Lily Seabird is a songwriter based in Burlington, VT. Her record Alas, is out now on Lame-O Records.
(Photo Credit: Jinni J)
Lily Seabird is a Burlington, VT-based songwriter; Brennan Wedl is a Nashville-based indie country artist. Lily just released a reissue of her record Alas, with Lame-O Records, so to celebrate, the two friends got on a call to catch up about it, and much more.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
Brennan Wedl: So are you from Burlington?
Lily Seabird: No.
Brennan: Where are you from?
Lily: I grew up in Pennsylvania, for the most part, but I moved around a lot. I was born in California — my dad’s always lived in California, and actually did go to my freshman year of high school in LA County and have spent a lot of my life in California, summers and stuff. Then I moved around a lot between Connecticut and Pennsylvania with my mom. So I just tell people I’m from Pennsylvania, but I never go back there. Wait, where are you from again?
Brennan: I’m from Minnesota.
Lily: Are you from Minneapolis?
Brennan: Yep. Then moved to Nashville.
Lily: You used to be in another band, though?
Brennan: Yes.
Lily: I just found out about this.
Brennan: I love that band. We’re still kind of active, kind of not. It’s. It’s called Dazey and the Scouts and we met in Boston. We were just having fun. And then in the pandemic a bunch of goth children started dancing to our song “Wet” and, lo and behold, it’s very lucrative.
Lily: That’s awesome. But I’ve known about your music for a while, and I really like it.
Brennan: Likewise.
Lily: I really like “Heartland.”
Brennan: I was excited to get that one out because the other singles this year have been really about characters, and this one was like, [sings] “This is me!”
Lily: [Laughs.]
Brennan: It’s usually about characters, just because I have trouble being truly vulnerable. Do you ever feel that way? Do you have trouble with your feelings?
Lily: Yeah. I’m like, so crazy though, dude. I can’t keep it in sometimes. So I’ve been trying to write more about characters, because it’s easy for me to write about how I’m feeling. I’m working on maybe not talking about characters, but telling a story more, because a lot of my past music is either really rocking or it’s really sad. It’s like I’m either pissed or I’m sad, and I’m like, I have so many other sides to myself.
Brennan: Totally. Try it with a character! I usually pick a vehicle for what I want the song to be about, and then I put snippets of my own experience into it.
Lily: That song “Fake Cowboy” is so good.
Brennan: Thank you. That one was 100% real, unfortunately. [Laughs.]
Lily: That is real. That sounds like East Nashville honky tonk. I’ve only been there a couple times — am I right?
Brennan: Yes, totally. It’s a hot mess… What’s your philosophy on the tone zone?
Lily: Dude. It’s Tele time.
Brennan: Yeah it is.
Lily: Middle pickup. Bridge pickup. I don’t have any pedals. I used to feel like I had this philosophy of, you don’t need that many pedals. I still have that philosophy, but now I like them more. I’m not going to say what they are.
Brennan: [Laughs.]
Lily: But one of them actually is a Tube Screamer! I want it to be crazy. I was trying to make my guitar sound really fucking [makes a crazy noise].
Brennan: Yeah, freakazoid.
Lily: What do you play?
Brennan: It’s a Tele. Tele time. I like to use a Deluxe Reverb amp. I have a solid state one, and people are like, “You should have gotten a tube amp!” But like, Are you gonna carry it and are you gonna pay for it, love? [Laughs.] So I got the solid state. I’m really just in a constant state of trying to dial in the tone.
Lily: Yeah, dude, I feel that. Do you ever do two amps?
Brennan: No.
Lily: Dude, I’ve been doing two amps. Two amps, two different sounds.
Brennan: Woah! What kind of amps would you use?
Lily: I’m using my Blues Junior, and I’m a Fender Champ. They’re both kind of small, or not huge. But then together: big. What’s on your pedalboard?
Brennan: I have a tuner on it — I got it in the lost and found at my college job, and it still works. I have a Fat Sugar, which is a gain. I have a boost from… It’s not called XLR, but it’s that company with the three letters.
Lily: I relate to how you’re describing this. I know what you’re saying. But I don’t know it is either.
Brennan: I have this crazy demon summoner that my friend Amy found at Goodwill, and she bequeathed it to me. I got a 10-band EQ pedal to try to rein it in and tone it up. But I also have a Strymon tremolo and reverb.
Lily: That’s a good pedal.
Brennan: Yeah, it’s a good one to have in the family for sure. Do you play with one guitar, or do you rotate guitars in the set?
Lily: I used to rotate, but then I sold the other one when I was really broke. So I realized it’s Tele time, all the time. I love my guitar so much. It has a rosewood fretboard. I bought it from the guitar store in my hometown when I was, like, 19. I didn’t really know I wanted a Tele, but my friend’s dad owns this guitar store, and their dad told me this was the guitar. It had a couple dings in it, so I traded it in the two shitty guitars I had and I was able to get it. And I love it.
Brennan: It’s beautiful. Is it dark blue?
Lily: Yes.
Brennan: Fuck yeah. That’s hard.
Lily: Yeah, dude, it goes really hard. What do you have?
Brennan: It’s kind of brown. I think it needs to go into the shop because — well, this doesn’t really matter, but I lost the little rubber thing.
Lily: I’ve lost the rubber thing.
Brennan: I’ve been doing this thing where I tune a whole step down, just because I write the melodies way too high for my vocals, and then I’m always straining super hard. So I just decided, “Hey, why don’t we move the songs down a whole step?” And so I’ve been taking it down.
Lily: That’s so sick.
Brennan: It’s an interesting experiment to see what kind of vocal melodies you come up with. I don’t play baritone guitar, but with a lower guitar, it kind of brings out a new flavor.
Lily: That would be really boss if you played baritone guitar.
Brennan: That would be boss. I can’t wrap my brain around it. Something I wanted to ask you: right now I feel like my creativity is so blocked, because I had a lot of personal struggles this summer where I had to protect my heart. And in doing that, I kind of blocked off my flow. Do you feel like you’re pretty open creatively? What’s your creative process like in tough times?
Lily: Dude, honestly, I seem really chill right now, but I’ve actually been having an extremely difficult time. Shit’s been really hitting the fan in my personal life. And when that happens, seeing songwriting as a tool to move through the thing is how I cope with the world. It’s a way to deal with it, I guess.
I think not trying to judge what’s coming out — like maybe I write a bunch of crazy ass lyrics to some dark sounding song, like, “I’m going to fucking blow my head off!” — obviously I’m not going to put that out, but [it’s about] not judging myself in the moment. And just trying to think about the ways that you first started making music. I feel like a lot of people come to songwriting and playing guitar and singing when they’re moody teens. Thinking of it as a release instead of thinking, I gotta write this song for the record, or whatever… I don’t know if that’s helpful, but that’s what I do at least. Just let myself write some really fucked up shit that I don’t actually have to share with people.
Brennan: Yeah, not editing yourself in the moment. You can edit yourself later, but for the sake of processing things, just let it rip.
Lily: Yeah, let it rip. Do you smoke weed?
Brennan: Sometimes. Does weed help you?
Lily: Let it rip, and then let it rip. [Laughs.]
Brennan: [Laughs.] Yeeees. If I smoke weed, it makes me want to play music, which is so fun.
Lily: You genre-bend a lot, and I really appreciate that.
Brennan: Thank you. I think a lot of people are like, “What the fuck is she doing?”
Lily: I feel like I’m a fellow genre-bender, and sometimes I’m like, “What the fuck am I doing?” But when I see you doing it, I’m like, “That’s fire.”
Brennan: It’s fun. It’s good for the ADHD. It’s good for the personal growth. Do you remember the first song you wrote?
Lily: Yes.
Brennan: What was it?
Lily: It’s so fucking stupid, dude. It was called “The Box Song.” I was sitting in a car with a lot of boxes, and I was like, [sings] “I’m sitting in a caaar, with a whole lot of boxes.” It’s about moving. [Laughs.]
Brennan: That’s sweet.
Lily: It’s really corny. My dad was moving from one apartment to another one, and I was sitting in the back of the van with my acoustic guitar, and he was going behind, like, REI and Walmart stealing boxes, because we weren’t going to buy them. He’s kind of a scrappy guy. Do you remember your first song?
Brennan: Yes. The first one I performed was called “Kindness Is Bright.” [Laughs.] I think I remember the first song that I showed my mom was called “The Old Bullfrog,” and the bullfrog was a soldier or some shit.
Lily: Dude, you’re going for the metaphors. How old were you?
Brennan: I performed “Kindness Is Bright” when I was in seventh grade, I think. I started playing guitar when I was ten. How about you? When did you start playing guitar?
Lily: I think I was 13. Saxophone was my first instrument. I played jazz saxophone.
Brennan: That’s tight.
Lily: Yeah. I remember I actually really wanted to play guitar and my stepdad was like, “You’re too old to learn how to play guitar.”
Brennan: OK, stepdad.
Lily: Honestly, what the fuck. But so then I found a guitar in the attic, and the action was really fucking high, and I taught myself how to play that. I was very determined against the odds.
Brennan: That’s badass. And now you’re a guitar slinger.
Lily: I don’t think I performed until I was 15, though. I was a really bad singer. People told me I was a bad singer. I worked really hard to figure out how to sing.
Brennan: Did other children tell you that? Or adults?
Lily: I don’t know, maybe a mix?
Brennan: That’s upsetting.
Lily: I know.
Brennan: Everyone’s a critic! But now look at you. You’re touring the world as a musician.
Lily: No one said I was bad at music, but they did say I couldn’t sing. They were like, “Stick to the saxophone, Lily.” It was a long road to get here. I did a talk-singing thing for a long time.
Brennan: That’s so cool, though, and it really informs a unique singing voice as an adult. You put your own little spin on it.
Lily: Yeah. Did you sing as a kid? Did you do choir?
Brennan: I did choir, yeah.
Lily: Did you do musical theater?
Brennan: Yes, but for the hangs. It was very much like, All my friends are doing this, it looks cool, everyone’s nice, and no one calls me a fag. [Laughs.] I was in the ensemble. I can’t remember lines to save my life. Do you remember the first song that made an impact on you as a child?
Lily: Dude, you have all these good questions. Do you know the answer to the question first, though?
Brennan: Yeah. I was in the back of my mom’s van. We were probably eating McDonald’s. because my mom loved McDonald’s and I did too. McDonald’s is lit.
Lily: McDonald’s is lit. I love McDonald’s.
Brennan: [Laughs.] And “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt came on the radio. I just remember being like, Woah. And I thought she was talking about a farm — I thought she was a farmer in the song. Because in the bridge she’s like, “And I will give up this fight” — but I thought she said, “farm.” Like, “I will give up my farm for you.”
Lily: How old were you?
Brennan: Probably kindergarten, maybe.
Lily: Are you parents musicians?
Brennan: No. My dad loves to sing. They both love to sing. They loved Norah Jones. Rush. Or, my mom hates Rush because she says it’s stoner music, but my dad loves Rush. James Taylor, John Denver, Steely Dan. My mom also hates Steely Dan, dad loves Steely Dan.
Lily: I don’t like Steely Dan.
Brennan: It’s very hot and cold.
Lily: I like that song, “Peg,” though.
Brennan: Who were some of your parent’s faves that you grew up with?
Lily: I’m going to guess that my parents are younger than your parents, based on your parents’ music taste. My parents had me pretty young. My mom in high school and right after college followed the Grateful Dead until Jerry Garcia died. So, major Deadhead. And my dad grew up in LA and really loves, like, Black Flag, The Descendents. Both love music a lot. Dad still goes to shows all the time. We moved to Pennsylvania with my mom when my parents got divorced in 2005, so I grew up by new Hope, Pennsylvania, which is where the band Ween is from.
Brennan: Nice.
Lily: And my stepdad is really good friends with those guys, so I grew up constantly listening to Ween and the Grateful Dead and Phish. I was obsessed with the song “Mister Richard Smoker” by Ween when I was, like, five years old. It is a completely fucked song. It’s honestly, really homophobic. It did not age well. I actually was listening to that song the other day and I was like, What the hell? But I was obsessed with that song, so I think that’s my favorite. But then I also really like “Gabrielle” by Ween. I honestly really love Ween. I also do really like Grateful Dead, and I like Phish. What do you think about those bands?
Brennan: I respect it. I love the culture around the bands. I love that people love them. That’s what music should be like — it should be community-oriented.
Lily: There’s such a thing in rock where there’s sometimes just an air of pretentiousness. It’s like, man, why do that? What if we were all excited about what we liked and we were really nice about it?
Brennan: Let’s just be nice, please!
Lily: If you like something, just say you like it! Sometimes people will be like, “Oh, you like Phish?” And I’m like, “I don’t give a fuck, I like Phish!”
Brennan: Stand strong, soldier.
Lily: Wait, I really liked talking to you!
Brennan: I did too. I have more questions that I want to ask you at a later date.
Lily: Do you think we talked about too much stuff?
Brennan. No, I think this is perfect.
Lily: OK, I think we rocked this.
Brennan: We really rocked this.
(Photo Credit: left, Jinni J; right, Chas Bugge)
