Death Hags' music sits at the other end of the spectrum from Christmas pop songs and hummable ditties, like those from our friend Make Like Monkeys. The music of Death Hags is empyreal, surrounding, and is something you experience rather than merely listen to. There are times when this exactly what I want - a mood rather than a song. Mentally combine Weather Report, George Harrison's Electronic Sound", and Suzanne Ciani and you get something like what Death Hags delivers.
Death Hags has released two Christmas/Winter themed albums, Frozen Santa and Exit to Winter Planet. There is a lot to like on these, from the pure original compositions, to the cover of Roger Miller's "Old Toy Trains", to the interjection of popular carol motifs within near-supernatural musical wrappers.
Her Bandcamp bio describes Death Hags music as "genre-bending world of dreamy noir pop, dark ambient, and experimental electronic music." Lola G, originally from Los Angeles, is now "currently living in the woods near New York City, working on the epic seven-album project Big Grey Sun."
Lola enthusiastically agreed to an interview with Merry & Bright! about her music, and so we dug into not only her Christmas/Winter work but also her multi-album project-in-progress. Lola is fantastic, and is exactly the type of artist I like to support. I hope that you all take a liking to Death Hags as much as I have. It'll definitely be something new for you to to add to your musical library.
Links to Death Hags' Bandcamp and Facebook pages follow the interview. Please take a moment or two this season to treat yourself to the incredible, original music from Death Hags.
Merry & Bright! Interview with Lola G.
MB: Let’s start with getting to know more about you and your music. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your musical persona Death Hags? What should listeners new to your music know about you?LG: The name Death Hags came out of a brainstorming session and appealed to me because it wasn’t taken and sounded weird enough to be just about anything. I wasn’t sure where I was going with the project, I thought it might turn into a space rock band Hawkwind style or a super experimental electronic project. I’ve been told that I should change it because it’s ugly and I make pretty music, but that’s kind of the point! Subvert expectations. It does require a bit of an adventurous mind but once you’re in, it’s comfortable for the heart and expands the mind. I sometimes call it interstellar psychedelic noise pop, and one of my London fans came up with "Future sound of dystopian romance" which I really like. More prosaically, there's guitar pop, synthesizers and ambient soundscapes. And bass, I am a bass player first and foremost.
MB: Your first album with a Christmas theme was “Frozen Santa”, released in December 2020. “Frozen Santa” bends and expands what we call “Christmas Music”. I get a strong sci-fi vibe, especially on “Titan Icy World”. Can you tell us about the album overall and how you created the sound portrait of “Frozen Santa”?
LG: Yes, it is supposed to be a “Christmas in space” album which I guess also applies to my other Christmas releases. I had always wanted to do a Christmas album and with the pandemic happening it seemed like the perfect time. The city was still largely on lock down in LA over the holidays and there was something both eerie and inspiring about it. LA is not exactly cold in the winter so it’s the perfect place to romanticize cold weather and frozen landscapes. Frozen Santa is both about Christmas in space on a very cold Saturn moon (Titan, which incidentally has been rumored to harbor life) and about the isolation of the pandemic.
MB: The songs “Frozen Santa” and “Xmas on Your Own” have a melancholy spirit in the lyrics. Given the timeframe (2020), were these songs created as a portrait of our first pandemic Christmas?
LG: Yes, I wrote them both during that time and they are about a pandemic Christmas. I’m a huge fan of Phil Spector Christmas songs so they’re sort of my version of a Phil Spector Christmas song. Xmas on Your Own came out pretty fully formed, it was one of those moments where it just happens. I wrote Frozen Santa in my head during my morning walks in Griffith Park.
MB: Your one cover on the album, the great Roger Miller’s “Old Toy Trains”, is fantastic – I absolutely love it. Can you tell us the story behind choosing this song for the record, and giving it a uniquely Death Hags sound?
LG: I wanted to do a cover that wasn’t obvious and I’ve always loved that song. I remember it from childhood -- someone used to sing it to me or something and I find it so beautiful and melancholic. I tried making it sound like me and it somehow worked so I was very excited. Ironically I did it in GarageBand on my iPad as a demo and I could never replicate it well in a more hi-fi version so I used my iPad version on the album. That’s why it’s so lo-fi.
MB: “When the Snow Starts to Fall” and “North Pole Chaos”, mostly instrumental but with gorgeous vocal motifs from Christmas standards, are ethereal and enveloping. What experience do you hope that your listeners have when hearing these songs?
LG: I love the idea of putting something that belongs to popular culture in a very experimental track so if they’re curious enough to listen to them, there's a bit of a twist and I hope they will go - wait is that Jingle Bells? And appreciate the mix of two things that are so different.
MB: “Supersonic Noel” was your release in 2022, with an expanded edition in 2023 titled “Exit to Winter Planet”. The music on these albums, to me, hearkens to an other-worldly, atmospheric soundscape for the listening experience. Can you share your thoughts on these linked projects as the creator?
LG: That was indeed the idea, so I'm glad it came through. It was an expansion of the more experimental tracks on Frozen Santa, with the Christmas-in-space-on-a-frozen-planet theme. I wanted to do something more dreamy and ethereal with some of the same motifs. I get really mystical around Christmas and I wanted to make music that reflected that. More generally, I like to make music that is a bit mysterious and create my own world.
MB: Do you have any more Christmas or Christmas-adjacent projects in the works?
LG: I was actually going to do one this year but I had to stop myself so I can keep working on my Big Grey Sun project otherwise it will never be finished! I find Christmas inspiring because I have a hyperactive mind and it gives me something to focus on, it narrows down the options and yet it’s also so wide you can do just about anything. Even the Cocteau Twins have done Christmas songs.
MB: I want to touch on your magnum opus-in-progress, your seven album project titled “Big Grey Sun”, with the first four Big Grey Sun albums currently available. Please tell us about this project, its inspiration, and your musical goals for the album series.
LG: Yes, the Project! I have been stuck on a few tracks from Big Grey Sun #5 and #6 that I keep rewriting because I'm not happy with them so it has been delayed. I love epic projects -- trilogies, series, box sets, like Sufjan Stevens' one album for each State project that he will never finish. So a few years ago when I was starting Death Hags, I was trying to put together a band for a show and I was attacked by a dog at the practice space. Really bad dog bite, I spent two days with a fever hallucinating and recording a bunch of instrumentals that I have no memory of writing. I also wrote some lyrics, and the idea of a seven album project came to me then. Seven being a magic number, part of the collective unconscious, it made sense. I had a song called Big Grey Sun that was about always wanting to know what’s beyond the hill, always seeking for something else, it was perfect as an anchor so that’s how it started. Once it’s done it will fit together as a whole because there are recurring themes musically and lyrically but each chapter can be listened to separately. The main themes are the unknown and the various archetypes of transformation - the journey through the underworld, the dark night of the soul, the alchemy of the self.
MB: I find your music to be amazing, filling the need for particular moods and moments. Who are some of your musical inspirations? If I were to guess, I might say Suzanne Ciani, but I could be wrong.
LG: Thank you!! I do like to think that I am not genre-focused but mood-focused. And yes I do like Suzanne Ciani. She is a true pioneer, I love artists who are entirely unique. I spent a year once only listening to musique concrete and avant-garde music like Suzanne Ciani, Eliane Radigue, Pierre Schaeffer. I haven’t listened to music the same way since. I highly recommend it. But I listen to so much stuff it’s always hard to point to a particular influence. I think I’ve been influenced mostly by British artists, from Wire to Eno to The Cure to Broadcast to Aphex Twin, early synth bands like OMD and Pet Shop Boys, plus industrial music and Sonic Youth. One of my greatest musical moments was discovering Drexciya, a pioneer duo that came out of the Detroit techno scene of the 1980s and made incredibly inventive electronic music, had a whole concept to their art and an anonymous persona so you could say they tick all my boxes. Most of all though, I think I'm influenced by cinema. If I had to describe my music with film I would say it's a mix of Wong Kar-Wai, David Lynch and Blade Runner.
MB: Lola – thank you so much for your time. I hope that this interview serves as an introduction to you for many new fans. I’ll surely be staying connected and following your work. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
LG: Thank YOU so much for listening and caring. In our crowded noisy world, it really means a lot. I'm hoping to have Big Grey Sun #5 finished around the holidays, which will come with a lathe-cut release so if anyone is interested they should keep an eye on Bandcamp.
Death Hags on Bandcamp
Death Hags Facebook Page
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