Alex Lilly came on the scene strong in 2019 with her debut album 2% Milk and her latest record, Repetition is a Sin, goes beyond hitting the mark. With more freedom in mind, Repetition is a Sin, is a beautiful and emotionally honest album that is more than worth praise. It was because of this album and much more that we have named Alex Lilly mxdwn’s Best New Artist for 2022. Pregnant and while last minute Christmas shopping, mxdwn was rewarded with an opportunity to interview Lilly- an inspirational woman with an angelic voice.
All photos by Piper Ferguson | instagram: @piperferguson
mxdwn: How did you decide what kind of music you wanted to do?
Alex Lilly: For this particular record or just in general?
mxdwn: Just in general.
AL: I kind of stumbled into it. I initially had come to LA to do film score, and from composition background stuff I just started writing songs. I had written songs in high school, but I kind of fancied myself a composer. Then I started playing my own music and then touring with a sort of jazz-rock group called The Bird and the Bee, and just kind of developed my style as I came up in the LA scene.
mxdwn: Awesome. How has touring with bands affected your solo work? What did those experiences teach you that you may carry with you today?
AL: I would say that performing with other bands kind of made me realize that there’s two pretty separate components to music, and that sounds a little bit clinical but I’ve always kind of been into the writing and production side of things. When I performed with other artists, it made me realize- oh, that’s right, this is also entertainment. I grew up kind of idolizing records and getting really excited about what made a song tick, what made production bring out a song. But with touring, it helped me to realize that it’s also supposed to be fun and I think I kind of reacquainted myself with music when I came back to my own project. I try to find ways to not be quite so busy on stage. Like when I was younger, I think I was trying to do too much and I think as I explored just being like a background singer or playing a few parts or even just going and doing karaoke, sounds so ridiculous, but it kind of made me realize- oh, I’m supposed to be a little bit more free. So, I kind of found ways where I could be more free on stage after playing with other people and seeing how free they were.
mxdwn: That’s super interesting. So, 2% Milk is a very sophisticated debut album. How was it to create and release your first solo record?
AL: It was fun because I leaned into my idiosyncratic stylings more than maybe I have in the past. I thought I didn’t back into a theme. You know, in the past when I’ve had other bands, other projects, I had an idea in mind, a concept in mind, and then I sort of backed into it, if that makes sense. With 2% Milk, I kind of just figured no one would care anyway. I mean not that people wouldn’t care, people that I love and musicians that I care about, I knew they would hear it and I was excited to share it, but I think that I just sort of leaned into the things about it that were unpalatable. I was surprised, as I think a lot of musicians are, that the things that you predict will be unpalatable are actually the things that people get the most excited about. So, instead of trying to smooth out some of the edges or maybe push it in a certain genre direction, I just kind of let the most me-isms kind of come out. I think I felt that freedom at that point, to do that.
mxdwn: That’s awesome. “Firefly” has a beautiful acoustic version. Do you plan on doing that with any of your other songs, or ones that are on Repetition is a Sin?
AL: Yeah, I keep thinking it would be pretty fun, and I think my guy would love this, to do a live show with just piano and strings. I have a hard time keeping it simple, but when I do I think it’s usually pretty satisfying. I mean, I would like to keep it a little bit more simple. I think I’ve shown on this latest record, there’s a little bit less synth layers and a little bit more “sounds” like organs and pianos. So, I think it would be conducive to do a more stripped down, acoustic environment, if that makes sense.
mxdwn: Totally does.
AL: Sometimes I feel like I lean too much on synths, because I love the ambiguity of like- what the hell is that? Especially if it’s a synth that is sort of a little bit less recognizable. I love that to play up the mood and I think I was really trying to, not that that’s a crutch, I mean my favorite records are just composed of that, but I think I was curious to see if I could find an ethereal quality while using more detectable instruments like a piano or an organ. I don’t know if other people hear it that way, but that’s kind of how I was feeling when I was recording this record.
mxdwn: So, tell me a little bit about Love in Three Colors and the process behind the concept of the songs.
AL: I did that with my friend Barbara Gruska, who I have known forever and she’s a great drummer and she had her own band a few years back, The Belle Brigade, and so she produced it with me. I mean, honestly, they were just three songs that existed in between two records and I wanted to put them out. It was during the pandemic, maybe not the best time to put something out, but they sort of felt like they went together because the first one, “Aquamarine” is very hopeful. I’d kind of come out of kind of a dark place, it’s funny, I’m trying to remember now what I felt because that was so long ago, but I was starting to come back into my skin again in a good way. I felt a little absent from my own life for a while that just kind of felt almost like a Sesame Street meets The Buggles or something like “Video Killed the Radio Star.” I don’t know why it reminds me of just like an end of the night, kind of happy song. I mean, they’re all a little bit connected to a relationship that ended. So, “Aquamarine,” I was starting to get less depressed about it and then “Amuse Me” was kind of some of the problems in that particular relationship that this guy was not as playful as I would’ve liked. Then “Terrible Person” was questioning if I’m actually the bad guy and the problem. So, I guess there’s that thread running through those three songs.
mxdwn: How did the decision come along to have “Amuse Me” open with a rock feel to it?
AL: My tastes are pretty wide. It’s almost like a Weezer song or something. There’s just so much music that I love and I think things go the direction that the song takes them. Like I said, I’m trying not to back into things as much as I maybe did a few years ago, so if the song carries me one direction with production and we go that direction. I think one of the reasons that has that sound also is that the bass player, Gabe Noel, who’s great, put his- gosh, maybe it was me and Barbara, I don’t wanna give him credit if we did it, but he put it through upright, maybe through distortion or we might have played guitar and put it through. I mean whatever, distortion, it’s not like going to make everything a rock song. It does have a different quality than maybe some of my other music. It just happened. I don’t know, just the chord progression lent itself to that arrangement and that sound.
mxdwn: Yeah.
AL: I wrote it in Canada.
{Both laugh}
mxdwn: When you wrote the songs for Repetition is a Sin, did you have a vision of the album as a whole or were those songs written on their own?
AL: No, it does. There’s always a song that’s kind of at the helm and I would say it informs maybe what comes after. “Human” was one of the first songs that I recorded that I knew- this is the lyrical mood I want, and this is the tone both musically and lyrically that I wanted. Usually what it is, is just maybe like a few little horses, the songs that are like up ahead of the rest of the pack, that are kind of pulling the carriage, you know, the whole record. There might have been a few other songs that maybe weren’t sure were gonna make it on, but as I sort of saw what was happening, I slotted those in and maybe even reworked some of the lyrics to kind of make it all make sense. I think “Afternoon in Bloom” was maybe the last one that I finished for this record, and maybe “Bugs Bunny” was the oldest one. But yeah, usually there’s a song or two that’s at the helm and then I let those songs kind of lead me into production and writing for the rest of the record.
mxdwn: Who is the inspiration for “Spirit?”
AL: My grandma. She was a very complicated person and I felt very close to her. It’s sort of a double wordplay. It’s about her spirit, her character, but also she had died pretty recently and I finished the song and I was having a very hard time with her passing. I’m trying to think if I’ve written a song about a family member before. I don’t think so. I think she would’ve liked it. She was a jazz piano player and an odd duck all around and a great person, but with lots of flaws.
mxdwn: I love that. That’s beautiful. I’m so sorry for your loss and I think she would’ve liked it. Can you explain the meaning behind “Rosalind?”
AL: Yeah. I was reading about Rosalind Russell, she was in “His Girl Friday.” She was around, I believe, like the thirties and forties, maybe even fifties. She was wonderful in “Gypsy.” Her career spanned for a really long time, much longer than most female actresses from that time. I think one of the reasons, or maybe the main reason was that her roles, the roles that she chose were always very much about being kind of the witty, devil-may-care, clever woman. She didn’t really take on roles that were about being just the beautiful, elusive prey. She had a really long career and I think that the point of the song was I’ve always, and I think a lot of women, kind of grew up adoring, you know, Marilyn Monroe, who by the way is also a very interesting person and had her own business and I know a lot people don’t know that, but the roles that most women chose to play during that time didn’t have a very long shelf life. Also, if they did survive, it was very hard. I think it’s just sort of a message to myself to not chase after that sort of sad but tempting dream of being the most beautiful girl or being a beautiful girl. That’s always been so important to me- trying, trying, trying to be beautiful and suffering a lot because of it. I think I finally just kind of had this moment of realization that this is not a good path. It’s not a good long-term goal, that’s for sure. So, she’s a metaphor, I suppose, for choosing a different path and not getting caught in the trap of constantly trying to seek approval via your looks.
mxdwn: That’s awesome. The sound of Repetition is a Sin is playful, but very well harnessed. How was the process of making the beats for those songs?
AL: I made the beats, my friend at this point and great but wasn’t my friend to begin with, he was just this awesome dude I was introduced to through John Vanderslice, James Riotto, really helped facilitate that. I mean, I had like little ideas, I usually make beats on like Reason or some software program and it’s fine, but it was so fun to create beats using oscillators, using real instruments and doing the handy wizardry of hooking that up into a computer so that we could grid it. It’s a little tricky. It’s not something everybody instantly feels comfortable doing, and he’s really good at that and really good at getting cool tones, so I wanna give him a lot of credit because he definitely had a big hand in helping me with that and doing that.
mxdwn: Being vulnerable and emotional isn’t easy and you seem to be very open about heartbreak and relationships and just your emotions in general. How do you channel all of those feelings into lyrics?
AL: When you said that, that was so surprising to me, because I feel like I’m not very vulnerable or emotional in my personal life. I’m getting better at falling in love I think that not being honest, what’s the point? It’s so boring. To me, honesty feels strong. I think it’s more about finding that honesty rather than finding vulnerability. And of course, the byproduct of that is maybe you seem vulnerable. I love a lot of music that is vulnerable or really honest. I also like music that’s not by the way, like abstract or ironic or ridiculous. I think maybe that’s why I tend towards that is I just, I’m trying to find a new truth, like some kind of honest moment or feeling or thought so it just grows out of that.
mxdwn: Do you have any plans to continue to grow and evolve your sound? Do you have thoughts on what territory you would like to explore or interesting songs your working on?
AL: The fields are going fallow right now, I do not know. I’m just not thinking like that right now. Sometimes I go through phases where I kind of get more into visual creations, sort of give myself a break. I’ve been kind of exploring that and wondering about that. I have to say I had so much fun playing live a couple nights ago that I really do, after I squeeze out this human out, I would like to put on, like I was mentioning before, a show with like writing out maybe for a string quartet and having a more fancy show, shall we say, version of these songs. So, I think that will be the next thing I turn my attention towards, maybe like in the spring and then I’ll start thinking about writing. Maybe I’ll write an instrumental record or something different.
All photos by Piper Ferguson | instagram: @piperferguson
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