ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Fenne Lily
Photo by Michael Tyrone Delaney
This week’s artist of the week goes to Fenne Lily, a singer-songwriter hailing from Bristol, UK.
The first time I heard one of Fenne Lily’s songs, I was both taken aback by her gentle, ethereal vocals and instantly comforted by the sense of coziness that’s threaded throughout her melodies.
Fenne Lily started playing some major UK festivals in 2016, including the BBC Music Introducing stage at T in the Park, which is a Scottish festival I was lucky enough to attend once. From there, Fenne Lily released her debut album entitled On Hold in 2018, and she has continued to deliver more music. Her sophomore album, BREACH, came out in 2020, and Lily recently announced her third album Big Picture will be released on April 14th.
Ahead of the album release, Fenne Lily listeners have been blessed with two singles; “Dawncolored Horse” and “Lights Light Up.” The second single to be released, “Dawncolored Horse,” is inspired by the Richard Brautigan poem “The Horse That Had A Flat Tire.” Lily details the inspiration saying, “[Brautigan] talks about the woman he loves as being a ‘breathing castle.’ I truly don’t know what that means, but for me he’s distilled a feeling of absolute closeness. When you know someone so well it feels like you’re almost living inside them. That can be claustrophobic, but before it’s too much, it’s incredible.”
The entirety of Big Picture was tracked live in Brad Cook’s North Carolina recording studio, and Cook co-produced the record. Just based on the glimpse of the album through these two singles, I can feel the life that Fenne Lily and her bandmates breathed into these songs during the recording process, and I know we’re in for something special. Lily further describes the album and its juxtaposition between theme and tone, adding, “These songs explore worry and doubt and letting go, but those themes are framed brightly.”
In honor of the new music, Fenne Lily will also be hitting the road this spring/summer. Be sure to catch her May 25th at Thalia Hall if you’re in Chicago, and see the rest of her tour dates here.