The London-born, LA-raised Yale student, Lila Drew, infuses impressive vocals, playful guitar riffs, bright piano tones and dramatic drum beats with unfiltered and raw narratives in her debut album All the Places I Could Be.
Channelling the emotional kaleidoscope of growing up, Drew, now 22, began writing her own material at the age of 10. “The goal, lyrically, was to capture the sarcasm and humour and honesty and awkwardness that comes with growing up,” says Drew. She continues: “I wrote this music primarily between the ages of 18 and 20, and at its core, the spirit of the album is about exploration, about uncertainty, and in those emotions, trying not to take yourself too seriously or be overly sincere or overly embellished when it comes to a coming of age narrative.”
This summer, she debuted All the Places I Could Be on tour in Europe. Produced across LA, New York and the British city of Bath, the 11-track album draws inspiration from her favourite writers across music and literature from Jamiroquai to Joan Didion. The product being an evocative and organic collection of both slow, sombre songs and upbeat, energetic ones that hone in on hard times and the humour of growing up.
Drew references the minimalist campaigns of the 90s such as Helmut Lang adverts, Dave Araki films and Tracey Emin sketches, where she picked up on the unfiltered sexuality and femininity of the times. These themes radiate from the immersive visual presentation, directed by filmmaker Vincent Haycock, that accompanies the All the Places I could Be album.
“It isn’t about wanting to be somewhere else, but wanting to be someone else, embodying your younger self, exploring things you haven’t experienced but are too afraid to seek out, and embracing mistakes and discrepancies (both within the music and outside of it) in the process,” she finishes.
Head below to step into Lila Drew’s dreamy world…