Cris Cohen: First off, “Velvet Kiss, Lick of the Lime.” I was curious, as you prepped this album for its rerelease and delved back into all this material, did it stir up any thoughts, emotions, or memories that hadn’t been in your mind for a while?
Michael Lockwood of Lions & Ghosts: Fair question. I think the whole experience of reconnecting with the singer, Rick Parker, that was so unexpected. That just created this whole sort of therapy session that has lasted a few years now, really, because I had reconnected with him right before we had the pandemic. And so, the way that happened was that I was asked to do a session here in town, and somebody ended up booking it at Rick’s studio. So, I really hadn’t had more than a hello or goodbye in 25 years. We ended up chatting all night, and eventually, we got around to working, and it was really enjoyable.
And then, when we parted, Rick and I exchanged information. And at some point, we were like, “Hey, what are you working on?” And we created a Dropbox folder and shared some music with each other. And we started talking about maybe doing something, and it was just taking forever to really happen.
So, we got together at the studio, sat down in front of each other with two acoustic guitars, and wrote this new single, “Gurl I Luv You.” So, that sort of opened the book and the journey, because there was a lot of… Are you a musician?
Cris Cohen: Only if you use air quotes and really extend the term.
Michael Lockwood: Right. The reason I also asked you is that, when you’re in a band, it’s like having three wives or four wives, depending on how big the band is. And so, there’s a lot of dynamics and there’s a lot of good times and bad times with that. So, I had never really addressed how I felt. Because there were a lot of great times, but there were a lot of difficult times in a band, and traveling and spending a lot of close, quality time together. So, this journey, for me, has been sort of unravelling that and learning how I got to where I’m at through that. It’s been a really great experience.
And as I started thinking about being able to rerelease “Velvet Kiss, Lick of the Lime,” it’s great to go through all the demos. It’s great to go through all the things that we put together. It was kind of a handmade band. We made our shirts, we made programs, we made flyers, we made posters. We did all that. So, going back through all of that, reconnecting with the A&R guy and talking to him. And he remembers infinitely more than I remember going through that process. So, it was really cathartic, and it really left me with mostly just great memories. And it’s really nice that I reconnected with some old friends and reconnected with band members. It’s been a fun experience.
Bands To Fans: I specialize in text content for musicians. No, I am not kidding.