Hometown: Derby, England

Homebase: Leeds, England

How did your collaboration first take shape?

Ryan: Menace Beach started when we moved Leeds together. We didn't know anyone so we used to stay in and write these funny little organ songs. It really started as a recording project and we never planned on showing anyone or playing live or anything, but then we met and recorded with MJ, did a Too Pure single and it just kept going.

If you were to creatively describe your sound, how would you?

Liza:That's a tough question, too much vibrato probably. I always make everything sound wobbly.

What do you draw inspiration from?

Ryan: It varies from record to record, the first album was influenced by moving to a new city and the last one by a book we found on cults through the ages. It depends what we're doing in our lives at the time.

What artists do you feel have had the most impact on your sound? How so?

Ryan: When I was a kid the music playing in our house was stuff like Queen, T-Rex, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac; 70's and 80's pop stuff. From there I found some old cassettes with The Kinks, The Hollies, The Troggs, Pink Floyd, The Beatles. Liza listened to a bit more electronic stuff growing up like add n to x and aphex twin, I think that's what first got her into synthesizers.

What's your song-writing process like? 

Liza: We definitely have different roles, which is good as we tend not to tread on each other's toes too much. Ryan's more involved with structure and chords and I get really into the details of sounds and making silly guitar and synth solos. For "Maybe We'll Drown," Ryan had the stomping drums and chords structure, I added the organs and cyclical guitar lines and solo, then we worked on the vocal melody together at the end.

How was the collaboration different for Lemon Memory versus your first album Ratworld? Are you already thinking about an approach for your next release?

Liza: We wanted to avoid relying on tons of fuzz guitars on lemon memory and have a bit more space. We tended to start with drum loops and synth or guitar lines and then chop them up into some sort of song where as Ratworld was all written on guitar. I'm not sure where we'll go next, we're still at the messing around stage right now.

You did a scratch-and-sniff cover for your vinyl — how did that come about and how important is album art to you? What are some of your favorite album art/most memorable?

Liza: It's really important to me and I really love that part of making a record, I always make sure we do it all ourselves even when we're totally running out of time. I do the hand drawing and Ryan is the one with all the screen printing and Photoshop skills. The scratch and sniff part was actually Ollie from our label's idea, it smells a lot like bathroom cleaner but it kept the van fresh on tour.

If you were to soundtrack a video game, which would it be and why?

Liza: I'd love to do a Lemmings soundtrack, we could record ourselves digging around in the dirt.

Now that the album came out earlier this year, what's next?

Liza: We've started working on new songs, and have some shows over summer. I'm looking for a new synth to put all over the next record.

For more profiles on up-and-coming artists, visit our Artist of the Day page.