Citrus Q&A: The Whole Band

Q: How long have you guys been in a band together?

Arik Harris, Bassist & Vox: The Citrus name dates back to 2014. Caleb and I knew each other in high school; we had chatted a few times, but we really reconnected after. We had worked on a few songs together during that time, and that's when we decided to give a name to the project because we had made a lot of music. Funny enough, we actually jammed with Bryce once around that time. Although Citrus has been a band for a while all of us have only been together for about a year.

Caleb Bowen, Guitarist & Vox: Yeah, back in 2014 it was just me and Arik. We were both in different groups; I was playing death metal at the time. Being in these different bands really helped us cut our teeth in the live performance world. Although I enjoyed playing edgier music, Arik and I started venturing into these new genres of softer psychedelic rock, and it just felt so natural. I knew that I wanted to pursue a different route.

Q: How did you come up with your band name?

Caleb: We had a bunch of different names and ideas; it took us like six months to come up with Citrus.

Arik: We wanted a name that reflected the kind of music we make which tends to be very bright, natural, and uplifting, but also kind of spunky, acidic if you will. I feel like the word “citrus” covers it in a weird way.

Caleb: Kind of like something you find in nature or like a jungle and you can’t help but think, “What the hell is that?”

Q: What's the story behind your latest album? Is this a concept album? How long did it take to create?

Caleb: I feel like the collection of those songs kind of exists in their own world. A lot of those songs we’ve had for years.

Arik: Yeah, some of them are like seven years old,

Caleb: Like really old, like technically speaking, but we'd never recorded and released them. There are several versions of some of them. Our song “Do You Know?” took like eight different tries.

Arik: That’s mainly because a lot changed once Bryce came into the picture, and sometimes you can't force a song. Once Bryce joined he really contributed to the final formation of our ideas and really did them justice.

Bryce Gardner, Drummer: I hooked up with Caleb during the pandemic, mostly during the summer of 2021 and 2022. He would just come over to my house and we would jam. Sometimes he would pull out his laptop and show me his songs. there was this one we really liked and decided to record that idea. So we did a couple of takes and then it was done then we went on to the next. I think out of those you just picked out the ones you wanted on the album, right?

Caleb: Yeah, pretty much. I like to constantly make new stuff while trying to somehow work on all these other projects. I don’t like to put songs on the back burner. I don't want to neglect them. So I try to release some of those songs as I'm actively trying to make new stuff. You should always be working on the next thing. Honestly, I’m so lucky to have these guys, they’re my best friends. We want people to enjoy our music and we want to be consistent. That's really kind of the whole thing with citrus. I guess like we want it to be something that people could feel a part of; nobody's excluded. So if I had to give the album a theme, I would say it’s acceptance, freedom, and, obviously, love. Although, it's more about not being afraid to be who you are and to express yourself and what you love doing.

Q: What track on In The Grove are you guys most proud of?

Arik: I like “Where Have You Been?” that one feels very complete to me and I just think it's pretty. It was a fun one to mix, and it’s one of those songs that I felt was good from start to finish. I never doubted it and it never disappointed me like some songs can.

Bryce: I think my favorite is “Aura”. I really like the range in tempos and styles that I get to show off a little bit. Although, that’s a song we haven’t figured out how to play live yet.

Arik: I really like all of them. I feel like we have no filler songs which is something I’m honestly really proud of. we put care into all of them; there isn’t one throwaway song.

Caleb: I felt like each one has its own texture and personality. It’s hard for me to say, I would honestly agree with both of them because they're both pretty dynamic songs. Two tracks that stick out to me are “Nervous Surfer” and “The Infinite Percent” as well. Those are a lot of fun to play live.

Q: So who’s the cat on the album?

Bryce: It's my cat. His name is Poe. He's my little baby boy, and I love him.

Arik: He’s a very cool cat.

Bryce: Yes, I'm actually a new cat dad. He was originally my roommate’s cat but he was getting swamped with work and I offered to adopt him. I've been taking care of him for a while, but he's all mine now.

Arik: Can’t forget to shout out to Bryce's mom for doing the album artwork too.

Bryce: Yeah, she does graphic design for our church and she offered to help us out.

Q: Does she make all of your album and single art?

Arik: This is the only one. For the other few we’ve reached out to local artists or have gone the simple route and chosen a HEX code color. We are straying from solid color art because we feel like it’s a little lazy. The artists that have made album covers for us should be tagged on our Instagram! Please check them out.

Q: Are you guys working on any new music? Are you planning anything exciting?

Arik: Before this phone call, we were listening to two new songs that are basically done or, at least, they're almost done.

Caleb: The next album is just about halfway there. Yeah, I believe I'll say halfway isn't good. It will have no more than 10 songs on the album and we are going to lead with singles. because I feel like that's very common now in more modern artists especially if you want to be “algorithm-friendly”. We’ve thought of a few names for the next album. One thing we were thinking about was The Electric Market, but we're not entirely set on that. we’re still determining a lot. We are also trying to get artwork created ahead of time, but I feel like we have to really hear what all the tracks are like finished, and in a collective, before we can really create the visuals.

Q: Is there a sole songwriter for the group or do you all take turns?

Arik: It’s mostly, Caleb. I contribute when I can. For example, I wrote the lyrics to “Let’s Go Play” and a couple of songs on the first album Fresh Squeezed EP. We have more of a Lennon-McCartney thing going on like we just credit the song to the group or to the two of us or whatever.

Caleb: I want everything to feel like one organism rather than a “he wrote, I wrote”. We're all here together in this space.

Bryce: I have no experience with writing songs. I just write snare parts, drum solos, and drum ensembles.

Q: It looks like you guys have been playing shows for a little over a year now, what is your favorite show memory?

Caleb: Oh, that's a good one! Probably Ruins; we headlined that show and put the lineup together. I just happened to know somebody that worked there and she did a good amount of booking (she might’ve been the booker). We put the artwork together with the same artist who made the cover for “Action Reaction”. I put a bunch of posters together. Shout out to Thurzdaze and all the other bands that played. Yeah, it was packed and sounded great.

Bryce: Good stage, nice lights, a good turnout.

Caleb: Yeah, huge thanks to the sound guy Garrett. He was amazing and the venue has amazing acoustics. We're gonna play there again back to back in July on the 24th and 25th. It’s gonna be good.

Arik: I thought Rubber Gloves was pretty good. There was this really hardcore band playing outside and we got a decent amount of people. We were playing on the inside stage and people would walk in to go to the bar but would stay to listen to our set. We pulled a good amount of people.

Caleb: That was a good one. Another was our last show at Caves Lounge. We were playing pretty loud and got a bit of a crowd and now we actually have a group of fans that come to our shows frequently because of that performance. We just started jamming for part of it and I just jumped off the stage and landed perfectly on the last note. We also played the Bug Stop. That was wild.

Arik: Oh yeah! That’s like a vintage Volkswagen garage. We played their first show.

Caleb: Yeah, that was a really good one. The acoustics were really cool. It was like it was wild because there were all these vintage cars just like museum pieces around us while we were playing.

Q: What are some of the challenges that you guys face as a group?

Caleb: As of right now, shows keep getting canceled. We had one show get rescheduled twice.

Arik: I feel like an overall struggle we have is just finding the time to practice and be a band. That has its own set of challenges.

Bryce: Most of the time we can get together for at least three hours two times a week. We all meet up at my house in Carrollton; we've got a studio upstairs, but if we could rehearse more then that would get the ball rolling faster for some of these other projects.

Caleb: Yeah, striking while the iron is hot. I mean, it's the thing is we are always trying to be consistent. It’s difficult we're three adults with responsibilities, but music is fulfilling and we just love doing what we do.

A spunky, charming, and down-to-earth group making music simply for the love of it. Often times artistry is lost through exploitation, but Citrus understands that there is nothing more important than nurturing the very nature of art: expression.

-BlueGirlHours