To coincide with the release of one of independent rock’s most interesting, enjoyable and impressive new albums, we caught an interview with the mighty Lion Drome, to find out more about the story and sentiments behind the superb 2026 album Hero Down. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi Mike – huge congrats for the launch of this project, I’m excited to talk about the making of and meaning behind Hero Down. To introduce things – when did you first start working on the album, and where in the process did the title come about?
Hi Rebecca! Great to get with you again. We greatly enjoyed the full album review you just dropped along with the deep dive reviews on 3 of our leading-up singles. It’s those kinds of gifted insights and immersive qualities you bring that make it a joy to read.
The whole thing began, without purpose, on the very heels of releasing our second album, the self-titled Lion Drome in September of 2022. Oddly enough, I was watching a YouTube short lesson from renowned YT music luminary, Rick Beato, on the Whole Tone scale. It was a musical scale I’d never messed around with but I was intrigued by the progressive or fusion-y quality it had. So, I set about writing a backing track to solo over and to “pretend” I was a fusion rock dude for a moment.
That backing track was the verse section (1:20) of what would become Black Light Cobra, the first track on the new release. Not long after, I became energized to write all the other sections around it and turn it into a song. I was so excited about the possibilities of this epic monster that I booked us in the studio a couple months later with the mission of releasing it, along with the U2 cover of I Will Follow, as a stand-alone single.
It’s also important to point out that releasing it pushed me down the road of developing album art that finally got around to visually showing what a Lion Drome is. With that release, you get the first look at the velodrome-like arena with the motorcycle rider with the big cat as a passenger in the side car.
“Carnival-goers in the 1930’s in the U.S. might find themselves entertained by the bizarre concept of the Lion Drome. I think the name describes what we bring very well…unexpected, and hopefully thrilling, entertainment.”
That first go at art has blossomed into full-blown characters and some developing story lines weaving them together for the future. The current Hero Down CD has no less than 10 panels of awesome comic style work, enhancing the mystique of what the band name is all about.
The whole BLC experience super-charged my writing desire and songs came one after another, all the way up until the end where I snuck 2 more songs into an already crowded final weekend of recording. Thanks to my guys for dealing with the last-minute overload!
The title came from the song Hero Down, one of the very earliest ones to be written. The song is about navigating through unconsolable levels of grief that a community might go through with the loss of an irreplaceable hero or leader. And that translated somewhat into designing cover art that depicted the Lion Drome rider (me in cartoon form) getting into a horrific crash.
I’ll save the pending story line details that caused that crash for the future. Ironically, it turns out that the title ended up being very self-reflexive. The whole band and our producer had some serious scrapes in the interim ranging from having parts of an ear removed to falling 60 feet off a cliff and rolling another 100 with massive injuries. Jerry (drummer) removed something suspicious from his ear, Mark (bass) had a bad mountain biking accident with a concussion, separated shoulder, broken ribs & punctured lung, I ruptured two pectoral tendons on a bench press and Dave (producer) had the scariest episode. Read this amazing article on Dave’s cliff adventure if you wish: https://nocostyle.com/2025/04/28/something-good-in-the-neighborhood-dave-beegle/
All of that set back the timeline but it allowed great new songs to slip in and a lot of time to listen and consider carefully how to treat the material with the upmost creativity and performance. And yes, we are all doing just fine and feeling blessed with each person’s recovery.
Was each song written with the bigger project in mind, or do you just remain creative throughout the years, and then compile something from what’s been collected?
No, there was no grand plan, but I think it’s true that as it took shape, an overall character and vein became undeniable.
“I am an open spigot of song ideas. So much so, I don’t touch my guitar all that often. I already have a sizeable catalogue of material I am chomping at the bit to record and I don’t need to keep adding to the pile.”
One thing that is very different from the release of 2022 is that the older album only had one new song written for it (Fashion Blind) and everything else came from 2012-2015. Hero Down was almost all new material, with just Lost Along the Way going back to about 2012.
What was the story or intended theme behind this album, and how did you make sure that there were threads between the songs that stay grounded by that underlying idea?
There is no intended main theme. It’s about 50/50 split between more serious topical themes on one hand and lighter or fantastical themes on the other. But there is always a connective tissue stitching Lion Dome material together and that is our main conceit or mission statement: to “mine the epic”. Epic-ness comes in many forms in my view and I’m a fan.
It can be progressive epic, hinting at longer structures, taking the listener on a journey. It can be in concept. See the fantastical basis for Black Light Cobra and The Dream of Traveler VII. Having harmonically and melodically rich music lends itself to epic-ness and it treats listeners to musical uniqueness. Like my story about the whole tone scale, I counted five other more unusual scales supporting the music that I had never or rarely used before.
Certainly, musical performances can be so good that they are epic. Dave, the producer, and I just marvel and what Jerry and Mark do and they fit that category. Consider Jerry’s drumming on Star 5280. Wow! I told him to listen to Blondie’s “Dreaming” as a prep for direction on that tune and he came in raging with Clem Burke’s energy. So perfect. Listen to those two together at the end of the song Hero Down. Jerry and Mark get so frothy, it’s epic to me. And finally, one of the best used musical tricks to make music epic is to give the listener a satisfying emotional lift with a well-placed melodically intentional chord, melody or to finish a song with a satisfying release or resolution. Plenty of examples of that in our recording history.
That is the Lion Drome cookbook, and it accommodates any influence we want to broach and with Hero Down we invite in some disco rock (King of the Club) and a hint of yacht rock (Good Night Sleep Tight). All to successful integration.
Tell me about the current band set-up – how did you compose these incredibly versatile tracks, how did you choose the right instruments in every case, and is this the same band as when we first spoke back in 2023?
We are Mike Lopez (Vocals, guitars, synths, plus all written words and music), Mark Foerster (bass), Jerry Bousquet (drums) and Dave Beegle (producer/engineer, additional instrumentation as he sees fit, including piano, other keys, bass and acoustic guitar).
This is now the set lineup, whereas the 2022 album pieced together some disparate eras and had three different drummers and a couple bass players as the mix-n-match.
As for choosing instrumentation and sounds, Dave really leads this area. His ear is amazing and he’s really tuned into our vibe at this point. The guy is incredible and a local legend as a musician and producer. I can’t imagine any of this sounding anywhere near as good without him.
You mentioned Black Light Cobra that first time I interviewed you – what made this the perfect song to open Hero Down?
Song order is always a trial and error up until the end. Originally, Star 5280 was to lead off the album because it was a short, energetic, “single-type” number and BLC was slated either mid-set or at the end as sort of this Kashmir-like album center of gravity. I still see it that way.
But what I did not like was the vocal style of Star’s verses to be the first vocal impression. They are suitably kind of snotty/ punky bro-talk, which is perfect for that part of the song but I wanted a different first impression.
That led me to do what you aren’t supposed to do and that’s pile three long EPIC songs in a row to open the album, leaving more of the digestible “quick hitters” to the balance of it. But I stand by that decision. I wanted it in BOLD PRINT coming out of the speakers that this is serious music. Headphone music. On a journey music. Adventurous rock music is alive.
So yes, Black Light Cobra and its ode to the songs, albums and bands we music fans play over and over was an appropriate choice. The song lyrics are mostly made up of references to 28 bands, which makes for a neat Easter egg of a song as well. And I enjoyed coming up with the plot, having the constellation, Ophiuchus – the snake charmer, entranced by all the music sent out to space from the bedroom of this teenager, would visit to listen along. Its presence indicated by the glowing eyes of the black light cobra poster on the wall.
What’s the story behind The Dream of Traveler VII?
In 2021, I bought my dream car. A white 718 Porsche Cayman S and had it a year before I made a tough decision to sell it for a financial opportunity. I missed it terribly and had many dreams about it.
Eventually, after coming up with some great mysterious music, I fashioned a story using some of that experience. It was a combination of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Stephen King’s “Christine”.
“As my story goes, every night I have a recurring nightmare that I’m being chased down “sleepy hollow paths” by bright lights and the sounds of angry horses, but always to escape in the nick of time. But in the last dream, I reach a dead end and have to turn back towards the light. I discover there are no horses and faintly through the light I see it’s a car and the door opens. I walk to it and inside. In the end, it is just the car I sold wanting me back as its pilot.”
I never put it on a license plate, but I used to refer to it as Traveler, referencing the white Arabian horse that the Trojan mascot rides from my college, USC (University of Southern California). At the time of writing this song, the school was up to Traveler VI in the animal’s lineage, so I adopted the next in line number, so to speak.
The CD has some pretty cool artwork depicting this song.
How is family life treating you, and how much did your personal life feed into the stories of Hero Down?
Family is awesome. In 8 Trac Flashback, I got to reflect on how my wife and I met. In 2001 I was releasing an album called “One of Many Goodbyes” by Eve’s Drop, a Concrete Blonde influenced band. (look for it). She was set up by the local label to shoot pictures for the CD. We bonded over music and mutual attraction.
In high school, she was referred to as 8 Trac Flashback for her knowledge and love of music outside of the 90’s she was growing up in. In the song, we jump in the Porsche and drive 1,000 miles straight to the Whiskey A Go-Go in Los Angeles just to catch a show…cuz music! Maybe someday for real…
Lost Along the Way is a personal favourite, but I also love the contrasting high-energy and weight of Star 5280. How different was your mindset for writing and recording these two songs, and why place them next to each other on the album?
Lost goes back to 2012 and I’ve been holding on to it for just the right moment. I’m so glad it came to life. Dave says it’s his favorite. The album needed a breather in the middle so that’s where I placed it.
Then you need a slap awake and Star comes rampaging down like a bull right on after!
I just wanted to joyously rock all over this album so Star 5280 was the adrenaline packed one. It’s also a part two of “Here and Gone” from the self-titled 2022 release. In that song, the guy strikes out at the dance club when the girl who was seriously flirty with him ends up being a social butterfly, leading everybody on. Well, this time, our poor hero runs into the “it girl” at high school from 10 years ago, where he was a nobody just happy to share the same oxygen as her. She recognizes him, approaches and genuinely seems interested. Time to “shoot your shot” and ask her out. I liked giving that dude a “win”.
Goodnight Sleep Tight is equally brilliant, sometimes light and indie-rock-like, at other times impassioned, dramatic and dark. Tell me about the making of this, the meaning behind it, and how you came to complete the set-up with such juxtaposed sections?
With Goodnight Sleep Tight I got to reflect on the need to shelter kids and grandkids from adult stresses including the tumult of the outside world. So, there are the light verses where we are encouraging them that the world is their oyster and a belief in that is key to grab it and make it manifest one day.
Those jazzy moments sound a bit yacht rock ala Hall & Oates to me. Then the heavy dark choruses turn on the metal and show behind the curtain that adults in this world often can be scared, unsettled, stressed. It’s the part we try to hide until it’s appropriate and we’ve built up our young ones with confidence.
The juxtaposition was a frequently musical trick to switch to the relative minor (the dark chorus) from the major key you are playing in previously. In this case, a simple switch from Gmaj Ionian to Eminor Aoelian. It’s a practice that works seamlessly for sea-change dynamics.
What are your hopes for this album and promotion-wise will there be videos, live clips, live shows or anything else to anticipate as the songs make the rounds online?
I started a Spotify promotional campaign with Star 5280, King of the Club and the radio edit of 8 Trac Flashback as the targeted songs. Its doing really well just a few days in.
I don’t have live shows in mind at this time so the complex reason is that in order to do LD justice, it will take some $$$ and I’ve poured a lot into this recording already. But I am open to opportunities where it makes sense and I can afford to deliver it well.
8 Trac has a fun unofficial video. It was made from throwing our various album art into a terrible AI app and letting them come to life without any prompts. Most of the results are wonderfully terrible! Here’s a link:
Is there anything else we need to know about Lion Drome or Hero Down in 2026?
I just hope it catches fire and finds its audience. I think its refreshing.
I’m thinking an EP might be in order for late 2028. I’d like to have a short comic inserted in the CD that brings the Lion Drome arena characters to life in an actual story, hinted at by what we created for this release.
Stay tuned!
Hopefully these “Heroes” will stay out of the hospital along the way this time!
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Find Lion Drome on Facebook, Reverbnation & their Website.
