New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today singer-songwriter Lia Ices releases a gorgeous and ethereal new single "Hymn," her first bit of new music in 6 years.
Lia says, "'Hymn' touches on my relationship with "the muse", or spirituality, or love - how I receive inspiration and give it back via the magic and mystery of the creative process, exposing both my introverted and extroverted self to the listener- which both exist as highly charged opposites in my art and personality. My good friend and director, Conor Hagen shot the accompanying video over the course of 9 months on super 8 film, while my band and I played shows up and down California and the pacific northwest last year. Playing music with others and for others is a ritual, there is an alchemy between band members, between audience and performer, between filmmaker and subject that is so powerful and humanly enriching and I am so grateful to have captured those moments. I realize now more than ever, that the magic of performance with the gift of music is my life source. And with the future of live shows being so unknown, this song and video are a bittersweet celebration of it all and a kind of intention setting of what I'll be ready to return to."
The single is out via Lia's own
Natural Music. "Making music is an intimate process for me," Lia says, "I created
Natural Music as a container to make the music I want to make, and to reveal it to the world in my own personal way. It's empowering to connect more directly and build a community around the making and releasing of art - which, after more than ten years in the business, has been the most powerful aspect of making albums."
Lia Ices has released 3 critically acclaimed albums - 2008's Necima (Rare Book Room) followed by Grown Unknown (Jagjaguwar Records) in 2011, and then the simply titled Ices in 2014, also on Jagjaguwar Records. Her music has been covered from Vogue to Pitchfork to The New York Times and has been heard on HBO's GIRLS, Gray's Anatomy, and Oliva Wild's Booksmart. In 2015 she married wine-maker Andrew Mariani and relocated from Brooklyn to Sonoma County.
"Hymn" is Ices' first California output and was written at her home on Moon Mountain in Sonoma, while Ices was pregnant with her first child. She and her band recorded the track in Los Angeles with producer JR White (Girls, Tobias Jesso Jr), and it was mixed by Chris Coady (Beach House, Amen Dunes ) at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles. "Hymn" also marks a return to the piano, and Lia further states, "Coming to California and living on the mountain and being in nature, and then starting to grow a human, I wanted to make something without having any ulterior motives other than letting what naturally happens, happen." "Hymn" also marks a return to the piano, and Lia further states, "Coming to California and living on the mountain and being in nature, and then starting to grow a human, I wanted to make something without having any ulterior motives other than letting what naturally happens, happen."
ARTIST STATEMENT:
This is a transformational time for each of us.
Everything has shifted in a seismic way. I've been going back and forth about how and when to release my new music to you amidst this strange new landscape. the truth is i didn't choose this time, but it's ready to be birthed.
These past 5 months have opened our eyes, slowed us down, and it's undeniable that I see and hear this new music in a new light because of that. The songs will inherently always reflect my continued journey as an artist - embracing northern California as my place, the motherhood/mortality matrix as an intrinsic part of me. But what shines brightest to me now, are the people who are working with me. When our deep experiences are shared, especially around the creation of art, they become braided so deeply into our hearts and minds that its not just about me or you, it's about something much bigger - transcending egos and external goals. I would not be who I am and this music would not sound as it does without my husband and daughter, THE GIFTED musicians who brought their wizardry to the studio, dear artist friends who, like spiritual guides, helped me with their laser eyes, my producer, my brother, astrologer, manager, my parents, best friends, and the mountain where I live and write who helped me in countless ways. And of course, the alchemical connection with the audience I once had in front me, and the kinetic energy from listeners listening somewhere far away - we are sharing in something. We are family.
Making and performing music is surely the closest I get to the spirituality of things, its a dance between inner and outer worlds...and I believe we can connect to the essence of things on a deeper and more meaningful level when we are free to express our truest selves and listen to our deepest and sometimes darkest voices. we are all affected by the pain of isolation right now, and it can feel harder to find each other - my hope is that through music we can meet somewhere. I'm here for that. with you.
