Lady Blackbird: Spreading her wings
THE RED BULLETIN: What role has music played in your life?
It is my life in the truest sense: I believe this is exactly what I was born to do. There’s not a memory I have that doesn’t involve singing. My happiest moments, when I’m at my most relaxed and I’m my most open and honest self, are on stage, performing. I kind of suck at everything else. [Laughs.] I’ve had a lot of different jobs, but this one’s my true love. It’s not work for me.
Why did you choose the name Lady Blackbird?
It wasn’t part of the plan to go by a different name. We were in the studio listening to “Blackbird,” which was inspired by Nina’s song [recorded in 1966], and somebody just said it. It just happened. I went, “Hey, Lady Blackbird,” and it stuck. I’ve been doing this for so long, and when you want something so bad, sometimes you grip it too tightly and you choke it out. With this, things were unfolding so easily.
Is Black Acid Soul a genre? How would you describe it?
Chris [Seefried] actually coined that one. We’d just started writing, and in so many different genres and styles we were pretty much all over the map. When we posted things, he’d hashtag them #BlackAcidSoul. So it started as our own kind of sub- genre. And when we were looking for album titles, we were like, “Hey!” We thought it was the coolest thing.
It took you a while to get to this place. How does it feel to see such an upturn in your career?
It’s still quite shocking, in the best way. I’ve been doing this for so long: trying to get meetings with labels; having an album complete but never come out; taking cover gigs at hotels to pay the bills; hoping a few people show up and having my best friends come out to support me. On the road when we started playing these shows, it was 300 people, then 500 people, 1,200 people, and I’m going “Oh my god.” It’s an amazing feeling. It blows me away.
A big turning point was the release of “Blackbird,” which coincided with the emergence of Black Lives Matter. Did all the focus on the single at a time of such heightened feelings bring any pressure?
No, I won’t say I felt any pressure. The album was finished and we were starting to play around town, and then COVID happened. We were holding on to it, going “What do we do?” The fact that [“Blackbird”] was released at that time was completely unintentional. For me, it was just finally being able to release something we’d worked so hard to put together. It felt so nice to finally be able to do that, despite what all the circumstances were. To have released that album, and for people to have caught onto it and supported it through such a time, that’s really important to me.
Is it important to you that your music reflects your identity as a queer woman of color?
You hear a little bit, like the message in “Woman,” which is on the deluxe edition of Black Acid Soul, or a song like “Beware the Stranger.” It’s the little things here and there. They’re never forced or pushed. It’s just honest inthatthisiswhoIam,andif that comes out, it comes out.
What do you hope your music can do for people?
I want them to feel a sense of freedom—the freedom I experienced making it. And then I just want them to be entertained. To come exactly as you are—freedom in every sense of the word.
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