Lyza Jane makes music for late night mischief and hazy Sunday afternoons alike. An artist who simultaneously feels brand new yet like they’ve been around for a while, there’s a shapeshifting vitality to the sound of Jane. Taking a left-field route into the industry, she rose alongside notorious alt hip hop label Blah Records, working with the likes of Lee Scott and Black Josh on her debut album in 2019, HOUSEBOUND.
After years somewhat lurking below the scene’s surface — with the exclusion of the odd effervescent single — she returned with aplomb last month with the unveiling of her new five-pronged EP “Something in the Rye”. Translucent and atmospheric yet piercing and poignant, the fresh project shows the impressive artistic evolution that Jane has undergone over the past few years, now more chiselled and explorative in her songwriting, identifiable by her approach, and captivating in her sonics. It’s a gorgeous EP, now further augmented by the release of dreamy visuals for standout cut, “Up Above”.
Lyza took some time out to chat with Wonderland, catching up on her relationship with Blah Records and the UK underground, and dissecting the making and meaning of “Something in the Rye”.
Listen to the EP…
Read the full interview…
Hey Lyza! How has your year been so far?
It’s been full of monumental change which has been scary but refreshing.
How do you feel reflecting back on your career to date?
I’m really proud of all my releases and like that I’ve been able to grow with complete creative control. Looking back is like looking through an old photo album. Each project marks such a different stage in my life and brings back so many memories of where I was at that point in time.
Talk us through your relationship with Blah Records and why they are so important to the UK underground culture?
Blah encapsulates creative control. Each artist has a totally different sound and approach to creating. It’s important not only to underground culture but just to music in general – unlike so much we hear today the label never follows a trend, it’s always really authentic. I’ve actually only released one project though Blah but I feel like whatever I create always seems to fit in despite it not being UK hip hop. So much of music is about collaboration and being inspired by the people around you and Blah provides just that.
Congrats on your new EP “Something In The Rye”! How does it feel to have the project out in the world?
I hate using the phrase ‘a weight off my shoulders’ in this context because it implies it’s been a negative experience up to that point but it does always feel like a weight has been lifted. Something you hyper-fixate on for so long is suddenly done and out there and you now get to sit back and watch it do its thing. It’s a great feeling. I also find I overthink how it will be received and then once it’s released, as long as I listen back and think ‘yeah this is exactly what I wanted’, I have a lot less interest in what other people think than I’d initially anticipated. At the end of the day you create for yourself. Everything else comes second.
What was the creative process of the body of work?
This one was a real journey in the sense that each track went though many transformations. It’s a collection of songs that I didn’t necessarily foresee ending up together on the same project but I’m so happy they did. “Everyday” came first and was actually written back in 2022. It was written to a very disjointed drum pattern I’d quickly punched in and I wasn’t sure what to do with it until i sent it to Matt (Hyroglifics). What he built around it really set the tone for the rest of the project.
What themes do you touch on lyrically?
The content of this project is particularly driven by my concept of time and that longing to discover a purpose really. I think a lot about time and our relationship with it so it’s often an underlying theme for me.
What inspired the project sonically?
I always think my music is quite personal, something to drive to, commute with great headphones or something to listen to late at night. So sonically I think I try to capture this. I wanted something that sounded like night time.
You’ve shared the video for EP standout “Up Above”. How did you work to translate the tone and aesthetic into a visual depiction?
It was a really happy accident that just pieced itself together naturally at the right time. It’s essentially made up of three videos that I’d loved but for one reason or another felt were incomplete and they’d all ended up with the same unreleased fate. These separate pieces of footage really captured pivotal points in my life and the theme of growing and staying connected to the past really worked with the track. I was recently on holiday and just thought I’d have a rough go at editing this archive of unused footage on iMovie and ended up with something that actually really resonated with the song.