Molly Lewis on ‘Crushed Velvet’, Barbie and upcoming album
Photo by Shervin Lainez
The unbelievable ability of Molly Lewis is equally as captivating as it is rare. Molly has taken her childhood love of whistling and turned it into her beautiful career which has brought about her latest single ‘Crushed Velvet’. We asked Molly 7 questions to dive deeper into the single, working on Barbie and her album On The Lips- coming this year!
There is a very ethereal quality to whistling, is this something you try to encapsulate in your music?
I seem to over-use the word ‘dreamy’ when trying to describe how I want music to sound. Ethereal works too! I like to be transported when I listen to music.
The new single ‘Crushed Velvet’ is stunning, what was the inspiration behind this song?
Tom Brenneck and I made a demo in the studio one day, him on keys and me whistling a melody. I was calling the little demo ‘jaunty tune’ because it had this fun bounce to it that is rare with the mostly ‘dreamy’ music I usually make. We had started the day at the studio listening to old records and had been inspired by some old Italian soundtracks we’d been listening to.
I’d love to know about the creative/recording process behind your songs and especially ‘Crushed Velvet’?
Every song is different. Some are very basic demos that I’ve had saved on my voice notes that then get fleshed out in the studio, others are created in the studio with the musicians who are there at the time, and others, like Crushed Velvet, are a combination. Tom and I had made the little ‘jaunty tune’ demo one day together while just messing around and then a few days later Sal Samano and Alex Garcia from the band Thee Sacred Souls came by and we started to record it. Sal and Alex had such an incredible feel on drums and bass that really gave the song a totally new sound and life. During the recording of their parts I kept hearing a certain guitar strum and played around until I found this rhythm for the guitar part. I’m not very good at guitar, but Tom is encouraging and really tried to get me to record it for the track but after a few desperate tries I asked him to take over… I really was not able to do the guitar part justice! Another day we went back and did overdubs on the song… I put in some backing vocals… Tom added the incredible synth and organ parts. Then he brought out this lyre… we were all squealing with delight when he brought out the lyre. It really added such a strange, beautiful addition to the song.
‘Crushed Velvet’ transported me back to watching old black and white movies with my grandfather- how does it feel to create music that allows audiences to really create their own interpretations?
Well, I love to hear that! That is what I love about instrumental music. You can get lost in a world, you can create your own visuals, your own film, your own interpretations. I’m always curious to hear what people conjure up when they listen to my music.
Your debut album On The Lips is out in February, what is the most exciting part about releasing your first album?
To be honest, it doesn’t really feel like my first album. It’s only a few songs longer than the previous EPs that I’ve released, so although it has a different name, it doesn’t seem that much different to how it felt to release the others. Releasing something is always a bit daunting. I’m proud of the music and very excited to play the new pieces with a band - that’s the fun part… But it also requires a lot of being online and doing promotion and I can get a bit overwhelmed by the immediacy of it all. Everything these days with the internet is so immediate. I have a ‘grass is always greener’ envy for the slower, more anonymous days. Though, saying that, I do love being able to hear directly from people who are enjoying the music. And I truly love this feature that shows me demographics and where in the world people are listening. I have one listener in Bhutan, isn’t that amazing?
I loved reading about your ‘open door policy’ during sessions for the album, how would you describe this experience?
You never know who will be around, and Tom knows such interesting and varied musicians. That’s how I met Nick Hakim, he happened to come by one day to hang out when we were wondering what to do about a piano solo. He stepped in and played such a beautiful solo over the bossa nova song that Rogê and I had written, ‘Cocosette’. His first take was perfection.
Lastly! I have to ask about ‘Meeting Ruth’ what was it like working with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt?
It was a ball. What a joy to go to NYC and record this song over a full orchestral track. Mark and Andrew are great, they talked me through the movie scene, showed me the part where the song would play, and gave me a great overview of the emotions and feelings that they were trying to convey with the piece in that moment. I was just trying to give them the best whistle I could.
