Chasing a feeling: Meet Lemon Bear

On a warm evening at the Bellingham waterfront, a crowd gathered on the grass in buzzing anticipation. It was the second day of West Sound Fest, a local music festival, and Floodlights and Fools had just finished their opening set. Now it was go-time. Stepping up to the stage was Lemon Bear.

All undergraduates of Western Washington University, Lemon Bear’s five members, Riley Thayer, Dustin Valdes, Sean Atkins, Abby Knipe and Laila White, first met through happenstance and mutual friends. They had chemistry right off the bat and making music came naturally from there, according to Thayer. 

It began with jam sessions at the Makeshift Art Space downtown, each of them simply excited to play music with other people. After they had gotten into a groove playing with each other, guitarist Dustin Valdes suggested that they play a show together, and they coordinated their first gig at Karate Church. Performing alongside Smithers and Kazmyn, the venue was at full capacity.

“That was when I realized we could do something with this, rather than just play,” Thayer, the band’s guitarist and pianist said. 

Martijn Wall, co-founder and owner of The Blue Room, a music venue in Bellingham, first heard the band play at LawnFest, a free music festival. The event was a DIY effort, hosted by Atomic Affair and Floss Records.

“I really liked their energy and was really excited that it was a female-fronted group,” Wall said. “The entertainment industry is super male-dominated, so when we have a local band being formed and it’s female-fronted, that’s a really exciting thing.”

For guitarist and bassist Laila White, one of the most enriching aspects of growing as a band has been the songwriting process. 

“Sometimes I have the issue where if I’m working on a song, it’s all my brain can do,” White said. 

“Cold Fever” is one of the first songs Lemon Bear created as a collective. With all members being new to college, White wanted to write a song about coming of age, that could reflect back on high school and consider all the beautiful things that come along with getting older. The sentiment of this song has carried out into their subsequent music, focusing on “chasing a feeling,” as White puts it, rather than a specific message. 

For each of the band’s members, Lemon Bear has helped them in different ways. For some, it has helped them fall back in love with their instruments; for others, it has been a means of creative expression through sound and songwriting. For Thayer, however, making music alongside her band members has helped her find community. 

“I feel like before music was very personal to me,” Thayer said. “And it still is, but I realized it can be a very community-based thing and connect me to other people.”

With Thayer, Valdes and Atkins all being students in Western’s audio engineering program, they’ve been using the equipment in the university’s recording studio to produce their next album. The album, which they hope to have ready by the fall, will have the same nostalgic Lemon Bear charm that listeners have come to love, but with a more refined sound. 

This dream-pop band has big dreams for the future. They hope to one day perform in cities abroad and tour. 

“I want to extend beyond ‘that was a sick band we did in college’ in 20 years,” Atkins said. “A little West Coast tour would be a good place to start.”

West Sound Fest and The Outback Revival Fundraiser are a few of their most recent gigs from last spring and The BlueRoom has some exciting plans in store with Lemon Bear performing this upcoming fall. 

Just as the crowd at West Sound Fest swayed to the rhythm of their songs on the grass, Lemon Bear hopes to create that same feel and sound everywhere they play.

“Lemon Bear’s relationship with each other and making music together is really special and different,” Wall said. “You can hear it in the music.”

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