Interview: Lily Virginia's New Approach to Music Release

One of the most difficult questions any artist must ask themselves is: how do I reach my audience? With today's ever-changing media and new platforms at hand, artists must find new ways and think beyond the old.

Brooklyn-based Lily Virginia is taking steps in such a direction. The singer-songwriter is currently working on her second album, tentatively called Play Me Twice. Its seven tracks, however, are coming out in a unique way: one video at a time.

The Berkeley, California native has drawn on her experience in music and film as the means to bring her new project out. Virginia says the method is very different from her 2014 debut EP.

"It took me roughly 2-1/2 years to finish those four songs," Virginia admits. "At the time I had been working in music for film and incorporating a lot of sound design. The whole soundscape was really important to me in creating something very lush. But after 2-1/2 years of that and obsessing over small details, I was ready to move onto something else.

'In that process," she continues, "there was a lot of vulnerability, which is something that I've always tried to explore in my music by writing stuff that's personal. I kind of felt I needed to take a shift away from those bigger and more produced sounds, and actually be really vulnerable by stripping it down."

Virginia went minimal, to see "how deep can I get while still creating something that's really evocative, musically. I went into a different approach of just my songwriting style, where I had this vague idea of what I wanted it to sound like post-production, and knew that I really wanted to focus on the lyrics and have the lyrics be so strong that no matter what the production was, the song was going to stand by itself."

As most would attest, the artist gets caught up in the vision. "I didn't know exactly what it sounded like," Virginia says, "but I want to write songs that are bluish purple with silver-gold shimmers. I knew I wanted it to have that depth of the blue and purple, evocative of water and the ocean, and then that sparkle, that ethereal glimmer that ... I don't know what it represents to me, I could just spitball here, you know, hope or something a bit spiritual."

Virginia's voice and her lyrical phrasing get attention on "Love You More," the second release; her guitar style makes its own. "I've taken classical lessons," Virginia says, "I also traveled in South America and took tango guitar I was in Argentina for six months, and boss nova guitar in Brazil for six months."

A change in gear was also in order, as Virginia swapped out her long-serving Harmony guitar for another, which you can see in action on the "Love You More" video. " On my first album I was doing more strumming, eventually by moving over to the Harmony, has that classical feel because the strings are looser; I was able to import that style."

From watching the video, there is a feeling of intimacy, of being there as the recording takes place. Virginia notes: "I think a lot of musicians are asking themselves this question: how do you make more of an impact? How do you connect more with people? It is so hard just to get somebody's attention, or to deserve somebody's attention. I started to ask myself: what can I do that's even more powerful, in terms of the production of it, but makes it reflect back on your songwriting and performance. Video was kind of the obvious solution, because it's just not enough to put up an audio track anymore where technology is changing so much it seems like it would be best to do an album that was made completely out of videos to get like a really full experience, an immersive one."

Virginia's education certainly had a hand in the process, which includes a degree from Scripps College. "I had a self-designed major of Music and Culture with Emphasis on Processes of Social Change," Virginia says with a chuckle. "I wrote my senior thesis on the ethical use of music in political documentary film. And basically the question was, if something's trying to make a difference and is truth telling in the documentary world, how do you truth tell with music, which is completely emotional? It was just something that came to me and seemed interesting, and I dove into it."

One of her interview subjects eventually brought Virginia to New York. "I interviewed this awesome composer, Gil Talmi (known for his work on numerous documentaries, plus the films Savannah and New Year Baby). "A couple of years later, he called me and said 'Hey, I've got a job at my company, would you like to help out?' So I came to New York, and worked there for four years."

Virginia's relationship with drummer and producer Alessio Romano has also had a hand in the project, more than any precedent. "Our creative process has always been something that I'm very grateful for," she says. "We spitball ideas,' what if this happens, what if this happens,' and it's become a very natural thing for us to come up with new different things and try them out. I don't quite member whose idea it was, but we came to the idea that we should do an album full of videos.

'Play Me Twice is a line from my song 'Atlantic'," Virginia explains. "We have a video of that we did at the studio the previous year, and we realized we could do a full album of these types of videos. That song was something I wrote about six years ago when I first moved to new York. It's a meditative one for me, something that is not as literal as my current songs, but it still resonates. And I wanted to tie that song back into the album, and I also liked the concept of, you know, I want people to play this album more than once how that makes a difference. It's almost you know begging people and being vulnerable. I am asking you to play me twice, and I'm okay with that and not pretending I'm a superstar expecting people to listen."

The first single, a cover of Xtreme's "Te Extrano" might seem to be an error, doing someone else's tune, but for Virginia it was an inspired choice. "I had come up with that guitar piece previously and was trying different songs over it," she explains. "I love Latin music and I was hanging out with my sister, and she also loves that song. Musically, it just worked. Artistically, I had to do it. I think also what made it so fun for me, if you watch the original video it's such a marked difference from my version, and that made it really fun."

The work continues on the other five pieces. "'Love You More' is the linchpin of the entire album," Virginia says. "I feel like it grabs the different styles you're going to see in the other songs as they come out. We have the picking style; we have the sound of the guitar we have this sparse instrumentation, but (it) comes in heavy when it needs to. In the end we have dynamic, world rhythms that I've introduced into certain parts of my songs, and there's more of a groove to the end."

Social media has come into play for Virginia's work. "I did a premiere on Concert Blogger; they really pushed it, and we got like 3,000 views in 24 hours. At the end of that I thought, it's great to do each one and see how it goes, but I needed to take a break and say what is the most effective way to release these. This is my life, this is my soul, like am I giving this the best chance that it has."

Virginia's relationship with a new company, Super-Phone (owned by recording artist and producer Ryan Leslie) has given her and her followers an opportunity to get even closer. "They've allowed me to be able to text with my fans," she explains, "and be able to know who my fans are and interact with them. They basically put my number everywhere and ask people to text me. And that for me is so mind blowing and so cool, that's going to be a pivotal point in how I release everything. The idea is: be able to text with the people that love what you're doing, and be able to create fan clubs. They can subscribe for $5 a month, and they get to see private online concerts. For $10 a month, I've got a confession club, so I'm texting every week this is what I'm thinking of. It enables artists to know who their fans are. How do you give back in a meaningful way, this is going to allow me to do some really cool stuff."

For fans in the New York area, Lily Virginia performs at the Rockwood Music Hall on September 26th, and the CMJ in October. The release of videos for Play Me Twice will resume in November. As for now, Lily says, "Text me-my number is 917-746-0723."

http://www.lilyvirginia.com/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1917685351789964/1917685358456630/

www.super-phone.com

(Album Photo Credit, Kaibrina Buck)

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