Music has a way of knocking you on your ass sometimes. Every now and then, when you least expect it, a song comes around that touches a deep memory, brings up something painful, brings up something comforting. Regardless of what it brings up, the power of someone else’s song to bring up something deeply personal will always leave me in awe.
When I first discovered enchantments, I was excited to hear a new Philly artist blending shoegaze, folk, pop, and emo into a unique bedroom style that I really dug the sound of. What I was not expecting was to fall down an existential hole on a Monday night listening to the last song on their album “somewhere secret” - a 6 minute masterpiece titled “snow day”. While it’s clear the singer’s lyrics are about an entirely different experience than my own, it still brought up a wave of emotions inside me reminding me of something in my own life.
At a minute and thirty seconds in, enchantments sings “I’m still here because I’d rather be alive” before launching into an emotional and epic crescendo over the next two minutes and fading into silence for a moment. Four minutes in, piano washes over an airy soundscape bringing a sense of calm to the previous emotional rush.
This song was not written about my experience, but the point is that music has the power to constantly surprise you and dig up unexpected emotions. And that’s a good thing. When artists pour their hearts into their work, they give up a piece of their emotional experience to the world and allow listeners to shape it into their own meaning. A difficult experience shared in song can be healing for someone the artist has never met. To me, that’s beautiful, and it reminds me of how lucky I am to have conversations with artists who put a piece of themselves in their music.
SKYLYNE: Hey Lucy, I’m so excited to chat with you, I feel like we have a lot to talk about. I’m obviously a big fan of your work, but I don’t know much about your background. What brought you to making music?
enchantments: Thanks for the kind words! I started playing piano when I was four or five but I started wanting to make my own music when I was thirteen, which is when I started playing guitar. I was getting into a lot of pop-punk and emo stuff at the time and I wanted to make stuff like that so I started teaching myself and playing guitar pretty much every day. Then I got really into making trap beats and other electronic stuff, and after years and years of doing a combination of things like that it kinda just evolved into the amalgamation it is now.
SKYLYNE: As mentioned above, I think your music is so personal and emotional, and I think that’s such an important thing in writing good music. Are there any life experiences that have greatly influenced you as an artist?
enchantments: The first enchantments EP and album are about being trans and the journey that comes along with that, so that was definitely a big one. However, with the new album I have coming out I wanted to make an effort to not talk about any of that stuff because I got sick of writing about it so it’s more of a mish mash of things. Getting into a relationship has been a big inspiration as well as just being in a sort of transitional period in my life.
SKYLYNE: Your production style on “somewhere secret” is so unique. How did you develop that sound?
enchantments: Thank you! I think that my music is always just a reflection of my taste at the time I was making it. It started as a shoegaze album but I quickly got bored of making those kinds of songs so I just tried to vary what was going on in each track as much as possible. On the instrumental and production side of things I was as influenced by bands like Whirr and Title Fight as I was by artists such as Jane Remover and Blackwinterwells. I wanted the album to have a really nostalgic sound, so I also incorporated samples and soundfonts from a bunch of old Nintendo games that I really love, like Earthbound and Super Mario 64.
SKYLYNE: Love that, I definitely hear that nostalgic video game sound in the music. When a new fan discovers your music, what do you hope they take away from it?
enchantments: When I really connect with another artist or band’s music it feels like that music has become something that is entirely my own. I hope people can feel the same sort of feeling when they listen to my music. I think that deep level of understanding between a person and a song is one of the most compelling things about music and I can only hope to give a fraction of what the music I love has given me to other people.
SKYLYNE: When writing deeply emotional music, do you find that the writing process is more of a mental outlet for you or is it difficult to face those feelings head on?
enchantments: It’s definitely more of an outlet! Sometimes I think music is the only “true” outlet I have, or at least that my abstract interpretations of my feelings in lyrical form are the most accurate way to represent a certain mental state or set of thoughts and feelings. I’ve never had a problem being honest in my music because the only audience I have in mind when I write or make music is myself. The lyrics on somewhere secret were all written the week prior to the album’s release because I wanted them to all come from the same sort of place or school of thought. The lyrics on my new album, however, were written over the course of an entire year.
SKYLYNE: That seems like a great approach. Speaking of, few people understand the stress of committing to a career in music. How do you balance your mental health with the pursuit of your art?
enchantments: I’d like to think my relationship with music is healthy because I don’t view it as something that could be a career at all, at least with my solo stuff. It’s entirely a passion project for me and treating it as such helps me to maintain a good relationship with it. I’ve been doing this project for almost three years now and since I started it’s taught me to be less of a perfectionist and trust my instincts a lot more.
SKYLYNE: What’s your favorite part about the independent artist experience? And your least favorite part?
enchantments: My favorite part is that I have complete control over almost everything, and that is also my least favorite part. I’m definitely limited in some aspects of production and mixing because I’m by no means a professional, so that means when I can make something sound good I feel really proud, and when I can’t I just have to try and work with what I have and what I know to remedy that. My first EP and album I did all by myself, but I had a handful of friends help me record the new one that’s coming out and it was a really refreshing and liberating experience.
SKYLYNE: That's interesting, it seems a lot of artists have spoken about that power of collaboration to unlock new ideas and spark creativity. As for your own career, how would you define success?
enchantments: If I’m still really proud of something I make long after it’s been released, then I view that as a success. When I listen to my first EP nowadays I think it’s kinda bad, but listening to somewhere secret I’m usually like, this is honestly pretty good. And a few other people seem to think so too, which is nice!
SKYLYNE: Well we certainly thought it was good, so you're definitely doing something right. If you could tour with any band or artist in the world right now, who would it be?
enchantments: My favorite band of all time is Ovlov, so it’s hard to answer with anyone else. If I could watch an Ovlov set every night of my life for a month I could die happy. But at the same time if I opened for Ovlov that would be quite the juxtaposition in terms of vibes, so I’m not sure. I’d love to do a solo tour with some of my bandmates from my band Hotel Breakfast who have solo projects.
SKYLYNE: Lucy, thanks for taking the time to chat with us! Here’s your spotlight - tell us what you have going on and what’s coming up.
enchantments: I actually have a couple releases coming out in the second half of 2024. I have a new full length LP, which I mentioned before, and my band is putting out our debut LP as well, which has been a long time coming. My bandmate Peter and I also have a split coming out for our solo projects sometime soon. He makes music under the name Caveofswimmers; his debut LP is easily my favorite album of the year so far, please check it out! It’s incredible.
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