Little Fuss in the Big Boston Scene

By Karenna Umscheid

Little Fuss, the Boston based band composed of vocalist Olivia Martinez (she/her) and guitarist Cody Von Lehmden, (he/him) dwell artistically on their daydreams and downfalls in their new album Girls at Parties, which was released on January 19, 2022. 

The band, born out of a chance encounter while both Martinez and Von Lehmden were studying abroad in Spain, started making music together soon afterwards. 

“Within the first two days of knowing each other we just immediately started working on music, and within that first period of time we wrote two songs that we still play today,” Martinez said. 

When COVID-19 emerged and their semester ended abruptly, they were able to continue making music together as they both returned to their home state of Ohio. Von Lehmden describes it as “the best of a bad situation, because we could spend the whole pandemic making music.” 

The band uses the phrase “daydreams and downfalls” in their Spotify bio as a less formal description of their music. Martinez said “That’s what I write about, daydreams, and in real life, downfalls, just socially and being awkward would be downfalls, and daydreams would be songs that are these fictional worlds that we make up.” 

This leads into the themes of the new album Girls at Parties, which focuses on party specific scenarios, born out of both quarantine boredom and social anxiety. 

Martinez elaborates on this, saying “I myself am very socially awkward a lot of the time, so I’m definitely someone who daydreams about ‘Oh, this was such an awkward night,’ but this is what I was thinking about and if I could put it more eloquently into what I meant to say, and what I was trying to express, this was what it could’ve been.” Von Lehmden adds that it’s like replaying situations back in your head, and wishing you had done something differently. 

The band’s songwriting process is not formulaic at all, with inspiration spontaneously striking. Martinez puts it simply, saying “If we have an idea that we think is interesting, no matter if its lyrics, melody, just a rhythm and beat, a sound, whatever, it's just like hey, follow that idea and see where it takes you.” 

Von Lehmden further elaborated on the spontaneity of their craft, explaining that “some of [their songs] will start from an instrumental or a beat idea and Olivia will hear it from the other room and just start writing lyrics and just burst through the door and be like ‘I got it!’”

Little Fuss also uses their platform as musicians for feminist activism and incorporates these views when introducing songs during live performances. 

Martinez says “I think about feminism multiple times a day every day because it's something I care a lot about, so it only makes sense for it to come up in the music and in the talking bits in between.”

Specifically on the issue of women in Iran, Martinez hopes to raise awareness and do what she is able to make a difference. “We need to give them support right now in any way we can, and even if we can only do that at a tiny house show just as a reminder to people not to forget about it, I think that’s valid and important.” 

Martinez finds value in using her platform — even if it doesn’t impact many people, just one makes it worthwhile. “If it got one person to go home and check out videos of what’s going on, who hadn’t been previously that caught up on it, hell yeah, that’s awesome.” 

The track “Girls at Parties” features a spoken word section, which has become Martinez’s favorite one to perform “just because it's really fun, [and] it feels like you get to actually make eye contact with people in the audience, not in a deep emotional feeling sort of way, I just like having fun with the audience.”

Martinez credits these spoken word sections to her affinity for poetry and Shakespeare clubs she was a part of while growing up. She says “I think sometimes you don’t need a melody to make words part of music.” 

The name of the band is also an integral, non-melodic part of their music, coming from the phrase “making a fuss.”It serves as a reminder to those in the music industry that there’s no need to always make big fuss about the small things. 

“There is so much little behind-the-scenes stuff with music that I feel you could choose to let it get to you and make a big deal about little small things but it's just music, it doesn’t matter. We’re not in medical school, no one’s life is on the line here, we’re just making music which is super fun and important, but there’s no reason to make a big fuss about things.” Martinez says. 

New album Girls at Parties, released on January 19, 2023 is available now to stream on Spotify.