“I love to have fun:” A Discussion about Dev Lemon's Creative Process
By Carter Suire
Devon Vonder Schmalz, better known by her stage name Dev Lemons, has been around the internet for quite some time; she's been around the internet a lot. Presently, she’s best known for her unsettling, grainy point-and-click-style shorts content, but she’s done a lot more than just be everyone’s favorite unsettling dinner date. Previously, Dev Lemons published long-form content on Youtube under the name SongPsych, where she posted videos exploring music theory and history, sharing her personal takes, and breaking down news in the music space. More famously, she’s also grown an identity under the name Dev Limes, in which she’d share more freeform content, often producing enigmatic series on her channel such as selling obscure items on Facebook Marketplace or finding love on dating apps. Her latest series on the channel and arguably among her most successful, Making Songs on Mute, was a challenge to herself to make covers of well-known songs without being able to actually hear the beats she’d pulled from.
However, in her time online, she's not just been known for her short and long-form videos. Dev Lemons has an equally deep and intricate history with making original music, starting out under the name Miss iPad under which she released a variety of singles and EPs until retiring that name in 2020 as she grew more popular, and grew more afraid of Apple finding an issue with it. From there, she began to go by the name Dev Lemons. Under that name, she released multiple EPs and singles as well as participated in a number of collaborative music projects. Among her solo work are standouts like “Why Did I Laugh Anyway,” “You Tear Me Apart,” and “In The Party” that began to bring a spotlight to her music and set the stage for her debut album “SURFACE TENSION” that released on Aug. 1, 2025.
Now, with the release of her sophomore album, “hunting what we already killed,” that hit streaming on Oct. 2, she's both grown in her sound, style, and presentation. I was able to speak with her about the release of her album, her collaboration with producer Emmett Kai, and how she's grown since the release of her debut until now.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
GZR News: Looking back at your music over the last few years, both under Dev Lemons and your other projects, what feels most different about the person making this album compared to the person who made your earlier work?
Dev Lemons: I think I grew and changed more as a person while making this album than I have with any project in the past. I made it over the span of about a year and a half, and in that time, I became sure of myself in a way I had never been before. I found comfort in being alone, focusing on myself and putting more of my energy into my community of friends. In the past, losing people or being “alone” (really just not having a romantic interest) was one of my biggest fears. It made me deeply uncomfortable. Now, I have this understanding that no matter what happens in my life, even if my greatest fears come true, I’ll survive them, because I’ve survived everything else that has happened to me up until this point. I definitely didn’t start making this album in that place mentally, though. I started it toward the tail end of what was probably the worst period of my life, and by the time I finished it, I was in a completely different place, both mentally and in my life in general. With past projects, I could write about wanting things to change without actually putting myself through the discomfort of making those changes. But this time I actually did.
There's definitely an obvious difference between “SURFACE TENSION” and hunting what we already killed from the change in case to the stories the lyrics from that album and your latest singles tell. How would you say you, as both a person and an artist, have evolved since then?
I think as an artist I became a lot more sure of myself throughout the process of this album. Working with Emmett on this album was such an incredibly playful process. We went into the studio with no plan every day and just jammed until we hit a flow and then just made songs. I feel like within this process I learned to trust the process more I guess. Like just go with the flow, and play around, and try new things and finding a balance between being sure of myself/my own judgement and having an open mind to new ideas and feedback.
Your style relative to your music, from fashion to the music videos, has also dramatically grown from your previous work to now. When you move forward with a new project, does the style come naturally, or do you consciously build a look around the music?
Honestly everything I do isn't really planned out that far ahead. I feel like I only really find my best ideas when I am not looking for them at all. The evolution of my style just kind of happens naturally. I had no idea I was going to make lyric videos in the style that I have been for the entire album. I just made one for “eat the pavement” to test it out and see if it worked and it did so well I decided to just stick with it. Originally I thought I was just going to keep making point and click adventure style videos and incorporate the music into those. But when the first “eat the pavement” edit I made popped off I just decided to run with that. Since then I have spent pretty much every waking moment for the last three months editing these videos.
Have you drawn any inspiration from another person or piece of media with both the sound and style aspects of hunting what we already killed?
I find a lot of my inspiration on Pinterest when making my lyric videos. Sonically, while making this album, my music taste also was all over the place. I went from having a huge Deftones and Radiohead phase to a hugeGeese/Cameron Winter phase, and then from there pretty much only listened to MexikoDro for months straight. And then from there expanded to a bunch of other rappers like ICYTWAT and Kusigh. There was a solid week where every time I'd get into my car to drive to Emmett's studio I'd listen to Eem Triplin's discography. Then there was another solid week where all I listened to was Sailorr. A lot of people draw comparisons between my music/visual style for this album and Magdalena Bay too. I honestly wasn't actively listening to them or referencing them during my process of making this album, I am a huge Magdalena Bay fan and have been for years, so I'm sure I was subconsciously inspired by them as well.
What's your creative process been like for this album? How do you get from an idea to a song to all the various media around the song? I'm very curious, too, about how your music videos come about - they're incredibly creative and fun!
I've found that my favorite creative process is generally to come to the studio with absolutely nothing prepared. No ideas. And I didn't want Emmett to have any ideas going into it either. Let's just sit down, talk about life and ease into the musical process. Then that would usually bleed into Emmett fiddling around on the guitar while we talk and usually I'd like the first thing or two he played. Then we just build off that---he'd build out the instrumental while I focused on vocal melodies and lyrics. And then I'd have ideas for the instrumental and he'd have ideas for vocal harmonies and such and then we put our brains together until we couldn't anymore for the day. Then we'd do that for many days in a row. We really just locked the hell in. As for the music videos, I will listen to the song, write down ideas for the string of events in my notes app for specific parts of the song, set up my green screen in my apartment and ring light and film me doing a bunch of different stuff. Then put those videos into Final Cut and spend hours editing and sourcing images and gifs on Pinterest and Youtube and Google and just go completely insane.
Is there anything about the way you used to make music that you intentionally wanted to leave behind with this album?
That's a good question, all of these are really great. Honestly, I don't even think so. I think if anything I wanted to do less electronic stuff and more real live sound stuff. But that wasn't even a conscious decision. I just started working with Emmett because we met through a mutual friend and I just knew from the first song we made together that I had to make an album with this guy!
Is there a song on the album that you think best represents where you are creatively right now? What about the song makes it particularly important to you?
Maybe “another word you say?" Just because it is so dynamic and taps into so many sounds within one track. We were really having a field day when making that one just letting ideas flow without giving a shit about song structure. Just playing around and having fun. I love to have fun
If someone listens to the album once and then never hears it again, what's the one thing you'd hope they'll remember about it?
Maybe the range of emotions that I felt throughout the songs. I don’t know. It's so interesting because the last song on the album is the first song me and Emmett made together ever. And the first song on the album is one of the last songs we made together. So the progression within the album isn't linear in terms of my own personal growth in the process. I definitely do think the version of me who started this album would be so thrilled to see the version of me who finished this album who is so much happier than I've probably ever been.
Dev Lemons is set to start her “hunting what we already killed” tour on Oct. 16, just after wrapping up her SURFACE TENSION tour earlier this year, one stop including Seattle where she rocked Barboza in two shows in one day! At the show, a fan handed her a printed photo of a burger wherein she'd raise it up to the crowd and everyone would ferociously cheer, and when she'd hide it even for a second, she'd get relentlessly booed.
As a final question as we reminisced about the burger bit, I asked about what she was hoping to happen at her upcoming Seattle show on Nov. 17 that she can't necessarily plan for.
"Oh my god, the burger thing... I loved that... I just love doing bits with the crowd in general. I am really hoping people honestly just bring the same energy they had at the late seattle show back in February to this one. it was truly such a special show. Honestly the best one on the tour by far. The vibes were just insane. people screaming the songs with me it truly felt so special just thinking about it makes me wanna cry in a happy way," she said.
Dev Lemons' sophomore album “hunting what we already killed” released on Oct. 2 and can be streamed on most major streaming platforms. Make sure to check out her music videos and visualizers, too!
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