Photo Credit: David Black
Originally appeared on Irvine Weekly.
Alex Lilly’s new album is called 2% Milk, but she would never touch the stuff. “I’m trying to drink less [of it]…But when I do have milk I definitely have whole milk.” Two percent is just watered down anyway. It reflects a part of society that bothers her; throughout our conversation on a frigid afternoon at Echo Park Lake she gives wry examples: “Tinder is the two percent milk of dating.” Or, our perpetual connectivity is “not what the creator had in mind.” Ultimately, she tells me, “we take too much for granted.”
The record’s title comes from an impromptu poem written by Jacqueline Suskin. Lilly was at the Bootleg Theater with her then-boyfriend for an event a couple of years ago when they came across Suskin sitting with an old typewriter. He gave the prompt of “lowfat milk” and a short while later she delivered a provocative few stanzas about the chemical homogenization of our society. The poem came to mind after Lilly had written a keyboard melody for a new song — in fact the words fit perfectly.
Sawdust & Gin 