Lydia Loveless’ new album “Daughter” drops this Friday, September 25th on her own label Honey, You’re Gonna Be Late Records. The anticipation of this release was palpable in the Pencil Storm compound. We loved her last full length, 2016’s “Real” and its predecessor “Somewhere Else” (2014). “Daughter” makes it an impressive trilogy of mature, strong, complex, and irresistibly catchy releases that propelled Lydia from her alt-country roots into a category of her own, un-chained to any genre.
Indestructible Machine (2011), Somewhere Else (2014) & Real (2016)
“Daughter” takes up where “Real” left off and ventures into uncharted territory. There is a new-found use of space in the cadence of her singing, fewer words that hit harder with some air between them. The melodies are more complex and less obvious, taking an extra listen or two to process, but implanting themselves as voices in your head that still haunt hours later.
And then there’s the lyrics. Coming off a very public and ugly departure from Bloodshot Records, a not-quite-as-public divorce from husband and band-bassist Benjamin Lamb, and a move from her native Columbus, Ohio to North Carolina, subject matter was not hard to come by. She’s not one to mince words in her songs, and they’ve never been so raw. Many of the lines could apply to any of those life-changing events or other situations that aren’t so out in the open. She’s got her attachments to each one, but she’d like you to form your own.
With the exception of the departure of Lamb, the band remains the same – Todd May and Jay Gasper sharing guitar and other instrumental duties, and George Hondroulis on drums and percussion. They went into the studio with less preparation than before, taking turns on the bass guitar, hashing out the material Lydia had written and demoed back in North Carolina. The result is a collection of songs that feel fresh and light in performance, but deep and realized in arrangement, melody and lyrics.
Lydia Loveless Live. Credit: Unknown, lydialoveless.com
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if or how she’d be able to top “Real.” That was one of my favorite records of the 2010’s, and it felt like the top of an arc that artists usually follow with something that’s maybe great….but not as great. Lydia and the band set me straight and laid my skepticism to rest with what will most likely be my album of the year.
I caught up with Lydia by phone last week from her home in North Carolina. She was cordial and funny, confident, but just a little reserved, and game for talking about anything from heavy metal to Twitter arguments to Jude Law movies. We’d briefly met a couple times before, shared a couple of stages and many friends. I wanted to get into the gears behind the songs - not so much the meanings – but how they flow from her head & heart onto paper and then to album. We’re very appreciative that she let us into that process, and more.
Enjoy!
[Links to buy the record and watch Thursday’s live-stream are at the bottom!!!!!!!!]
THE LYDIA LOVELESS INTERVIEW
Congratulations on the new record – it’s really great. To me it feels like the third act, along with the last two records. Do you get that sense of cohesiveness with these records? And what in your mind happened after “Indestructible Machine” that elevated or changed your songwriting and sent you in this new direction?
I think that it’s just maturity – not that I’ve had much of that (laughs). With “Indestructible Machine” I was probably musically immature, and probably lyrically immature. I had never made a record that wasn’t being sort of guided by overlord producers. It was kind of my first foray into making an actual record and, not that I’m ashamed of “Indestructible Machine” or anything, it’s just very different from how I would make music now, and I feel like this time around I just felt a lot more focused and skilled in the studio setting. It was probably the last three records where I realized I liked recording more than any other aspect of my job. That might be why they sort of fit together.
So with “Somewhere Else” did you kind of take over the production and sort of say “I’m doing this my way and making the music I want?”
No, that was with “Indestructible Machine” as well, I think that with “Somewhere Else” I just had a little more skill at getting things done.
I hear some new and different things on this record, which I guess is to be expected. A song like Never might be the purest pop song you’ve ever done, and at times some of the elements remind me of stuff like solo Paul McCartney or those great Fleetwood Mac records. You seem to be using space more – spreading out the words a bit, saying more by saying less, so to speak. You’re probably not sitting around listening to Fleetwood Mac – but was that new-found use of space intentional? Or did it just come naturally? Any insight into that?
Yeah I don’t think I even realized that particularly until I was doing handwritten and hand-typed lyrics lately that I realized “Oh man, there’s so much less for me to type or handwrite on this record!” so I was pretty relieved by that. I don’t know that it was intentional, but I do like that about the new record. I was going over some old songs that I was going to try to bring back into my future setlist and I couldn’t believe how many words I had – I was overwhelmed by the amount of lyrics! Maybe I just got tired!
I wanted to ask about Don’t Bother Mountain. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Emmylou Harris album “Wrecking Ball” from `95, but it reminds me a lot of that – it’s got that tribal rhythm and drum beat. It’s also the last song on the album, and it seems to sum up a lot of the themes in the other songs – moving to North Carolina, and the things that have happened over the last couple years. Can you talk a little about that song – the lyrics and the approach to it musically?
I wasn’t really hearing that sort of loop in my head – I mean I made the drum beat totally by accident when I was just experimenting with my drum machine that I had just gotten. I wasn’t feeling mega-inspired at that time in my life. I was still trying to adjust to my new life and I was had just watched Cold Mountain and I was “more like Don’t Bother Mountain” because I was just kind of pissed off. I don’t even really know why! (laughs) I guess it just kind of summed up how I was feeling, like this big excursion into Hell, like everything falling apart. I think it’s a Western sort of vibe to the song too. I guess it was more of just a mood – and that was the first time I’d written a song that was completely born out of mood as opposed to lyrical content, ya know?
I think musically Wringer would have fit right in on “Real,” and has some of the strongest lyrics on the new record. I especially like the line “You give the sweetest kisses but you leave the stinger.” That kind of back and forth in that song is great. It also seems to coincide lyrically with Love is not Enough which has a great melody and arrangement. They almost seem like brother-sister songs in a way. Were these written early on in the process? And what stuck out with these two that provoked you to make videos and share them with the public before the record came out?
I don’t think they were written in similar time periods at all, but definitely written in a similar way. They’re more bare-bones, where a lot of the other songs were demoed in a really detailed manor. Wringer and Love is not Enough where the only two that I didn’t make any beats or add any extra stuff on when I was writing them, so I guess that would probably be why they’re similar that way.
Material aside, the band has also stepped it up on this one, don’t you think? I mean the playing behind you is just so appropriate for each part in each song. How much input to you give those guys about their parts? Are you constantly telling Todd May to turn down and play less? ‘Cuz that’s how I kinda imagine it.
(Laughs) Oh yeah. It depends on the song, but I would say this was the most democratic because we had done less pre-production than we’d ever done before going into the studio and we did not have a bass player, so we were all kind of picking up that instrument and sort of winging it. I think that’s why everything is so tight on this record – we were all somewhat out of our element, but we knew that we wanted to try something different, if that makes sense?
It does, yeah! So you’ve had a pretty eventful couple of years. To me those things come out sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly in your lyrics. I find the best lyrics, and the most challenging to get onto paper, are the ones that are intensely personal, but still leave that bit of ambiguity for the listener to take in their own way, and you seem to have found a really good balance here. How do you reconcile the need to express what you want to say but leave some ambiguity in there for your own catharsis and also for your listeners to latch on to? Is that something you even consciously think about? Or does it just come out without any of those considerations?
I try not to think about the end result when I’m writing, but I do think that the more personal lyrics are the more relatable to other people for sure, and I hate telling people what songs are about because I think there’s so much fluidity in songwriting, when you’re writing something that might mean something totally different a couple years down the road. And that’s certainly the case with a lot of these songs – there’s a lot of movement, dramatically for me, about what they mean, and that I think makes it more universal.
The record was finished about a year and a half ago? How do you feel about the material today? There’s some intense open-wound, fresh pain stuff going on in those songs and you seem to be in a different – I guess better - place these days, at least from the outside.
It still feels really personal, especially because I’m not touring on it, obviously. I still feel “in the mood.” I’ve always kind of had a long wait time between finishing my records and putting them out – it just always something that seems to happen for some reason – a pandemic or something else.
Your lyrics aren’t particularly political in any sense, they’re generally more relationship driven, but you have to be aware of how different artists are speaking out, both in their art and via social media. There’s a lot of space between the “shut up and sing” mentality and being Bono or something like that. Do you ever get the urge or temptation to dip your toe into those social issues more with your lyrics?
Yeah, I think it’s very important to use whatever privilege I have and my voice for better opportunities for others, but I also can’t stand sitting on the internet and arguing with a bunch of assholes all day, so I feel like at this point if you’re not on board with human rights and not shooting people in the streets and not being a racist piece of shit, then I’m not going to convince you with a tweet, so I’m doing what I can in other ways for sure.
You moved to North Carolina three years ago? What do you miss the most about Columbus and what impact did that move have on this writing and pre-production of this record?
I definitely miss my band all the time, because they’re some of my closest friendships as well. Being around people you can be musical with is great. So just generally friendships, but I do think moving away helped me to be a little more of an adaptable person. I can be very rigid, so I think it’s helped me a lot to have a little more confidence in myself for sure.
You’ve left Bloodshot and formed your own label – Honey, You’re Gonna Be Late Records. Is that strictly for your own releases or do you have any plans to do more with it – seek out other artists, stuff like that?
Yeah, I think there’s definitely a desire to do that at some point. It’s a lot of work, I’m not sure I have the stomach for it right now, but there’s certainly artists that I’d love to work with and help out for sure. Just not at this point probably. (laughs)
You needed a home – but why did you decide to do that? I mean, I know why you didn’t stay with Bloodshot, but was there thought of going to an ATO or something like that? It seemed like something like that could have been a good fit.
I mean yeah, they would have to want me so, I guess more along the lines of that it would be more pleasant and fun to believe in myself and put it out on my own rather than waiting for someone.
This blog is based out of Columbus but I’m in Detroit so I always ask this question: Any special memories from playing Detroit over the years?
Um, probably nothing that anyone would want to know about. I mean I love playing there, it’s always a fun time, but I can’t think of anything particularly exciting unfortunately. Sorry!
That’s fine! You just turned 30, so happy birthday!
Thank you!
If you could spend a few minutes with 21 year old Lydia what would you say to her?
(Long pause) Oh, I don’t know. Don’t try to please people all the time. I was going to say don’t get married, but I was already married at that point. Chill out and try to enjoy what’s happening to you instead of freaking out, I guess.
This might be a little out of left field, but I kinda imagine that you’re the kind of person who would be a closet metal fan. Like you’ll post a video yourself singing a Motels song, but turn the camera off and you’re rocking out to a Slayer record. Am I crazy?
Well I’m not like a metal-head or anything. I definitely like some semblance of metal and I just like corny music in general. I would never claim to be an expert on it. It’s such a deep and intellectual seeming field to me that I don’t really have…I mean it just seems so exhausting to be a metal fan. But I do enjoy it for sure.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that metal is intellectual, but I think our readers will appreciate that!
No one really knows what’s going to happen as far as the pandemic and touring and all that stuff, but what are your hopes for 2021 as far as supporting this record, or art in general? Are you hoping to tour, or maybe focus on getting into writing the next one? The record-tour cycle is obviously different this time around.
I think right now I’m just trying to survive. I don’t have any grandiose plans about making another record. I mean, obviously it’s just gonna be a part of my life so eventually I’ll feel like making the next project, but right now I’m just trying to, like, not die…
So just kinda day by day?
Yeah, I have a very limited view of life right now.
Well that’s understandable. Along those lines, the record comes out on September 25th, but you’ve got a livestream on the 24th right? That’s going to be full-band I think, playing the new record front to back?
Yeah, I just wanted to have some presentation of the record because I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do that. We were really excited about honing these songs as live performances and that sort of got robbed from us, so it’s just sort of an opportunity to re-envision the songs and, you know, have fun, and not be depressed.
Live-Stream Record Release Show Poster - Artwork by J. Whittaker & G. Hondroulis
You’re doing that in Columbus, right? Is it a music venue or a recording studio?
Yeah, it’s at my friend’s recording and art studio. They have a salon in there. It’s in the Columbus area. It’s a great place.
Ok we’ll be tuning into that for sure! That’s about all I have - anything else you want to talk about?
I think that about covers it!
Ok – I appreciate your time – thanks so much!
Thank you – see ya!
BUY “DAUGHTER” HERE!
RECORD RELEASE LIVE STREAM - THURSDAY 9/24 9:30PM INFO
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
www.thetucos.com
www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic
www.rockandrollrestrooms.com
Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic
