After commanding stages worldwide as part of the British band, guitarist Lizzie Mayland is stripping back the layers on their spellbinding debut EP. They tell NME about writing about their truth and taking inspiration from their bandmates
You’re probably most familiar with Lizzie Mayland as one-fifth of The Last Dinner Party – the British band who took the world by storm with their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’. Now turning their sights towards a solo venture, the rhythm guitarist has adopted the moniker L.Mayland and released their captivating debut EP ‘The Slow Fire Of Sleep’.
Stripping back the layers, the EP sees Mayland embrace the acoustic guitar and take on vocal duties, creating a spellbinding final result that touches the soul. The record also shares a profound exploration of identity, something the musician says “felt absolutely natural”. Poignant lyrics in ‘Mother, Mother’ touch upon femininity and gender expectations, while the title track tackles outward-looking struggles, including feeling powerless amid an environmental crisis.
“I didn’t think about it as a process of channelling my emotions into music,” Mayland tells NME over Zoom, reflecting on the sensitive content in the EP. “But now it’s come to releasing it, I’ve started to notice how I have made something super vulnerable.
“It’s a bit of a leap of faith, but I’m really proud of the songs. They hold a lot of joy for me, so I’m excited to share them.”
Congratulations on sharing your first solo material! When did you first think about embarking on the venture?
L.Mayland: “I’ve always written songs just because I love music. Then, a year and a half ago, I wrote ‘Homeward’, and it felt like a step up in my songwriting. It was centred on acoustic guitar and vocals, and I was really proud of it, so I went on to write a few more and started to wonder if I could make it into an EP.
“The idea was really exciting and, interestingly, the thought of recording was appealing to me as a solo artist, whereas with The Last Dinner Party it was all about playing live when we started. This time, I wanted to embrace that studio experience and explore the songs to see what I could make out of them.”
You began writing these songs during the few moments of downtime while touring with The Last Dinner Party. How did writing in that environment influence the sound you captured?
“Being on tour, it’s all-consuming. You don’t really have time to acknowledge your feelings or process the adrenaline from everything that’s happening. So it was only when we were back in London for a week or two that I could find some space for my feelings. Sometimes it was feeling like I didn’t belong, sometimes it was gender-related, sometimes it was about the climate crisis. It was therapeutic in a way because I had feelings that I needed to address [in these limited periods of rest], and the best way for me to really delve into them was through writing music.”
Tell us a bit about your influences. Which artists helped inspire ‘The Slow Fire Of Sleep’?
“In recent years, it’s been Labi Siffre and Adrianne Lenker, but my longer-term influences are Jeff Buckley, Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone and Etta James. Nick Drake is a massive one for me too because I’ve always been drawn to quite melancholic and introspective music. There is the acoustic guitar side, but there are the really emotional vocal performances, too. I connect with that and I like sad songs… to the point where I don’t think I could ever write a happy song! It is the tracks about melancholia where I find myself quite often.
“People may have a certain perception of me or my musical interest because of the band, but our ethos has always been that we’re five individual people with massive, varied tastes. Hopefully, this project will kind of hammer that home even more.”
You’ve previously said that a big source of inspiration came from Brian Eno – to the point where you based your dissertation on his ‘Ambient 4: On Land’ album. What is it that resonates with you?
“Oh, don’t get me started! I love Brian Eno. My dissertation specifically was on ambient music and Mark Fisher’s concept of the eerie. He talks about it as the blending of the background and the foreground, and I wanted to say how I think ambient music does a similar thing in a sensory way. It can have an effect physically on your body and on your perception of the world.
“That idea had such a huge effect on me, and using sound to evoke a feeling is something that Brian Eno does so incredibly well. I actually had a book of his in the studio with me, almost like a little Bible for what we were making. I’d get to the studio and be like, ‘OK Brian, let’s do this!’
Some of those elements you describe also apply to the world of film. I understand that Alex Turner’s EP for Richard Ayode’s Submarine struck a chord with you too…
“Submarine is a beautiful film because it’s so gentle. I love the melancholia of that EP too, and I think Alex Turner is a fantastic songwriter. I grew up on Arctic Monkeys, but it was hearing him do such vulnerable songs in that release that was really inspiring to me. Production-wise, there’s not much going on, and because of that, the lyrics really stand out. Also, I love that you can hear his northern accent in the way he sings. I tried to keep that in mind when I was doing vocal takes for ‘The Slow Fire Of Sleep’.”
Tell us a bit about the lyrics in your EP. A lot of it centres on themes of identity, sexuality, femininity and social expectations. Why was it important for you to address topics like this?
“It’s the truth for me. I feel very lucky to have grown up when I did. I remember when gay marriage was legalised and how it all felt like progress towards a more loving future. I know it goes back and forth across history, but in recent years, it can feel like it was two steps forward, then one step back. It feels quite hateful at the moment, particularly in terms of gender and the Supreme Court’s ruling about transgender people in this country.
“When I wrote ‘Mother, Mother’ though, I wasn’t necessarily thinking about how I was using my platform to address wider gender issues, it was just about my reality because I do struggle with my relationship with femininity. That being said, I hope it speaks to people and gives them comfort to hear someone else singing about those feelings. Maybe they’ll feel less alone if they feel a bit hopeless at the moment. Initially, though, I wasn’t thinking about the impact it was going to have. I just wrote it because I needed to.”
It was that same ability to be honest and authentic that drew a lot of fans towards The Last Dinner Party…
“Yeah, Abi [Morris, singer] is such an inspiration to me for songwriting. The way she can capture such personal, vulnerable feelings and experiences in poetry is amazing. And I think you’re right, one of the things that people really resonate with in The Last Dinner Party is how the songs get straight to the emotion. It’s not about storytelling, it’s about the feeling. I definitely hope I can continue that.
“Speaking of that, I wrote a new song for the live shows, which is a bit more directly political and angry… and funnily enough, the upcoming album with the band is also quite angry at the world too. That goes to show that we’re writing songs about our truth! We’re writing in direct response to what’s happening around us, and honesty is always important for that.”
What more can you tell us about The Last Dinner Party’s upcoming album?
“It’s got darker themes, and we’ve been processing heavier emotions. It’s a pretty dark time, so I think that is reflected in the music because we’re in touch with the world. It’s not all sad, though; there are some bops as well! It’s not all downbeat either – they’re fun, angry songs. I won’t go into too much detail, though; you’ll have to wait and see.”
Going forward, are you looking to find a balance between solo material and The Last Dinner Party, or is one going to take priority?
“I’d love to keep the balance. I’m really proud of this second album we’ve written, and I’m really excited to share it with people, so if I can be all in on both, then I’m all in on both. I think it will just come down to scheduling and working out how we go forward in a way where all members have time for their own lives.
“That’s what we’ve got wrong over the last couple of years. The balance was completely off, and it was all touring and no family or downtime. So I think it’s important for all of us to have a balance where we can explore our own creativity in different ways.”
L.Mayland’s ‘The Slow Fire Of Sleep’ is out now via Parlour Records/Island Records. Lizzie will play shows in London and Manchester to celebrate the release – visit here for tickets.
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