Elizabeth Le Fey aka Globelamp gif-ed at Silo Coffee for Notes from Berlin.
Globelamp discusses her intention with ‘The Orange Glow’ and her style of ‘Magical Realism’
Elizabeth Le Fey’s intention with her album, ‘The Orange Glow’ is to “draw you in with the sweet things before dropping the shit”. The album (which has been recently rereleased) starts, as sweetly as Fey’s looks when she arrives at Silo Coffee, with the “poppy” Washington Moon. Whilst Fey is infact sweet, she, like the album, has many sides.
The singer/songwriter, who performs under the guise, Globelamp, was born into music. Her mother, though not a musician, loved and lived music. It is part of the reason, beyond it being a means of expression, why she’s so taken with it. During a trip to Berlin as part of her Europe tour, Globelamp and I (and her tour manager, Jess) sat for breakfast and had a chat. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation, which covered ‘The Orange Glow’, misconceptions, fantasy and the lessons she learnt from being a part of the band, Foxygen.
Listening to Washington Moon got me thinking about creating the perfect place, because of the way you combined elements of different places. If you were to create a world what different things would you put together to make it?
I would like it if everything was solar panelled and glowing at night, and when you walk the ground turned different colours. The walls in the buildings would have crystals or stones and everything would be charged by the sun or moon current. I would like everything to be whimsical and beautiful. I am really into fantasy.
So if I could make my own world it would be fantasied out, there would be elves and fairies, there would be dragons. Anything! That’s why I like fantasy ‘cause you can make up anything. There is no logic.
You spoke about creating fantasy, is that something you do with music?
I think so. Maybe I didn’t think about it, but yeah, because I am always viewing things like that. So when I make [music] I am putting my world into a tangible form. It’s like magical realism. I am really into that genre of writing, where it is real life but it has a tinge of magic.
How do you balance both —fantasy and reality?
It varies on the song. A personal story is sometimes more universal even if it’s a personal story. If you read mythology, a lot of stories are about one character but for some reason it represents humanity. I am really into myths too and I feel that mythology is a way for us to relate to each other. So even if I am telling a personal [experience], I try to make it in a way that’s more a story, so people relate to it.
We’ve got to talk about misconceptions. On Controversial Confrontational you touch on the idea of misconceptions, so what are some of the misconceptions associated with you?
That song is funny cause the lyrics I feel them all the time. I’m not trying to be this, it is just what i mean. Sometimes when you say the truth it ends up being a controversial thing, even though it is the truth. If you lie and gloss it over people are happier...maybe [lying] creates more of an orange glow.
The fact that I would talk about what happened to me publicly [with Foxygen], a lot of people would be like don’t be negative, stop talking about it. That’s a misconception too; that you can’t be a woman who is angry about something. They act like I am not doing anything with my life -I am releasing an album, I’ve already written another one, I’m on tour, but somehow if I talk about something negative, [it’s] like do something with your life. I am a human with a spectrum of emotions. Just because I am angry about something doesn’t mean I am an angry person. I hate those misconceptions.
You spoke about Foxygen, how did that experience inform this one?
It just gave me a lot of insight into how the music world works. It made me more confident as a performer and now I know what to expect —now I am not that naive.
Want to know what informed the The Orange Glow? Globelamp discussed the thoughts that informed her album in our preview feature. ‘The Orange Glow’ is available on Spotify and iTunes. Find Globelamp online at globelamp.tumblr.com
