Liz Lamere Alan Vega’s longtime collaborator has announced her debut album Keep It Alive, due May 20th via In The Red.
After collaborating with late partner Alan Vega (Suicide) for over three decades on his solo work, and starting out playing drums in punk bands, she is releasing her own music. Today, she also shares lead single “Lights Out,” the album opener which hits hard with brutal electronic drums, intense and poetic vocals, countered by dynamic textures and melodic synth riffs. The track channels the upfront positive spirit and deftly-brandished aggression that imbues the whole album.
Running concurrently with her musical activities, Lamere has been hyperactively involved in the boxing world for over fifteen years. Along with the single, she shares the boxing-focused video for “Lights Out,” directed by Jenni Hensler and filmed at Trinity Boxing Club in NYC. “’Lights Out’ was the very first track I wrote,” says Liz. “You write about what you know. It’s boxing themed. When you step in the ring your life is literally on the line. ‘Let your hands go’ is a boxing term and my mantra for going full tilt in whatever I’ve set out to do.”
All of the music and lyrics on Keep It Alive were written and performed by Liz Lamere. It was recorded in her lower Manhattan apartment during lockdown, engineered by her and Alan’s son Dante Vega Lamere in the same space where the Suicide singer constructed his light sculptures. They emerged with a riveting set of songs that are charged with irrepressible lust for life and the feel for the contagious hook. The album was then co-produced and mixed by Jared Artaud (The Vacant Lots) and Liz Lamere, with Ted Young engineering the mixing sessions and Josh Bonati mastering.
“There’s something very magical about creating music in the same environment where Alan created his visual art,” notes Liz. “His energy is pervasive and is inevitably infused in the recordings.” She continues “ We were living through unprecedented times and Keep It Alive took adversity and uncertainty and turned it into a message of resilience and empowerment.”
The album courses with the defiant energy that motivated Liz through her early double life as both Wall Street lawyer and downtown New York musician before meeting and falling in love with Vega led to her becoming his manager, creative foil and keyboard manipulator on solo albums beginning in 1990 (Deuce Avenue, Power On To Zero Hour, New Raceion, Dujang Prang, 2007, Station, IT) and recently released lost album Mutator that launched the Vega Vault she curates with Jared Artaud. After Vega passed away in July 2016, Liz found it cathartic writing down thoughts and observations in notebooks. Simultaneously, she and Artaud started collaborating, overseeing the mastering of IT and then co-producing and mixing Mutator; and during this time they naturally discussed an alliance on the solo album she knew would be forthcoming.
“Keep It Alive” is an homage to a song on Alan’s New Raceion album that has significant meaning for Lamere. It was one of the key lines she would chant on stage, becoming a staple of live performances with Alan. The vision behind the album is about preserving your own inner fire. Liz commented “Alan always encouraged me to make my own music, and I’ve waited until the time was right as I’ve been dedicated to preserving Alan’s vision and building his legacy.” It’s high time to turn up the burner!
Pre-order the album here: https://orcd.co/k3ejnnd.
DEBUT ALBUM ‘KEEP IT ALIVE’
