Clarinets, Nostalgia, and Favorite Movie Ballads: Singer-Songwriter Lily Williams Discusses Her Debut Album ‘How The Story Ends’
Singer-Songwriter Lily Williams released her vulnerable debut project How The Story Ends on March 10th of this year. Harnessing inspirations imbued with nostalgia and a cinematic appeal, the album displays Lily’s ability to break down the story of our emotions, evoking the beautiful and tragic feelings that come with falling in and out of love.
The ten song project is emotionally relentless in its lyrics, frameworked by whimsical instrumentals between soft acoustic guitar and fairy-tale esque piano. After starting the project during quarantine, the last track on the album titled “A Little Good Left” outlined Lily’s desire to find silver-linings in trying times. Similarly, one of the last songs she wrote for the album, which is also the title track “How The Story Ends,” captures the progression of a love story from start to finish. Lily’s music is special in the way she draws out the most striking details from our mundane relationships we have with one another. She has the ability to simplify or saturate emotions, finding a chemistry between her storytelling and musicality.
In a conversation with Unpublished Magazine, Lily delved into her debut project, sharing details about her inspirations and creative processes that tied together How The Story Ends.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down with Unpublished! How have you been recently?
[LILY]: I've been good. Honestly, it's been a whirlwind. I feel like this project was such a long time coming. So, the fact that it's out in the world now for a month. It took me a while to process that it was actually just out and all that hard work had been released into the open. But, it's such a good feeling. And I've just started to be like, "Okay, what's next?" Where are we going? What are we saying next? So it's been a bit surreal, but it's been very exciting too.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How The Story Ends has been out for about a month now. How has the response been to it?
[LILY]: It's been great. I've never done press interviews and things like that before. So, that's been so fun to just be able to really explain the project and talk about it. I feel like it's been really well received. The messages and the support that I've got was just really overwhelming. So, I think I couldn't have asked for a better first big project release. Yeah, it's been really cool.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Could you share with me the inspiration behind How The Story Ends?
[LILY]: So, I didn't feel like I planned it all from the start. But, as I wrote the project, the songs that were meant to be on the project really stuck. I would say we were 75% done with the whole project when I wrote the song, "How The Story Ends." And I feel like when I wrote that song, the whole project just made sense. It was like one of those moments where everything just clicked. And that song tells this story of meeting someone who's like your best friend and beginning to have a crush on your best friend. Then being super in love and then by the end of the song, feeling like the relationship was gonna end. And I realized that was the story of my project. Like it really takes you from the very beginning of a love story, like that feeling of having a crush on someone to the feeling of like "oh my gosh, is this relationship gonna end and what am I going to do with the heartbreak?" So, it was funny because I just didn't realize that it was all gonna come together so cohesively. But, it was amazing when it did.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I thought it was funny to start off your project with the song “How The Story Ends” as it is the first track discussing the concept of “ending.” Was this intentional?
[LILY]: I love that you said that because I feel like no one has noticed. I mean, people have probably noticed, but no one's said that to me. Yeah, I was like that's such a funny thing to start with the ending. I kind of wanted to play on words. But also, because that song tells the whole story of the project, it is kind of like in a movie when they're telling it from the end. They're like, "oh, let's go back to the beginning and start there." It's almost like the narrator is like, "this is what's going to happen. Now I'm going to take you through every scene of the story." But yeah, that's cool that you noticed.
[UNPUBLISHED]: When did you start writing this album?
[LILY]: So, the first song I actually wrote during COVID. And the first song I wrote is the last song on the project, ironically enough, "A Little Good Left." I wrote that song in the thick of COVID. You know, we were stuck at home. I think I was in England and they just announced another lockdown before Christmas. It was 2020. I was just like, "Really?" We thought this was gonna be done by now and I was just sitting at the piano like “I've got to write down a list of things that are still good. Even if we never get out of this lockdown, I need some things that are gonna remind me that life is still good, even when I can't do anything.” So I literally just wrote down a list and that became the song "A Little Good Left." And that was one of the songs that just stuck and it felt like it made sense on the project. So, that was the first one.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I love “A Little Good Left.” It’s so simple but it’s also so cinematic. It’s like a lullaby.
[LILY]: Think of the marriage song from Up. When we were talking about the production, I was like I love the cinematic. It's so cute. But, then I love the feeling of building and having that cinematic and orchestral element. I love that.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You’ve been releasing music for awhile now. Has your creative process changed? Did you take any new creative approaches with this album?
[LILY]: Definitely. When I first released music, it was just songs that I'd written completely by myself and just found someone to help me make them and put them together in the production element. Now, I collaborate so much more with people. Although, some of the songs I wrote completely by myself. But, now living out here in California, I've met so many writers and producers that I love working with. My process is usually that I have to have something I want to say. If I don't have a concept, I find it really hard to just start with melodies or a chord progression because the lyrical element just plays such a huge role for me. I really love the art of storytelling. So, if I don't have something I want to say, then I'm always screwed. I'm like, "Oh, I have no idea how this session is gonna go." But, sometimes you're just having a conversation with another writer and something really cool comes up. So, I love that about working with people. But yeah, that's kind of my process: starting with a concept, having something I want to talk about and then either just getting to the piano and working on it by myself or heading into a session. That's been so fun because I think it just expands and changes what you could do by yourself like working with others.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Are there any memories from the creation of this album that you’d like to share?
[LILY]: One really fun thing was with Michael. I didn't write "Rich" with him, but he helped to produce it. We were finishing it off and he found a clarinet in his cupboard. Like a dusty old clarinet that didn't have any music reeds or anything and I played classical clarinet my whole life. I played in orchestras and I was like, "Oh my gosh, shall I try and play it?" We literally left this session, went to find an old music shop and we had to get a part fixed. So, we had to buy musical reeds, like clarinet reeds. And then I came back and we recorded clarinet on the song, which was just so random and fun that I got to do that. And honestly, I hadn't been to a music shop since I was like fifteen. So, it was so nostalgic and fun to be able to add that little element.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I love the album cover, can you tell me about where it was captured and the memory behind it?
[LILY]: So, for the music video for "How The Story Ends," we went back to Boston and I just felt like this project had an East Coast vibe. I don't know why, but, partly because it mentions the Orange Line and that was something that we rode in Boston all the time. And I just felt like there was this East Coast feeling to the whole project. Me and my husband met in Boston at school together. So, this place just brings back so many nostalgic memories and we went back there to shoot the video and we were just running around all the old spots we used to go to, visiting our favorite cafes. It was honestly so beautiful to go back. So, the building that you see is my old apartment building. We're sitting at a place that I used to walk by every day, we're sitting on this little bench thing. That wasn't necessarily going to be the album shot, but, I just felt like there was so much feeling to it. And for me there was so much emotion in knowing that was my apartment building, this was like an intersection that I'd walked past every day for like three years of my life. It just felt right.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What are some things that make you nostalgic?
[LILY]: Oh my gosh, I think I get nostalgic even before things end. Like I'll be on a trip with all my friends and I'll suddenly be sad the second day because I know it's gonna end in like five days and I'm gonna look back on this time and be so happy about the time, but, so sad that I'm not in that time anymore. So, visiting Boston was like the ultimate nostalgia moment because I was walking around. And I even wrote a new song that's not out yet about it called "Back to Boston." But, it's about how you can go back to a place but you can never go back to the way that it was when you were there. And that's really what I felt. And that's how I feel about just growing up. Every day you're just getting older and you just can't go backwards. So, I think that just makes me so nostalgic.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I read that you take a lot of inspiration from Disney sound scores. I wanted to ask you what are some of your favorite Disney movies?
[LILY]: Oh my gosh. I mean I love Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. The soundtrack for Sleeping Beauty is beautiful. And Up isn’t a Disney movie but I love that and that's not old. But also Toy Story I've been realizing recently. I know that's not a Disney movie. I think it's Pixar. But Toy Story, “When She Loved Me” is probably one of the best songs ever. And Randy Newman I've been realizing recently is probably like my biggest songwriting inspiration. I just love the way he tells his story. I think he's a very nostalgic writer. So yes, definitely Disney scores and those types of movies really get me going.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I feel like this album talks a lot about themes that navigate love and heartbreak. What is some advice that you offer to someone who's navigating the confusion of love or heartbreak themselves?
[LILY]: You know, I think one thing I've learned from being in a really bad relationship and then being in a really good relationship now is that heartbreak is so good for you. Because if you're not with the right person, heartbreak is gonna come sooner or later. And the more that you're with someone that's wrong for you, the more years and months of pain you have to experience because they're not right for you and you're just trying to make something work that ultimately is going to end in heartbreak. But, those years that you spend are also kind of heartbreaking. It’s not that those years are wasted. Because you learn and you grow from them and sometimes that bad relationship is what makes you realize what is going to be a good relationship for you. But, there’s always a little good left in every heartbreak. Don’t think it's hopeless, you do heal from it. And the next relationship you walk into, you're going to learn, you're going to know yourself better, and you're going to know what you need better, and you're going to be able to see red flags easier. And get out if it’s not the right thing. Yeah, I've just learned that breakups can be just such a good thing, I guess.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Who have you been listening to lately? What’s been inspiring you?
[LILY]: Laufey is just like my queen. I love everything she writes. She writes in such a nostalgic way or inspired by jazz and classical music. And I think just really respectful musicianship as well. Like the way she plays and sings, works with orchestras, I just love that. And this hasn’t been on repeat. I only heard it yesterday. But, Lizzie McAlpine did a cover of Dawes’ “A Little Bit of Everything.” And if you haven't heard it, go listen to either her cover or go listen to the original song because that song, I cried. And it's been such a long time since a song has made me cry. But I was like, wow these lyrics made me cry. So that’s been on repeat since I heard it, but I only heard it yesterday. But, I've listened to it like 100 times since.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What are you most excited about for the future?
[LILY]: That’s another good question. I mean, like I said, I think I took a minute to process this thing I've been working on for so long. And so I think I'm just starting to get excited about what's coming next. I'm excited to be back in the studio again and writing. I’m excited to figure out what the next project is going to be like, I think I'm already starting to get some ideas of what the main feeling of it is. So, I'm excited for that. And I'm excited to just keep getting better at performing. I've only really been pursuing the artist thing for like a year and a half. So I've had a few shows, and I'm excited to just keep getting better at that because it's something I don't feel super confident at but everyone's always so encouraging. And it's so beautiful, playing the music live and meeting people. So, that's something I'm also really excited for.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Is there a song that you’re excited to perform live from the album?
[LILY]: Well, “I Hope You Think Of Me” is fun because a lot of people that come to the show know it. So, it's been so cute to hear people singing my songs. That was like a bucket list. But I think honestly, “July (Later On)” is one of my favorite songs to play live because it just has such a warm and cozy feeling. And it kind of can get a little up tempo with the chorus. We play it with the drums and a full band. So, that's been a really fun one to sing live for sure.
