Lydia Luce transforms hardship into concord and survival into serenity on her third album ‘Mammoth,’ a sweeping and intimate file born from power ache, resilience, and the embrace of recent life. The Nashville singer/songwriter sat down with Atwood Journal to debate the climb that impressed the tender title monitor, her journey by therapeutic and motherhood, and the teachings she’s carrying into her subsequent chapter of life.
Stream: “Mammoth” – Lydia Luce
I need whoever is listening to my new album or watching the music movies to be impressed to go outdoors and sit within the grass.
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“Sounds just like the bushes and the waves and a forest stream.”
That’s how somebody lately described Lydia Luce’s music – and for the Nashville-based singer/songwriter, it couldn’t really feel extra true. A lifelong nature lover and creator, Luce has lengthy discovered her voice within the areas the place the pure world and the human spirit intertwine. “I need whoever is listening to my new album or watching the music movies to be impressed to go outdoors and sit within the grass,” she says. That need – to attach individuals not simply to her story, however to one thing bigger than themselves – pulses on the core of her third studio album, Mammoth.
Out October 31st through Tone Tree Music, Mammoth is each a private reckoning and a hard-earned celebration: A file that paperwork Lydia Luce’s therapeutic from power ache, her embrace of motherhood, and her arrival at a spot of peace she as soon as feared she would possibly by no means discover. It’s an album steeped within the textures of the pure world, woven by with area recordings, ambient layers, and songs that meditate on resilience, love, and belief. And at its heart is the title monitor – a single reminiscence that got here to embody the higher journey behind the entire file.
I sweat it out on the primary ascent
June lake passing to the left of us
Eyes down higher watch my step
I have to know how one can belief myself
Are you able to stroll me by this?
I used to be bitching ‘bout your worn-out tent
Silver moon shining on our pores and skin
How did you see me by the bitterness
You held me tight once I wanted it
Are you able to maintain me by this?
Are you able to maintain me by this?
– “Mammoth,” Lydia Luce
A young, windswept meditation on resilience, “Mammoth” is a dreamy indie people hymn that climbs slowly, steadily, towards gentle. With close-miked vocals and hushed acoustic guitar plucks, it feels as intimate as a whispered prayer and as huge because the mountain that impressed it. “Felt my heartbeat in my fingertips,” she sings, and it lands like a shiver – a quiet, weak second of give up that stays with you lengthy after the track ends.
Written with Collin Pastore and Jake Finch, “Mammoth” was born from a reminiscence – a strenuous hike up Mount Ritter in California over ten years in the past –
– but it surely reverberates with the emotional weight of a bigger journey: Luce’s therapeutic from power ache and an extended stretch of bodily uncertainty. “I sweat it out on the primary ascent,” she opens, “June lake passing to the left of us / Eyes down, higher watch my step – I have to know how one can belief myself.” The lyrics stroll us by the climb and the metaphor it got here to carry: Restoration not as a straight path, however as a switchback-laced mountain – daunting, exhausting, and filled with surprising grace.
“The sheer problem of all of it caught with me,” she recollects. “Some moments simply persist with you want that.”
I can see all of it, I shut my eyes
It’s terrible quiet
Nearer to Andromeda
I hear my ideas they’re approaching
And I begin to fall getting dizzy from
The burden of all of it
You stroll me by this
Greater than only a reminiscence, the track grew to become a mirror for the teachings Luce was studying in actual time: That therapeutic is nonlinear, that reaching out to these round you is its personal type of energy, and that internal peace is one thing you stroll towards slowly, one step at a time. “The track is about asking for assist,” she explains. “One thing that I’ve needed to discover ways to do whereas therapeutic by my accidents.”
“I cherished scripting this with [Jake and Collin],” Luce shares. “We stored the guitar components from the day we wrote it as a result of they’re so unbelievable! The music video was created with Jason Lee Denton and Aliegh Shields. We hiked over 30 miles on the Rocky Mountains with my husband Ryan helping. It was an extremely magical time in nature with buds. I’m grateful that we’ve this time capsule of a video to recollect it.”
In some ways, the music video mirrors the track’s spirit: A testomony to perseverance, companionship, and the fantastic thing about leaning on others when the climb feels too steep.
Produced with longtime collaborator Jordan Lehning, Mammoth (out October 31) was recorded at Actual World Studios within the English countryside, the place days of creation bled into household meals and evenings of shared music-making – a communal expertise that bleeds into the songs themselves. Impressed by ambient textures and area recordings of the pure world, the album pulls us right into a panorama of serenity and survival – one which honors ache with out being outlined by it. On “Mammoth,” you possibly can hear the stillness: The pause between ideas, the breath earlier than the plunge. “When the water’s this chilly, you gotta plunge proper in / I shut my eyes, you depend down from 10.”
Felt my heartbeat in my fingertips
My physique telling me that I ought to stop
I’ve by no means been the kind for giving in
However is it dwelling if it’s gotta really feel like this?
Are you able to stroll me by this?
The place her final album, Florida Lady, was about true acceptance, Mammoth is about what comes after. “I feel this album displays the place we’ve settled into,” she says, talking of her life along with her husband and soon-to-be-born first youngster. “A spot that’s consolation and peace and the aftermath of the previous few years of therapeutic – power ache, a twister, a pandemic, studying how one can be in a wholesome relationship. I’m really trying ahead to this subsequent chapter of life as a brand new mom.”
Songs like “Florence” and “Wisteria” testify to that peace: Lullabies of longing, gratitude, and residential. Elsewhere, tracks like “Stomach,” “Deep Finish,” and “Strolling Track” hint the peaks and valleys of restoration, all affected person reminders that life is a collection of surprising twists and shock turns, each main us ahead.
That wider panorama comes into sharp deal with “Mammoth,” the place a single reminiscence turns into a metaphor for Luce’s entire journey.
It’s a track about humility and self-acceptance, about trusting somebody – or one thing – to stroll you thru it. And in Luce’s palms, it turns into one thing restorative: A time capsule, sure, but in addition a lighthouse. A softly stirring reminder that peace isn’t passive – it’s one thing we earn, inch by inch, track by track.
I let it out on the ultimate stretch
And walked straight out to the rivers edge
When the waters this chilly
you gotta plunge proper in
I shut my eyes, you depend down from 10
Are you able to discuss me by this?
Are you able to stroll me by?
Are you able to get me by?
Atwood Journal sat down with Lydia Luce to debate her new file, the journey that formed it, and the teachings she’s carrying into this subsequent chapter of life. Mammoth is an album of switchbacks and summits that transforms wrestle into serenity, grief into grace, and uncertainty into belief.
Learn on as Luce opens up about therapeutic, nature, motherhood, and the ability of accepting one’s personal vulnerability. “This file appears like a delicate hug and an invite to pause or take a stroll outdoors,” she smiles. “I hope it brings individuals peace when listening to it.”
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:: stream/buy “Mammoth” right here ::
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A CONVERSATION WITH LYDIA LUCE
Atwood Journal: Lydia, for individuals who are simply discovering you at present by this writeup, what would you like them to learn about you and your music?
Lydia Luce: Somebody lately described my music as “sounds just like the bushes and the waves and a forest stream.” I used to be so moved and honored by that suggestion, and it does really feel prefer it captures what’s necessary to me as a nature lover and creator. I need whoever is listening to my new album or watching the music movies to be impressed to go outdoors and sit within the grass.
Final we spoke was round your third album Florida Lady, which you described as being about “true acceptance.” What’s your relationship like with that file and its songs, practically two years after its launch?
Lydia Luce: I really feel grateful for the non-public work that I did to seek out that true acceptance. Accepting that I wanted to cease taking part in my devices to start to seek out therapeutic after my herniated disc. Accepting that I wanted to get bilateral carpal tunnel surgical procedure additional prolonging my capability to play. I took it daily doing PT, listening to my physique and listening to its limits. I accepted that I could must say no to sure issues that don’t align with what my physique is telling me it wants. I’m in such a stupendous place with my therapeutic. I’ve flare ups, however I don’t panic. I breathe by them having discovered that in a couple of days the ache will lower, and I’ll get by this like I’ve time and time once more.
Somebody lately described my music as “sounds just like the bushes and the waves and a forest stream.” I used to be so moved and honored by that suggestion, and it does really feel prefer it captures what’s necessary to me as a nature lover and creator.
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Equally, the place do you’re feeling your new album Mammoth matches in your discography? In case your final file was about acceptance, what is that this one “about”?
Lydia Luce: My husband and I expect our first kiddo the month after my new album comes out. Final yr once I was in the course of determining my power ache and accidents, I had such a giant concern that I might by no means have the ability to maintain my child with out ache. I not have that concern. I do know it is going to be difficult, and it might set off a few of my ache, however I’ve the instruments to get by it and belief that I’ll hearken to my physique.
My accomplice has been the largest assist to me over the previous few years coping with my power ache and now in my being pregnant. We now have settled into this stunning vibrant life collectively and bringing a baby into the fold appears like such an honor. I feel this album displays the place we’ve settled into. A spot that’s consolation and peace and the aftermath of the previous few years of therapeutic (power ache, a twister, a pandemic, studying how one can be in a wholesome relationship). I’m really trying ahead to this subsequent chapter of life as a brand new mom.
Are you able to inform me a bit concerning the album’s first two singles, “Florence” and “Wisteria”?
Lydia Luce: “Florence” is a lullaby I wrote a yr and a half in the past whereas imagining myself as a mom. My accomplice and I had been attempting to get pregnant for a few yr and a half and had an appointment April 11 to go to the Nashville Fertility Clinic to debate IVF therapy. Florence got here out April 24 and we came upon we have been pregnant March 14! All extremely serendipitous timing.
“Wisteria” is about discovering peace at residence and feeling so hopeful concerning the future. There’s a line that claims, “I hear you singing softly from someplace in the home, a light-weight is pouring in, it touches each inch round.” That’s about my husband. We each work at home and generally I’ll hear him singing our laughing at himself, and I simply smile and really feel so grateful for our little life collectively.
What is the story behind the title monitor, “Mammoth” – and why did you finally title the album after it?
Lydia Luce: “Mammoth” was impressed by a hike I did in my twenties out within the Sierras. It was so difficult, and I needed to lease crampons, an ice decide, and a helmet to stand up that mountain. The track is about asking for assist. One thing that I’ve needed to discover ways to do whereas therapeutic by my accidents.
You have talked about how this track was impressed by a hike of Mount Ritter in Mammoth, California eleven years in the past. I will be trustworthy, I can barely keep in mind what I ate for dinner final night time, not to mention a hike over a decade in the past. What made that occasion so memorable, all these years later?
Lydia Luce: I feel the sheer problem of all of it caught with me. It was a very new expertise for me and pushed me to my limits. I felt so achieved making it again to the automobile and leaping into June Lake on the finish of these three days. Some moments simply persist with you want that.
Your lyrics appear to stay in-between the bodily world and the inner dialogue. What is that this track about, for you?
Lydia Luce: After I was writing the track with Collin Pastore and Jake Finch, it grew to become simple to narrate a difficult hike to the height of a mountain to being in the course of a disaster. When you possibly can see the highest of the mountain and it appears so daunting and much means, and little by little, switchback after switchback, you make your option to the highest. Then follows a valley and one other peak! It’s simply the rhythm of life and its ups and downs, and taking it second by second is the one means by.
It grew to become simple to narrate a difficult hike to the height of a mountain to being in the course of a disaster… It’s simply the rhythm of life and its ups and downs, and taking it second by second is the one means by.
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How does this monitor match into the general narrative of Mammoth?
Lydia Luce: I feel I selected it because the title monitor for a cause. It units the scene for lots of the songs on the file. “Stomach,” which is about being affected person with your self as you heal, “Deep Finish,” which is about being lifeless heart in the course of the disaster, “Strolling Track,” which is about accepting that this shit will simply preserve taking place and all we will do is breathe and preserve transferring by it. “Mammoth,” asking for assistance is one piece of the general therapeutic journey.
I really had the consideration of interviewing Jordan Lehning, and later premiering certainly one of his songs, a couple of years in the past! Good man, nice ear. What was working with him like, each in making this explicit track and finally the total album?
Lydia Luce: Jordan and I’ve grow to be so shut over time. He’s my enterprise accomplice in Lockeland Strings, we made my first album Azalea collectively again in 2017, then Darkish River in 2019. We traveled with each of our households to make Mammoth over within the UK at Actual World Studios. He appears like household to me at this level and its extremely simple to work collectively. He’s a musical genius and so inspiring to me.
Making the file at Actual World was a dream. We had household meals collectively and created within the beautiful countryside studio in the course of the day. After we completed the file, we traveled to Paris to do a Lockeland Strings present. Seems like we’re on this huge ole musical journey collectively, and I don’t see an finish in sight.
What do you hope listeners take away from “Mammoth,” and what have you ever taken away from creating it and now placing it out?
Lydia Luce: There’s an instrumental track on the file referred to as “Signet” named after the entire child swans across the studio. Joe Pisapia, Jordan and Jason Lehning, Ryan Usher and I created it within the room. This file appears like a delicate hug and an invite to pause or take a stroll outdoors. I hope it brings individuals peace when listening to it.
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:: stream/buy “Mammoth” right here ::
:: join with Lydia Luce right here ::
:: pre-save Mammoth right here ::
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Stream: “Mammoth” – Lydia Luce
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