Lydia Loveless performed at Durham’s Motorco Music Hall this past Tuesday, Sept. 23. Her newest studio album "Somewhere Else" is now available. The Chronicle recently chatted with her to reflect on her music.
The Chronicle: What was the experience of making your third studio album "Somewhere Else" like?
Lydia Loveless: We did it at the same place that we did the second album, so it was kind of a, I guess, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it kind of situation. We just wanted to go back to the same studio and take full advantage of knowing the sound engineer and the space and their room really well. That just made it really comfortable, and we just basically camped out there for like three days. [Laughs]
It was just kind of a step in the right direction for me because I knew basically the way I learned and played music was by making albums. So I meet a lot of people who have said that my style has changed, but, really, i just developed more, and this album just seemed more cohesive to me because it was actually songs that I wrote in the same year for an album, instead of some cobbled together stuff I was just trying to learn how to play a C chord with.
TC: I’ve read a lot of colorful descriptions of what your style supposedly is. How would you describe it?
LL: I just like play rock and roll instead of country or alt country or county punk or punkabilly or whatever people call it. I write punk songs, and I grew up in the country, so that there’s a little of that - I guess - twang to things. But I don’t really like to call it more than rock music really. Because that’s what I like to do and play on stage. I feel like thats an honest description of what I end up doing.
TC: Your songs are really brashly direct and emotional. How do you want people to receive them?
LL: I guess I would consider it as a kind of conversation. I don’t think I just write about one thing. I keep a pretty obsessive journal, and I record pretty much everything I do in life. I go to the bathroom and pee and record something. [Laughs] I just kind of gather scraps of things, and it all kinds of goes into the songs. It’s not really ever, like, I wrote that about that book, or this thing happened to me. I very rarely write a song consistently about one thing. It’s more just a random idea I had throughout the day. Actually, a lot of it is a really personal to me. I shouldn’t make it sound like it’s just a bunch of crap. But it really is just random gathering of things. [Laughs].
TC: "Somewhere Else" has gotten some really wonderful reviews. How have you taken the album’s critical success?
LL: I try not to let it get in my brain because, even if it’s good, it can sort of affect how you write and what you write about, and it actually takes away from writing songs by picturing how many stars its going to get when its finished. It’s definitely good to get good press. I would never complain about that. [Laughs] It really got in my brain with my second album, so I tried to step back on this one.
TC: You’re only 24. I’m 21. How did you manage to produce three albums already?
LL: I just force myself to do it. I’m not really good at anything else. I’m not really interested in doing anything else. I lose focus on everything but music. So, I just kind of had to make it my entire life. [Laughs]
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