Unsung Lilly – Hurt to Know [with exclusive interview]
Unsung Lilly offers a passionate slice of dance-rock on the infectious grooves of “Hurt to Know”. Outright joyous, the whole song feels like a celebration. Beyond dance-rock, elements of deep house, shoegaze, even hints of ambient come into the mix. What truly ties all of this together are the gorgeous vocals that simply soar above it all with a tremendous amount of grace. Vocalists draw from the R&B, the blues, and pop in a perfect blend. Lyrics have a loose, poetic quality to them. Throughout the song Unsung Lilly turns their gaze inward as they explore one’s inner motivations doing so with such care.
Not a moment is wasted for Unsung Lilly dives headfirst into the rhythm. Guitars has a physicality to them. By opting for a unique sort of cyclical style the whole of the track gains a hypnotic quality. Offering a unique intersection of dance and rock with a bit of funk, they at times recall Daft Punk’s later work. Intricate and highly detailed, the arrangement works wonders while the multiple layers of sound intermingle in a pitch-perfect fashion. Highly psychedelic the whole of the piece comes together with such stately majesty. Throughout the whole of the mix the ebb and flow of energy helps to imbue it with a true sense of wonder. For the final stretch of it all Unsung Lilly allows for the whole of the piece to drift up to the sky in a most heavenly fashion.
“With “Hurt to Know” Unsung Lilly explores a bright beautiful world.”
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Frankie: We are both from the UK – I’m from Cornwall, and Sera is from Surrey. I think for me, music has always been just in me…I started playing different instruments from an early age and couldn’t put them down! I still can’t!
Sera: We decided to start making music together back in 2012. At the time, we spent a long time struggling to find our authentic voice within our music and really figuring out who we were as ‘artistes’…There are so many pressures to be a certain way, look a certain way, create music that ‘fits in a box’…but it never quite felt authentic enough. Somewhere in the next few years, we surprised ourselves by falling in love with each other, got married and made a pact to only create music that makes us feel empowered – no more squishing into boxes or living up to others expectations!
I think thats when we really found ourselves as artistes. It’s our absolute mission and passion to inspire and empower others with our music
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Sera: Be yourself, 100%. Its so important. And I think once you do that, the ‘right’ fans will connect with you – the ones that really get you, and so will the right venues, promoters, and radio stations.
Frankie: Also learn as many tools as you can. We are completely self managed and self run. I do all the production on our songs, and Sera does all our video editing, marketing, website design, social media etc. These days, its so important to understand these things even when you’re just starting out, and it will save you a lot of money and give you a lot more creative control if you can learn to do as much as possible.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Sera: Haha yes, all the time. I usually just giggle my way through mistakes. I’m sure there’s a more professional way to handle it! I think the only thing you can do is laugh it off and keep going. Chances are, it will make you more memorable and in a good way. We’re all human afterall!
Frankie: Yes, something happens every gig. I’ve had some awkward situations where I’ve been trying out new gear – for example at a show last year we tried out a new sample pad for the first time and it was really unreliable, slow and difficult to use – I kept accidentally putting it on the wrong song!! But you just have to keep going. Its quite funny when we do shows, Sera is terrible at her ‘poker face’ when something goes wrong, whereas I will just try and make it look like it was meant to happen! Haha
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Sera: We are mostly recording at the moment, because we’re in the middle of a 12 songs in 12 months challenge, where we are writing, recording and releasing one song a month for 12 months. Thats keeping us pretty busy so we haven’t done any touring for a while, but we are really itching to get back on the road. We’re doing a UK tour this Summer and then some dates in California later this year, which we’re just getting ready for now!
Frankie: Touring is a lot of fun – but I swear every gig has some sort of ‘Spinal Tap’ moment. I recommend every aspiring young musician watches that movie…one day, it will basically be your life!!
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Frankie: We record most of our music in our own home studio. I work with logic, and lots of great plug ins. Komplete is great for instruments and sounds and I use that a lot. We just purchased a lot of new plug ins from Output which are my favourites to play with right now! We are always looking to upgrade little bits and pieces here and there. Its amazing how one piece of gear can inspire a brand new song in a brand new direction you never would have thought of
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Sera: We are really enjoying Instagram right now. I love the platform and the way of expressing via images and videos. It tends to go in trends though – for a while we had most of our fans on youtube, and then facebook, but now IG seems to be the favourite. We also love doing Facebook live streams – its a great way to play our music whilst we are not gigging much. Apart from that – you can’t beat good old fashioned gigging. We miss it and can’t wait to get back to it. We’re playing a few UK festivals this Summer which will be a lot of fun and a great way to meet some new music fans!
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Sera: Wow…too many to mention. Right now, my current dream artistes to perform with would be Florence and Haim – I love them both. And more oldskool artistes would be Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac, Prince, and Supertramp! Dream venues would be any of the big stadiums or festivals!
Frankie: Stevie Wonder would be incredible to perform with, at the Hollywood Bowl! Easy, haha. What an inspirational guy. I would love to have a drum-off with him.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Frankie: Well we are almost finished with our 12 songs in 12 months challenge. That finishes in September and then we’ll be releasing all the tracks, with two bonus tracks, as a full album. So the rest of the year will be taken up promoting that and doing lots of shows. We can’t wait!
Sera: I’m also working on building a movement for #TransformationalArtistry – music, TV, film, art and other media with a world-changing message. I really believe that we can make the world a better place through art and creativity, and I am building up an instagram page and Facebook group that showcases creatives doing just that. We talk about anything from big epic TV shows like The Handmaids Tale, to unknown music artistes who are putting music out there with an important message.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Sera: I think I’d always be doing something creative. I’m actually writing a lot right now too – working on writing a couple of movie projects with a Hollywood based film company, and also my own TV script, so I think if I wasn’t doing music I’d be focussing full time on that. I love being able to put interesting concepts out into the world through creativity.
Frankie: Anything that involves drumming! Id also quite like to be someone that tests out musical instruments, that would be fun and keep me busy!
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?
Sera: Its really all about the next few months finishing our 12 month challenge, and then looking forward to the release of the full album!
Frankie: We are also thinking about putting together an album of stripped/acoustic style versions of the album too – a few fans suggested it as they have enjoyed when we’ve done our stripped back videos, so we’re hoping to release something like that too. You heard it here first! And apart from that, its just gig, gig, gig!
Exposed Vocals: Any Shout-outs?
Sera: We’re so grateful to everyone who supports us, especially the members of our Patreon tribe! These people have supported our 12 month challenge and literally helped pay for us to fund it, so we are eternally grateful to them. Looking forward to hopefully meeting a few of them at our shows this Summer!
Frankie: Its not too late to join, its www.patreon.com/Unsunglilly
