We have sat down with Ivory Lake and talk music creative process, orchestras in both our brains and of course of their latest EP Pillows as well!
Here is the interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
Although my surroundings definitely play a part in my creative process musically, when it comes to lyrics it’s less about where I am in a physical space and more about what head space I am in.
With everything in the world moving so fast, its nice when writing to sit with your feelings in that moment and really allow yourself to get lost in it; whether it be positive or negative, instead of writing about something that you think might be “cool” or relatable. It’s important to be as truthful to your base emotions as possible and be your authentic self when writing. When you get down to the bone and there’s nothing else left, apart from what your really feeling that’s when I achieve a flow to my songs and where I begin to feel truly inspired.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
From being very young I never really had a genre, I would go from The Beach Boys to Eminem to anything else you could imagine. But that all changed when I got to around 14 and a friend introduced me to Metallica. From that moment I was obsessed with the anger and passion that screamed from their music and heavy metal in general. It made me realise that I want to do that with my life and I started by picking up some drum sticks and bashing away for sometimes up to 6 hours a day or until my hands would bleed.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
I always looked up to Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys for his song writing skills. It’s like he had an orchestra in his head, the album Pet Sounds was always a huge part of my musical development. Every individual sound and every harmony added an extra layer to the song but always seemed to match up in this amazing way, as if he could hear the song perfectly before he had written the first note. He was truly an inspiration to me.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing today?
I suppose I would probably be breeding exotic animals. I have always had a fascination with them as far back as I can remember- I used to have lizards, snakes, tarantulas, newts and anything else you could think of … Breeding them still feels like magic to me. So if my arms fell off and I couldn’t play any more I think that would definitely be my second choice.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create music?
My advice is… just do it !!! I spent so long self analyzing and hating everything I did, I didn’t realise how much time I had wasted. The most important part is just showing up and putting in the work day after day and eventually you will reach a point where it starts to pay off, even in small ways. When it’s your music a small pay off can feel huge.
