“Like any good story – even someone else’s – the chance for Lily to tell it in her own voice is a truly beautiful and honourable thing”
If music can be just like putting on a dress and each one has a different style, shape, colour and texture, then Lily is currently wearing a soft and flowing wine-coloured dress with a fitted bodice. Short and just a little bit left of centre, it’s a perfect Fremantle dress and equally perfect attire for the two songs the dark-haired, creamy-featured singer has recently recorded.
Fuelled by Eurasian heritage, a lust to wander and a well-stamped passport tucked into that bodice, contemporary songbird Lily calls the West Australian port city of Fremantle home. Her recordings of Billie Reid’s songs are soulfully country and with an undeniable feeling and yearning for the coast.
“We’ve treated the songs with a breezy tone and have taken a really human approach to them” Lily says, “It’s nice to work in a style which hasn’t been expected. It’s totally different from what I normally sing, which is part of the point. I was totally immersed in this project and somehow the songs have become part of my own story too.” Lily.
While there were original “drafts” of Billie’s to listen to, Lily got the chance to interpret each song in a way which resonated with her and spoke truth from a woman’s perspective. “Once we started working on the songs, where to take them became quite obvious. With ‘Love Song 612’, his sentiment is really something I could relate to, so it was really easy to interpret the lyrics in a meaningful way. For ‘Dreamer’, I had to push it a little more to really create my own relationship with the song. Equally, that’s part of the challenge of taking on someone else’s songs. I think it’s a greater challenge to be working with existing melodies.”
In her heart, Lily is a girl bursting with stories to tell. Irrelevant of era, genre or format, the ability to tell a worthy story makes for a beguiling song. Like any good story – even someone else’s – the chance for Lily to tell it in her own voice is a truly beautiful and honourable thing.
Lily can’t quite put her finger on which genre of music she loves the most though. The petite singer has always known that music was her destiny. With a father who continues to sing and drum in numerous bands and a mother who was also a singer, Lily has always been surrounded by music, so it really felt inevitable. “Unlike a lot of kids, I was quite proud of my parents’ musical taste. There were a real mix of styles and genres constantly in our ears. There was a lot of Motown. Growing up, my brothers and I were surrounded by Earth Wind and Fire, the Chi-Lites and Aretha Franklin. It didn’t take me long to get suckered in by the powerful emotional pull of women like Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. This music became a tradition in our household.”
The singer made her debut at an end of year school performance. Frightened out of her wits, she sang ‘Summertime’ from ‘Porgy and Bess’ and absolutely loved the experience. Next stop was the school jazz band and she never looked back. Now with music by her side – and an ever-evolving wardrobe – Fremantle is the perfect place for Lily to take a deep cleansing breath and open her musical heart to Billie Reid’s songs.
Ara Jansen
“Australian singer Lily inhabits songs she chooses with unshowy conviction”
It all starts with jazz. Lily took to piano lessons as a child growing up, and it was jazz rather than classical music which motivated her to push her skills. That wasn’t easy given how much she moved around as a kid, Mum more or less Italian and Dad’s clan scattered across Asia and Europe. Most teens rebel with parents around staying-out times and unsuitable partners. For Lily it was the hours she devoted daily listening to the sounds of George Duke, Nina Simone, and Prince.
You can hear every step of her path in Lily’s singing. Right lovers and right now ones, wrong decisions and being wronged, moves forward and time out, hurt and heart. Lily knows more of the classic songbook than she’d like to admit outside the company of fellow geeks, from Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald through to Debbie Harry. And that background allied with innate taste means she inhabits songs she chooses with unshowy conviction.
And, Lily’s got the mastery and understanding of music history for those moments to be definitive, knowing that for the vocals at least of the work she’s doing, the buck stops with her. And for Lily herself the songs she’s developing now – most of all the ones she’s writing – are just the start.
“… and then the voice, just over a minute in Lily sashays in, and we know we’re in good hands”
It’s the details that count. In creating a mood, setting a frame, building expectations. That’s present both in the theme of Lily’s song, and the way it accomplishes that intent with aching precision. She’s singing about that point we can so easily feel our way into – of a lover coming round, the prospect of emotion underlying physical pleasure being released, and the excitement and trepidation about all of that.
Those details? The piano intro. 18 seconds of sophisticated bliss accompanied by some light electronics before wordless vocals and then a rhythm and strings drop in. Then – the voice. Just over a minute in, Lily sashays in accompanied by an expertly played bass, and we know we’re in good hands.
That foundation of bass and voice anchors the song from there, an emotional core which allows giddy electronics to spark as Lily contemplates her love, what it is, what it could be, what that might mean. This is sophisto-pop of a rare calibre, one that could only be delivered by a singer who truly knows her way around a song. Take her hand. Go with her.
Lily | Dreaming About You (Official Music Video) | Ode To The Dudes | Youtube
“Talented singer-songwriter Billie Reid and charming Nightingale Lily breathe life into music”
The talented singer-songwriter and visionary, Billie Reid and the charming nightingale Lily, are two gifted musicians imbuing tenderness and authenticity into the heart of their music. With Billie’s poetic facility and Lily’s sweet, savory voice, the two musical pros offer a meal for our ears with a more appetizing and innovative flair. Abandoning the bandwagon of trendy, sell-out lyrics and provocative melodies, the artists breathe passion and honesty into their songs.
This passion is sensitively reinforced in Lily’s music videos for her ‘Dreamer’ EP, which captures her as she sings two Billie Reid penned tracks in a live studio setting. Lily offers us uninhibited sincerity as she evokes the honesty of Norah Jones and the soulful, reflective emotion of Bailey Ray. There is an unencumbered naturalism about the setting, the realism and authenticity is accentuated exposing the trueness behind Billie’s lyrics. Her sentiment matches brilliantly with her rich, silky voice, creating a powerful penetrating effect.
Lily does not try to be a glittery, melodramatic twenty-something belting out bogus love songs. Rather, she confronts these tacky clichés, breathing courage and grace into the core of her music. Lily possesses a rare, effortless sophistication filled with nuances of serenity that is calming to the soul, and is truly the ideal voice to convey the expressive metaphors and sweet harmonies of Billie’s music. Through Lily’s musical tranquility and Billie Reid’s artistic lyrics, we receive a refreshing treat for the senses.
* Somewhere in the embers of last century, the work of songwriter, poet, shaman Billie Reid started to exert a pull on other independent-minded Australian talents. Stories can, and maybe will, be read about those adventures. At this point, the vessel for that work has, since 2020, been our music production biz Soundscape Media.
Billie Reid’s talents are the molten core of what we do. To those who’ve come across him, Billie’s an irascible generational talent. And we want the number of those who share that impression to grow.
Sharing the load, and bringing a canny female take on Billie’s words, is versatile Fremantle-based singer and classy piano player Lily – who’s also writing impressive material of her own.
Our artist collaboration list also includes in-house stormcrow Quinlan Porteous – a man who’s weathered years of industry bs and continues to find redemption in music regardless. As do we all.
Let’s hear it too for Wayne A Halifax, the man whose vibe Chris Isaak channelled. And never mind which came first – sometimes those who follow get it right, and Wayne has the advantage of Billie’s lyrics. As does Alfredo Malabello, cursed by Universal Music Australia describing him as the country’s “Voice of Romance”. He’s more content, and rightly, with the tag “Australia’s Leonard Cohen”.
Soundscape sounds dip in and out of alt-rock, Americana, and smart pop. Our production styles range from roots-raw to Netflix-friendly rock with splashes and squeals of electronica. We can do polished, but we’re a fan of loose edges and first take magic too. And we look forward to hearing from you – about what we’ve done, what we’re doing now, and what we could perhaps do together. Soundscape Media.
