Lenina Crowne’s Simplistic Style

What started out as a friendship between two freshman year roommates soon turned into a musical collaboration.

Eric Faust and Mike D. Mulligan, members of the indie-folk band, “Lenina Crowne,” started collaborating together by goofing around in East Halls, creating home music videos and sharing them with friends. The two later went on to create their very first EP, “A Letter to Infidels,” which is currently on iTunes.

Faust and Mulligan both attended high school together in Eastern Pennsylvania, but the two were never really friends until senior year when Faust asked Mulligan during physics class if he wanted to room together the following year.

“Eric looked at me in the eyes and said, ‘Hey man, you’re going to Penn State – want to be roommates?’” Mulligan says.

Over coffee with the two Penn State juniors, it was clear that Faust and Mulligan are more than just musicians in the same band – they’re great friends who have had each other’s backs during the transition period that many students experience in college.

“We didn’t have to worry about stressing or trying to force friendships, like we saw a lot of other people doing to fit in because in our minds we already fit in,” Mulligan says. “We fit in with each other.”

Mulligan said his close bond with Faust is how the two attracted friends and even a music following.

Finding Their Sound

When Faust, lead vocalist and guitarist, began working with Mulligan, who plays the piano, it didn’t start as an equal partnership. Faust wrote the music, while Mulligan acted as a “supplementary” musician, Mulligan said.

“That thought back then is completely perpendicular, to use a math term, as a math major, from the one that I have now,” Faust says laughing. “Now, we’re equal parts in a musical venture.”

Now, the two are equal members of the band and they have taken music more seriously, even releasing their first EP, “A Letter to Infidels,” which is available on iTunes.

The first EP features songs that focus on Faust’s high school experiences. Faust said these songs typically revolved around failed relationships and seeking revenge on ex-girlfriends.

“I had to sort of get it all out of the way,” Faust says with a laugh.

Faust says that for a period of time, he became known as the artist who wrote angry songs about the frustration behind losing love. The lyrics in his songs mainly touched upon his surface emotions and did not delve further into his feelings.

“We needed to expand our message,” Mulligan said. “You can only write songs about love and girls for so long – we needed to go a bit further than that.”

Both Faust and Mulligan decided they needed to stray away from the “Taylor Swift” style of writing and find a deeper message.

Faust says he’s recently become more mature in terms of songwriting and he has learned to actually admit his emotions to listeners. The best songs he writes are when his concerns with how other people are going to view it are completely taken aside, he says.

“When you don’t consider how humiliating or embarrassing it can be later on is when you’re going to write how you actually feel,” Faust says. “People sense that sincerity.”

Sincerity is a key trait of “Lenina Crowne.”

Mulligan says that an audience can sense the difference between a musician who is just trying to put on a show for entertainment purposes and a musician who is sending a message.

For “Lenina Crowne,” it’s all about making a personal connection with the audience.

“We want to keep things simple,” Mulligan sats. “It’s the simple melodies that hit home a lot more with people.”

Folk music has always been about the deeper message, Faust said. During a performance, “Lenina Crowne” keeps the instrumentation basic so that the melody and message do not lose meaning.

“Going back to [folk music’s] roots with Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan –

it’s always been about the lyrics,” Faust says. “That’s the whole essence of keeping performances simple – you can hear what I’m saying.”

Stage Presence:

At the end of a performance, Faust says the crowd either remembers the band or they don’t.

“If you remember one [act] it’s because they had something,” Faust says. “It’s really hard to make that memory based on the performance itself.”

Faust says “Lenina Crowne” has a couple of staples that audience members can recognize each time the band performs. Audience members going to watch the group perform can expect a lot of personality.

“[The audience] is looking to see what Mike’s wearing, what instruments is Mike going to be playing this time, what little quirky comments is Mike going to throw in when Eric’s trying to introduce a song,” Faust says. “It’s a really interesting dynamic.”

While Mulligan contributes a specific fashion style to the group, he also looks to diversify the band’s sound. This year, especially, Mulligan says he started incorporating other instruments, like the accordion as well as percussion to really find that “driving beat.”

“Lenina Crowne” really looks to draw the crowd in so that listeners can hear the meaning behind the band’s lyrics.

“My hope is that when you first listen to a song of ours you like the guitar or what Mike’s doing on percussion, but then if you listen to it again I would hope that you hear some of my lyrics and you think ‘wow I didn’t even recognize that the first time,’ ” Faust says.

Faust says what truly makes a song standout is if it has the ability to teach listeners something new each time they hear it.

“Every time I listen to our songs, I hear something new. Or, I hear something new that I didn’t realize I was doing and I kind of build off that in future performances,” Mulligan says.

Why the name Lenina Crowne?

The novel, “Brave New World,” written by Aldous Huxley, is both Mulligan’s and Faust’s favorite book and it has had an impact on their lives.

Lenina Crowne is a character from “Brave New World” and she is described as “wonderfully nomadic,” Faust says.

The novel is about materialism, which is something both Mulligan and Faust are completely against, Mulligan says.

“We took it as almost a boycott of those things,” Faust says. “Lenina Crowne, while she’s beautiful and everything else and you’d love to have her, she’s everything that you don’t want at the same time.”

“Hopefully, we’re not everything you don’t want, though,” Mulligan jokes.

The band’s Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/leninacrownemusic, even follows the theme of the novel, “Brave New World,” acting as a creative way to spread their music.

What’s to Come:

This summer, “Lenina Crowne” plans on dedicating more time to working on a second album. Faust and Mulligan have even considered taking a year off after they graduate to go on tour.

“We’re both OK with taking a year off and truly giving it a shot. It’s just like anything else in your life—if you don’t put 100 percent in you might live your life in regret,” Faust says.

Mulligan says if the two are going to take a year or maybe even two off after college, then they both have to be in the right mindset.

“It’s not a matter of talking each other into it – we both got to be feeling it,” Mulligan says.