>>And you know that it rocks your little boat and you're ready to sink or to swim or to float.

>>From the second floor of the Orlando Public Library, welcome to Melrose in the Mix, our series of live recording sessions from the stage here at the Melrose Center.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Jim Myers.

Today's session features The Ladybits led by singer songwriter Renee Arozqueta with Kevin Meehan on drums and Mike Adkins on bass.

The Ladybits formed last year and have been busy writing and recording ever since, including a number of sessions here in the Melrose Center audio studio.

They consider themselves a combination of art rock, folk and punk, all driven by Renee's unique voice and lyrics.

Before the session, we had a chance to talk to the band about how they formed, how they found their sound, the influences they each bring to the project and more.

>>I guess for some the years go by and they hardly change at all.

But every time I pass this way there's nothing I recall.

So I throw the cards up in the air and they rain down.

Everyone a handsome face or a brand new town.

And I pick 'em up I check 'em out I get around.

And if they fall from grace it does not astound.

[MUSIC] The comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

See everywhere I go, I never grow old.

There's always new friends and new faces, there's always hip parties and places.

To get drunk and be alone, the comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

So I guess the eve has fallen, 'cause the light gets shorter each day.

And the trees are all still green and they promise to stay that way.

I wish it would get colder.

I wish it would get colder.

I wish it would get colder.

I wish it would get colder.

For the comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

I wish would get colder.

I wish would get colder.

'Cause see how else will I know that I'm older.

And how else will I know that it's over.

And how else will I know?

The shiver.

If you keep me warm all winter.

The comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

The comfort of the ghost.

[MUSIC] One two three four.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

[APPLAUSE] Thanks so much.

>>What I react to in the songs that you bring to us is the lyrics.

I, you know, I'm.

I'm a I'm a total fan of your songwriting.

Aw, thank you.

Do you have a lyric that you like?

>>Yeah.

>>Do you have a lyric that means something to you?

>>Well, in for - in for your shelf, in for your shelf.

There is the line about when you go, I will try to-- >>Feed myself.

>>Feed myself.

And I know that-- >>I would say that.

>>I would say that >>I will fold my clothes, but-- >>You know that I probably won't.

And, you know, it's just that the songs describe a state of being whatever it might be.

Sometimes it's very happy and upbeat.

Sometimes it's very, very emo.

And down in the trenches.

>>He just called me emo.

>>Yeah.

>>Thank you.

>>And, you know, in other times it's just like a road song out on the road and and Montana Winter to me.

We're going to play in the set tonight.

Montana winter is just you know every single line in that song is loaded with imagery that you see.

You can picture everything in your head and enjoy the whole vista of a montana winter.

So, you know, I know we're I'm supporting you.

You're supporting me.

We're in a band together.

But I really do admire the songwriting and its lyrics.

To me, lyrics is what keeps me plugged in to the project.

The lyrics are great.

>>I wanted to make something that was pretty, a thing for your shelf, your collection of things that you see in the morning as you open your eyes and are blinking awake from a dream.

I wanted your eyes to fall upon this thing and associate its pretty with me and think that I must be making pretty things wherever I happen to be.

When you have left I will try to feed myself, and I would say that I will try to fold my clothes but you know that I probably won't.

When you go I will be a sad sack of it.

And all of the love notes that I have wrote will sleep in an envelope.

If crossing the desert is more than I bargained for, stars out there are bigger than they report back from satalites down to the earth.

If I come back down to earth like a seed in the soil that the sun starts appeasing to put roots down and bloom for a season.

[MUSIC] I wanted to make something that was pretty, a thing for your shelf your collection of things that you see in the morning as you open your eyes and are blinking awake from a dream.

I wanted your eyes to fall upon this thing and associate it's pretty with me and think that I must be making pretty things wherever I happen to be.

[MUSIC] When you go, I will be a sad sack of it.

And all of the love notes that I have wrote will sleep in an envelope.

[APPLAUSE] The Ladybits was once a band of other people, ladies that had found each other through the organization, The Swamp Sisters.

So we kind of were like a bit of ladies some lady bits and we played some punk rock songs and then they went to do other things as bands do.

Still holding the name in my hand.

I was playing at Grumpy's one night and I met these guys.

I really liked their music and then I asked if they play drums.

>>And guess what I did.

But we were all.

It was interesting because it was a songwriter showcase and all three of us were on there, a solo artist on the songwriter showcase, and we - Mike played his set.

I played my set and then we joined Renee on her set.

And I mean, I got on drums and Mike got on bass, and from my point of view, it just started grooving like, "Oh, this is like a Velvet Underground type of groove" and let's explore this.

[MUSIC] >>It's the Montana Winter and oh aren't you glad that the snow is coming down, making halos for the dead.

And you look just like that sugar-frosted angel in your head.

So why are you so sad?

It's the montana winter and isn't it a thrill that the river's frozen over and if you want I will walk through the mountains without climbing up a hill.

So why are you just sitting still?

They made boats for a reason they made socks for a reason but I guess you got your reasons I guess it is the season and if you want to stay there inside your little cold heart waiting for the sun dear it's never going to come out.

[MUSIC] Never going to come out.

[MUSIC] And being from the south I know I'm really one to talk with my blood as thin as paper and my skin that's just as soft.

But it holds me like a blanket and darkens all my thoughts, and I got to kick it off.

And once I found some comfort inside a magazine, I was staring at the faces of a happy family pleased as punch to picnic in twenty-two degrees all wrapped up in matching fleece.

So I know it's not the cold, I know it's not the dark I know it's not the winter that crawled inside my heart.

It's just that now the river has turned into glass I can see right through.

I can see every last thing that wanted to believe every fear as an ice machine every doubt predicting the next big freeze.

So if I'm going to stay here inside my little cold heart waiting for the sun dear it's never going to come out.

And if I'm going to stay here inside my little cold heart waiting for the sun dear it's never going to come out, it's never going to come out, it's never going to come out it's never going to come out.

[MUSIC] [APPLAUSE] >>So then we came into the Melrose Center and began recording, and we we have finished up a full length release that's going to probably come out early 2024, maybe in March, April 2024, but recorded here at the Melrose Center.

So we're very comfortable and happy to be here and actually, I would have to say that Renee and I met each other pre the pandemic because I sometimes am a sound tech and provide sound tech support-- >>For the Swamp Sisters.

>>For Melrose in the Mix and there was a Swamp Sisters Melrose in the Mix episode right at the beginning and I was providing sound tech for that and so Renee and I didn't know at the time that we would eventually be in a band together, but we met right here in this room maybe in 2017 or 2018, pre the pandemic.

And, you know, it's just a it's a beautiful feeling to sort of evolve and go through recording our album here and now we're back.

And actually the featured act at a Melrose in the Mix.

And it's you know, it's a really good feeling.

>>Full circle.

>>Melrose in the Mix is our clubhouse.

I mean, it feels great to be here.

I really wish more people knew about this little secret of Orlando where we made some amazing art.

>>Yeah.

>>I wonder how it would have been if I had chosen you over him.

Would you have moved to China without me?

Would I have driven all across the country looking for someone?

I wonder if my ma would've broke her arms.

Could I have somehow kept her safe from harm?

Could I have change the course of disaster?

Could I have kept her from dying of cancer?

Probably not.

I'm wondering as I'm driving home from school, have I lived my whole life as a fool?

Could I have been something spectacular?

Could I have been anything other than myself?

Probably not.

I know how ridiculous I am to wonder all the things that could have been.

What good does it do asking questions?

Put your foot in any direction, that's all you can do.

Now look at you.

And all you have done.

You're something spectacular.

And I, I found someone.

[MUSIC] [APPLAUSE] >>When I listen to music, it's funny because I hear the music first and the lyrics much, much later.

But when I write the songs, they come together.

A harmony with a melody forms the emotion of that idea.

I also really love to I have I have a specific wordplay that I do.

I take a word and I change the intonation or the, what's the word that I used before?

>>Just the pronunciation, the sound sound of the word.

>>Accent.

Yes, Yes.

Okay.

I like to take the word and change the cadence or the intonation, and it's slightly changes the meaning of the word.

For example, if I really wanted you to remember I have a word associate.

as-so-ci-ate you're kind of what?

So you're going to remember that I had the words spectacular in a song, but the emotion of the song wasn't quite spectacular.

So I shortened it just a little bit.

Spectacular.

Spectacular.

If I asked, What's your "flavorite" ice cream, you would know what I meant.

This kind of wordplay to change a word just a little bit in language creates a new meaning for me.

>>There is love.

There is comfort.

Every night he puts you back together.

If he loved you just the way that you are You'd still try to be a little better.

And you know that you don't want to rock the boat but you can't help but sway trying to keep it afloat.

At the end of the day everyone grows closer or further away.

There is love, whatever you call it.

Looks different from the last time you saw it.

That glorious catastrophe, if only you could make new memories.

And you know that it rocks your little boat and you're ready to sink or to swim or to float, at the end of the day sometimes you're alone but you always wake up at home.

So you go back to your apartment, one bright room with the paint in the carpet.

To water your flowers and fade into dreams and they bloom in colors you've never seen.

And you know that it rocks your little boat and you're ready to sink or to swim or to float, at the end of the day sometimes you're alone but you always wake up at home.

Five months later you've moved away, changed your number so you call and say come over and we can catch up, but you never bother to put on any makeup.

And you know that it rocks your little boat and you're ready to sink or to swim or to float at the end of the day sometimes you're alone but you always wake up home.

[APPLAUSE] >>Thanks so much for coming out and supporting us.

Oh, yeah, we did it.

You say being in a band is is healing.

It absolutely is.

To be a part of a community when we get to share our art, especially music, which is a very special art form.

When you see it live, it's there for a moment and then it passes.

My mom would tell me that it goes out into the universe forever and ever.

And I hope that when I perform and when I put my art out there, I use songwriting to cope because life is hard and life is weird and life is beautiful.

And when I write a song about it, I validating all of that.

I hope that people find my songs funny and relate to them.

>>I've been in so many bands over the years.

And I have to say, this one is the one that I just I never have a negative moment with Mike and Renee.

We always, you know, we have frustrating moments trying to work out arrangements and, you know, and what are we going to do in the studio at a particular how are we going to record this particular piece?

But those are all creative and, you know, generative.

And I never have a negative feeling.

I'm always feeling better at the end of a practice or recording session or a live performance.

So it's it's, you know, it's such a pleasure to be in this band.

>>Yeah, you guys are great.

Can I have your hand, please?

>>Yes.

>>Ladybits!

>>All right.

>>Thanks for joining us for this episode of Melrose in the Mix, featuring the Ladybits.

We'll see you again soon for another live recording session here in the Melrose Center at the Orlando Public Library.