About Lail Arad

There's a dusty pile of records in the corner of Lail Arad's flat and each one of them has been stolen. From Woody Guthrie's 'Songs To Grow On' through to The Incredible String Band's 'The 5000 Spirits' they have all been liberated over the course of time from her parent's collection. "I sort of missed out on whatever it was my friends were listening to in the 90s - I was learning the back-catalogue of Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, The Kinks..." says 26 year-old Lail. It shows. Lail's debut album 'Someone New', due for release in Spring 2010, is a fascinating storybook of youth, rich with wit and sprinkled liberally with the kind of sophisticated pop melodies you'd normally associate with her enduring musical heroes. From the crafted pop perfection of album opener 'Over My Head' - a backwards love song wrapped-up in it's creator's wide-eyed puzzlement at so many facets of the 21st Century ("the universe is way over my head, stars we see they are already dead, does that mean we cannot move ahead?") to the beautifully-droll self-loathing tale of 'Who Am I', which tells the story of a hippie-child gone bad, you're left wondering one thing: precisely who is this sharp-tongued young songwriter? "My parents came to London from Tel Aviv in the early 70s. My father studied architecture, my mother studied psychology" says Lail. "I grew up in a very creative household, it seemed perfectly normal to me but i guess it was a little unconventional. There was a growing collection of things found on the street or in markets around our house, and always lots of people visiting. I went to a progressive school with a lot of music. There were sign-up sheets on the wall and we'd get little make-shift bands together and prepare all sorts of covers. That's how it started really. " But domestic inspirations and battered boxes of vinyl can only take a young artist so far. Thankfully Lail has the voice to deliver. Sometimes powerful, sometimes gentle, always unaffected, she sings her tales of everyday life full of mischief and intrigue. With effortlessly funny songs about her experiences living in London, she's developed a committed and growing fanbase through her live shows, who draw something special from her wry, folk-tinged stories. She even found herself singing an impromptu performance of her song 'Winter' at Devendra Banhart's sold-out London show. "I never planned to write funny songs, I'm not a comedian. I try to write about things I witness or experience as honestly as possible, and sometimes it's humorous, especially when it comes to relationships. When you hit on details that are familiar to people and talk about them openly, they suddenly see the funny side, even if it's something that made them sad when they were going through it alone. A lot of my favourite artists - Jonathan Richman, David Byrne - they write lyrics full of humour, even when the subject matter is sad." Although early comparisons to New York's Martha Wainwright and the Moldy Peaches' Kimya Dawson flatter, Lail Arad's songs come pricked with a wonderfully British self-awareness that allow them to stand quite contently on their own two feet. "Culturally I've always had a slightly outsiders perspective, but you can never really feel like an outsider in the mash-up that is London. Making the album was like throwing lots of musicians, ex-boyfriends, delicious food and secret diaries into a big washing machine and spinning it at boiling point until one colourful dress came out which i love wearing!"