Lemon Bucket Orkestra are Toronto’s original guerrilla-folk party-punk massive. The multi-award-winning ensemble has been heralded as a groundbreaking, genre-bending phenomenon by media and fans alike, and over the past 8 years have performed all over the world from WOMAD in New Zealand and Pohoda in Slovakia, to Festival D’Été in Québec City, and Luminato in Toronto. Equal parts exhilarating precision and reckless abandon, LBO’s live shows are a truly immersive experience – ranging from the ecstatic to the cathartic and all points in between – and they have expertly captured that unique blend of energy and emotion on their new album “If I Had The Strength”. Released in Canada through Outside Music in late 2018, it’s set for worldwide release via a new deal with Six Degrees Records this September, and includes guest appearances from famed soprano Measha Brueggergosman, rising Latino rapper Boogát, sing-a-long phenoms Choir!Choir!Choir! and more. The band will be busy touring the Canadian festival circuit this summer, and are heading out on a 12 date US tour in support of the Six Degrees release this fall. Along with the worldwide release of the new album, LBO will also be premiering a new live video for the song “Freedom”. Filmed with multiple cameras at Toronto’s legendary Opera House earlier this year, it captures the band doing what they do best – taking the audience on a joyful, impassioned ride through the Balkans and beyond. Don’t miss your chance to see this dozen strong juggernaut if you can.
I had the chance to catch up with Michael Louis Johnson, trumpet player of Lemon Bucket Orkestra to discuss what people at the Madison World Music Festival can expect when they show up and bring the party. We get into the creation of the new album from seed to blooming flower, and the vision and fuel behind the making of the video for “Freedom”. I found that we painted a great picture of what a show will be like and how the album and video were made, but hearing who Michael, on behalf of himself and the band, might choose to put on a festival bill with them if he could choose from any artist ever really opened my mind to the who behind the what.
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
