Name: lilo
Members: Helen Dixon, Christie Gardner
Interviewee: Christie Gardner
Nationality: British
Current release: lilo's new album Blood Ties is out via Dalliance.
Recommendation for London: I think everyone should go to the Ivy House quiz hosted by our friend Sam. It’s a real show, you’ll love it.  
Topics I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: To be honest, if I did I would be able to apply for a PHD which is the ultimate dream, but alas all my interests are well documented.  

If you enjoyed this lilo interview and would like to know more about the duo and their music, visit their official homepage. The band are also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

Writing lyrics is something I’ve done for as long as I can remember. I think it took off towards the end of primary school, writing lyrics and singing completely random and improvised melodies to them.

I’m not sure why it started other than to have fun with words and tunes and, to be quite honest, as a way to get some attention. I used to make up songs with the other children my mum looked after after school and perform them to the parents who would come to pick up their kid from our house.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

I think I’m drawn to images that can be created, worlds that can be romanticised. I like thinking about scenes from movies while I’m writing and trying to relate things in my life to radically different experiences.

However, I think I’m also very drawn to the potential for brutal honesty in writing that I don’t feel I can access in my day to day life.

In a song you can say anything you like. But I think it is important to say something that matters to you.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

I personally enjoyed listening to a lot of americana and folk music when I was younger.

My favourite song as a child was ‘Emily, whenever I may find her’ by Simon and Garfunkel.



I used to listen to a live version that was on a compilation CD and in this version I loved the strength with which he just sings ‘I held your hand’. I didn’t think things had to be complicated to mean something massive.

As I grew into my teenage years I loved listening to songs by Conor Oberst. I remember I would sit and just think: ‘wow that was clever, I could never do that.’



Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, leant them that power?

A song I think about a lot is ‘Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)’ by John Prine.

I think about it when I feel particularly fed up and think about how futile that feeling can be.



I also love that song for the line ‘and my head shouted down to my heart, better look out below’. I just love it so much.

Another absolute classic, and another relatively simple classic is ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’ by Julia Jacklin that I think about very often.



It’s an incredibly moving song about how life changes, relationships change, the way you view the world changes, and I think it gracefully gives such humbling advice. Tears every time.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

I think that’s definitely true. I think it’s no coincidence that incredible music comes in times of exceptional political uncertainty, both as commentary and escapism. In crisis one can split off and look for magic or look for answers and I think there’s incredible creative merit in both.

I personally also find that when I am in the throws of something I can take notes or feel inspired. But it’s not until something is over that I can actually process it, and create a song, which I suppose is a different perspective on that quotation but no less true.

I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

I myself actually find instrumental music far more moving than stand alone poetry. I love lyrics and thinking about words but for me the musical accompaniment actually brings the feeling. Music itself I feel is so much more resilient with how it sticks to your gut.

I’ve always seen music vs poetry as a heart vs head, but lots of people will disagree with that! Sorry poetry people!

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

I think I currently keep returning to the concept of ‘trying’, of ‘muddling through’ in different ways.

For example, as an individual reckoning with things within myself and what I’ve been through, but also as an individual within numerous communities and how different parts of communities move and try.

I think I always try to come back to hope, or opportunity, or love as I don’t think the process of me writing a song should always end in despair. The world’s going to end in despair anyway, I don’t have to.

Do you tend to start writing with what will be the first line of the finished lyrics? The chorus? At a random point? What are the words that set the process in motion?

I tend to start at the beginning and end at the end but it does often change! I think I struggle to put things together like a puzzle and prefer to think, hmm okay now what’s next?

Sometimes I’ll think about something specific I want to say but most of the time I do very little active thinking alongside the song writing. I think about it afterwards when I’m tweaking things around.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

It was a big worry for me that the songs we had for our album wouldn’t seem cohesive as none were written with any intention of being part of a wider project. But we came to relax and to know that they’ve come from the same brain with the same intention with the same voices and so therefore would always have at least some glue sticking them together.

However, putting the songs together afterwards was exceptionally enlightening as their relation to each other was almost revealed in that process without active intention.

We noticed how we wrote about different perspectives on the same circumstances or even that some of our songs had obvious visual cues that we weren’t actively aware of but were somehow cemented in our brains.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

We’ve gotten a lot of texts from people that have just been through breakups saying that the album has been incredible/ sooooo bad for this time haha.

I definitely have had some misunderstandings but not massive ones, just people (aka my mum) guessing who certain songs are about.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I’ve definitely noticed this as my job has become a lot harder and more intense and I’ve started to fully appreciate that through music I get a chance to think and feel and express myself patiently.

I personally find that the fancier the coffee gets, the less I like it, so that might not be the best comparison for me. But slowing down and taking time over cooking can have relaxing and creative qualities to it.

With music, though, I get to sit down with myself, rather than focusing on an immediate product. So I do think it’s completely different.