photo by Carlie Kinnear

Lilyer releasing debut EP prod. Sune Rose Wagner of Raveonettes (listen)

January 24, 2018

photo by Carlie Kinnear

LA-via-Norway musician Marte Solbakken was once a member of WATERS and she used to front Elskling, and now she’s making music under the name Lilyer. She teamed up with The Raveonettes guitarist/vocalist Sune Rose Wagner, who produced Lilyer’s debut EP, Maybe This Is All You Can Be under, which comes out April 13 via Jansen Records. We’re premiering the EP’s opening track “Never Getting Closer,” a dose of synthy, ’80s-ish dream pop with a pretty anthemic chorus. Here’s what Marte tells us about it:

I wrote “Never Getting Closer” while home in Norway for the summer. When you live far away from the place you used to call home, visiting it can be a fragile moment. You spend so much time longing for the places and people you’ve left behind, that the expectations rarely are met. It was one of those songs that just appeared; I didn’t think about it too hard, and only after the fact did it strike me how much of an emblematic statement it was for me. Since some turbulent years in my teens I’ve led a transient life in many ways, bouncing from place to place and never setting down roots anywhere, and I’ve always carried with me this feeling of not belonging anywhere. In some ways it was a compulsion I needed to confront, and this song helped me do so. Songwriting isn’t therapy for me, but it can bring you face-to-face with yourself in a way that is at times painful and often necessary.

You can listen to “Never Getting Closer” and another track from the EP, “I Was On Your Side,” below.