Story / Kristy Benjamin
Photos / Louise Parker
Today we have the exclusive premiere of Los Angeles based 80’s pop songstress Lily McQueens new album ELECTRIC LOVE. Full of endless jams to play by your poolside this summer, this album is a perfect soundtrack to this years summer loves, lost loves, ex loves, or future loves. Play it on full blast, and read our interview with Lily below!
The album is super fun and coming out at the perfect time… SUMMER! It personally reminds me of driving to and from the beach growing up with the radio blasting and the windows down. It makes the listener feel dreamy and inside a cool movie soundtrack! Was this a goal or vibe you had in mind when you were working on this album?
Thanks! Those themes were definitely on my mind when writing the album. I love driving and blasting the radio, especially now that I live in LA. Whenever I’m working on a new song the ultimate test is to play it in my car. I’m not sure why, but with each song I would imagine them fading in at the end of a John Hughes film. So movie soundtracks and big 80s anthems were a huge inspiration.
You are from Brooklyn, but currently reside in Los Angeles. How was that transition, do you feel it had influence on your songwriting while making this album?
I actually didn’t move until after the album was done, but I spent a summer in LA a few years ago I felt very inspired and wrote a lot during that period. Sonically, my songs feel more California than New York to me.
Going back to movie soundtrack vibes, this must make it SOOOO much fun to make your music videos! Is that something you look forward to doing? Are there plans for more videos? We loved the Chasing Your Love video.
Yeah, I’ve had a blast making my videos. That one was really fun to film and was totally a shout out to 80s teen movies. I’m really fortunate to have crazy talented friends who have all come on board to direct my videos. My friend Adinah Dancyger directed Chasing Your Love and she totally got what I was going for. I just finished a video with my roommate, Joe Nankin, for my next single Say Something. We got a bunch of our friends together in LA who have all been playing with me in some way shape or form over the course of the past 5 years. It’s basically a fictionalized behind the scenes of how we made the song. Then I have one more video I’m about to film for Electric Love that I’m working on right now with my friend Lili Peper. We’ve got a great crew of women and I’m really excited to see how it all comes together.
I’m trying to get a tour together. I actually just got back from a road trip across the country with my two friends, who are also musicians, so we tried to scrape a few shows together along the way. We played Austin, which was so fun and are about to play Philly, but now I’m totally hooked. I just wanna keep going and play everywhere I can.
Your ability to write uplifting songs about heartbreak & one sided love is really refreshing. Thank you for giving us a full album of songs to sing along to because we relate to the sadness and yearning but that make us feel positive at the same time! This album is for sure on our summer playlist!
Thank you and you are so welcome! I wrote this album when I needed to feel better so if it’s at all able to resonate and help you out, that’s really my main goal. I always think it’s better to dance away your sadness than to wallow in it.
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