NEW SHARON – When Lena Kendall left home for college and began meeting new people at the University of Maine, her go to ice breaker was: “so what do you play?”
“I just thought it was what everyone did, but I got a lot of blank stares,” Lena said.
The New Sharon-raised musician was brought up with instruments and song all around, both at home and in the Regional School Unit 9 system, where the musical arts were a big deal.
“Being at school just emphasized what we were surrounded by at home. Everyone played an instrument, or sang,” she said.
Lena and her younger brother Zak founded their band, GoldenOak, during Zak’s final years of college. After piecing together gigs on the weekends or during school breaks, the siblings decided to take the leap and make GoldenOak their top priority in 2017.
“Instead of fitting music in around our other schedules, music became the schedule,” Lena said. “Growing up in Franklin County is probably 75 percent of why we had the belief in ourselves to go out and become full time musicians.”
Heading toward their three-year-anniversary, GoldenOak has already seen a lot of growth and change, Lena said. Not just in the shifting of band members, but in the songs they produce. The band has toured all over the east coast and is currently in the process of raising funds for their second full-length album. Lena described the album as more mature than their first release, with more of a global outlook. Many of the songs focus on environmental issues, and the affect of those issues both physical and emotionally.
“There is almost a map of how to write a love song, but there are definitely no maps of how to write a song about rising sea levels,” Lena said.
Despite the somewhat depressing lyrical content, Lena said the songs are uplifting in sound.
“At the core of it, we’re really scared. But there’s always still this hope,” she said. “We’re all out here, singing about stuff, and when people face things together, there’s hope.”
GoldenOak is running a KickStarter campaign to raise funds for their upcoming album. For the next week, an anonymous donor has pledged to match every donation made to the band, up to $5,000. For more information go to the band’s website here or Facebook page here.
