Released as a limited cassette on Portland, OR label Bud Tapes on January 12th, 2024, Alas, quickly positioned Lily Seabird as a bright light in the freshman class of emerging indie folk songwriters. Seabird and Benny Yurco produced Alas, which was tracked at Burlington’s Little Jamaica Recordings with Greg Freeman and Zack James (Robber Robber, Dari Bay). The release was quickly followed by sold out shows in New York and her Los Angeles and London debuts introducing her undeniable and idiosyncratic voice.
The songs on Alas, came from a particularly unmoored period for Seabird, including the loss of a close friend to suicide. “I wrote this album in 2021 and 2022 on the road, trying to figure out who I am,” she says. “The word Alas, meant a lot to her, and to our friends following her death. It’s an expression of grief, but also of letting go.” Even if the songs don’t always directly tackle this specific loss, there’s a sense of learning how relationships evolve or dissolve throughout the record. Take “Grace,” a reflection on female friendship, which features the lines, “I hope she’s happy now she should be 25 / She taught me something that I thought I’d always hide.” Elsewhere, the knotty and unpredictable “Dirge” finds her singing, “I don’t know if I believe in god / I don’t know if I know how to go on.”
Her journey started in Pennsylvania when she picked up the saxophone at 9. By 14, she learned guitar and started performing as Lily Seabird—after a brief stint in New York City she moved to Vermont which has been her home since 2018. “When I first came to Burlington, I was playing solo a lot,” says Seabird. “The music started to strengthen once I played in other people’s bands, and I invited them to join mine.”
“The songs of Alas, are about loss, coming of age, and sadness, but there are also all these moments where happiness takes over. It can be two things at once, just like the album title. Life isn’t just pain and sadness, there’s also joy. They can all exist at the same time.”
Seabird recently signed to Lame-O Records to reissue Alas, alongside a collections of demos and previously unreleased songs, entitled Alas, (acoustic versions).
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