artist Meadowlark Lemon

Following the amicable dissolution of their previous band, Jonathan Danyliw and Clayton Drake decided to continue to create music together. They made the conscious decision to impose as few boundaries on their ideas as possible.

They formed Meadowlark Lemon with the goal of creating music that sounded like a three or four-member band with just two members. To achieve this goal, Clayton plays a kick drum and a snare with his feet while playing keyboards and singing simultaneously. He also has a crash cymbal. Jon plays guitar bass (sometimes at the same time by playing bass with his feet), plays a floor tom with a kick pedal, and also a hi-hat and ride cymbal.

Meadowlark Lemon began by playing more traditional-sounding folk rock music. As time went on, they began to write more avant-garde material. Now, their new material is very aggressive, hypnotic, and melodic.

At the end of August 2008, Meadowlark Lemon embarked on a 12-date, 2-week long tour of Canada and the United States with their Ladyboy Records labelmates the Birthday Cakes. Prior to leaving for the tour, Jon and Clayton recorded a full-length album, “Twists”, which they released on December 13th, 2008 to a sold out show at the Townehouse Tavern in Sudbury, Ontario.

Their sound as a two-piece has changed dramatically over the course of a year, so they recruited some friends to play in a full band configuration of Meadowlark Lemon called Meadowlark Five. They continue to play the older Meadowlark Lemon material as Meadowlark Five, while writing new Meadowlark Five songs that are more traditional-sounding than the new Meadowlark Lemon material. Meadowlark Five consists of Matt Beech on lead/rhythm guitar, Carter Drake on drums, Younni Yung on backup vocals, Jonathan Danyliw on rhythm/lead guitar and vocals, Paul Loewenberg on bass and backup vocals, and Clayton Drake on keyboards and vocals.

As a point of reference, Meadowlark Lemon sounds more like the song “Fashion Hawk”, while Meadowlark Five sounds more like the other songs streaming on the Meadowlark Lemon NMC page.