ALEX LILLY | “LOVE IN THREE COLORS” | RELEASE ME RECORDS | JULY 31ST, 2020

Bio:

“My mom says every time I return to good spirits that the bitch is back,’” says Alex Lilly of her mother, who recently captured a photo of her daughter’s bitchy backness out in the yard, sniffing a rose, and cradling her Casio digital guitar. The photo accompanies the release of “Love In Three Colors,” a new three-song bundle by Alex Lilly, out July 31st from Release Me Records.

Lilly describes the new songs as “a trilogy chronicling a relationship’s disintegration, aftermath, and the sunny side of being free of it,” but don’t be fooled into thinking you’re about to hear a “woe is me” breakup meditation. The New York Times described songs from Lilly’s 2019 album 2% Milk as containing tunes about “heartache,” “rejection” and “pervasive disillusionment,” but concluded that despite it all, they “keep their cool.”

This new bundle does, too. In fact, it can get a bit chilly in here.

Witty make me giddy

Sarcasm make me orgasm

For that pearl to occur

You gotta put some salt in the oyster

The spoken word bit at the conclusion of the “Love In Three Colors” single “Amuse Me” contains this little piece of advice to a lover, or as the case may be, former lover.

Fanatic Promotion · Alex Lilly - Love In Three Colors

“‘Amuse Me’ might be amusing and light, but in reality it’s about being with someone who did not amuse me at all,” Lilly reveals. “He was heavy and earnest the majority of the time,” she says about the mystery Mr. X with the icy demeanor. “I just wanted him to meet me halfway. So many problems in relationships can be solved with a little humor, don’t you think? As Otis Redding says ‘Try a little tenderness,’ but I say, ‘try a little playfulness.’”

Like the subject that inspired “Amuse Me,” the upright bass part by Gabe Noel that anchors the song ain’t too tender either. Running the part through a cigarette box fuzz amp makes “Amuse Me” unforgettable and beautifully brutal. “It ended up being a focal part of the song because we loved it so much,” Lilly says.

Moving on from the un-amusing man of “Amuse Me,” Lilly contemplates the guilty party in the failed relationship on “Terrible Person,” channeling Bjork in the process.

“I came home one night drunk and angry, thinking about how my ex had screwed me over,” Lilly says about the song’s inspiration. “I was looking back and tossing the blame around until I got exhausted. But then I realized that I sucked too, and I couldn’t decide who sucked more, so I wrote this song to help me decide.”

Based on the humorous, candid declarations of “Amuse Me,” it’s a safe bet that Mr. X sucked more.

“Love In Three Colors” closes with “Aquamarine,” which is actually the first song Lilly wrote for this release and also helped her get out of a dark period of time in her life.

Professionally, things were great.

Lilly’s debut album 2% Milk had received critical praise throughout 2019, was named an “Album of The Week” by LA Weekly, and a song co-written by Lilly – “I Like Girls” – helped jazz singer Samantha Sidley’s debut album get recognized as one of the year’s best albums by the Los Angeles Times.

Even with the pandemic, Lilly was sharing her humor, notably by writing hilarious jingles for pets and even some humans.

But, personally, Lilly realized that she’d been depressed for months and decided to take a break from drinking because it was just making things worse.

“After writing ‘Aquamarine,’ colors were more vivid,” Lilly says. “It might be the only song I’ve ever written that comes from a place of unadulterated joy.”

The tune will please fans of Lilly’s envy-worthy wordplay.

Aquamarine

Galaxy blue

I’ve got new glasses on

And they tell me the truth

Fantasy Pink

Salad Bar Green

I’m seeing everything

And colors in between

“Aquamarine” kicked off what would typically be an album-number-two recording process, but when Lilly’s label inaugurated a series of three-song bundles, Lilly got into the idea of making “Love In Three Colors” with long-time buddy, Barbara Gruska, handling production.

Barb and I have been friends for 15 years and we established long ago that we consider each other brilliant, so it’s nice when that’s the baseline and you can have as many bad ideas as you want without any emotional consequence,” Lilly says.

She continues, “When I think about people I admire, they’re energy-efficient people. There’s a tendency in our culture to separate logic from emotion, to declare them opposites. This is not accurate and definitely a product of a patriarchal culture. Emotion is a great source of fuel. It keeps the method running and in fact the method is there to fuel the emotional impact. Basically, Barb is a hybrid car.”

It appears that one of Lilly’s greatest strengths as a writer is being able to find that balance of logic and emotion, and then wrap it in an almost absurd sense of humor.

For instance:

“In general, women show more emotion than men, so if you can identify emotion as the anti-thesis to logic, you’ve got a great case to keep women down. To that, I gotta say, ‘well-played assholes.’”

Sick burn, dude.

“Love In Three Colors,” the new three-song bundle from Alex Lilly is out on Release Me Records on July 31st, preceded by the single “Amuse Me” on July 3rd.

Bio (2019):

Los Angeles-based artist Alex Lilly is a renaissance female.

In addition to the writing, arranging, producing, and playing of her own music, Lilly has established a notable career out on the road as a part of the touring bands of such esteemed musicians Beck, Lorde, Ry Cooder, and the bird and the bee. When Lilly’s in L.A, she has stayed busy throughout the years with her own projects such as Obi Best, Touché, Zero DeZire, and The Living Sisters.

Now, following-up “Paranoid Times,” her debut under her own name, Lilly is bringing all of her talents, ideas, and her singular voice to the table in the form of 2% Milk, her debut full-length album, out Jan. 11th, 2019 via newly-formed Release Me Records.

Lilly’s songs – she describes her sound as “sexy psychological thriller” – are synthy, syrupy, and suspicious i.e. there’s something going on here that’s not only pop, but actually pops. The intrigue that abounds on 2% Milk moves the listener beyond toe-tapping and finger-snapping, straight to brain-mapping.

This ability of Lilly’s to take a song out of the realm of merely entertaining to intriguing is all over the album’s first single “Distracting Me,” a tune dedicated to the idea of enjoying the annoying.

“Most of the time, I don’t like distractions, they get in my way,” she sings. “What made you the exception? Showing up and all I can think of to say: I love it when you are distracting me from what I think I need to do.”

“What better testament to loving someone than when you enjoy their interruptions?” Lilly explains of the tune. “I resisted a particular friend’s efforts to distract me for a long time but when I finally gave in, I realized it was fun.”

Lilly’s lower tolerance for inanimate irritations informed the album’s songwriting process.

“I feel like I can write more easily when I don’t have phone service,” she says of her time on an island outside of Vancouver where most of 2% Milk was written.

“I’d get up early and write, sometimes at my computer, sometimes walking around and I’d record melodies into my phone,” she remembers.

When the time came to turn the island demos into tracks, Lilly convened with Jacob Bercovici of The Voidz, who shared her sensibilities.

“Like me, Jake has no fear of the ridiculous,” she explains. “He ended up co-producing six songs.” Additional production credits go to Andy Bauer (of Twin Shadow), and Lilly herself. Another standout track is “Infantile,” a collaboration with Lilly’s friend, Daedelus.

“I asked him if he had any instrumental demos lying around I could write a melody and words to, and he had this beautiful piece that sounds like an intricate mechanism. I was so excited to add something to it, like a fancy chain to an already remarkable pocket watch.”

The album’s title track “2% Milk,” was adapted by Lilly from a poem by Jacqueline Suskind, a Los Angeles-based poet known for improvising work on the spot off of a given subject.

“I love this poem, it’s pretty angsty in nature, but also weirdly soothing, so I put it to music, and tinkered with it to make it rhyme,” Lilly explains.

2% Milk is the first release for the newly-formed Release Me Records, founded by musician Inara George, both friend and bandmate to Lilly via their previous work together as part of The Living Sisters, Zero DeZire, and when Lilly plays live in the bird and the bee.

“I met a very young Alex around 2006 when the bird and the bee was putting together a live band,” George explains. “We needed singers to help with our harmonies, and Alex was suggested to me. I feel so fortunate that we connected, and I’ve always been impressed with her musicality, her ability, and her motivation. I started Release Me to shine a light on Alex, and all the other insanely gifted musicians I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”

2% Milk, the essential debut album from Alex Lilly, is scheduled for release on Jan. 11th, 2019 in digital, CD, and vinyl formats, preceded by the single and music video “Distracting Me,” distracting you soon.