In Conversation With #107 - Fenne Lily
Bristol based musician Fenne Lily released her second album ‘BREACH’ via Dead Oceans last month. Written during a period of self-forced isolation, this diaristic collection of tracks deals with the catharsis of entering your twenties and finding peace while being alone. Fenne took a moment to talk to us in more depth about the release.
Hey Fenne Lily, how are you? Your album ‘BREACH’ is out now - how does it feel to have it finally out there? Especially in this strange time for the music industry.
Anything new and positive right now feels rare and necessary so in that sense it’s good! But touring is the part of releasing music that makes it all feel real so I’m definitely feeling odd.
Is there any inspiration or meaning to the title?
It’s partly a reference to the way I was born (breech birth) which is something I was thinking a lot about while I was writing — but the word breach also means to break through a defence or wall which felt necessary to recognise. This record is less based around the end of connections and more about the start, and my relationship with love that stays instead of love that leaves.
Where was the album recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the process?
We tracked most of it in Chicago and finished it off at home in Bristol. For the first chunk of recording, we arrived in Chicago the day before we started recording, really late at night. It was snowing and we’d almost missed the flight from home so the journey was hectic, and when we finally got the AirBnB (just me and Joe, my guitarist / bassist) I got ready to have a shower and, when I took my socks off, realised that one of them was full of blood and kind of stuck to my toe. I’d been in such a manic rush to make the flight that I’d smashed my toe and broken the nail completely off. It’d been like that all day and I hadn’t noticed, just walking around on a broken toe with a sock full of blood. I also played one of Steve Albini’s metal guitars, that’s a less grim fact.
It is the first time you are releasing something with Dead Oceans. How did that partnership come about?
It’s the first time I’ve released something with a record label full stop, my first record was self released and I made a promise to myself to only sign with a label if it felt like the perfect fit. Self releasing isn’t ideal, there’s a lot that can go wrong, but you do have autonomy and control, so it was important for me to only work alongside a label that offered me a similar level of independence. And along came Dead Oceans — I first met them at a show we played in New York. Joe and I knew Pinegrove were playing next door so we were gonna drop our instruments as soon as our set was over and run over, but I was intercepted, which initially I was pissed about but it turned out to be completely worth it — I love this team.
How does this album differ from your 2018 release ‘On Hold’?
I wrote it in a more stable place, emotionally, so thematically it’s less reliant on the pain of failed relationships and more centred around my own internal dialogue. Sonically, though, it feels bigger — I’m lucky to have found Joe (Sherrin, guitarist and bassist), he’s a phenomenal musician and massively influenced these arrangements. I also recorded my own demos at home, planned out most of the instruments before going into the studio, so it feels like every part of this record is intentional and necessary. Ultimately I feel it’s more confident than the first, at least from an emotional standpoint.
This album was written during a period of self-enforced isolation - so it deals largely with the topic of being alone. Did you prefer writing this way? And what made you want to go in this direction?
As far as writing goes I’ve never been able to let anyone in on that process — no co-writes, nobody else has a say in the core songwriting, so I’m always by myself at the start in that respect. I just took it one step further this time, mainly to force another level of focus and not be distracted by the patterns of home life. I went to Berlin for a month, only knowing one person out there, and that was the first step in breaking the cycle of focusing solely on writing about other people and how other people make me feel. I only had myself to rely on and that made me more introspective. Some parts of that situation were scary at the beginning, but ultimately it was a huge positive.
Apart from loneliness, what are the other key themes and influences on this album?
No being in love and being ok with that. Feeling wrong when everything seems to be going right. Addiction, to people and feelings and bad patterns. How my childhood and the childhoods of my parents continue to influence the way I live now.
Do you have a favourite lyric or line on this album? If so, which one and why?
“Elliott remember to forget / everyone you ever wanted to be is dying the same death” — this song was the last to be written, in the middle of recording it just kind of arrived, and it became clear that this Elliott character I’d created was subconsciously based on my dad as a kid. That line in particular felt poignant at the time, while I was struggling to feel good enough in general, and wondering whether all the music I love and find comfort in was written from a similar place of insecurity and self doubt. I came to the conclusion that it probably was. But one lyric that feels especially topical right now is “I’m not afraid to die more so to be alive / I know in this and more I’m not alone” … it’s like I knew what was coming.
Now the album is out there, what is next for Fenne Lily?
It seems like any plan I vaguely make is made impossible right now, so I guess I’ll keep writing and learning French and pray to at some point tour. Mainly I’m just crossing my fingers.