LYR: New project featuring Simon Armitage and Liu Bei band members premiere debut track
Exclusive: 'We’ve been chatting for years about doing something a bit weird...a little more than a music project, a bit more immersive; part indie band, part radio play'
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Your support makes all the difference.LYR is a new musical collaboration between poet Simon Armitage and members of the London band Liu Bei.
Off to a promising start, we're premiering their debut track, the Ian Curtis-inspired '33⅓'.
Listen to the track below:
Q&A with LYR
How did the LYR project come about?
Simon: I'd already collaborated on one track with Richard - he'd made a very beautiful song from a poem of mine called ‘Redwoods' - and we kept threatening to do more. Patrick was the catalyst for making it happen.
Patrick: It was one of those projects which started as a 'we should do this idea right'... Two years, one dictaphone and a lot of emails later, we are here.
Richard: I’ve been reading Simon’s poems since I was at school, and we’ve been chatting for years about doing something a bit weird...a little more than a music project, a bit more immersive; part indie band, part radio play.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Simon: I'm a devoted follower of Tom Ravenscroft's 6 Music show on Friday nights, via Listen Again. In fact I'm listening to it now (illegally?) in Australia. So, mostly bands I've never heard of, some so obscure I'm not sure they've heard of themselves. I found Julia Holter through that show - now everyone seems to be playing her. Ditto Maribou State and Morgan Delt.
Patrick: Currently listening to the devastating new Nick Cave record, Skeleton tree
Richard Walters: I live opposite a great record shop…latest purchases are ‘Teens of Denial’ by Carseat Headrest and ‘Little Windows’ by Teddy Thompson & Kelly Jones.
What are your plans for the rest of 2016?
Simon: Order a 2017 diary. Write a few poems? Finish the album and release it ON VINYL.
Richard: We’ll all end up in the same city sometime soon and make plans. The parts of the album are all there floating between us, we just need a night of whiskey to tie things up.
What was the first gig you played and what’s been the best so far?
Patrick: We once had coffee together in Soho, that’s as close as we've come to being on a stage.
Richard: The live setup is on our minds…it’s going to be amazing getting this on stage.
LYR are currently writing and recording their debut album
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