a day at the park with lip filler

written By Bella Berry

Released in October - 2024

On a humid and bright late August evening in Paris, I had the pleasure of meeting an indie rock band from the UK called Lip Filler.

Upon their arrival to our chosen meeting spot, Parc de Belleville, I instantly felt transported to an episode of SKINS. Their collective energy was chaotic and exciting in a way that makes you unsure of what you can expect from them next.

When I sat them down one at a time for their interviews, I was able to see how their individual characters harmonize to create a group that will no doubt cause their audience to be kept on their toes. I seemed to have caught them at a pivotal moment in their career– the day before their second ever show abroad at live music venue, SuperSonic, in the Bastille area of Paris. Their anticipation was palpable and the excitement was contagious. I wanted to get to the bottom of who Lip Filler actually is. Where do they come from? What do they want? How do they want to be perceived? Their answers brought me a new perspective on what it means to be an artist.

To understand the goals of the band, I asked each member which aspect of Lip Filler they were most focused on. “Forming an identity” answered Nate Wicks, the drummer. Nate explained that he wants Lip Filler’s sound to be distinctly theirs. “People can go ‘that’s Lip Filler because of XYZ’ but for every song the ‘XYZ’ is completely different.”. Jude, the band’s rhythm guitarist, had a similar idea. He believes the band’s ultimate focus is on “Just us being ourselves in this day and age.”. Jude believes Lip Filler’s music to be a window into the current state of today’s youth. “I think we’re in a position now where we can actually use our music to put a message or bring awareness to how people in their mid-20s are living and what the norm is and how lost maybe some of us feel," said the rhythm guitarist. “Living in London right now is such a task and it's such a challenge that it's taken me so long to realize that we have so much to talk about.”.

To Jude, the meaning behind the band’s songs is one of the most important things to consider. “I don’t want to write anything just for the sake of it,” he said. However, he acknowledges the fact that sometimes random inspiration will hit the band that can be harder to attach a deeper meaning to. “That would have meaning because we were all together,” he explained.

“ I just want us to be as connected as possible and kind of push towards something that means something to other people.”.

It seemed to me that the band’s biggest challenge was not just finding a sonic identity, but finding their identities as performers. This issue seemed to particularly affect the band’s lead singer, George. George comes from an acting background, which he brings into his performance on stage. Although, acting and performing live music, in his eyes, have some distinct differences. “as an actor, you’re portraying a character, you’re trying to be something else and you’ve got a script and a director telling you what to do and it's like, being in a band as an artist where you're creating your own art and then you go to perform it in front of an audience, its just like, fuck, that’s yours. That's your idea. You created it. It's your baby. So it's like, how do you translate that to your audience?”.

George walked me through all the different ways that he has approached performing. George tried “the classic ‘performer’ or ‘actor’ route where you completely lose yourself to the point where you’re not even yourself”. He cited David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust as an example of this. Although this is an idea that excites him, George doesn’t identify with this kind of persona when it comes to performing his music. “I've always been infatuated, in love, with the idea of being elusive,” the lead singer admitted. Though he likes this idea as well, he’s also unsure that it aligns with who he is as a person. “I still feel like Lip Filler is in its early days, so at the moment I'm still finding myself as a performer.’.

I was curious how the band was able to blend all these voices and ideas together to create one harmonious sound. “You have to be able to center yourself and to promote yourself in a way that's digestible to the masses.” said Verity, the band’s lead guitarist. “But, you know, we’re an indie rock, dance punk band and it's clear that we draw from different influences.”. So what does the music-making process look like for Lip Filler? The band’s bassist, Theo, explained “the producer we work with is so open minded and has open ears to all our suggestions and I think he's inspired by us and it's a really cool team to work around,” though it seems the nature of their recording sessions can be very fast paced and intense. George was the first to admit that his creativity can be quite spontaneous. “I love doing things in the moment when something comes to me. There have been a few moments in the studio where it’s just like ‘I can't do anything else in my life, I have to put this thing down, record this vocal’, whatever. A lot of our creativity is based around that spontaneity.” Theo went into detail by explaining “If you've heard the second EP, that is us going H.A.M. That is just us kind of saying “fuck it” and just being brave. It’s Not Deep for example; It’s a classic indie rock first chorus, but the bridge just gets into grimey UK rap and dub.”.

The last thing I wanted to know was how Lip Filler viewed their audience. The idea that the band did actually have an audience and fans was something they seemed not to think so much about. “You start writing music because you like the way it sounds, but then you have to go back and think about what kind of people would like listening to it.” said Nate before explaining that “The people we want to listen to our music are people that are like us. AKA not people that are super musical or attached to the logistics, just people that want to dance a bit for no fucking reason and zone out from their normal life. People that are down to have fun.”. When I asked George what he would want to say to the average loyal listener, he replied, “I'd love to have a conversation with them; Ask them questions like “how does this (song) make you feel?” or “how do you interpret this?”, because they probably interpret it in a completely different way than I do.”. He then added that

“that’s the beauty of music, that's the beauty of art. We write a song and I'll write the lyrics and I know exactly what they mean, but for all four other members, it will mean a completely different thing to them.”.

It was so interesting to get to know Lip Filler. I was able to understand that making and performing music looks different for everyone. Learning about their point of view was inspiring because they really pay attention to what they put out into the world. They are both intentional and carefree when it comes to their music, and mastering that balance is what makes them a truly unique band. They're definitely one to watch and It will be exciting to see where they go next.