Sera & Frankie are wife and wife from the band Unsung Lilly who create epic, anthemic pop music made for stadiums – they just need the stadiums! Graham Robson caught up with the soulful British duo, now based in Los Angeles, to talk music and plans for the future.
How have you been spending lockdown?
Sera: Our first reaction was to live stream every day for the first month or so, partly because we just wanted to be there for people who needed connection, and because we ourselves needed to be connecting with others. This was actually pretty intense and took up almost all our time, so we’ve been taking a break from that and focussing as much as we can on recording new music and trying not to go too stir crazy. We’ve also been through a tough time because we lost all our income and due to various logistical things, we haven’t been able to get any financial help from the government. We’ve had to move out of our home in Los Angeles and are very lucky to be staying with a friend out in the Southern California desert, so we have a little time to figure out our next move.
What’s been the biggest impact to your creative output?
S: It’s weird because generally day to day life is the same – we’ve been at home recording music for the past few years really, but its definitely harder to create right now. I feel like the world has changed so much, so writing lyrics feels difficult to me – do I write about my experience of all this? Or would it be better to write about something else? How is life going to look after all this is over? How is society going to be different? I feel like everything is changing, so it’s difficult to know what to write about. My lyric writing seems to be evolving because of all those questions.
Frankie: We’ve both been feeling really drawn to nostalgia, so I’ve been experimenting with bringing in nostalgic/retro sounds, which has been fun and I’m really enjoying that progression in the new music we’re creating. Lockdown has definitely slowed down our creative process though – it’s really hard to concentrate with everything that’s going on in the world, and also everything that’s going on in our lives too.
Have you caught much online?
F: We’ve been having a lot of fun having a glass of wine or two and checking out other artistes live streams! It’s so cool that technology allows us to reach each other like that.
Do you think lockdown is disproportionately affecting the LGBTQ+ community?
F: It’s sad that we can’t all come together to celebrate pride this Summer, but it’s so important that we all do what we can to celebrate and raise awareness for the LGBTQ+ community as best we can through these times.
Plans for when this is all over?
S: We’re working on a new album, which we are really excited about. It’s early stages yet but we are just about to start sharing some demos with our Patreon community and are hoping to start recording properly as soon as possible. Life after lockdown is a little up in the air at the moment as to whether we’ll be able to stay here in California or head home to the UK, but one thing’s for sure – there’s new music on the way and we aren’t going to let anything get in the way of that.
F: A holiday to Mexico wouldn’t go amiss…
What do you miss the most?
S: I am really missing gigging and playing with other musicians. It’s strange because we haven’t even been doing as much of that these past few years compared to what we used to, but as soon as lockdown happened that was what I was really missing and craving. There’s such a magic that happens when you get a bunch of musicians up on stage together and I cannot wait to be a part of that again!
F: I miss everything. I miss seeing friends and family. I miss going out for a meal or a cocktail.
Do you have any work you’d like to share with us?
F: This is a fun lockdown video we created to an awesome remix of our song Queen of Tomorrow by a friend of ours, Dom Meakins! Hope you love it!
Any words of wisdom to see us through?
S: Everything happens for a reason, and I do believe that all this is happening for the greater good. I feel like our societal structures are in the process of breaking down so that we can build a better future for ourselves. We are right inside the middle of the catalyst exploding into a new future, and that can feel scary and unsafe, but if we can all keep in mind what it is we want to create, I believe we can create something beautiful out of this.
MORE INFO
www.facebook.com/Unsunglilly
www.instagram.com/Unsunglilly
www.twitter.com/UnsungLilly
www.youtube.com/Unsunglilly
www.patreon.com/Unsunglilly
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