Neu WALL: ‘If People Say They Hate Me - Whatever’

Lyla Foy - the brains behind WALL - is in Berlin and she’s just lost her bandmates. They’ve headed out for “cultural exploring,” while she nurses a hangover; the product of “buckets of wine”, we’re informed. One 24-hour-bar in a “luxurious hostel” and some recurring nerves about a support slot on the Local Natives tour has left her, oddly, in the ideal frame of mind before tonight’s show at The Comet Club: “If I’m hungover I get to think about not throwing up, rather than being terrified.” Despite the sore head, she’s in good spirits. And why wouldn’t she be? Signed to Black Cab Sessions’ newly-inaugurated label - minus the bad stage fright, she’s got it made. One listen to WALL and you’ll quickly draw a parallel between Black Cab’s, and her own, inherent ability to refine already existing styles - to do something well, essentially. Take a song like the recent ‘Shoestring’ - a track about “being your own person” - and you’ve a biting, intimate portrayal, all acoustic guitars and light, lifting vocals. It’s been done before, but rarely as well. Jamie Milton caught up with Lyla pre stage-time, to get a greater insight into the music she makes as well as the full extent of that hangover.



Is this your first time in Berlin?
You have to tell me where to go. My band and my tour manager have all gone to find cultural museums and I’m just really hungover. I’ve still got a few hours before soundcheck. Yesterday we left London at 7 in the morning and we arrived in Berlin at midnight. Such a long day.

So did you go straight out after that?
We’re staying in a really luxurious hostel, and they had a 24-hour bar.

But you’re supporting Local Natives this is a big deal - you need to be on your game!
I know, I know. I should be on my game. But I get really nervous playing gigs. If I’m hungover I get to think about not throwing up rather than being terrified.

Is it more nerve-wracking supporting an act, especially one like Local Natives?
I don’t know, I just have quite bad stage fright anyway in general. I’m alright once I get on but beforehand I get really nervous.

This time six months back though you’d barely played any shows at all - so you’re probably enjoying it a bit more?
We’re a three piece, so I’m not all alone which is good.

What’s the best show you’ve played so far - Hoxton Hall?
Yeah that was the best gig so far. Have you been there? It’s really beautiful. Pretty epic to play in. It’s really grand but really intimate as well. I don’t know why but the next gig - in Bush Hall - is also a hall gig. I guess I prefer gigs like that, in prettier rooms rather than your dingy cellar rooms.

How important is environment to you? Is it a means of expressing your songs a little differently in the right setting?
Yeah definitely. I’d definitely rather go to a show in a nice location rather than in a pub.

It’s quite a personal project isn’t it, WALL? To put yourself out there in the live environment is more of a challenge.
The songs are really intimate. It’s like letting people into your world. I felt like people might feel like it’s too intimate, a little bit creepy maybe.

The Black Cab Sessions: You’ve been watching those things for years - do you think your music and their means of showcasing sessions…they’re both quite intimate experiences?
Yeah exactly. I think they’re great and it’s an innovative idea. And it’s so hard to be original and do anything different these days. Everything’s been done and every style’s been tried and in the end it comes down to doing what you do well, rather than doing something entirely original. Their videos are quality not quantity and they just do what they wanna do. They don’t pick any old band. It’s about integrity.

Is a lot of the stuff you release rough takes rather than products of perfectionism?
Yeah for the WALL project I’ve never recorded a song more than once. So the songs that you hear are exactly how I wrote them and recorded them first time round. All my mistakes are there for the world to hear. So I usually sit down with my laptop and fill things in from scratch. I don’t sit down with the lyrics. I never write lyrics for the hell of it. I try and let the music come first and then that will inspire the mood of the song which will then inspire the lyrics, does that make sense?

It does - although you’ve also mentioned how you write stories sometimes, so how does that aspect segue into your music?
Not so much anymore but I used to love writing stories. They were just mucky, fictional things. That was when I was younger, at school, etc. Creative writing was fun, fun, fun. I think I tried to write a few novels but I didn’t get very far - I can’t remember. It takes a lot to write something that epically long. That’s why I like songs. Three and a half minutes - I can just about deal with that, because I’m quite impatient.

Do you choose subjects for your songs or is it more a very spur of the moment thing?
When I fit instruments into the music, I’ll record and sing over the first take with nonsense, mumbled lyrics, just to get all the melodies. But most often those mumbled lyrics will often develop into the real lyrics. It is slightly improvised, I guess. I’ll start singing and stuff will just come and I’ll listen back to it and I’ll pick up the actual lines as I go along.

With improvisation, surely a lot of the time it doesn’t quite work out.
For every one song that works there’s another eight that don’t.

I was listening to a Thom Yorke interview the other day and he said that there’s a moment when you’re writing a song when things feel really uncertain, and that’s usually when you can get the best out of your songwriting.
Definitely. I think the songs that I’m always underwhelmed by are the ones that turn into favourites, as well. I think the artist themselves can always be the worst judge of their own potential.

But that’s kinda the fun part isn’t it, knowing that it’s going to be interpreted differently?
I have an idea of what songs are going to be on the album. I’ll still be writing over the next couple of months. But for me it’s not so much about an album or an LP. Each track is its own little world. I know some people are really into the album mentality and I’m also like that when I listen to albums. I’m not so into mixtapes or Greatest Hits. But for my own songs I’ll just carry on writing and we’ll jumble them all together and make an album. I think there’s such a culture of song-by-song these days because it’s like people don’t have the concentration to deal with an album. People get hooked on the instant feed.

It really sounds like you trust your instinct when it comes to writing and then eventually putting stuff out.
Yeah definitely. I do trust my instinct. You know what’s best for you. You just have to go with what you feel. Ultimately I believe in my songs and nothing will stop me from releasing them! If people say they hate me, whatever. It’s nice that some people like my songs.

WALL’s ‘Shoestring’ EP is out now on Bic Picnic Records. Purchase on iTunes WALL plays London’s Bush Hall with 9mary on 11th April - grab tickets here.



Read the full interview in the April 2013 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.