It’s been just over six months now since Aly Spaltro, more often known by her stage name Lady Lamb, unveiled After, her second studio album. After is a combination of existential musings and personal memories. Listening to the album brings one surprise after the next. There’s no clear narrative to the album as a whole; rather, it’s a collection of moments and memories, each one stylised differently by the self-taught Spaltro. The story goes that she began her musical journey when she was 18, practicing in the basement of the DVD rental store where she worked at the time.
Following days of technical difficulties, we finally get to talk to Spaltro via Skype. She’s in Texas, which she describes as being “really, really hot”, finishing off the US leg of her tour for now, before she comes to Europe next week. The six months that have passed since her album was released have been jam-packed. “I’ve been mostly touring, and I haven’t had too many long breaks in between tours, which is good,” crackles Spaltro through the slightly dodgy Skype connection. “It’s been busy, in fact I can’t believe it’s been six months. The time has flown by. “
Spaltro’s music has been described as everything from surrealist folk to rock and roll. After isn’t easy to pin down when it comes to genre; musical style seems to be decided secondary to the lyrics and the stories Spaltro wants to tell for each individual song. “Indie folk” is perhaps the most straightforward way to categorise what Spaltro does, but she doesn’t like to be described solely as a folk artist. “I couldn’t possibly put a genre on it. That’s the toughest thing, to try to describe what it is I do because I’ve no clue. I don’t love getting pigeon-holed in the folk category, I guess in terms of being a storyteller that’s fine with me, but musically I think I stray away from that category quite a bit. I don’t really know what I do!”
Storytelling plays a huge part in Spaltro’s lyrics. Songs like ‘Ten’ recount personal memories of her childhood in Maine and the everyday happenings that have made up her life. “I enjoy talking about my memories and my family and that kind of thing. But I usually write lyrics in phrases and not in poetry form so it ends up being a collage of a lot of different days and experiences and thoughts all into one. I like talking about things I care about and things I experience.” ‘Ten’ recounts a mixture of memories from her youth, part of the reason why Spaltro is so lyrically unique. Not everyone has childhood memories of “lifting/ The sandbox in Arizona and catching/ The geckos and keeping them as pets.”
Spaltro recently moved to Brooklyn, New York, which has had an impact on how she devised her latest album. “I’ve had to learn to be a little quieter when I write. With technology today I can plug in my guitar or bass into my computer and have a distorted loud guitar tone in my ears and I can arrange music quietly that way. That’s basically how I wrote this record, quietly in my apartment, in headphones. Living in New York kind of helped me to understand my vocal range a little better, and sing quieter, and sing in pretty tones, I guess you could say. It opened up my voice a bit to new things.”
She’s happy with how the latest album turned out. “It’s progressed in a positive way from my last record, and I think people seemed excited about it, coming to the shows and really enjoying the record, so I can’t complain, it’s been great.”
Touring solo is an unusual way to travel around the US and Europe, but Spaltro has found it to bring back welcome memories of how she began her music career, playing alone during her teenage years. “It’s pretty weird that I tour completely by myself,” she says. “This whole year I’ve been touring with two American friends as a trio on this record campaign, which is why I wanted to enlist a couple of friends overseas as well, to kind of have the live show be full. But I play a couple of solo songs. It’s been fun touring solo on this tour just because that’s where my roots start, playing alone, so it’s been nice, it’s been refreshing.”
‘Billions of Eyes’ has been the most popular Youtube hit from After with over 96,000 views, but Spaltro has noticed that it’s her more personal and autobiographical songs that hit home the most for her live audiences. “I love to perform ‘Billions of Eyes’. My favourite is probably ‘Spat Out Spit’. But I’ve noticed that the song ‘Ten’ really resonates with audiences, which is just a solo song that I play in the middle. It’s pretty personal, about my family. I think people really get something out of that.”
She’s looking forward to the European leg of her tour, but by the time she’ll get home to Brooklyn it’ll be time to record some new material again. “After this tour in Europe I have just under two weeks off at home, and then I have about two more weeks [of touring] in the US, and then I think I’ll just be home for part of November and December, just kind of recuperating and beginning to think about writing new material. And hopefully more touring next year. I’ve had great experiences in Ireland, people are so wonderful and loyal. I played The Sugar Club last time and it was such a memorable experience, so I’m really looking forward to coming back and starting the tour there, and playing with the band.”
Aly Spaltro might say of her work that “I don’t really know what I do,” but the rising wave of After suggests that no one minds too much. Not allowing herself to be pigeon-holed into any category other than that of “story-teller” suits this wandering songstress as she tours Europe and the US on the back of her stories as much as her songs. We can only hope that she continues to stop in Dublin along the way.
Lady Lamb will be playing at the Grand Social on September 17th. Tickets cost €15 and can be bought on Ticketmaster.
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