Lily Morgan: Nothing Ever Truly Stays Solo

Lily Morgan is the talented songwriter behind Stella and the Reptilians, a group she’s now formed after years of writing and performing original material. Morgan wrote in via email to discuss a new release, what it’s like for her to work with a full band, and more.

RRX: First, introduce yourselves! If you could list out the names of the band members and their roles, that would be great!

LM: Stella and the Reptilians are Gabe Klinger-Horn (lead guitar), Nick Santos (bass), Evan Randall (drums) and Lily Morgan (vocals and rhythm guitar).

RRX: Give us some insight into the name of the project. Is “Stella” based on any real person, or is the name more conceptual than that?

LM: The name “Stella and the Reptilians” actually comes from a doctor named Stella Immanuel who Trump sided by on her views of COVID. She also believes that the government is partly run by reptiles and aliens. My roommate brought this story up to me and thought that Stella and the Reptilians would be a sick name for a band. Then after writing songs for the band, “Stella” actually ended up becoming an alter ego for me.

RRX: I see you (Lily Morgan) have been performing as a solo artist for as far back as 2016/2017, what led to you forming a full band?

LM: Most of my music career besides this point has been solo. Then I got to college and started to get comfortable with performing and collaborating with people, I realized that I really wanted to be in a band. Once I heard that some of my friends we’re looking to play with other musicians, we grouped up and formed Stella.

RRX: I see you’ve also released music as a solo artist, what impact has working with others had on your music?

LM: My favorite part of working with my bandmates is hearing what they have to add on to the song. So far, our process has started with me writing the lyrics, melody and rhythm guitar part and everyone comes up with their instrumentals after. My bandmates are wicked creative and talented and I just love hearing all of our individual ideas blend together in the final product.

RRX: I see you also recently released a new single. What were some of the biggest influences on this track?

LM: For our latest release, my biggest influence with the songwriting came from Phoebe Bridgers (with a subtle pop twist). I wrote this song before we had come up with the band name, but I knew I wanted the song to have a full band energy similar to Snail Mail.

RRX: I saw that the profit from the new single is going to the Kyle Robinson Memorial, which is awesome. Can you explain to the readers a bit about this non-profit, what it means to you, and how others can help out?

LM: The Kyle Robinson Memorial Foundation is a non-profit that is tied very closely to our band. Kyle was a great friend of ours (especially Gabe and Nick, who even got the privilege to perform with him on many occasions) and Kyle also co-produced/played synth on our latest single. This song wouldn’t have been the same without his creative vision and insight. Especially with the vocals. In the studio, him and Dan Carr (who also co-produced) would have me scream out the lyrics before takes when I felt like I couldn’t reach a note with the right amount of emotion. He was really helpful with making the process the least amount of overwhelming for me. It only felt right to donate the profits to the foundation that our friends created for Kyle. If you want to learn more about the foundation and send in a donation, you can head to https://www.krmemorialfoundation.org/.

RRX: Do you have future plans for new releases that you wanted to talk about?

LM: We have a couple exciting things on the horizon! We’re planning to release a music video for our debut single really soon, along with releasing a single off of our EP (which should be released in the spring).

RRX: I see you’ve done some livestream shows as well, can you explain what it’s like shifting from live performances to livestreams? (if it’s easier or perhaps more challenging).

LM: Personally, I’ve found livestreams shows to be more difficult than live performances. I haven’t done a livestream with the full band just yet, but what I like most about live performances is feeding off of the energy of the audience. That helps me have a stronger performance rather than just performing to a camera. But either way, it’s a lot of fun!

RRX: What are some of your favorite local bands/friends you want to shout out?

LM: Woo! Shout out to Laveda, Lemon of Choice, This Strange Paradise and Lily (our bassist Nick’s project)! Just a few of my Albany favorites.

facebook.com/stellaandthereptilians
Instagram: @stellaandthereptilians

Check out their new single “iykyk (We Had it All)” streaming now!