ALICIA BLUE
Takes Us For A Ride with Her Dreamy Indie-Folk Anthem"Dog Days in LA"
New EP, Inner Child Work
Out July 15 via Magnetic Moon
Explores Life Directions, Self-Awareness, and New Beginnings
Takes Us For A Ride with Her Dreamy Indie-Folk Anthem"Dog Days in LA"
New EP, Inner Child Work
Out July 15 via Magnetic Moon
Explores Life Directions, Self-Awareness, and New Beginnings
"'Dog Days in LA" is a bridge between old and new, between folk and rock, between what was, what is and what’s to come,” says Nashville-based magnetic indie-folk singer-songwriter Alicia Blue about the first single/video off her new EP Inner Child Work out on July 15 via Magnetic Moon. "Dog Days in LA” is about her realization of how much she didn't have her life in California figured out. "Each song on Inner Child Work is really just about the difficulty of navigating this life and not having all the proper tools to live it in the most successful way," Blue describes. "And by successful, I mean the ‘healthiest.’ I like to think that getting this all out helps me in some way.”
Directed by Tyler Dunning Evans, the video for “Dog Days of LA” was filmed in and around the outskirts of Los Angeles and Joshua Tree. The video follows Blue driving in a convertible with the top down, air washing over her, creating a pleasurable sensory overload adorned with a unique blend of LA skylines and picturesque cityscapes.
Directed by Tyler Dunning Evans, the video for “Dog Days of LA” was filmed in and around the outskirts of Los Angeles and Joshua Tree. The video follows Blue driving in a convertible with the top down, air washing over her, creating a pleasurable sensory overload adorned with a unique blend of LA skylines and picturesque cityscapes.
Blessed with a gift for words shaped by her first passion - poetry, and a blue-sky voice to sing them, Blue says though she started out as a folk singer, she just couldn’t seem to color within those sometimes rigid genre lines for her new EP. “Intense indie rock themes started speaking to me, holding my lyrics, framing every word I was trying to say. Then, as I found myself gaining clarity on what this record was about, I decided to leave LA and move to Nashville.”
That move meant leaving the only home she had ever known, a city she both loved and felt lost/distorted in, but a trek out to Nashville to record music gave Blue perspective on her life in Los Angeles. “The poet in me sees the lost souls everywhere in LA ... at open mics, bars, parties, shows and more. I even saw it in myself. I hit a point where I started to understand myself, realizing I hadn't known WTF I was doing for so long, around a bunch of other people who didn't know WTF they were doing either. Eventually, you just have to let yourself say goodbye... not with any intention of superiority, but with a sense of finding something new.” She says "Dog Days In LA” is that bridge between “finding yourself and admitting that you were lost in the first place.”
Once in Nashville, she then found a perfect creative foil in the Nashville-based songwriter and producer Lincoln Parish, originally of the band Cage the Elephant. Parish helped to provide a solid musical foundation for her songs—including some new guitar progressions, textures, and riffs—so she could focus on doing her best, most creative writing work to date. Inner Child Work finds her grappling with some long-overdue emotional reckonings. "I didn't grow up with any faith or trust in what you might call self-help or anything like that," she says. "I got my first therapist a few years ago and realized there were things holding me back from doing what I wanted with my life. Things like anxiety, depression—I just had no language to describe them previously, so there was no way to deal with their existence.”
That move meant leaving the only home she had ever known, a city she both loved and felt lost/distorted in, but a trek out to Nashville to record music gave Blue perspective on her life in Los Angeles. “The poet in me sees the lost souls everywhere in LA ... at open mics, bars, parties, shows and more. I even saw it in myself. I hit a point where I started to understand myself, realizing I hadn't known WTF I was doing for so long, around a bunch of other people who didn't know WTF they were doing either. Eventually, you just have to let yourself say goodbye... not with any intention of superiority, but with a sense of finding something new.” She says "Dog Days In LA” is that bridge between “finding yourself and admitting that you were lost in the first place.”
Once in Nashville, she then found a perfect creative foil in the Nashville-based songwriter and producer Lincoln Parish, originally of the band Cage the Elephant. Parish helped to provide a solid musical foundation for her songs—including some new guitar progressions, textures, and riffs—so she could focus on doing her best, most creative writing work to date. Inner Child Work finds her grappling with some long-overdue emotional reckonings. "I didn't grow up with any faith or trust in what you might call self-help or anything like that," she says. "I got my first therapist a few years ago and realized there were things holding me back from doing what I wanted with my life. Things like anxiety, depression—I just had no language to describe them previously, so there was no way to deal with their existence.”
There are moments on Inner Child Work that focus on more immediate, pressing matters. "Saline Waters" is about facing mortality and is like a "darker and more aggressive take on Joni Mitchell's' 'Circle Game,'" Blue says, while the witty indie rock “DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)” states in no uncertain terms the narrator’s frustration with being told she’d look prettier and/or happier if she’d just smile.
Even when noting her admiration for authors like Jack Kerouac and Joan Didion, as well as songwriter/poets like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, it’s still difficult to pin down her exact musical influences on Alicia Blue's Inner Child Work—and that's exactly how the California singer-songwriter likes it. Although her folk roots are never far from the surface, the EP/album encompasses '90s alternative rock ("Dirty Hippie"), and even Tori Amos-esque introspection ("Fine").
Inner Child Work is indeed just the beginning for Alicia Blue, as it's an EP that finds her examining who she was and setting her sights on where she wants to be. "This EP and my existence as an artist come from a need to connect and develop relationships—yet simultaneously I've always felt like this lone candle in a dark room," Blue says. "My artistry and the album have this wildness to them. But I can also feel this softening happening. Inner Child Work is caught right at the point of in-between, which I would call healing."
Even when noting her admiration for authors like Jack Kerouac and Joan Didion, as well as songwriter/poets like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, it’s still difficult to pin down her exact musical influences on Alicia Blue's Inner Child Work—and that's exactly how the California singer-songwriter likes it. Although her folk roots are never far from the surface, the EP/album encompasses '90s alternative rock ("Dirty Hippie"), and even Tori Amos-esque introspection ("Fine").
Inner Child Work is indeed just the beginning for Alicia Blue, as it's an EP that finds her examining who she was and setting her sights on where she wants to be. "This EP and my existence as an artist come from a need to connect and develop relationships—yet simultaneously I've always felt like this lone candle in a dark room," Blue says. "My artistry and the album have this wildness to them. But I can also feel this softening happening. Inner Child Work is caught right at the point of in-between, which I would call healing."
She has been featured in other magazine and now has caught the eye of the Music Film Fashion Blog
With new music in hand, Alicia Blue is poised for a breakout this year in 2022.
"Dog Days of LA" is now available via Magnetic Moon and can be purchased/streamed here. Inner Child Work will be released on July 15, 2022 via Magnetic Moon.
"Dog Days of LA" is now available via Magnetic Moon and can be purchased/streamed here. Inner Child Work will be released on July 15, 2022 via Magnetic Moon.
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