London-based five-piece, Lilith and the Knight, are getting ready to release their debut single “Wake Up†on April 22.
National Rock Review recently took the opportunity to chat with the band’s lead vocalist Lilith, to find out a bit about the band, their new single and their plans for the rest of the year.
NRR: Thanks for taking the time to speak to us here at National Rock Review, we really appreciate it.
Lilith: No problem.
NRR: So you are about to release your new single “Wake Up” via Red Vixen Records on the 22nd April. Could you tell us a little bit about the song and the inspiration behind it?
Lilith: Sure, so “Wake Up†is a song we first wrote about six months ago. So in order to give you an idea about the inspiration behind the song, I kind of have to let you know about the story of the character of Lilith. The band that I’m in is called Lilith and the Knight and Lilith is a mythological creature from Jewish mythology.
In this myth, she is basically the first wife of Adam. So you know Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, she was the wife before Eve. Where Eve was made from the rib of Adam, Lilith was made from the same earth as Adam. So what happened was after she was created they clashed in the Garden of Eden and Adam wanted her to be subordinate to him and she wasn’t having any of it.
So eventually she left, she fled and now she is kind of seen as this fallen angel, like this figure of independence, rebellion and strength. With the song “Wake Up†we kind of wanted to embody that idea. So the song itself is actually about leaving a place where you feel like you are repressed or restricted. It’s about going somewhere that you feel that you can be yourself and you can be free, and I think it’s something that a lot of people can relate to. So that’s where the idea came.
As far as the writing process for “Wake Up,†it was literally my two guitarists, they came up with the riff and it kind of flowed, like we all sat there and lyrics were, coming out at the same time as the drum beat was coming out and we managed to write it in about four hours. Yeah, and that’s how it came about.
NRR: You also have a new video which coincides with the release of the single, could you tell us a little bit about the concept behind the video?
Lilith: Yeah, so the video again we wanted to create this idea of being trapped. So in the video, it’s filmed within a really small dingy, dark space. There’s four characters shown in the video that are meant to represent the four different elements. Me, I play wind, and there’s this kid who looks really scary and he’s earth, there’s this awesomely sexy woman who plays water and then we were so lucky, we got this stunt guy in who was prepared to set himself on fire.
The concept behind it is kind of these four elements waking up, trapped and chained in this small room and throughout the video you see their strengths grow. They kind of summon their elements and there’s just like this whole massive build of power towards the end of the video. Yeah, that’s really what it’s all about, it’s just about harnessing your power and like letting yourself go basically.
NRR: So obviously this is the first single, do you have any plans to do a full-length album anytime this year?
Lilith: We are a fairly new band, we’ve been together about a year, so we are constantly writing. I don’t think we are going to have an album out this year, but we are definitely aiming to have a four-track EP released by the end of the year. However, before that, we are looking to release another single. So yeah there’s going to be some exciting stuff coming out between now and the end of the year for sure.
NRR: You just mentioned there that you guys have been going for about a year. Could you tell us a bit about the rest of the band and how you all met?
Lilith: Yeah, the idea of Lilith and the Night was conceived by me about a year ago. I was basically looking at the state of the music industry and that there’s just not that many female fronted metal acts, especially in the UK. It’s just an industry that’s really saturated by male acts, so I thought that was definitely something that I wanted to get into.
I called up my friend Stephen who is the bassist in my band and who I’ve been mates with for years and I said to him do you want to start a band and he was up for it, so although there were other musicians that I knew, I didn’t feel like any of them were kind of moving in the same musical direction as we wanted to go.
So I put up an ad online and then organized auditions, and we had an amazing turnout for the auditions, and that’s where I met the other three members of the band. It just came about like that, we just clicked so well, and it’s always a bit risky with auditions because you’ve got about ten minutes to like judge someone’s personality, you are not really sure, it’s always a worry like oh they seem cool, but they might not be. But it worked out really well; we’ve all clicked so well, we are a family now, so it’s really cool.
NRR: I believe you are also the lead singer of the NFL official UK band. Is that right?
Lilith: Yeah, we do all of the Superbowl events in the UK. So whenever they have Superbowl in America they do like a massive screening in the UK of the final, it’s usually at the Indigo O2, and I sing at that every year and sing in Trafalgar Square at the NFL fan rally, which is always amazing because everyone is in such good spirits. They’ve got cheerleaders that come out, and they fly over some of the NFL players it’s a good laugh.
NRR: Who would you describe as your musical influences?
Lilith: So for me personally I’m really into melodic metal. I love like a really heavy beat but then I also love something that’s got a great melody behind it, for example, bands like System of a Down are such a massive influence for me. I love In This Moment, Maria Brink is just crazy I love her, I draw a lot of inspiration from her she’s absolutely fantastic. Then Halestorm, I love Slipknot, stuff like that. I love it.
It’s great because the other members of my band, we all have common influences but then we also have these other influences as well. There are guys in my band that are obsessed with you know Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, and stuff and it means that when we write we are bringing in all these different influences, and it’s kind of creating something new, something fresh.
NRR: At what point did rock music enter your life?
Lilith: I think I was about 13 or 14, I was in secondary school and at that time. Everything that was playing it was like S Club 7, the Spice Girls all that kind of stuff. I just felt like I was never really into that. Then I met a girl, and she was in the year above me, and she was kind of ostracized by the other girls in her class. I remember talking to her one day, and she was like I really love this band System of a Down, and I’d never heard of them before, and she played me some of their tracks, and I was hooked, absolutely hooked. I think that was the gateway to rock and metal for me.
NRR: Who was the first band that you saw perform live?
Lilith: My first band I saw perform live was Linkin Park when I was 14 or 15 and it was amazing. Like the energy was insane and I actually went to see them again about a year ago, and I felt like I was 14 again (laughing).
NRR: If you could collaborate with any artist in particular who would be your dream collaboration?
Lilith: There’s so many, it would be a toss up between, In This Moment and System of a Down, I don’t think I could decide between the two. I would take either I’m not fussy.
NRR: In terms of live shows do you have any plans to tour this year in support of the new single or is there anywhere that you fans can see you play anytime soon?
Lilith: Yeah, we’ve got quite a few gigs coming up, it’s not a tour per se but we are gigging around London a lot at the moment. So our next gig is on the 21st April at the Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden in London, and that’s actually our single launch party, so that’s going to be fun. Then we’ve got a whole bunch of other gigs after that as well; we’ve got one at a venue that I love which is Surya on the 23rd April and another The Borderline on the 18th May.
Borderline we actually performed there about six months ago it was fantastic because they’ve had so many awesome acts perform there and it just felt like such an honor to get on the stage there. As well as that we’ve got a whole bunch of others which you can find on our website. So if anyone wants to come down they are more than welcome we love a new crowd.
NRR: For those who have yet to see you perform live yet. What can your fans expect from one of your shows?
Lilith: One of the things that is really important to us in Lilith and the Night is not only the music but really creating a show with what we do. So I don’t want to give away too much because I really want people to come down but we use props, we have candles and candelabras, incense, we like to use lighting you know strobe and stuff like that, it’s really high energy there’s going to be parts that are full out mosh pit, and there’s parts that are really mellow. We like to create dynamics and you can also expect some fairly outrageous outfits like I’ve been known to wear latex a lot on stage (laughing).
I think music has become so intertwined with the visual arts as well. Since the birth of music channels really, like music videos have become almost as important as the music themselves, I won’t say as important because I think music is the most important thing. But it has become a really important factor and it really separates you I think from other things that are going on in the industry. So you can expect something really visually exciting when you come to one of our gigs for sure.
NRR: Where do you find the inspiration for your songwriting?
Lilith: For me personally a lot of the stuff that I write it actually comes from my own emotions, so my own experiences, how I’m feeling. I put a lot of that into what I write. Also, I think from literature like when I was at university I studied English Literature, so I was reading so much.
One module that I studied was gothic literature and the actual words that they used, the vocabulary that is beautiful and I wanted to bring that into the way I write. I think I’m definitely influenced by how I’m feeling, experiences that I’ve had. Obviously other artists as well like System of a Down again and In This Moment, Halestorm, Led Zeppelin but also books, reading, poetry that kind of stuff.
NRR: What are you plans for the rest of 2016? What have you got on the cards?
Lilith: As I said we’ve got our single launch, and that’s on the 21st April. At the moment, we are working really hard plugging that and then in May we are going into filming for our next single which is going to be awesome. I don’t want to give anything away but the video is going to be really, really cool. It’s like Grindhouse, B-movie kind of Quinton Tarantino style. We are looking to release that probably mid to the end of Summer. Again it’s just going to be like promoting that trying to get our name out there and then just gigging. We are hoping to have a tour towards the end of the year to promote the EP that we want to bring out.
NRR: That sounds great. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us, we really appreciate it and good luck with the single launch, and hopefully, we will catch you on the road at some point, we will get to see a show, and we are really excited about that.
Lilith: Thank you, thanks for having me.