Although it was acting that brought singer/guitarist Daniel Norman out to Los Angeles, upon meeting a group of men in 2012, he knew he had found his missing puzzle pieces. Together with Mike Nissen, Eric McCann, and Joe Luisi, they formed A House For Lions.
Less than a year after coming together, A House For Lions put out I Want Us To Be Remembered, their first EP. From there, they were off like a shot. Collecting glowing reviews and fans along the way, they continued to make their presence known by straying from the path most traveled and choosing to crowd-fund their recently completed full-length debut album with IgnitionDeck, an alternative to the widely used Kickstarter crowd-funding platform.
The 90s-rock-meets-indie-folk kicks off a weekly Monday residency in February at the Echoplex. We spoke with Norman during an interview.
How did A House For Lions come to be?
I came to Los Angeles some years ago to pursue acting. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid and I love it, but I think I was looking for a project where I had a lot of creative control. And to do something I’ve never done before. I’d played the guitar since I was a kid and have always been a big music lover but I’d never written any songs or been in a band before so I thought, ‘hey, why not!’ I feel very fortunate to have been led to the guys in the band. I couldn’t imagine doing this without them and I never thought we’d come even this far. The nice part about getting into something for the love of it with no real expectations is that every little thing is icing on the cake. I think we’ve grown a little more ambitious over time but we’re still mostly just having fun.
When you all are not making music or performing, what do you like to do around Los Angeles?
We’re big fans of the LA indie comedy scene, we’ve even gotten to work with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and sketch group The Kids Table made the video from our crowd-funding campaign. There are a couple of foodies in the band so we love checking out all the great bars and restaurants around the city. And, ya know, hiking, surfing, skateboards, yoga, girls—all those things that make living in LA so great.
Who are some of your favorite LA Bands of the moment?
We’re playing with some of our favorite local bands at our residency at the Echoplex in February: Olin and the Moon, The New Limb, Soft Swells, Steelwells, Blonde Summer, Peach Kings and a bunch of others. They’re all awesome bands and we’re lucky to share the stage with them and pleased to be a part of such a vibrant local scene. LA music doesn’t get the props it deserves. Brooklyn schmooklyn!
What made the band decided to use IgnitionDeck instead of the more popular options like Kickstarter to fund your new album?
We looked closely at a number of crowd-funding options including Kickstarter. With the size of our band we knew we were going to be relying on friends, family and our small fanbase to fund the project. We didn’t think our project was quite novel enough to ‘go viral’ on any of the available platforms, so we’d essentially be giving up to 16% of what we raised for someone to host and facilitate our fundraiser. IgnitionDeck gave us the ability to do everything those sites do ourselves while also being able to customize it for our specific needs. This might not be the ideal solution for everyone—our guitar player Mike is a designer and is generally pretty tech savvy so we had someone that was able to handle the technical side of things. Ignition deck just happened to be the perfect fit for us.
How did your upcoming Monday night residency at the Echoplex come about?
After spending last year writing, raising funds and recording our first album, we wanted to kick off this year with a bang. A residency is a pretty big milestone for LA bands and the Echo is our favorite place to play in town, it’s like home to us. What better place to have a residency? So we reached out and they surprised us by offering the Echoplex instead! We can’t wait to stretch out on the big stage and we have a lot of fun stuff in store. It’s the perfect way to start what’s gonna be a pretty crazy year for us.
What is A House For Lions most looking forward to in the coming year?
After the residency we’re heading off to SXSW and then we put our first record out into the world and start traveling around the country playing our songs, spreading the word and letting our little light shine. It should be fun!
