Two-time Silver Scroll Nominee Lydia Cole discusses the significance of her latest album The Lay of the Land.
Lydia Cole Photo: Alex Behan
Lydia Cole says the most important word in both her life as a musician and in her personal life is 'integrity'.
That integrity shines through on her second full-length album The Lay of the Land, with its poignant songs that speak of personal crises, all arranged and executed with an understated minimalism that creeps up on you and lingers with you long after hearing the songs.
“I’ve always been interested in integrity and I think that the older I get, the less sway my emotions have on me and the more I’m trying to nourish the brain side of myself – wisdom. I’m trying to hold onto things that are a bit more solid than my emotions.
"When I come to a conclusion about something – for example, that drinking so much in these settings and with these people is putting me in positions where I make really bad decisions every time, I can now see that it’s happening and I want to stop. Because I feel that I am living without integrity. So I change that behaviour.”
The Lay of the Land as an album title represents to Lydia the natural state of the world and the acceptance we as humans have for our position in it.
“There’s a lyric in the song 'Telepathise' that is, ‘Hurt the earth, bite the hand,’ meaning that by hurting the earth we are biting the hand that feeds us, which is absolute folly.
"We can look at a mountain and realise that a mountain is a mountain and it affects me, it is part of the lay of the land. But actually, if we make decisions and we have integrity we have to realise that we effect the mountain in return.”
Lydia Cole is set to tour the album around New Zealand and Australia before relocating herself to Berlin, to soak in some new experiences which no doubt will result in more wonderful music rooted in integrity.
