Stop and smell the flowers with LILACS.

Austin Corona, the musician behind LILACS., has been writing music for a while now. I first heard something he’d written when his surf-punk band Subpar opened for my friend’s band at a bicycle repair shop in Santa Cruz that moonlights as a low-key concert venue. Their songs were punchy, distorted odes to hazy beach days, and to getting fucked up/regretting getting too fucked up. As with all high school punk bands, however, Subpar was doomed to be short-lived and has been inactive since the members moved away.

Which brings us up to now. Corona is a full-time student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and is releasing his debut album Sweet Tooth (2018) as LILACS. In the description on Soundcloud, Corona writes that his debut track “Sippy Cup” is “the type of track you wanna go on your balcony and have a somber coffee and spliff morning with,” which in my opinion undersells how groovy this track is. The distortion and angst of youth has been replaced by a driving, clean bass line that establishes a wobbly funk-feel. The lyrics are more subtle, and come by way of layered vocal melodies that serve to complete the ethereal, spaced-out sound. While the rough edges of his early work have been dulled, the emotional impact is still very much present in the vocal inflection, with some words sounding as if they were spat rather than sung.

On a rainy Sunday in California, I chatted with Corona about LILACS., his upcoming album, and how his musical upbringing led him to this point.

Tell me a little about where the name LILACS. comes from.

I was thinking about names for a really long time. When I was in Spain last semester I was listening to a lot of new music, getting a lot of inspiration being in a different place and whatnot. I ended up listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley. He has this song “Lilac Wine,” and those lyrics really stuck with me.

How would you describe your sound? What happens before you sit down and write a song?

Most of the songs from my EP had the vocals recorded through my laptop speakers, so it’s all very DIY, lo-fi type shit. I’ve been writing songs for a decently long time, but with this project I’ve really been focusing on lyrics. I used to write a lot of harder, punkier type stuff and focus heavier on the band aspect, but I guess being in a musical environment with school and stuff has made me think harder about [the lyrics]. Writing songs just means something different to me now than it did five years ago. I was super into music but I didn’t really know what I wanted to get across lyrically. Now I’ve listened to and been surrounded by enough music it’s kind of come full circle. When I was writing a garage type song I’d base the instrumentation off of the guitar part whereas now I haven’t really been writing a lot of songs on guitar. I’ve been focusing a lot more on the beat, and as I’m making the song I’ll think of melodies and whatnot, and that’s when the lyrics come.

Shifting gears a little bit, can you talk a little bit about what has influenced your music?

My dad introduced me to a lot of 80s punk stuff like Black Flag and Dead Kennedys when I was younger, so that ended up being the roots of a lot of the stuff I played when I was in middle school and shit. In high school my homies were all listening to a ton of surf rock, which led to us starting a band called Subpar. We actually got a decent following for a while but even though everything was going super well at the time I knew that everyone was eventually gonna go off to college. When you’re that young and you have a band you have to either do something with it like full-on, or take like, a huge hiatus (laughs). But that was hella fun when it happened, and I met a lot of great people playing music in Santa Cruz. Once I hit college I was playing in all sorts of different bands, mostly playing drums. I started getting into production too, and I started listening to a lot of hip-hop, which got me into more groovy shit with more clarity in the production.

What’s your experience been like playing in Boston as opposed to Santa Cruz?

Santa Cruz is just such a small place. The music scene is so small and niche that you always end up knowing the people who are around. When I got to Boston I just said yes to everything, I was in like seven or eight bands at once, trying to play as much as possible. There’s so many talented people in Berklee that if you’re not playing with people then you’re kind of wasting your time. There’s such a good basement scene here. In Santa Cruz we were mostly playing venues, which is cool but at a house show environment it seems like you get a better turnout and have a better show. House shows are dope, I don’t know.

Who do you make your music for?

I want everyone to listen to it. Honestly, I used to be like, trying to show people my music all the time and I still do that to an extent but right now I’m making a lot of music for me. Just getting the shit that’s thrown at me, any situation, and trying to write it down and incorporate stuff I’ve been listening to and actually make something out of it. At the same time, though, I’ve been really excited to make music that I can actually show people and not have to say “oh you might like it,” you know what I mean?

What’s up with this album you’re coming out with?

I’m putting out an album later this month called Sweet Tooth. It’ll be seven tracks or eight tracks, I might try to throw a bonus on there. People who listen to my music will know this album kind of marks me turning a corner, know that it’s hella different from the other stuff I’ve made, but I’m kinda stoked going into it knowing that people who haven’t heard my music before will hear this for the first time. I think this stuff shows the most growth in my musicianship.

Follow Corona on Instagram and Spotify to stay up to date with their latest releases.