get on the Boat”, really bringing the slightly twisted nature of this album to light. It invites the listener in—you’ve been warned, you’ve been introduced, now get on the boat and join us.

The fourth track, “Dead Weight”, stood out to me the most each time I listened through. At first, it isn’t a particularly notable song; it’s pleasant with light vocals and post-rock melodies. A third of the way through, it shifts so seamlessly into this brilliant dark chorus with the notable time signature shift that I had to check and make sure it was still the same song. “They’ll have our heads for this/they’ll have our heads for this/if you can’t paddle fast/if you can’t kill me first/you’re dead weight” rings dark, and then suddenly it all switches back. It’s such a powerfully dynamic piece that perfectly illustrates the nature of “Beware” as a whole—it appears one way, then almost certainly shifts into something delightfully different.
Moving through “Beware” truly is an adventure. The feelings evoked are both fun and uneasy. “Bell Towers” is an outstanding marriage of Erwin’s strong vocal ability and Nikou’s comparably strong guitar. It reminded me of a mashup between Portishead and The Mars Volta. “Civilian Tiger” is just pretty all-around; gentle melodies and enchanting lyrics. “Our Ghost” is equally lovely and haunting, smooth and inviting the whole way through. The album picks back up again with “Operate”, which opens with a distinct 80s feel underlying a really interesting sing-song style of vocals and lyrics. This track felt drum-driven and full of energy. “Bad Blood” is a deliciously dark waltz reminiscent of Muse. The album closes with “Tightrope Spinning”—and what a strong closer it is. The gritty bass is back in full force, and Erwin’s vocal performance is just as raw, all the way from the curt beginning to the sleepy finale.

“Beware” is trippy and full of avant garde. It’s full of endless twists that will keep you on your toes. It’s an adventure that truly sucked me in and left me feeling both unsure of what exactly I experienced and extremely satisfied at the same time. Each song is unique, but the album as a whole works well as a solid art piece, even if it doesn’t feel obviously cohesive at times. Little Red Lung is currently releasing one song each month on Bandcamp and the band’s website (littleredlungmusic.com). Following the full release, “Beware” will be available in its entirety on limited edition 140G vinyl. - Ear To The Ground