Q&A
Lomelda ponders distance on ‘Out There’
Hannah Read also talks us through the new track and upcoming LP ‘thx’.
Lomelda - aka Hannah Read - is releasing her debut album proper via Brooklyn’s Double Double Whammy label later this year. The first taster of ‘thx’, the spacious indie-folk of ‘Interstate Visions’, painted a picture of an album contemplating life while on the road.
Its follow-up, new single ‘Out There’, seems to take the opposite view, looking outwards and pondering the wider world, both physically and metaphorically. It’s done so over gorgeous, glacial instrumentation.
We chatted with Hannah about ‘thx’ and how ‘Out There’ is, unfortunately, not about the film E.T. Listen to the track and read our Q&A with Lomelda below.
How are preparations going for your new album ‘thx’? Excited to have it out in the world?
Yes, I want to get it out into the world and have it feel small again. As far as prep goes, I’m trying not to work on all the new projects I have spinning and focus on how to play this record live for the tour I have coming up. Andrew Stevens (drummer/multi-instrumentalist) and I are tackling ‘Thx’ with the help of a few bots…it’s gonna feel good to share all these songs, this way and that.
Do you find music to be a cathartic process? Did you let some things go when the album was finished?
Sometimes. When I sing, I lose most of my fear. That’s not so much catharsis though as it is some other sort of mind-body trick — something about the physical act. The power maybe. I’m not sure what it is. Though this is not always true. Singing personal songs to strangers can also be pretty painful, crippling. I try not to let things go, want to contain everything. Maybe I can, maybe I will burst soon.
Tell us a bit about the new single, ‘Out There’…
One time someone asked me if this song was about the movie E.T. It isn’t. I have actually never seen that movie. Don’t worry. I’m gonna get that DVD next I swear. But maybe this song and that movie are about the same things. Is it? Can somebody tell me?
How did you find touring the EU with Pinegrove? Do you have plans to be back?
It was my first trip abroad. And my first tour. So maybe you can see that I’m not being too incredibly dramatic if I say it changed my life. I learned a lot. Hands go numb for the night if you skip rocks at the beach in your short-sleeved T-shirt in the winter. There is usually a basketball hoop somewhere close-by, if you are patient enough to find it. Some strangers become friends. Lessons learned. And I plan to be back very soon, yes.
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