Lerryn debuts "As A Mother (ft Naima Bock)", announces EP out 13th Sept on Redundant Span Records

Lerryn

Announces Debut EP, As A Mother
Due 13th September on Redundant Span Records

Shares "As A Mother (ft Naima Bock)" Single - Listen here

As A Mother is an EP created by South East London musician and artist, Lerryn, due for release digitally and on cassette on 13th September via Redundant Span Records. Preorder here.

Lerryn has been a stalwart of the South East London creative scene for over a decade. The founder of cult creative space Lerryn’s Cafe and later frontwoman of post-punk band Dead Arm, her impact on a DIY scene that has defined a corner of London has been significant.

As A Mother is the first offering from the next chapter of Lerryn’s own life, and the debut release under her own name. It is a record written during her experience of pregnancy, motherhood and a period of profound creative reckoning.

Today, she shares the EP's title track, featuring Naima Bock. Listen below...

Lerryn - As A Mother (ft Naima Bock)

Streaming services: https://lerryn.ffm.to/asamother

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/redundant-span-records/lerryn-as-a-mother-ft-naima-bock

Lerryn says of "As A Mother":

"As A Mother was the hardest song to make on the whole record. This is because the subject matter is unresolved, and hard to confront. The lyrics play with ideas of lost identity and the pull for home whilst wanting to be out in the world. 

"This song was written and re-written and recorded the most times, I found myself to be so full of emotion and defensiveness when singing which would have huge effects on my vocals. It was frustrating! I had the idea to bring Naima in to the song, as we had been on some line ups together and her studio where she practices was opposite ours. I invited her to sing, because I started to feel the need for a female presence on the song as a reminder that it is the unity of other mothers and women that often pulls me out of these lost moments in motherhood. Her brief in the studio was to act as my birth partner, with occasional backing vocals that would pick me up and drive the vocals forward."

The EP will be available digitally and on a limited tangerine peel cassette.

EP preorder: https://lerryn.ffm.to/asamotherep

To take the title of this EP at face value would be a mistake, and slightly reductive. The themes present in As A Mother go far beyond motherhood, and are universal. Love. Comfort. Newness. Happiness. Feeling lost. Feeling at home. Feeling loved. Confusion. Self-belief. The passing of time. The inevitability of change. Sonically, the record takes influence from Electrelane, Margaret O’Hara, and Neil Young.
 
Alongside tracks written directly about her experience of motherhood, the songs on the EP see Lerryn grappling with a new-found life of comfort and domesticity. Born in Hackney, and growing up in the West Country, Lerryn’s mother, a psychotherapist, and late father from Buenos Aires, split when she was eight years old. In what was perhaps a bid to spend more time with her, Lerryn’s father William would come over on Sundays to teach her how to play guitar on one of the instruments from her grandma’s Spanish imported guitar stall in Camden Market.
 
From that point on, songwriting became the tool that Lerryn was able to utilise to express herself. Later, after an art degree in her early twenties, Lerryn spent time living in New York and immersing herself in the spoken word scene. This birthed a new interest in songwriting and eventually led to her forming Dead Arm in Peckham with bandmates Liam Ramsden (Mellah), Perry O’Bray (Buffet Lunch), Kenny Bradley, Matt Silcox (Dairy Classics) and Chris Hopkins (Shakechain), plus occasional collaborator Ben Wallers aka The Rebel. Some of these members remained collaborators, as Kenny played bass on As a Mother, and Liam recorded and produced the EP at Little Legs Studios. Josh Flowers joined the band fresh, as a previous employee of Lerryn's Cafe years before. 

As A Mother is intimate, sweet and moving. But above all it is sensory, most notably on "You Are My Love", a track that features hat-tips to bottled orange juice, bread, cigarettes, wine and nakedness. The track’s pulsing bass line reflects the trudging monotony of the chaotic early days of motherhood. Pushing a pram uphill to the shop. Going through the motions of endless routines. A shared glance with a tired partner. The keyboard brings optimism. This song was written within a few minutes while on honeymoon in France. “You are my love,” Lerryn sings, “and our lives from here begin.”

Elsewhere, on "Be Brilliant To Me", we hear lyrical evidence of how much Lerryn’s studies in art psychotherapy has bled into the record. Written after a dance workshop taken as part of her MA, this song is an uplifting paean about holding your own and connecting with your body. It is optimistic, loving and warm. The lyrics do not speak directly to motherhood, but the song is soaked in the sun-lit fuzz of childhood, managing to almost sound like the feeling of being held. “Take grasp of me. Make me feel free. Be brilliant to me. Sink your toes in…You’re a see saw in the wind. See saw in the wind. Words. Light. Sound.”
 
Other songs on the EP are more specific to domesticity and family love, particularly present on the tracks "As A Mother" and "A House", but most poignantly on "It Won’t Be Long", a song written about the bittersweet sensation of precious time passing, reminiscent of Fairport Convention’s "Who Knows Where The Time Goes", that can reduce Lerryn to tears on stage while performing. The refrain of “it won’t be long now” becomes chant-like, something to cling on to, like beads in the palm, as something painful passes through, and change takes place.

Preorder As A Mother:
https://lerryn.ffm.to/asamotherep

Tracklisting:

1. You Are My Love
2. Be Brilliant To Me
3. It Won't Be Long
4. As a Mother (ft Naima Bock)
5. A House

CONNECT:
Lerryn - Instagram

https://redundantspan.bandcamp.com