We were lucky to catch up with Lily Talmers recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My musical journey has been a slow patchwork of a process! It started with an ear-training heavy education in classical piano, and continued into public school orchestra. I think the cello’s reverberation on my chest was huge in developing a sense of my own voice. I have an acute memory of sitting in youth orchestra during high school, where I’d drive myself 45 minutes just to sit and struggle through the music on my cello, and wondering “why am I here?” somehow also trusting that it was important for my musical development. I look back on that experience now as so essential in teaching me what it’s like to be part of an ensemble, and how to really immerse oneself and hear the different musical features of a big work.

But speed… I think that is the very thing I’m resisting right now! I think most good songwriting or musical learning is born of spaciousness, reflection, and experimentation. I think my writing has only ever gotten better by the discipline of slowness, and having the patience to bear witness to my own inner life. There’s not a lot these days that incentivizes that sort of work, especially not the music industry.

Lily, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a songwriter, musician and teacher- my life is a strange mix of writing, touring, performing around New York City where I live, and teaching in a few different capacities. My hope is always that the vitality of my life as a writer is made known through my songs. For the past four years, I’ve taught at a literature intensive in the spring, forgoing technology for 2 months to teach undergraduates about the natural world and literature from New England. We keep journals and document our experiences extensively- I think the songs I write and the way that I perform carries around a similar ethos as my teaching. Both strive to be immediate and present, and to respond to the particularities of life affecting them.

It is to say- it’s a sort of attitude and “product” that doesn’t always bode well with 21st century goings ons. But I think the nature of the art asks for a sort of presence that disrupts the way people are used to going through their days, and that is the most beautiful thing is has to offer. It also means my life is ever on-the-go, in a way that’s both exhilarating and sometimes worth resenting. Each day is a new animal, with all the travel and gigs and strange situations, and one has to struggle to find the grace to meet each one calmly and without too much expectation.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I’d been earlier in snapping out of the fantasy that social media has to be an authentic reflection of your selfhood. It is hard to separate the art you make from your person, and it’s taken a lot of work to realize that advocating for the music I make does not always need to be held as equivalent to advocating for me. In finding your way into a separation between yourself and your art, it’s a lot easier to be resilient in advocating for it without feeling injured or hesitant.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

SLOW DOWN! SLOWWWWW DOOOWWWNNN! That’s it. I think I’m on a journey right now of trying to find the human people behind everything I appreciate and consume- artists I like, food I eat, architecture and visual art in my day-to-day, etc. I think if people saw music less as a pleasure-bringing product, and more as an extension of community, the gesture will help dignify the work that artists do on a societal level.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lilytalmers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/el_tee_music
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilytalmers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lilytalmers2422

Image Credits

Adam Siismets
Alex Gallitano
Alex Brown
Khanh San Pham