When Life Gives You Lemons...

After seeing Dublin beatmaker Lemonada do his thing at a recent Button Factory gig (supporting UK producer Kwes) this reporter had to channel her inner Jessica Fletcher to actually get in touch with the mystery man. Several emails and texts to people ‘in the know’ later, an interview was thankfully secured. We gotta ask, does 22-year-old Morgan Buckley purposely shy away from the limelight?

“Nah, I don’t do it intentionally,” he laughs. “If it works, though, it’s cool to get people intrigued – all my favourite producers are people I don’t really know anything about.”
Keeping schtum about his identity seems to be working a charm thus far – Buckley’s first collection of tracks, Kelly Green Vol. I, went down a treat on the blogosphere following its free release last year.
“The reaction was great,” he agrees. “I put it up and literally sent it to two of my friends. I don’t know how, but it suddenly appeared on a load of music blogs and sites!”
A blistering collection of dub and hip hop-tinged electronic tunes, Kelly Green featured all kinds of sliced ‘n’ diced musical and non-musical samples – from a very stern sounding ballet teacher giving dance instruction, to that ol’ honey dripper, Jim Reeves (ask your parents) crooning ‘Welcome To My World’ over a throbbing beat.
A musical patchwork quilt, if you will. How did these crazy samples come about?
“With Kelly Green, Vol. I, I had a rule for myself,” Buckley explains. “Every sample was from records I got in a charity shop in Rathmines. It was a fun challenge. With all the equipment these days, you’d potentially never end, considering all the sounds available. Giving yourself a boundary can be a good means of creativity. I got a lot of weird random stuff. I like the stranger moments on records.”
Though he’s always had a huge interest in music, Buckley has only been making beats on a laptop for a couple of years.
“It was gradual,” he recalls. “I started, put it down for a while, got back into playing guitar, then took it up again. I’ve always been obsessed with music in some way though – Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Jimi Hendrix… all the good stuff!”
Once he got going though, he found himself drawn to the technical side of things.
“A friend of mine wanted me to do a soundtrack for a play. I didn’t know how to go about recording it, so he gave me [digital workstation] Fruity Loops. At the time I was listening to a lot of old Aphex Twin, and it just started from there. It was all ambient music, then I got more into the other side of Aphex Twin – the yang of the yin! And my sound got more heavy."
Having picked up the basics, Buckley then decided to enroll in a music production course.
“You don’t have to do a course to learn how to do it,” he proffers. “I just did because I wasn’t in college and wanted to spend my time thinking about music.”
When he’s not working on pesky assignments, Buckley is busy putting together Kelly Green Vol. II. What can we expect from the follow-up, and when can we get our mitts on it?
“It’s totally different. I’ll be uploading it to Bandcamp any day now. Lately, I’ll start a track with the sound of a word. Then I think what that word would sound like coming out of speakers – one word to spark off three minutes of music. Like ‘chewtoy’ or ‘vitality’... When the syllables have any hint of rhythm, it’s interesting. That’s the idea with the new Kelly Green. It’s just nerdy!”
Nothing wrong with nerdiness, my friend. What’s the plan after Vol. II?
“At some point I’d like to focus on making something totally unique,” he reveals. “I’d love to work with vocalists too. I see instrumental stuff as potentially being better with a singer. When I’m out of college I can focus on that – I’ve been so bogged down with work!”
As he continues to get the name out there, is he hoping to sign with a label, or is there something to be said for remaining the proverbial lone wolf?
“I’d probably rather do things on my own”, he muses. “When I was a kid and really into music I thought getting signed would be so cool. Now, it’s like the reality of getting signed isn’t what it used to be, so it’s not a big deal to me anymore.”
In the meantime, a live show beckons, with Buckley heading west for a Galway gig in December. Does he get nervous before going on stage?
“Once it starts, it’s grand,” he smiles. “I was thinking about my first gig for two months beforehand, shaking! I hate doing presentations and that kind of thing. You just have to do it though!”

Catch Lemonada at the Bap To The Future Christmas Party at Factory @ Electric Garden & Theatre, Galway on December 21. Kelly Green Vol. I and Vol. II are available for free lemonada.bandcamp.com download.