Chords for Lady Lamb - Interview with OnAirstreaming

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_ _ _ Here we are, it's on-air streaming with Lady Lamb, also known as Lady Lamb and
the beekeeper, also known as Allie Spaltro.
Do you find that people are
confused when they try to address you in person?
Do you see them stumbling?
Some
people ask me if I go by Allie or not.
I'm like, oh yeah, I go by Allie.
You
don't have to call me Lady Lamb.
_ _ That's awkward if somebody says
Miss Lamb.
Yeah, no that's not okay.
But they do that, I'm sure, right?
No, no, I think
they catch themselves.
As I noticed as you're out and active this year with
the new record, more people are just saying Lady Lamb.
Has the beekeeper thing
been dropped for the most part?
Oh yeah, I officially dropped it.
Okay, what was the
decision behind that?
Well, I came up with the name when I was 18, which is going on
eight years ago. _
So, _ you know, I just felt like over time I was less and less
attached to that.
It felt really clunky and just in the past and fortunately I
feel connected to Lady Lamb as a moniker.
So I just spliced the back half
off.
And now you've answered part of my next question saying you came up with
that when you're 18.
Because as I was _ _ reading about you and watching old clips
and even from four years ago I was like, oh my gosh, she looks like she's 15 years
old.
And now as I meet you in person all these years later, I'm like, well she
looks like she's 13 years old.
What?
_ You look like my daughter is 13.
I was like,
this young lady could be running around with my daughter and her friends.
So _ _ you
answered the question of how old you are now, but _ _ are you much older and wiser now
that you've been doing this for eight years?
Yeah, I would say so.
Yeah, what's
the biggest difference between now and when you were 18 years old?
_ _ I just, _ I
think, with clarity.
I've been managing myself for almost five [G] years now and so
I just kind of know what's going on [G#] at all times and [C#] feel like, you know, I can
make business [D] decisions and that kind of thing.
Whereas when, you know, when I was
[C#m] first starting out I had no idea what I was really doing.
And the music of course
has evolved over time for sure, thematically as I've gotten [C#] older.
Okay,
tell us about that evolution.
I've heard some references that you've made that
being more pop and doing that kind of [E] thing.
What else has evolved the most?
Well [N] thematically it's much different.
I think this record is the second album.
It's more about myself.
_ It's more about things that I've experienced or things I
think about.
Whereas my last work was more about what I [D] felt I needed from
others.
And so looking back, you know, in retrospect [Bm] I feel like it was not about
me at all.
And so this one is a different kind of vulnerable.
It's also a
little more concise musically. _
It's hard for me to write a chorus, which is why I
wanted to put a few in this record because it's a challenge for me to do.
Why is it hard for you?
Because my instinct with writing music is to write
a piece that kind of meanders and has many movements and tempo changes within
it that never addresses _ any repetition at all and just kind of goes on its own
route.
And I love writing songs like that and there's still that [B] on this album but
I think it's actually really difficult [N] to edit down a song and make it a direct
piece.
_ Is that part of wanting to do more of a pop song?
Does that come from, and if so, does that come from you or is this outside people saying, look, Ali, you gotta write a chorus, you gotta write a hook.
You can't just be wandering around like this.
No, no, it's 100% for me.
_ No one has ever told me how to write a song.
God forbid [D] if they did, [G] they'd hear it.
They'd get a [B] mouthful. _
And from older interviews with you, there's reference to you being self-taught with your music and you play a lot of instruments.
_ _ Are _ you still self-taught with everything or do you feel like, oh, I need some real professional _ _ coaching?
_ _ Because now I'm eight years in, I'm doing this.
Or is it still self-taught?
Still self-taught.
And I have a grasp on what I'm doing, I think, musically, even though I don't read music.
I feel like it would take learning how to read music or taking lessons would take some of the romanticism out of what I'm doing and I don't feel the need.
I think the way that I write comes from an emotional place, so sometimes I may not know what chord I'm playing.
I know major chords, but if I'm making some sort of odd shape or formation, I may not really know what that means, but if it sounds good, then I run with it. _ _ _ _
What's your tool for being self-taught?
Is it playing around?
Is it _ sitting down with other musicians?
Is it watching things happen and trying to replicate it?
Or is it just the sound of it?
In all honesty, [Bm] the way I taught myself was just by getting a chord book and learning first two chords, then writing [F#] a song with two chords, then three, and adding in the third chord into a new song and learning that way, just building from learning chord formations.
_ _ [C] Didn't really look at tutorials or anything.
I just learned what the shapes were and then just started, [G#] immediately [N] started writing my own music.
You're not going to just give credit to YouTube videos that taught you everything?
No. _
_ _ _ You're from Maine and you trudged all the way from Maine to Brooklyn.
Do you ever see yourself departing from the Northeast of America? _ _
I think [F#] about that.
What city would I move to [B] that's out of New England or out of New York?
I think I would go back to Portland, Maine eventually. _
_ [Bm] I'm not sure how far west I'd want to go.
I don't really want to be super far from [B] family.
They're all in the Northeast. _ _ _
I'm not planning on staying in New York forever.
I [F#] _ _
love it there.
[G] I like it there, but it's more of a utility.
It's so convenient to be there.
Without a car, I can take the bus anywhere _ [F] I need to tour.
Not to mention that Brooklyn's the mecca of artists now.
Are you finding a lot of resources, connections, other artists that you want to work with, collaborate with, or just [G] hang out with? _
I've met a lot of friends who are in bands that I love there.
That's a [Bm] wonderful _ _ outlet.
I haven't really collaborated with any friends, but it's just wonderful to be able to go see their show or [G] support them in that way.
_ _ [F#] _
_ Both my record labels are there and I'm friendly with both of them, so it's just nice to be able to pop into the office.
It's just very convenient.
_ It's always interesting when you see the real behind-the-scenes work of artists going from city to city, living out of a van, and it's hard.
A brief conversation with you, getting from New Orleans to here, it wasn't so pretty, was it?
I've never seen rain like that in my life.
It was like [A#] biblical rain almost the entire time.
Our fuse for our windshield wipers fell out of [Bm] its little _ spot and we lost our windshield wipers and were like, oh, off to the side.
_ Things like that happen. _
You're in the car all day, so it's a little bit_
you've got to be on your A-game, driving.
You've got to be safe.
[G] The not-so-glamorous side of rock and roll that everyone doesn't see out there in the pouring rain, messing with wipers, right?
Well, Ali, it was great catching up with you.
Lady Lamb, thank you for [Fm] coming in.
It was a pleasure.
Thanks [Bm] for having me. _ _ _
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