First Look: Lilith Ai Serves Up The Ruckus With "Yeah Yeah" [Video Premiere + Exclusive Interview]
Lilith Ai is at the apex of London’s feminist underground. Or rather, a rising culture of young and mostly women musicians and artists who are bringing their brash style of feminism to London’s DIY scene. The Northeast London-born musician and illustrator is inciting riots with a guitar and a pen. Inspired by the '90s Riot Grrrl movement, Ai and a group of friends founded Fight Like A Girl, a collective of female artists sparking revolution in London’s basements one Feminist Club Night at a time. She’s joined by fellow badass Londoners like Skinny Girl Diet.
A feminist illustrator, Ai’s drawings are inherently punk. They often come with bold statements about girl power, female solidarity and just generally not giving a fuck. One drawing perfectly sums it up: “We don’t care if we fit in your box.”
That same emboldened messaging carries over to Ai’s music. Lyrically, the singer-songwriter continues in the tradition of riot grrrls like Sleater Kinney and Kathleen Hanna. “I am your wayward daughter, your black-eyed son, I don’t know where I’m headed, but I know how to run. And my heart says riot, riot, revolution” she declares on her free-spirited anthem, “Riot.”
Sonically, Ai’s music has more in common with London’s alternative soul movement than 1994 Seattle. “Hang Tough,” Ai’s debut single, is a heartfelt reminder to keep your head up. “Yeah Yeah” is multi-layered in its feel-good call for self-assurance.
Ai’s music and art converge on her recent collection of songs, the Riot EP. Released in November on Lo Recordings, the four-track project was accompanied by a book Ai created with photographer and fashion model Georgia May Jagger. What was originally intended to be an eight-page ‘zine grew into nearly 150 pages of illustrations, song lyrics, poetry and photography known collectively as The Riot Notebook.
Today, Ai debuts a follow-up to the project in the form of the deluxe Riot EP. The new release includes an acoustic version of “Riot” as well as Ai’s own guitar-laden rendition of “U.N.I.T.Y.” by one of her heroes, Queen Latifah.
We caught up with Ai over Skype for this week’s installment of First Look Friday. Read on for our full conversation as well as OKP’s exclusive premiere of the animated “Yeah Yeah” music video. The Riot EP (Deluxe) is out today on Lo Recordings.
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Okayplayer: For those who are unfamiliar, can you let them know just who is Lilith Ai?
Lilith Ai: I am a woman from London and I make music and art. I try and get by in my life, y'know, try and get through the day. I try to enjoy things as much as possible. I have a theory about life: You can aim to where you're headed but you can't guarantee exactly where you're going to go. You can manifest things by really wanting them and really working towards them, but I still believe that you're not the only thing in the universe. It [the universe] still has its own ways of doing stuff, so I believe that you should just live every day where you want to enjoy yourself as much as possible. By doing this, your journey through life is as happy and fun as possible. Also, try to make other people (and yourself) as much as you can, and you'll have a really good journey in life. All in all, it doesn't matter so much where you end up, as it does how you got there.
OKP: That philosophy is very interesting and I like that a lot, but how has it influenced your music and your art?
LA: No, I do not really worry about how other people are going to feel about it because I'm trying to enjoy it all as much as possible. When I do shows now, I make them as enjoyable for myself and hopefully that will encourage other people to love the feeling as well. When I write things or draw things I really want to connect with the people. In life, I feel lonely at times and I want my own music to hitch itself to those who love music. Once that happens, you feel connected in some really weird spiritual way [to music].
OKP: Growing up into yourself as an artist — what were you like in high school?
LA: I was very isolated and very insular. I spent most of my time in art class, block drawing ideas in my mind. I was one of those weird kids who owned a lot of comic books, so I would just draw things that I would see in them. In high school, I also wore a hood all the time and was just really to myself. Really, that was what I was like, weird, and people considered me really weird [laughs]. I did not enjoy high school, to be honest, as it was not a fun time. But by my late teens, I was really heavily into music and attempted to make music a full-time thing.
I got over the weird and socially awkward thing like a year or two-years-ago. I didn't know what was going to happen with my life, but something clicked where I thought to myself, "Fuck it, I've got nothing to lose." Why would I be worried at all about what other people think? After that there was this breakthrough with my music, which happened once I didn't give a fuck anymore and I did whatever I wanted to do.
OKP: Did not giving a fuck inspire you to begin cultivating your latest EP? When did you start creating the music for The Riot EP?
Artwork by Lilith Ai
LA:The Riot EP began when I was living in a broken down car in Tottenham, which is a really shit part of London. At the time, I was having a shitty time: my car got towed and the police took it away. It was in those moments where I started writing the music.
OKP: So, what came first: the illustrations or the music?
LA: It's all chicken and egg, really. Some illustrations come out first, some music comes first. I'll draw something, sometimes and it makes me think of a song. Other times, I'm recording a song and while I'm doing that I think of something that I want to draw. Sometimes I just draw stuff. I used to think that you only have so much creativity, but that is wrong. By drawing a lot, I thought that my music would suffer and if I'm singing and playing the guitar, my art would suffer.
I had this weird revelation that changed all of that. Talking to a friend of mine, she told me, "No, it's limitless. Creativity is limitless." It struck. I was like, "Oh, my God, it [creativity] probably is."
OKP: Speaking of friends, can you talk about the crew that you're a part of called 'Fight Like A Girl'...?
LA: Sure, it's a group of friends and we're all feminist musicians who want to support each other. We are always at each other's gigs, supporting each other, giving constructive criticism that helps us all and express ourselves to get better. We put on shows together. We're actually in the middle of making a new magazine for the summer. It's going to be at least 60 pages of art, writing and other stuff, so even if we haven't seen each other as much as we used to, we're collaborating on this book and mixtape which will come out with it.
We're working on taking it to some schools in an effort to talk with high school girls about not being mean to one another. It all started because a lot of female musicians are not very nice to other female musicians. It truly doesn't make any sense. Why are you criticizing this girl's legs when she is playing an instrument? Who gives a shit about her legs? Also, I don't want people judging my legs... it doesn't make any sense to do that. Guys do it to girls and I don't like it, but girls do it to girls, which makes me feel like what are you doing?! Within that is basically the point of what 'Fight Like A Girl' is.
OKP: With that said, then what does the Riot Grrrl Movement mean to you?
LA: Just women being awesome and doing it for yourself as well. [The movement] is not really about, "Okay, I want to do this, so who's going to do this for me?" It is more like, "Okay, I want to do this and I'm gonna do it." Just do it, just put it out and don't really worry about things so much. The Riot Grrrl movement is a celebration of being a person and being a human being with boobs.
OKP: Do you ever take any umbrage or issue with the Queen Latifah comparisons?
LA: Oh no, oh no, not at all! She is amazing. She is so cool. I don't really know what she does now, but in the '90s, her reign was amazing. I love it, I love it. Any comparisons to that amazing woman is appreciated!
OKP: If I can, I wanted to ask you more about your music. "Yeah Yeah" is such a beautiful song, but can you break down the story behind it?
LA: "Yeah Yeah" was the first song that I wrote and produced for this EP. It is just [a song] talking about myself. I'm not sure there is even a subject because it is a very self-styled song. I'm explaining who I am, about where I come from in London, what it is like to live there and how I feel as a person. Musically, I've probably re-produced that song maybe five times, with the first time I played it at this weird studio made of hay at some festival [laughs].
OKP: How does the music video relate to "Yeah Yeah"...?
LA: It is animated. While I was looking for someone to do the video, I came across this girl Gina and she had a really cool website. I messaged her and she was just so nice and so sweet. I had gone to do a gig near where she lives in Bristol, so she came down and we met. She was really a lovely girl and a real talent. I was blown away when she made the video. All of the ideas in the video were what she had come up with. I liked it that she is an independent artist doing her thing, setting up her own company and getting started from the roots up. She's song, which is another thing that attracted me to work with her.
OKP: Through it all, the ups, the downs, the loneliness and the camaraderie — why is it so cool to be a woman in today's world?
LA: [Laughs] I don't know, that's like the hardest question. I really don't know about today. I think it is amazing to be a woman in the world at all times. When you think about how coincidental and awe-inspiring the world is, you see how the essences of women is fueled by their natural creativity. I think this is more so than men because life comes through women in a natural way. And I believe that that is just the coolest thing if you think about it. We're just carbon from the stars like random carbon from the universe, which has just come together, and we [women] have a godlike ability to create and mold life within us. I truly believe that that is inspiring and astonishing.
Be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for more from Lilith Ai (and us!) by following her on Facebook @LilithAi.