Tuesday Tunes: A Melodic and Minimalist Voice

Peaceful and minimalistic, Alev Lenz’s brand of atmospheric pop is best showcased in her 2016 album Two Headed Girl and has achieved further recognition after her haunting vocals led the finale of this year’s Black Mirror. Her newest video, ‘Eggshell’, demonstrates her talent in exploring vulnerability and doubt through simple, yet striking imagery. Lingering throughout the video is the theme of OCD which complements Lenz’s lyrics discussing fragility. ‘It is a very personal song,’ she says, ‘I am lucky enough that it holds something personal for the hearer too and when Daniel Fletcher [the director] interpreted it through OCD, I followed his lead. He wanted to talk about living with something you’d prefer to live without. Something engrained in our personality that while tiresome, is a defining part of us.’

Of course, the sense of fragility and anxiety is experienced by almost everyone but few are able to channel this quite like Lenz. Of herself, the singer says that ‘I am sometimes very close to breaking but at the same time very strong…I can take a lot of pressure, in the right spots. The infantile is kept safe by the eggshell that can take a lot of pressure. But is it maybe better to break and in that way to break free and breaking free, what does that even mean?’ Her musings are themselves a reflection of the interior qualities of the song and its theme.

CM: How long did it take to write the song?

AL: Oh! I don’t remember at all! I had the chords and melody quite quickly and wrote many lines for the verse. I had more words at one point, I even started performing the song before it was 100% finished and then scrapped some verses. I really don’t know, a few months I would say?!

CM: What sort of creative process do you go through when you write and record a song?

AL: I wish I could answer that because then I would replicate it once I need new songs. But I think it is sort of like a collector. I collect ideas and words, little melodies and images, ideas and visions to what I need to say next. And it builds up, builds up and one day in has to just all come out and there will be an outpour, a first sort of grand scheme, often already some song titles and then I piece the puzzle together.

CM: What’s next for Alev Lenz?

I am currently piecing the puzzle together for my third album.