Lily Konigsberg has been writing songs all her life. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she started playing solo sets around NYC clubs as a teenage, before linking up with Bard classmates Nina Ryser and Ani Ivry-Block to form Palberta. She also performs with Nate Amos as My Idea, and is releasing her latest full-length solo album Lily We Need To Talk Now via Wharf Cat October 2021.
Scott Hermo Jr. fronts the Connecticut-based indie rock band Boyscott; Lily Konigsberg is a musician and songwriter based in New York, who performs solo and has played in the bands Palberta and My Idea. Boyscott’s new record, Spellbound, will be out October 16 via Topshelf. Ahead of their tour together (which starts next week), Scott and Lily got on a Zoom call to catch up.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
Scott Hermo Jr: OK, so we’re asking questions and also just talking as humans, right?
Lily Konigsberg: Yeah. It’s really messed up because when I wake up from a nap, I’m like a weird newborn monster. I would have never planned this for now.
Scott: Yeah, what is up with naps? It feels like refreshing Safari.
Lily: Some people love them. Like Greta [Keating, Lily’s recent tourmate], who you know — she values her naps. And when she wakes up, she’s like, “Ahh, I feel so much better now.” And I feel like I need to relearn how to talk to people and function in society for the first hour at least. But anyway, how are you? Where are you?
Scott: I’m good. I’m in Connecticut right now. It’s actually really beautiful out right now.
Lily: I have something really exciting to show you, actually.
[Lily picks up a kitten.]
Scott: OK, I wrote that down in my notes — I said, “Did Lily get a new cat?”
Lily: I did, I got a kitten. His name is Pony, and I don’t know if you can tell how tiny he is, but he’s so tiny.
Scott: Oh, my god. Did you already have a cat though?
Lily: I did, yeah.
Scott: Are they friends?
Lily: They haven’t met yet because Pony has a pretty common parasite that he could give to Matilda right now. So I’m medicating him. But, yeah, I got Pony on Tuesday and we’re very bonded. He’s so good. I guess I just kind of want to be a mother, but not really, so I wanted to raise an animal. [Laughs.]
Scott: [Laughs.] Good for you. Well, tell me about the new record. What’s up with that?
Lily: Yeah, I started writing the album a little over a year ago. I had taken a year off from music because it made me really sad. Music was really painful. But I started writing, and I’ve written 30 songs now. I’m sort of weeding them out, which ones I want on the album. And Hugo Stanley from Palm — who’s also been my best friend since I was 17 — he agreed to produce it and record it with me. We’re not really using other people, so it’s been a really long process of figuring out the songs just with two people. We don’t have a drummer sitting over there being like, “Try this, try that.” It’s just been very intimate, and we’re sort of shaping and figuring out the songs now. We’re going to be recording at different studios around Brooklyn and in New York, just for the different parts. But it’s going really well, if slow. It’ll probably be out in 2025, I think.
Scott: I became friends with you last summer when you were doing shows with Greta. You were playing some new songs — are any of those going to be on it?
Lily: Yes, a lot of those are on it. So you’ve heard a lot of the songs, but there’s even more ones that have been written since then, and ones I’d been playing on that tour that I’m going to be adding to the album.
Scott: Can you tell me about the song that you played at your Union Pool show? It’s my favorite of your new songs. It’s the one where it’s “Freebird” or “Freebie.”
Lily: Oh, yeah, “Freebird.” [Laughs.]
Scott: Dude, that song is incredible. Please tell me that you’re releasing that.
Lily: Yes, 100%.
Scott: And it’s gonna be a full band thing? Because I’d only ever heard you do it solo acoustic.
Lily: It has drums, bass. It’s really funny — Hugo’s dad’s playing bass on my record. He’s a really amazing session musician that has been [playing with] Garland Jeffreys for a really long time and just toured his whole life. His bass part is already on that song. That was the first one we recorded because we were like, “Let’s start with a really good one.” Because that one is obviously one of the good ones. That one was like, Oh, you don’t write a song like that often. You do it every couple of years. So yes, it’s definitely going to be included. I just wish they were all that good. Are you working on anything?
Scott: I haven’t actually worked on a new song in a really long time, but we have a new record coming out in the fall, which is why we’re doing that tour. So I’m kind of in the opposite mode where I’m just taking it easy and working on promoting it. Which really, to be honest, is not what I enjoy. It’s exciting to have stuff come out, but I don’t know… I mean, I love playing shows. Do you love going on tour? What are your thoughts with that? Do you prefer just writing and recording?
Lily: I think I do prefer writing and recording.
Scott: Yeah, me too.
Lily: Because I don’t actually like traveling. I mean, I like traveling if not on tour. I don’t really like, “OK, we got to this city, now we have to walk around for four hours.”
Scott: “And find a bathroom, hopefully.”
Lily: “Now I’m hungry.” I don’t really like that mode of traveling. It’s not the way that I pictured it when I was 18 before I started touring. It’s a lot of work and a lot of discomfort. But then you have really great memories, and you have really great nights, and you meet really cool people. We met each other through touring.
Scott: That actually is true. I’ve met some of my closest friends now just from hanging with them for an hour in between a show at a taco place.
Lily: Exactly. You meet really cool people, and you wouldn’t meet them [a different] way. The actual playing of the show can be an amazing time. It’s so funny, you suffer being uncomfortable and hungry—
Scott: And not knowing where to go for 23 hours. Then you have an hour of the show — and sometimes you play for a full hour.
Lily: I have to play for a full hour in Maine soon, at this college.
Scott: Dude, I would love to see you play for an hour.
Lily: I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to do an hour of music.
Scott: You’re gonna be fine. If you talk in between, you’re gonna be fine.
Lily: I’m not that good at talking a lot on stage. I get weird.
Scott: Oh, no. Me neither.
Lily: I’ve been so scared at shows recently that I just haven’t been able to say basically a word.
Scott: You told me about that. But it’s surprising because I have to tell you, when you’re on stage it doesn’t seem that way. If anything, your nervous banter is really sweet. It doesn’t come off that you’re nervous.
Lily: What about when I say, “I’m really nervous right now”?
Scott: Yeah, but that also feels like a joke. It feels like it’s part of the thing.
Lily: That’s so funny. I had a horrible experience playing a college — I was just thinking about it. It was in the Bronx and they offered me a lot of money, so I left being paid a lot, but there was this band — I hope they read this because they were really shitty people. It looked like they had just gone to Urban Outfitters or something and freshly picked out clothes, like, “I wanna be in a rock band.” They kind of sounded like the Arctic Monkeys but worse, and they were definitely all from the Upper East Side and were rich and were trying out the music thing. Which, rich people can make good music. But it was like they were total rock stars — acting like that — and they were going around giving out business cards that had a download code. Their vibe was very rancid. And I was like, “Hey, guys, I see that you’re a full band. I know I’m supposed to play last, but could I play before you? Because I just have an acoustic guitar and people are drinking and getting loud.” And they were like, “No,” and they got annoyed about it. So they play, they get people going crazy because they’re acting like rock stars. And then I play last and for maybe, like, 15 people, and it’s so loud and no one’s listening. I was like, I know that I’m making a lot of money right now, but this just feels so bad. [Laughs.] They’re walking around giving out business cards and talking during my set. I’m like, I told you this would happen. Why didn’t you just let me go?
Scott: Sometimes I know bands haven’t gone through the house shows or been part of a scene before, because there’s just such an etiquette that sometimes [is missing]. Honestly, I feel bad hearing that for those people, because any band they play with is going to have your reaction. Literally no one is going to be like, “Oh yeah, that’s cool. I like that.”
Lily: The people that this band brought were all wearing boat shoes and khakis — like, they were dressing up as a band, what they thought that would look like. Their parents are paying for their recording studio time and all their equipment, and they just went straight to, “We’re going to play venues and college shows, and we’re not going to be nice to the other people that we’re playing with.” So it was just terrible. But I kept being like, I made all this money, I made all this money…
Scott: Tour can be like that in general. Even a good show, you’re just so tired, you might be sick, there might be some kind of drama with the other band members or something. And then it ends up being a wonderful show, but you’re still in this weird rut mentally. You know what I mean?
Lily: Yes. I used to go on such long tours with Palberta. We were so young. We didn’t have the best judgment and we didn’t always have each other’s backs, just because we were growing up together. I didn’t know how to always be a good friend. And I don’t think that anyone knows at that time. But there was this one time that we started off this three week tour, and the first night I did a split — not on stage, I was just like, “I can do a split” — and I tore my hamstring in three places. It was like, we heard three pops. It was around a lot of people, and they were like, “Are you OK?” And I was like, “I’m fine, I’m fine.” I limp away and still play the show, and in the morning I cannot walk.
Scott: Were you in the middle of the country or something?
Lily: We were in Maine, actually. But we didn’t go home. I did the full tour walking two blocks behind them. I was limping everywhere. And now when we’ve talked about it, they’ve been like, “Oh, my god, we would totally just say that you should go home now. Why did we continue that tour?” But yeah, most of my 20s was just riding around with those girls and having some really crazy experiences. I don’t regret it at all, but I wouldn’t do it more. [Laughs.]
Scott: That was all of my 20s, too, just being a little too immature to handle those kind of social situations constantly. Because on tour, you’re surrounded by people 24/7 and you’re having to navigate that social world. And honestly, I’m still learning how to do that. But at least I’m better at conflict or just social things in general. I remember one time we were playing at Bard, and for some reason we decided to do a race — like a sprinting race as hard as we could go — right before we played. I hurt my foot, all of us were super winded, and then they’re like, “OK, you guys gotta play now.” When we tried to sing, we felt like we had to throw up. It was terrible. You just do those things because you’re young and dumb.
Lily: Yeah. And kind of bored.
Scott: Because you’re waiting around all day long for the show.
Lily: I wouldn’t regret any of that time. It was cool way to spend 10 years.
Scott: Same.
Lily: I just wouldn’t do it again.
Scott: OK, so you’re recording in studios in Brooklyn. That’s cool. What do you usually do?
Lily: The last album, Nate Amos from Water From Your Eyes recorded a lot of it from home, and then also we did some in a studio for the band stuff. He’s very talented at home recordings. He’s done a lot of them. And in the past I’ve recorded a lot of it with another person helping me, one other person normally. Or I’ve recorded some of my early stuff just on GarageBand at home.
Scott: What do you prefer though? Do you prefer studio or just bedroom?
Lily: I prefer bedroom, yeah. I feel like studio, there’s something that you really can’t get in the bedroom setting, but I just feel like you have more control when you’re just recording stuff into the computer, and you can do as many takes as you want. When you’re in a studio, you’re like, “We have to all play together now, and hopefully we’ll like one of the takes.”
Scott: Yeah, it’s being able to do it a million times.
Lily: Yeah, I love doing things a million times. That’s why I like to do my vocals alone in a room without anyone around.
Scott: Everyone has to be five miles away.
Lily: Yeah. Hugo and I are going to try maybe doing them together, and I was like, “Just know I’m probably going to hate it and going to make you leave.” You have to hype yourself up to have the perfect vocal.
Scott: Yeah. But I feel like you guys are close enough that he would understand, and you can just go crazy. But also at the same time in the moment, I would hate that too.
Lily: I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable singing in front of him, so maybe I’ll do it. I’ve tried to do my vocals with people before and then eventually just take it home to do in a room. Because people want it to sound really good, studio quality, but I’m like, “I need to be in my room with my door closed and no one bothering me.” This is what I used to use all the time — [Lily picks up a mic] — the Blue. It does pick up a lot of room noise and stuff, but that’s cool. I don’t really care. I think that makes a song charming when you hear a little something in the background. Or you don’t notice it at all. Honestly, I think people are too crazy about that.
Scott: I don’t think people notice it at all. Maybe if people listen to the song, like, 10 times, they’re like, “Oh, I can hear things.” But if you’re hearing a melody for the first time, that’s all you’re hearing.
Lily: It’s really true. But are you excited for tour?
Scott: I’m definitely excited. But also, to be honest, headline tours aren’t as fun. It’s kind of stressful. Whereas opening, you truly don’t have to worry about anything, and just go play and have fun and chill. With headlining, it’s like, “Hey, you only sold four tickets in South Carolina.”
Lily: [Laughs.] I wouldn’t sell tickets in South Carolina, I’m sure. It’s hard to sell tickets, until one day it’s not hard to sell tickets.
Scott: Imagine? But I’m so stoked that you’re going to do some of the shows with us. We’re all a huge fan of your music. So it’ll be fun to chill, and the drives are gonna be easy. It’s just an East Coast thing.
Lily: I know. I’m excited for that!
