8 Questions for Fenne Lily, Singer-Songwriter

The NYC-based singer-songwriter—and songwriting teacher!—on dream picnics, Hall & Oates, and a creative use for vintage Playboys.

Portrait by Michael Tyrone Delaney.

This issue’s guest wrote and performed the album I’ve listened to perhaps the most over the past year: 2020’s Breach by the British-born, New York City-based singer-songwriter, Fenne Lily. I’m a little late to the party having only being introduced to her music last year —via her peer, Phoebe Bridgers—but Breach, and then subsequently her other records—On Hold (2018) and Big Picture (2023)—have been on near weekly rotation. I also discovered we have both accidentally eaten Lush bath products.

—Hamish

Hamish: How do your surroundings influence your creative work?

Fenne: More than is convenient. Living in NYC is obviously noisy and overstimulating so I work at night mostly, which has always suited me best - daytimes are for gathering. I used to think I needed to be totally alone and with a lot of time in order to find an idea but recently I’ve written some of my favourite songs in very little time, in other people’s apartments, waiting for them to get ready or waiting for a movie to load. I guess the common denominator is ‘indoors and comfy’, and somewhat romantic (any room with rugs and lamps).

Hamish: What tools or techniques have transformed the way you work?

Fenne: The way I write hasn’t changed dramatically since I started but I’ve become more adept at staying in a feeling long enough to get more than an initial idea, and more used to being flexible with direction—going in blind and seeing where the first words lead me rather than deciding up front what I should be working towards. One technique (if I can call it that) is I’ll write a first verse from my own perspective and then for the rest of the song, try to write as if I’m watching myself from above. So I become the character and the narrator—or something like that. It helps me climb out of myself.

Hamish: Where do you turn when you’re feeling creatively blocked?

Fenne: If I have a melody and I’m stuck on lyrical direction I use this thing I’m calling the “book method”—I’ll open a magazine or a cookbook, something far away from poetry—I usually use a ‘69 Playboy—and I’ll record myself singing a page of it. Most of the words obviously don’t work to be sung but every time I do it I find at least a few words or phrases that serve as jumping off points, things I’d never have dug out of my brain otherwise.

To reframe songwriting as a puzzle has helped me get around being stuck.

Hamish: What reading material is currently on your nightstand?

Fenne: My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum, I’ll read anything she writes now that I’ve found her. And Nothing But a Graveyard, the debut book from a friend of mine, Daniel Theodore—reflections on loss and personal essays around being left and leaving. It’s beautiful and funny and smart—hard recommend.

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Hamish: If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Fenne: Leave as soon as you know you can’t stay.

Hamish: What is one piece of art you’d like to own and live with?

Fenne: Antony Gormley’s The Angel of the North. I’d put it on my roof.

Hamish: Do you have a favorite lyric you’re written, and why?

couldn’t love you more if I tried but I think I’ll try ‘cause I think I could

It’s kind of a circle, and it kind of doesn’t make sense—but there’s something chewy about it.

Hamish: Lastly, you get to book 5 bands/musicians (past or present) to appear on a single lineup—who do you choose?

Fenne: I would never watch a five band bill—unless they all played for 20 minutes or all together as one big band. Actually yes, these five artists, all together in one big band—Townes Van Zandt, Hall and Oates, Karen Dalton, Pops Staples, and Belle and Sebastian.

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Hamish: You teach songwriting — what is one tip you can share?