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Jan 05, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Patrick Hintz

Next week, Burlington-based indie folk singer/songwriter Lily Seabird is set to release her forthcoming sophomore record, Alas, out January 12th. After playing bass with Greg Freeman since 2018, Seabird released her debut solo LP, 2021’s Beside Yourself. Her latest album finds Seabird moving forward into new songwriting modes, moving between spectral indie folk and cascading blends of alt country, slowcore, shoegaze, and indie rock.

She also paired with co-producer and fellow Vermont songwriter Benny Yurco, along with contributions from Freeman and drummer Zack James. Seabird says, “I wrote this album in 2021 and 2022 on the road, trying to figure out who I am. A lot of them also deal with the time when my close friend passed away. The title Alas, meant a lot to her.”

Today, Seabird is sharing the album’s fourth and final single, “Waste,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Waste” finds Seabird inhabiting a sprawling, expansive mode, building from a meditative opening into a searing finale, complete with squalling guitars and thundering drums. Even in the subdued opening minutes, Seabird commands attention with a voice that strains and aches, backed by instrumentation full of discordant and disquieting textures. Seabird herself bears echoes of vocalists like Adrienne Lenker and Squirrel Flower, while the spiked and jagged edges of the guitar tones recall Wednesday’s recent efforts.

Yet, even while the tense layers of guitar explode outward, Seabird’s elliptical songwriting takes on its own hypnotic presence, acting as an captivating focal point for the track. She intones her lyrics as an accusation, letting pain and fury color the lyrics as they grow more tortured: “And all of the blood / You left to dry / Did you know it’s just like paint? / Did you know it always stains? / All of the things you can’t erase / They’re always there / They left a stain / They’re always there / With all the pain.”

Check out the song and lyric video below. Alas is out everywhere on January 12th. You can also read Seabird’s brief Q&A on the track and album below.

“Waste” is one of three tracks that break the six-minute mark on your record, what is it that appeals to you about these long, expansive songs?

Some of my favorite songs are long. As a listener I’ve always been a lyrics person. I haven’t honestly thought that much about how many of my songs are long. Leonard Cohen is one of my biggest influences and if you look over his discography a lot of the songs are over 4 minutes. I think most of the songs on ‘Songs of Love and Hate’ are pushing the 6 minute mark. I also listen to a lot of Bob Dylan. So maybe from my ears 6 minutes doesn’t seem that long to me.

Though the influence of slowcore/shoegaze can be found in traces throughout the record, “Waste” probably dives into these genres further than any other track on Alas,. Can you talk a little bit about how the song came together and what made you take it in this direction?

The year I wrote this song I had read ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S. Eliot. I spent a lot of time with that poem and especially became obsessed with part 5 What the Thunder Said. That definitely inspired this song a lot, and is where the title comes from. The whole poem is full of allusions and quotations from other works. It’s also super long, like over 400 lines.

Like some of the other longer songs on the record, I think it comes down to the lyrics and that’s why they are so long. I have always liked when it feels like the content of the lyrics is being reflected in the sounds of the instruments. So the unwieldy walls of distorted guitars are kind of just mirroring the emotion and energy of the song.

I have a hard time with genre. The decisions we made on this album came down to how to best support the song. My dad says I make rock n roll.

Your sophomore LP Alas, releases in one week, what do you hope listeners take away from the record, and what comes next?

To me, these songs deal with the interplay of pain, beauty, and impermanence. I hope there’s something people can connect to. I don’t like to say what songs are about because I hope they can take on their own life for others and their stories.

I’ll be touring with my band in February and stripped down in March. More tours probably too, but it’s not figured out yet. I’ll also continue playing in my best friend Greg Freeman’s band throughout the year and beyond too. I am almost finished with writing my next record and hope to get recording that sooner or later, but who knows, things are always changing and I am just happy to be making music one way or another.