“I Hope People Can Connect to My Music”: An Interview with Lily Hain
There’s something hypnotic about Lily Hain’s voice; it’s enticingly intimate and finely polished. Her debut single, “Graveyard,” lives somewhere in the vein of First Aid Kit and Little May, though her singing career prior to this has been predominantly in the electronic music world. Few artists' voices shift effortlessly between genres while still maintaining their distinctiveness, and even before a debut album, Hain is already a master.
Hain credits her love of different genres and styles to her time in choir. “I love singing all types of music and I grew up singing in choirs, so having the large repertoire of music and different types of music that I was singing I think helped me with that.” In terms of musical influence on “Graveyard,” Hain credits Daughter and Dodie. “Those two were definitely really big inspirations for it. I think that’s where I got the guitar melodies from because they use a lot of finger picking patterns.” And the lyrics? “I don’t know, they just kind of happened.”
“Graveyard” itself is a song Hain has been sitting on for a while. “I wrote it four years ago actually, my sophomore year of college. It’s one of my older songs.” After being recorded, forgotten about, and rediscovered in her phone's voice memos, she decided the song had to be finished. “Graveyard” is a deeply personal track: “It’s honestly about my struggle with my mental health. I was not in a great place my sophomore year. It was me trying to regain my sense of self because I kind of felt like I was just a shell of who I was supposed to be. It kind of took me a while to get back to a good place and back to who I am now.” But in addition to the intimate lyrics, there’s a universality behind them. “It’s also about not being alone in that process. I use ‘we’ a lot and talk about being together. A lot of people struggle with their mental health so even though it’s a sad song it’s also about not being alone in your struggles.”
Looking back at her “musical origin story,” Hain says there isn’t one musician that made her want to make music, but she can trace back some of the influences that have stuck with her today. “I was thinking back to try and figure out where a lot of my music stems from. I listened to the Dixie Chicks a lot growing up and I love harmonies and I would always think ‘Where did I get those harmonies from?’ And I grew up singing: I was in choir since I was seven years old and never stopped. My mom used to play piano and my grandpa used to play trombone and trumpet so there are a lot of different factors that play into my love of music and me wanting to make music a career.”
Academically, Hain comes from a film background, which she says is intrinsically connected to her interest in music. “I always joke about how I’m the least film major of all film majors but I do enjoy doing it. My love of film has never been for TV and movies, it's been for music videos and short form content and getting to edit to music. So my love of film definitely stems from my love of music.” When I ask her about her favorite music video, she says “Girls Like Girls” by Haley Kiyoko. “I always love looking at music videos and it gives a new life and meaning to songs. I’m definitely looking forward to doing music videos for my own music.”
So what’s next for Lily Hain? “This year’s been my time to make a lot of music and work on a bunch of songs. I’m planning on releasing an EP in 2021.” She says that making music has been a grounding force for her throughout quarantine. “The world is a mess so sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself to create when you only have the same surroundings around you for months and months and months. But I still am very thankful for this time. I think I try to make the most of it and I’ve been able to focus on music.”
At the end of the interview, I ask Hain if there’s anything people should know about her and her music that we didn’t cover. “I kind of like when artists just let their music out and let other people find meaning in it for themselves. Sometimes I kind of like releasing the music first and letting it sit for a while and then talk about the meaning a little more. I hope people can connect to my music and that’s really all.”
“Graveyard” by Lily Hain is out now. Lily’s EP will be coming out this summer.
Photos courtesy of Lily Hain