Lily Lothrop – Thanks for Asking!
By Staff on September 17, 2025
RRX: What was the very first reaction to your music, from the first person to ever hear
so much as a practice jam or the demo of your first song?
LL: I think the first person I played my music for was my partner. He was very supportive, but doesn’t really know anything about music so I took his enthusiasm with a grain of salt. Once I started playing for more people, I started to believe that maybe my songs were actually good.
RRX: “The best laid plans of mice and men…” I don’t really know the quote, but I know
this one; sh*t happens. When we least expect it, calamity befalls us. Sometimes just
comic inconvenience. Please tell us a story about some comic inconvenience that
happened to you whilst performing?
LL: Very early in my career I was playing at a market. It was so early in my career that I didn’t even own a PA system yet. I was supposed to borrow one from a friend, but wasn’t able to get in the building to access it. This was about 15 minutes before I was supposed to start playing. I called another friend for a favor, and they brought me a PA with literally one minute to spare. Of course my troubles didn’t end there. One of the inputs was dead and it took me 10 minutes to figure that out. It all seems silly to me now, and needless to say I bought a PA after this experience.
RRX: My singer punched my drummer out. Memorable moment, though nothing to
brag about. But we have these things that, when summing up your endeavor, an incident
comes to mind. What do you got?
LL: Nothing that crazy! Before I started writing my own music, I was mostly singing classical music. I actually studied opera in college and did a few shows, but mostly choral concerts. Because you’re standing still for so long, we were always reminded to not lock our knees, but on more than one occasion someone fainted in the middle of a performance. They were ok, and we stopped the shows to get them help.
RRX: We have to play somewhere, and sometimes those places have more going for
them than a stage and a power outlet. What is a memorable place you played, and bonus
points if it’s not a well-known place.
LL: I’m at the stage in my career where I’m mostly playing not well-known places. Lots of small venues, cafes, people’s living rooms, that sort of thing. I just recently played at Wander in Pittsfield MA. The acoustics there are incredible. Maybe it’s the classical training, but I always feel better about shows where I can actually hear myself. I’m so much more likely to focus on the meaning, and allow myself to go to another place at venues like that.
RRX: Playing out is tricky because you never know what’s going to happen when you
get there. Sometimes everything goes wrong. What was your worst show like?
LL: A bad show to me is like forgetting words, playing the wrong chords and not being able to smoothly transition from the mistake. Luckily this has only happened a few times, I usually am like “Woah ok let’s try that again” and move on as best I can. Nothing disastrous yet!!
RRX: Would you rather have one of your songs blow up and make you a one-hit wonder
and household name, or would you rather have all your songs be solidly received, but no
chart-climbers? (You have to pick one or the other here.)
LL: Honestly, either situation sounds pretty good. I think it would be fun to have a hit. I think one hit wonders are actually way more than that. In early 2014 the artist Passenger had his one hit with Let Her Go. That exposed me to his music, and I went through his back catalogue and found what ended up being some of my favorite albums of all time. I was obsessed with his music for years. He also made it a point in his music to say that he wasn’t going to “sell out” to get another hit. He hasn’t charted since, and that song wasn’t even #1 according to Billboard, but I’ve become a fan for life. I could say similar things about Suzanne Vega and Tom’s Diner. I don’t think I need to be a household name, I just want someone to resonate with my music like I resonated with theirs.
Lily Lothrop Links:
RadioRadioX