Artist Of The Week #236 - Alex Lahey
This week’s Artist of the Week is Aussie polymath Alex Lahey, who has just released her hotly-anticipated third album, The Answer is Always Yes, via Liberation.
As a queer person, Lahey learned how to adapt to a world that wasn’t made for her. With The Answer is Always Yes, Lahey examines how she finds comfort in the discomfort, whether it’s revelling in absurdity or turning towards exploration. Both as a proud fringe dweller and an artist, Lahey has witnessed the benefits of taking risks and experimenting, and The Answer is Always Yes — whose title has become a mantra for her — is living proof. “I feel like if you're saying yes and you're exploring, you’re always moving,” Lahey says. “That's the part of life that I'm in right now. I just don't wanna stop.”
She took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Alex - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Hey! I’m good, thanks! Dude, it feels awesome to have it out. The process of putting out a record is a really long one that exists long before and long after the actual release date, but that only makes that sliver of time that it “drops” all the more special. I’m so grateful I get to do what I do.
It is called ‘The Answer Is Always Yes’ - what is the meaning behind that?
'The Answer Is Always Yes’ is about embracing life in all its absurdity and moments of discomfort. It takes a lot of effort to truly throw yourself into life every day, especially during this exasperating era we’ve been living in these past few years. But I really do think that if you make that effort and commitment, even just more days than not, it exposes those gleaming details of existence we can easily miss out on and make our relatively short existences fuller. To divert from the total wankerage I just spat out, someone said to me today that the title of the record is “YOLO adjacent”, and I guess that’s basically the crux of it...
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
The bulk of the recording was done in various studios around Melbourne with one song partly tracked in Los Angeles. My friend Chris Collins and I wrote and recorded the song ’They Wouldn’t Let Me In’ in my old studio in Brunswick, Melbourne. The “studio" was a defunct hostel room on top of what is now a live music venue. Every Wednesday night was metal night, so from about 4.30pm there would be hectic thrash drumming and guttural screamo vocals signalling the beginning of soundcheck. After derailing numerous vocal takes, we decided to cut our losses and duck out for beers. Anyway, said metal night soundcheck gets a mention in the title track of the record. Art is life; life is art; blah blah blah.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
Optimism, sarcasm, weird shit people do that they think is acceptable, urban decay, soft recreational drugs and Sheryl Crow.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
I heard that Todd Field and Joan Didion wrote a political thriller years ago with Cate Blanchett as the star that never got picked up for production. I think my album should soundtrack it just because that would stipulate that the film was going to be made because it’s insane that it never happened wtf.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
I’m glad the neighbours are moving out because I can’t listen to him play no more - it’s just the same three fucking chords
For me, it’s my favourite because it really takes me back to that precise moment - living at my mum’s place during Melbourne lockdowns, hearing the neighbours’s every move, feeling the particular containment and weight of urban existence at that time.
Now the album is out there - what next?
I’m gonna tour like a motherfucker and couldn’t be happier about it.
