While immersed in the music of Tame Impala and Pink Floyd, Charles Gamache created the album “Lemon Grass.”
Written and recorded in the basement of his parents’ Dartmouth home, Gamache performed all of the instruments on all 10 of the songs, including drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals. The album is also sprinkled with ambient audio snippets. It was Gamache’s goal to make the album sonically rich.
“Stylistically I was going for indie psychedelic rock, stoner rock,” Gamache recalls. “I was layering the songs with a lot of instruments, trying to create a wall of sound with the guitars and keyboards.”
A collection of drifty and mellow pop songs, Gamache’s “Lemon Grass’ lyrics are a portrayal of the COVID shutdown, a concoction that results in a unique listening experience.
“I like the idea of having a lyrical concept for my albums,” he says. “At the time there was a lot of loneliness and anxiety, feelings of isolation and introversion. I think these are themes that a lot of people can relate to, I think that’s something that translates to people.”
Gamache began writing the songs for “Lemon Grass” at the age of 18, in his freshman year at UMass Dartmouth. When the COVID quarantine set in he took advantage of the free time to complete the writing process and begin the recordings. The album was released on June 26th, 2020. It can be found on Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud.
“My favorite part of creating music is the recording process,” Gamache says. “I love the idea of having complete control of how to make the music sound. I like the idea of experimenting and trying new things.”
And Gamache is currently trying new things with his music. His band Citrus Biscuit is receiving positive attention in the area while he works on his follow-up solo project.
“When we put Citrus Biscuit together to play a show at Symphony Music Shop in North Dartmouth (October of 2020), I discovered that the songs on ‘Lemon Grass’ were too heavily orchestrated to play with a four-piece band,” he says. “Some of them sounded okay, but many of them weren’t as effective.”
So Gamache began writing songs again. This time he was writing songs with the idea of performing them live.
“At the time of ‘Lemon Grass’ I wasn’t thinking about playing my songs live,” he recalls, “but since we’ve started playing shows I’m happy with the way the new songs are sounding. The songs for the next album are going to be much more stripped down, written for a larger audience.”
Gamache says his next solo album will have songs that can be performed by Citrus Biscuit. His Citrus Biscuit bandmates include drummer Andrew Madeira, bassist Darian Ross and guitarist Logan DeSousa. They are occasionally teamed with keyboardist Tom Schmidt, a resident of Connecticut. Playing primarily jam versions of classic rock covers as well as contemporary selections, the band will be playing its next local show on Saturday, March 12’th at Cisco Kitchen & Bar on 1480 East Rodney French Blvd. in New Bedford, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Sean FitzGerald, lead vocalist for the NB Rude Boys, invited Citrus Biscuit to play with them at The Vault last October, opening for The Amy Winehouse Project.
“I bought a copy of ’Lemon Grass,’ it’s in my rotation for long drives,” FitzGerald says. “It’s got a nice chill vibe with quality surf-style tunes.”
At the time Gamache is listening primarily to the psychedelic pop music of MGMT.
“I want to grow as an artist,” the 20-year old says. “My goal is to write music until I’ve found my own style.”
Sonic SouthCoast 