This story was originally published on Feb. 5, 2014

Musicians are intimidating. They are talented, spontaneous, often very good-looking, and sometimes a little temperamental. Whether you’re a fan, a groupie, or a journalist (like me), it’s not unusual to get a funny feeling in your stomach when you’re about to talk to a musician because you never really know what you are going to get. Talking to Lydia for the first time was no exception.

Leighton Antelman performing at the Fonda Theater. (Photo by: Rosemary Vega)

The indie rock band from Arizona got together in 2003. They’ve released four studio albums, all with a strong fan following. They’ve played at the Vans Warped tour, Bamboozle and the Zumiez Couch Tour. One could say they’ve accomplished a lot in the last decade, but Lydia has also dealt with its fair share of drama. In 2010 they went on a year long hiatus due to creative differences between the two original band members, Leighton Antelman and Steve McGraw. If you look a their Wiki page it seems like they’ve had a revolving door of band members. A search in Google images will produce photos with six band members and others with three. It’s all a little confusing and — needless to say — I didn’t know which iteration of Lydia I was about to meet. But, since the band had just come off a successful tour with the Maine and Anberlin, I was interested in finding out what they had up their sleeves next.

Justin Camacho, the band’s guitarist, met us at the entrance to the Fonda Theater. He had a big goofy grin on his face and seemed full of excitement as he led us to the backstage area. We walked through a hallway crowded with other musicians and after a few minutes arrived at the band’s dressing room. Leighton and Matt Keller (one of the newer band members) greeted us with handshakes and offered up bottled waters. Each band member pops open a beer. I realized fairly quickly that this encounter was going to be more hangout than interview.

“How has it been, touring with Anberlin and getting to tour with The Maine again?” I ask while looking for a place to set down my microphone/phone.

“Great,” Leighton says as he helps pull out a stool to put the phone on.

“Yeah, it’s been awesome,” Justin says.

Matt gives a thumbs-up and then laughs. “I put my thumb up, but the phone can’t hear me put my thumb up. It’s been a really good time. We get to play to a whole bunch of new people every night. Anberlin are super cool guys. And The Maine- we’re all good friends with The Maine, so it’s good to hang out with those guys too. It’s been a good time.”

“The tour has been over for a month maybe, and this is just a make up show, of course. But the tour was great. It’s fun to see these guys randomly,” Justin says.

“It was like a reunion, a little bit,” Leighton concludes.

“Was there a specific show on tour that you remember that was just really awesome?” I ask.

Matt stops to think for a minute. “I remember Salt Lake City being a really good time.”

“We had a great time in Salt Lake. Santa Ana …at the Observatory. I don’t know if you guys were at that one- it was probably one of the biggest shows of the tour. It was crazy how many people were there, and it was very exciting,” Justin says.

“It gets hard to answer that, because you’re out there for a month and a half… And something like, the venue you played in Idaho, in your mind is the venue you played in Seattle, and everything gets confused. You never know where you are, or what day it is,” Matt adds.

“We love them all,” Justin says, not wanting to leave any shows out.

“There hasn’t been a terrible one, let’s put it that way,” Leighton says.

After a couple of introduction questions, we start talking about the infamous hiatus. In May of 2010 the band announced that their summer tour would be their last. The tour was titled “The Lydia Finale: A Goodbye & Farewell Tour.” Leighton reported in several interviews that him and original guitarist, Steve McGraw, just didn’t get along anymore. McGraw was scheduled to play with Lydia in the farewell tour, but backed out a week before the shows started. Lydia drummer, Craig Taylor eventually convinced Leighton to find new band members and continue releasing music under the Lydia name.

Lydia goofing around backstage a the Fonda Theater. (Photo by: Rosemary Vega)

“When you guys went on your hiatus, there was some drama about why you guys broke up, especially with Steve. How are you guys now, do you have any kind of relationship at all?” I ask Leighton.

“Yeah, absolutely. Um, we just played a festival in Colorado- he lives in Colorado. So he comes out to all of our shows in Denver- that’s where he lives. So there’s no beef there.”

“He got me into the band,” Matt chimes in.

“He’s a good dude, it was just kind of wrong time and the wrong place for both of us. So we kind of had to part ways. We just wanted to do two different things. It wasn’t anything personal. It was just musical, I guess, I don’t know what you want to call it,” Leighton says.

“There was a fork in the road,” Matt says.

“Yeah. That’s really all it was, it wasn’t anything like, I punched him in the face, you know,” Leighton says with a laugh.

A punch in the face would have been more exciting from a storytelling perspective, but the break up was actually pretty tame according to the group.

“That would have been an awesome story,” I say.

“Yeah, that would have been a way better story for sure,” Leighton agrees.

“You should just start telling people that,” Matt says.

“Absolutely should. But no, we still talk, for sure. He’s a good guy. He’s crazy, but he’s a good guy.”

“He is crazy…” Matt says, his voice trailing off.

Spring is finally among us and what better way to welcome the warm weather than with concerts? New tours are announced everyday it seems, and one of our favorites, Lydia recently released the dates for their summer 2015 tour with The Early November. It will no doubt be a great pairing, but it’ll be a few weeks before the band will start performing again. But don’t fret, if you’re dying with anticipation, check out our Lydia interview for some highlights from their last tour.

We sat down with Lydia again at the tail end of 2014 to catch up on their previous year, as well as what’s to come next for the band. The band reminisced about their Illuminate tour, and revealed their favorite song to play, “One More Day.” “We’re not shredders,” Justin Camacho said, but the track allowed them all to “get shreddy.” You’re welcome for your new nick name Justin – all hail “the Shredder!”

The band is currently finishing up their next album. When we spoke with them, only a few songs had been tracked. We asked the guys who they might collaborate with –“Might call up my friend Kanye,” Leighton Antelman told us.

So far, no signs of ‘Ye on Lydia’s Instagram, but we’re still keeping our fingers crossed.

Day 10

A photo posted by @lydiamusic on Feb 23, 2015 at 2:09pm PST

Check out our interview to hear some tour stories, including one of John O’Callaghan of The Maine and Matt Keller staying up and drinking with (or rather, around) their bus driver, and more:

DEC 11- Fans started lining up early in the cold (yes, there was a “cold” week in Calfornia) to see Lydia, Anberlin, and The Maine at The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. Some fans had been waiting months to see the show, as it was originally scheduled for October. Due to scheduling conflicts, the showdate was change to December. Since the show was now during holiday season, the bands teamed up with Toys for Tots, and encouraged fans to donate toys for less fortunate children.

After an opening set from From Indian Lakes, Lydia took the stage. Lead by singer Leighton Antelman, the band is made up of Justin Camacho on guitar and Matt Keller on keyboard. The band performed songs from their latest album “Devil,” including “The Exit” as well as old fan favorite, “This is Twice Now” from 2008’s “Illuminate.” Lydia’s sound is very mellow, which is always interesting to see translated live. The band pulled it off changing up each song to become lively enough to captivate the crowd. Leighton remarked, “There are some Lydia fans in here,” after the crowd was noticeably singing along to every song.

Co headlining the show with The Maine, was Anberlin. Singer Stephen Christian, guitarists Joseph Milligan and Christian McAlhaney, bassist Deon Rexroat, and drummer Nathan Young have played together as Anberlin since 2007 (although the band formed in 2002). With a discography consisting of 7 studio albums, the band played a variety of new and old songs. Songs like “Feel Good Drag” and “Paperthin Hymn” were clear favorite among the crowd. The band’s sound, distinctly different from the other bands on the tour, is more reminiscent of Taking Back Sunday, or Switchfoot. To say the band seemed a bit out of place is an understatement, but you couldn’t tell from the crowd’s enthusiasm.

I’ve been a fan of The Maine for a long time (John and Garrett were actually my first interview!), and as expected, the band has matured significantly from their start. While the band played an array of songs from each of their four full length albums, the change was especially evident at the end. The band played, “Girls Do What They Want,” from their debut album, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” followed by an encore of “Misery,” from 2011’s “Pioneer.” Although the songs were released just three years apart, the transformation from teenage kids in a band to musicians was clear. These guys are in it to play music, constantly, anywhere, however. And I really hope more people will begin to recognize their talent.

The band added some holiday cheer to the show, performing their “holiday” song, “Ho Ho Hopefully,” which lead singer John O’Callaghan prefaced with, “Oh gosh. Um, I’m not 100% sure I still know the lyrics.” 

Check out some photos from the show below:

Photography by Rosemary Vega

[See image gallery at hollywoodtimessquare.com]