Half-way through her her European tour, we speak to New York based singer-songwriter Lydia Ainsworth about her myriad influences, alongside an exclusive playlist
Rising Canadian songstress and composer Lydia Ainsworth has been whipping up a storm with her experimental fusion of pop, classical orchestration and electronic melodies. The daughter of a singer-songwriter, Ainsworth grew up on a diet of Björk, The Beatles, Nirvana and Arvo Pärt – something that may explain the diversity of sounds within her own music, which draws on everything from Kate Bush and Tones On Tail to Giuseppe Verdi. Her debut album, Right From Real (released last September), is an unanticipated marriage of voice sampling and string arrangements that results in a uncluttered union of enchanting sounds, and has drawn comparisons with her label pal Grimes.
"I watched a lot of slow motion films while I was recording my album, like slow motion breaking glass"
Having studied film scoring at university before going on to write the music for a number of films, it is unsurprising that Ainsworth's music has very cinematic feel to it – she cites the scores of Philip Glass, Wendy Carlos and Michael Nyman as big influences and likes to use moving image as a source of creativity when song writing. "I watched a lot of slow motion films while I was recording my album, like slow motion breaking glass," she says. "And my song White Shadows was inspired by a film called Pas De Duex by Canadian animator Norman McLaren. I watched that on repeat while recording the song just to get the mood right."
Ainsworth's love of poetry and literature also affects her creative output. When asked to pick a favourite character, Ainsworth settles upon J. Alfred Prufrock, protagonist of the famed T.S. Eliot poem. "I love that poem and I love Elliot," she enthuses. "It's a dramatic interior monologue of a man who is feeling isolated and incapable of taking action in his life. He is a flaneur, wandering around a city, and while I was recording my record I would go for long walks and I would take my demos with me on my iPod and listen to them, and also listen to inspiring music, and I guess, in a way, I related to him then." While she's understandably guarded about letting us in on the exact songs she was listening to during the process – opting to let listeners make their own minds up about how to define her sound – she has made us a special, typically varied playlist of inspirational songs, which she describes as "a celebration of longing in the virtual age." A Valentine's Day soundtrack, perhaps?
Lydia Ainsworth will play at London's Sebright Arms next Tuesday, February 17. See here for tickets.
