{"id":36866,"date":"2014-09-16T15:30:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T14:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=36866"},"modified":"2016-09-22T14:27:28","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T14:27:28","slug":"profile-lia-ices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/09\/16\/profile-lia-ices\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile: Lia Ices"},"content":{"rendered":"

We caught up with pastel-haired songstress Lia Ices just before the release of her third LP, to talk travel, twins and the benefits of experimental theatre<\/p>\n

\"Lia<\/a><\/p>\n

American singer-songwriter Lia Ices burst onto our radars in 2012, after her track \u201cLove is Won\u201d from her second album Grown Unknown<\/em> was featured over the closing credits of an episode of our favourite TV show, Girls.<\/em><\/p>\n

Back then it was the touching and emotive quiet of her sound that caught our attention, but following the slog of touring the LP worldwide Ices retreated into record-writing mode, splitting her time between a new relationship in California and a musical hideaway in the Hudson Valley with her twin brother and writing partner, Eliot. The travel backwards and forwards has been the most prominent influence on her third album, Ices<\/em>, telling in first single \u201cHigher\u201d, a gloriously joyful electro-pop cut that plays with distinctive flickers of world music, an amalgamation of genres that divests the listener of any preconceived notions about Ices\u2019 music.<\/p>\n

We caught up with the pastel-haired singer just before the release of Ices<\/em>, to talk travel, twins and the benefits of experimental theatre.<\/p>\n

I read that writing the album was a bi-coastal effort, was that quite intense?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was, I decided after I toured Grown Unknown and I got really close with my band that I really loved the way I was really connected to other musicians, especially my brother. So we decided to get a place up in the Hudson Valley, and we set up shop and decided to record it there. Meanwhile my boyfriend lives in California, so it was this extreme balance between serious work binges in the Hudson valley and then getting on an airplane and going to see my boyfriend and listening to music on the airplane. It was a very strange process but I got used to it.<\/p>\n

You started the album around the same time as you started your new relationship. Is the album about falling in love and was that a big influence on your writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a really big influence as well as the feeling that you can create your own kind of life that no one else has, and if it works for you that\u2019s really fun. I think that it\u2019s positive to experiment to find the way that best works to live your life or make music or to be in a relationship. I think that\u2019s such a positive influence on the music.<\/p>\n

Your new record has a very different sound to the previous one. It\u2019s very joyful and has a lot of world influences. Did travelling influence that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah definitely, and I think just being open to new things and to experimenting and also with this album more than ever before I really let my influences come in. I love this about hip hop production or I love this Persian instrument that I\u2019ve never used and how can I bring it in. So just like, letting things come through me and being confident enough that no matter what they\u2019re still me, and just giving into these things that I love about music.<\/p>\n