We caught up with one of the best voices in Norfolk right now - Alice Lily - to talk about music, live shows and possible future awards!
Photos: -
Gabriel Bernard
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| Photo: Screamphotographic |
Hi Alice thanks for sitting down with us! Fresh off stage from Wildpaths 2025 at the stunning Octagon Chapel! Is it the first time you’ve played in somewhere like that and what did you think?
Thanks for having me! It is indeed such a wonderful venue. It’s the first time I’ve had a full band set up in a chapel which was a fun experience! It’s not quite the first time I’ve sang in a venue like that though. At school we had a gorgeous chapel where we used to have music competitions, school musical rehearsals and I ran gospel choir rehearsals in it too! People always talk about how incredible church buildings are because of both the architecture and the acoustics - even though they can get really big - and it is true. It was such a lovely looking place to play.
We agree, what a really stunning venue!
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| Photo: Sophie Carson |
In our review of Wildpaths we called it one of the best festivals in the UK, it works closely with Access to Music to give young artists and those involved in music a captive audience – how important is something like this to those trying to break into the industry?
Yes! Massive love for Wild Paths and all they have been doing over the years. I think it’s incredibly important. Everyone starts their journey from somewhere through grassroots scenes, with years of cultivation, artists can build up experience, develop and get in front of more potential listeners. It’s really special to be able to play to audiences of people who are keen to discover new music and support those at the very start of their journeys. Times have of course changed in recent years in terms of how people engage with music but I think you can’t replace individual people coming to gigs with the streaming numbers, social media followings and whatever else. Having that live support as a foundation, for me, is really key. I don’t take the opportunity lightly!
You played at Latitude in the summer, what a great show! What was it like to be at such an iconic festival?
Oh thank you so much! It was incredible to play. Latitude is our big local festival and to have been asked to play on the BBC Introducing stage was such a huge honour. I played the Access College and the Climate Live stages back in 2023, just me and my keyboard. I stumbled on the BBC Introducing stage after playing and said to myself that I would so love to play here the next time I come. Crazy to think it came true! It was a special time with family and friends too. I got to take it all in and catch Example and Leon Bridges which was so much fun.
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| Photo: Gabriel Bernard |
This year saw the release of Players, Parties and Platonic Love, how was the writing and recording process?
The process of putting the project together was really joyful. I had been saying to myself for years that I wanted to put a body of work together. When I finally sat down ahead of my first sessions with my producer Ben, I thought to myself: “okay, what it is that I actually want to say?”. I noticed the thread stringing most of my material to date was all about friendship then it just came super clear that I wanted to delve deeper into it as a theme. So I had a couple of songs that I had been working on and playing at gigs for about a year. Then I wrote the others the same summer that we made the project.
Recording it was great fun. We spread out sessions across a couple of months to really make sure things were right. It was the first time going through a process like it and I found it helpful to really get into the world of the EP and make sure the messages I was delivering were truly at the core.
Its musically very tight! There’s a polished sound in every track, There’s some very technical musicians working with you, how did you all get together?
Ah the genius behind it all was none other than Ben Trickey, who produced the project. He’s awesome! From our first few sessions, there was just such an ease in the room and I knew that it would be great to put the EP together with him. We had made demos of all the tracks and then he enlisted some of his incredibly talented friends to play various parts on them. They either tracked from their home studios or came to his studio in North London to record. Being in the room for those sessions and hearing our demos be brought to life was unreal.
Bold prediction from us here at Alternation – there’s a massive award in your future! Could we see a Mercury one day?
Oh my! That’s awfully kind haha thank you. It would be so incredible to achieve recognition for my work at that level. For me now, I’m just trying to put in all the work to make the best art possible, tell my stories in the best way possible and give people language for things they might be navigating. It’s definitely a dream of mine to create an album and it’s exciting to be living in the days that I’m sure will add to the inspiration for it all.
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| Photo: screamphotographic |
Finally, what does the end of 2025 and 2026 look like for you?
I’m closing out on gigs for the year at the moment. I just have a couple of stripped back ones lined up then all roads lead towards EP number 2! I’m in the final stages of putting it together and it will be out in Spring of 2026. The rest of 2026 will be writing, creating, collaborating. I’m also in my penultimate year of med school and want to enjoy the last few months of uni life as things start to wrap up.
Thanks Alice! what a great interview! see you next time!
You can check out what Alice is up to at:
https://www.instagram.com/alicelilynnene/
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