News Lockets: ‘Having Fun Is The Most Important Thing For Us’

The internet is powerful thing. What used to be fifteen minutes of fame now varies somewhere between a day or two and several months. Whether it’s a cat leaping through a hoop, a tweeter making a witty little jokey snippet about the banality of eating Hula-Hoops for lunch and how it reflects on his or her life choices to date, or a Youtube starlet (not-so-literally) jumping through hoops to get famous. But now and then you discover an unearthed gem with potential that points to a fair bit of longevity in them.

But these days it’s becoming increasingly hard to tell where the Rota Fortunae is going to stop and more importantly who is going to be propelled to the big time (in this case, the magazine covers, radio waves and U.S cable network late-night shows). Our First-On section tries to disregard this notion, instead previewing and showcasing bands or artists doing something different, interesting or simply enjoyable in the moment.

Lockets are a Philly duo consisting of two Pennsylvanian natives: singer Dani and bandmate Todd on synth, guitar and production duties. With only two tracks self-released to date, they’re starting modestly but showing all the right signs to win bloggers’ collective hearts - or their reblogs at the very least - with their bleary-eyed and unashamed pop music. But beyond that, who knows? The band themselves don’t seem that concerned though, they’re just happy at how things are going at this very moment.

DIY took the time to talk to Lockets, in their first ever interview.

How long have you guys been together as a band?
Todd: Dani and I started working together in the summer of 2011, but I started Lockets as an overall creative outlet almost 3 years ago. Initially it was kind of a casual recording project, but once some songs started to come together I knew it was something I wanted to take further. I had always envisioned having a female vocalist for the band, so I started searching for one.
Dani and I already knew each other from the local music scene in Philadelphia. Initially I never thought of her as a possible singer because she was generally involved in folk music. However, she always liked the stuff I was writing and she expressed interest in giving it a shot. So, we tried working together on a few songs and I knew right away that she was the perfect fit.

So you had been in musical projects before this.
Todd: I’ve done some casual collaboration before, but this is my first legit project.
Dani: I’ve been doing a solo project for a few years. It’s much more folk oriented and it’s nothing really like Lockets.

How do you write your songs? Does Todd deal with music and Dani the lyrics - or is it more of a collaborative thing?
Todd: I write the music first. I typically start by thinking about the type of atmosphere and feel I’d like to create with the sound. I’ll come up with a guitar part or a synth line and build from there. The drums are all programmed beats. I work on those with my close friend Matt who is much more adept with drum programs than I am. Finally, Dani and I work out the vocal arrangements and the lyrics together.

Your growth is going very organically, with a few influential blogs picking up on you already. What do you think of the interest shown in you so far?
Todd: It’s been really exciting and quite the surprise. The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
Dani: The attention was definitely unexpected, but it’s been really great. We really appreciate all the nice things people have written about our music so far.

Had you any expectations when you first uploaded these tracks?
Todd: We felt confident in our music, but we really didn’t know if it would reach beyond getting our friends to listen it. It was amazing to see how many people were actually listening.
Dani: I didn’t really know what to expect. We were just kind of doing this for fun and because we love making music.

There are only two tracks of yours online thus far - are these the only things you’ve written and recorded to date or are you holding stuff back?
Todd: We’ve got more than the two tracks, definitely.
Dani: Definitely.

I hear that you’re looking to record an album at some point this year. Have you started already? Is it going to be self-released?
Todd: Our record is just about finished actually. We’d like a label to release it, but we haven’t exactly ruled out a self-release either. Right now having fun with this is the most important thing for us.

Could you tell us a bit about how the video to ‘Catch Me’ came about?
Todd: I’m a film geek at heart. I chose footage from Bullet Ballet because it’s been one of my favorites for a while now; Shinya Tsukamoto is just such a brilliant director. I thought some of the imagery in the film would be perfect for the song, so I decided to try my hand at putting together a video with it. I’ve had some experience in film editing in the past, though ‘Catch Me’ is the first music video I’ve ever made.
Dani: We were really happy with how the video came out.

‘Lockets’ just so happens to be the name of a brand of cough drops over here in the UK. I’m sure you didn’t get it from that, but where did the name come from?
Todd: I had no idea it was a cough drop! I hope they don’t mind sharing! I picked the name a few years ago. I felt that it fit really well with the atmosphere of the music I was writing, kind of nostalgic.

There’s another musician we recently covered on First-On called ‘Halls’, whose name is also that of a popular throat lozenges brand - any chance of you guys getting in touch for a co-headline tour? I’m sure you wouldn’t have any trouble finding certain sponsors…
Todd: Only if we can find a band named Ricola to fill out the bill.

Speaking of tours, have you played live yet?
Todd: We haven’t played live yet, but we will be playing some shows within the coming months.

What should we expect from you in the near future?
Dani: We have some remixes in the works, more videos, more songs and the full-length record. It’s going to be a great year and we’re really excited about it!

Camera Shy by Lockets

Catch Me by Lockets