• News

• All

Mar 30, 2023 By Mark Redfern

Australian singer/songwriter Alex Lahey is releasing a new album, The Answer Is Always Yes, on May 19 via Liberation. Now she has shared another song from it, “They Wouldn’t Let Me In,” via an amusing music video featuring Lahey working in a furniture store. Lahey co-directed the video with Claire Giuffre. Watch it below, followed by Lahey’s upcoming tour dates.

In “They Wouldn’t Let Me In,” over a propulsive bass-heavy beat Lahey details all the places she felt unwelcome as a queer teenager. “I couldn’t get into the bar or the church or the backseat of your mother’s car/The club or the bus or the band where no one plays guitar/The dance at your school or the change rooms at the swimming pool/The haunted house down the street that all those people died in,” she sings, before the chorus of, “They wouldn’t let me in/Why don’t you let me in.”

You could argue that Lahey wouldn’t be an effective vampire if no one will welcome her in. But the song is more serious than all that, as she explains in a press release.

“After watching the brilliant TV series Heartstopper, I spent a lot of time thinking about my own experiences growing up as a queer teenager,” Lahey says. “Although I was extremely lucky that the majority of my experience was filled with joy, acceptance and love, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. This song is inspired by those tougher moments—not being allowed to attend my high school girlfriend’s school formal, being excluded from conventional romantic rites of passage, moments of isolation and feeling like I couldn’t relate to anyone around me. ‘They Wouldn’t Let Me In’ is by far the most direct song I’ve ever written about this time.”

When The Answer Is Always Yes was announced, Lahey shared its lead single, “Good Time,” via a music video. “Good Time” was one of our Songs of the Week. The album also includes two 2022 singles. In August 2022 Lahey shared the new song, “Congratulations,” via a video where she married herself. “Congratulations” was one of our Songs of the Week. In November 2022 she shared “Shit Talkin’,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Lahey had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “Living in a world that wasn’t made for you makes you pretty strong and adaptive, and you find the fun in it. It also makes you realize how absurd everything is. With this record, I wanted to get weird because the world is weird, and it’s even weirder when you realize you don’t fit into it all the time.”

The Answer Is Always Yes is the first time Lahey has worked with outside producers and songwriters. Jacknife Lee (U2, Taylor Swift) co-wrote and co-produced “Good Time,” for example.

“I’ve made two records doing it all by myself and now I’ve proved to myself that I can do it,” Lahey said. “But it was also at a point where I was like, ‘If I do that again, I kind of know what it’s gonna sound like’ and I don’t think I’m interested in that right now.”

Of the album’s title, Lahey added: “I feel like if you’re saying yes and you’re exploring, you’re always moving. That’s the part of life that I’m in right now. I just don’t wanna stop.”

The Answer Is Always Yes is Lahey’s third album and the follow-up to 2019’s The Best of Luck Club.

In 2021, Lahey shared the song “On My Way” from the animated Netflix film The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and it nabbed a spot on our Songs of the Week list. That was followed by another new song, “Spike the Punch,” shared in October 2021 and also one of our Songs of the Week. Neither song is on The Answer Is Always Yes.

Lahey was also one of the artists on our 20th anniversary Covers of Covers album, where she covered St. Vincent’s “New York.”

Read our 2017 interview with Alex Lahey.

Alex Lahey Tour Dates:

Fri. May 19 - Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
Sat. May 20 - Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Sun. May 21 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Tue. May 23 - Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
Wed. May 24 - Seattle, WA @ Madame Lous
Fri. May 26 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Sat. May 27 - Denver, CO @ Lost Lake
Tue. May 30 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street entry
Wed. May 31 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Fri. June 2 - Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
Sat. June 3 - Cleveland, OH @ Mahalls
Sun. June 4 - Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
Tue. June 6 - Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
Wed. June 7 - New York, NY @ Baby’s All Right
Fri. June 9 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brendas
Sun. June 11 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
Mon. June 12 - Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
Tue. June 13 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade Purgatory
Thu. June 15 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Upstairs
Fri. June 16 - Austin, TX @ Parish
Sat. June 17 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
Tue. June 20 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Wed. June 21 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.