In Conversation With #159 - Lala Lala
Lala Lala - the project of Chicago-based musician Lillie West, has just released her new album I Want The Door To Open’ via Hardly Art. Following 2018’s acclaimed 'The Lamb', West wanted to make something sonically bigger and thematically more outward-looking than anything she’d done before; a record that would be less a straightforward documentation of her own personal struggles and more like a poem or a puzzle box, with sonic and lyrical clues that would allow the listener to, as the title says, open the door to the greater meaning of those struggles. She took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Lala Lala, how are you? So your new album is out now, how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
It's nice. For so long the record lived just with me, and now it has thousands of other lives with other people. It's cool to imagine
It is called ‘I Want The Door To Open’ - can you tell us the meaning behind that?
The door opening is deciding that the unknown is freedom. It's being totally present and its intensity and peace. I want to live in the middle of an erupting volcano where every moment is clear and everything is right
Where was the album recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative experience you are happy to share with us?
The album was recorded at Yoni Wolf's home studio, at my house, a couple studios in Chicago, and at the homes of many of the musicians on the album.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
Themes are water, lust, danger, secrets, digital landscapes, avatars, visions. Influences... movies (the truman show, Badlands, miyazaki), Bjork, water, fiction (jennifer egan), poetry (margaret atwood, Elaine Kahn, june jordan, richard braughtigan & more), street signs, the desert, paintings.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
My favorite lyric is probably "Everything is here, in real time no mirror, everyone you know, dreams of letting go" from Utopia Planet... It just says what I want it to say really concisely. It's very hopeful and pure.
Now the album is out there - what next for you?
Touring the record! Playing it. Connecting with people as they experience it. Moving to New Mexico. And then maybe I'll make a techno record or a piano record.