Hey LIA, thanks for doing this. Tell us a little about yourself. How and when did you get into music?

Thanks for having me! I got into music as a kid growing up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. I’m an only child, so I spent a lot of afternoons at my mom’s house experimenting on my dad’s old acoustic guitar and trying to sing while no one was home. I took opera lessons for a year when I was ten but hated practicing.

I eventually got involved with my high school’s music show and choir. My teacher Mr. Evans led both and really supported me growing as a musician. He gave me my first interface and showed me the basics on GarageBand, so I could start recording and producing. Once I finished my bachelor’s degree, I decided to dive into a music career and got a day job working in a sandwich shop.

Nice. Diving deep for a moment—how do you navigate the complex emotional terrain embedded in song lyrics?

I feel like writing about emotions in a song is much easier than their actual-life counterparts. Navigating the emotional terrain in my lyrics doesn’t really require navigating since, for me, writing about something is my way of giving it free rein. Songwriting has always been a space without limits. I can be as dramatic as I want to be, I can release my grief, I can get angry– the only repercussion is the creation of a song. Allowing my feelings free rein in real life means I could create an upset, which is a fear of mine that I’m working on. For now, songwriting will continue to be my safest space and my goal is to foster that for myself outside of songwriting.

That's a great stance on this stuff. Less categorization and less exploration. I’m enjoying your current work with IMANU. Could you share your experiences working with him?

Thanks! He’s such a talented and sweet individual. We started working together for his first album on the track Temper. He sent me the instrumental and I immediately felt inspired to write melodies. I flushed them out along with the lyrics and sent it back. When he heard it, he was in bed and told me it made him get up and want to dance.

Then this year, I was approached by him and his label to work on a three-way collaboration with another artist that had a super quick turn around. I happened to be heading out on a road trip to Gaspesie in Quebec with my boyfriend and took the opportunity to write about being away and in love. The other artist didn’t end up vibing with my vocals, but Imanu was so inspired that he completely remade an instrumental around them. This turned into our latest collaboration, Aching (On A High). I’m a big fan of his work and I feel it’s been super reciprocal. It’s always the best working on projects when you’re mutually inspired by the other person’s work.

That sounds so fun. What’s been the most challenging part of your musical output, would you say?

It’s been challenging to release music while I’m dealing with so much in my personal life. I’ve had to caretake for both of my parents through serious illness, and it’s left me with a lot to process that I continue to work through today. I was also diagnosed with a rare esophageal disease called Achalasia that took me a few years to finally stabilize, but there’s no cure. I was able to release an EP at the end of 2019, work on collaborations and start experimenting with my band Afternoon Bike Ride, but of course at the top of 2020 Covid hit us all.

All of this to say, this fall is the first time since 2018 that I’m finally able to more fully focus on myself and my career. I’m in a huge readjustment mode, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter of releasing tons of tunes.

Oh wow, thank you for sharing. Life can be so complex and delicate; I'm glad you were able to still explore music and your band during this time. Tell me about Afternoon Bike Ride, how did the group come to fruition?

We started out of a jam session at my bandmate David’s apartment in the fall of 2018. I’ve been long time friends with my other bandmate Éloi and when David moved to Montreal, he sent Éloi a DM on SoundCloud out of the blue to jam together. It was Éloi who suggested I join the two of them for another jam, and that’s when ABR was born.

Since the Lo-Fi genre was building, we decided to try hopping on that bandwagon , but soon discovered we loved crafting songs beyond lo-fi together. A friend Santpoort put us in touch with our label Friends of Friends, they signed us in 2019, and they’ve been our biggest cheerleader ever since.

Our first album is a sort of salon of our musician friends, with loads of featurings and helped establish us within the industry. Then I wrote and received a grant (Canada has a great grant system for the arts) to work on a second album away in a chalet so in February 2022 we spent five weeks outside of Montreal, my dad lived with us too. We wrote, recorded, produced and mixed the album during that time, and it’s dedicated to my dad. This second album, Glossover, has been the first album we’ve toured. We’re playing 15 dates this year across the northeast U.S., Ontario and Quebec. Given this mag is based in the U.K, I’d like to note we’re absolutely aching to go play shows over there and are hoping to make that happen next year.

So have you been performing many live shows? How have things been on that front?

As I mentioned above, I’ve been performing a bunch with my band this year since we signed with our booking agent Ensemble Concerts. It’s been quite the experience. We’re learning a lot about ourselves and also about the magic of performing. We’ve gotten people to cry at almost every show! Sharing this kind of vulnerability feels sacred, and I look forward to repeating it through the years to come. I’ve also performed for my solo project here and there and always adore it. As I work towards my next solo project, I’m definitely planning to get back on stage.

Your track with Apashe, ‘Behind My Eyes’, was sensational. Could you share the journey there, and on the music video too!

Thank you! John and I became friends throughout 2019 and while he was working on his album I showed him a demo I’d started that he felt inspired to build off of. We had a couple of studio sessions to flush out the vocals and the production, then he finished the track on his own, adding all of his signature textures, energy, epic-ness. Then he and Adrian Villagomez decided they wanted to do a music video for the song and happened to be flying out to Japan for a show.

They invited me to come with them, and I was absolutely gutted to have to decline, since my residency status in Canada was tricky at that point and I didn’t want to have to cross the border. They came up with the idea of having me on a screen so that I could be shot in a studio in Montreal, and they could integrate me into the footage they took in Japan. It ended up working super well, but of course I still wish I could have taken that trip.

Oh wow. I'm glad they were still able to incorporate you here despite the limitations—it worked super well, I will add. Do you have a specific message or theme you aim to convey through your music?

Each project has such a different intention behind it that there isn’t one overarching theme. I’d love to make people feel their emotions, I’d love to make people dance, relax, be in the present, reflect. I like writing about tough subjects (i.e. care taking, capitalism, climate change, death) but I also feel so fulfilled writing about love too. By love, I mean of all kinds: platonic, romantic, familial, love for one’s self, love for the planet, love of life.

That's beautiful. Could you give any advice or tips for new artists starting out today?

I would suggest taking your time, reading up on all the revenue streams/artist’s rights, being intentional about what you want to say and how you want to say it, know your goals, and make sure whoever you’re working with really feels like your cheerleader.

As we look into the future, what does the rest of the year—and indeed, 2024—hold in store for you?

I’m aiming to finish and release a solo album that I’ve been writing on and off for five years now. It’s about the relationship between mother earth and humans, depicting what she would say if she could speak. I’m also about to start writing Afternoon Bike Ride’s third album. Next year will see a lot of releases and shows between my solo project and band!

Any artists that you’re feeling right now?

I’ve been obsessed with 1tbsp for a year now. It’s Golden Vessel’s new project, I actually adore both projects, but 1tbsp gets me dancing!

Thanks for doing this LIA.

Reflecting back on this chat, it becomes clear that LIA embodies the resilience and creative vocations of a true artist. Juggling life's complexities—LIA finds in music both a sanctuary and a platform for profound emotional discourse. It's been a pleasure to explore these topics at this point in her journey.