Americana singer-songwriter Holly Lerski released her new album, Sweet Decline, on April 26, 2024, via Laundry Label. In 2019, reeling from the pain of a long-term breakup, the British alt-Americana troubadour hit the road and the creative muse struck. Written in two “suites,” her fifth studio album, Sweet Decline, was born of that travel. Lerski embarked on a whirlwind solo road trip with a miniature guitar across seven U.S. states in 20 days, during which she wrote the first seven songs in quick succession. Two months later, she returned, this time wandering the Southern California desert and coast, where she penned the next three. Her last song, “Girl in a High Castle,” was written in a shepherd’s hut in Dorset just before leaving England.
Holly Lerski’s brand-new album, “Sweet Decline,” is as personal as it gets. Packed with deep dives into the emotions after a breakup, it runs the gamut from melancholy to joy, as Lerski plumbs her mind and heart. It’s a cathartic listen, as she takes us on a journey – the songs were written on two road trips – and shares her experiences along the way. Glorious and gorgeous, it’s a keeper of an album and an early contender for best of 2024.
Hi, Holly! You have a terrific new album just out called “Sweet Decline.” How did these songs come together and what broad strokes can you tell us about the collection?
Thank you. I’m so happy you like it. Back in 2019, I got my heart broken. One day, I had a crisis moment, and I decided I had to make a radical change in my life, and my crazy solution was go on a bucket list road trip in America. It was total pie in the sky thinking, but I was in survival mode, desperate to get happy again. Last minute, I decided I needed to take a guitar and bought this miniature one, and basically these songs appeared on the road. I never intended to write an album. So it’s a song cycle, really, of someone on the road trying to figure their life out and get better.
One of the songs on your new album, “Oh Cassy Run,” is really great and stood out to me. What can you tell us about this song? What inspired you to write it and what is it about?
That was written on California State Route 198 from Sequoia National Park to Los Angeles. It started as a short poem I’d written about my dog, Cassy, just before the trip. She’d been asleep, her head lying on my shoulder, and she started to have a doggy dream. These lines came out: “Trill and tremble, body quivers as she sleeps. Does she dream of pine woods, resin needles under feet.” So on that first road trip, I was leaving Sequoia after a few days in the wilderness, heading to LA – never been before, only ever seen it in the movies – and I started to sing the poem, only this time a chorus came. Suddenly, it was a song. I think I was just feeling so euphoric as I’d been travelling for over two weeks by then, and I was feeling free and untamed. I wanted to stay that way forever.
What was it like recording this album overall? What was the vibe in the studio, and how did this song, in particular, come together?
Recording this album is possibly the most significant creative group project I’ve ever been part of. My road trips had been a series of random lucky breaks and meeting the right people at the right time, and that’s what happened here. I’d come to Nashville to recover from Covid. Hadn’t planned to make the record, and then I met someone and fell head in love. Didn’t think that would happen, either. She happened to know a guy who’d just built a studio called Bunkernoise and suggested I make the album there. I met producer Matt Roley, and we clicked immediately. It’d been a bit of a metaphysical awakening out there in the woods and deserts – I wanted to somehow bottle it and share it – and he totally got that. Didn’t think it was woo woo. So we recorded everything very intuitively and quickly, to capture the spirit. Roley brought in his friends, Alex McCollough and Josh Hunt, to play drums, pedal steel, and a few other bits. My best friend, Abby – who I’d met on my first trip and who’s supported my project ever since – came and sang on it. We managed to get SistaStrings, who were passing through town, in. None of it was rehearsed or overworked, because we didn’t have time and we just wanted to retain the magic. I was so in love it ramped up the magic big time. With “Oh Cassy Run,” I told Roley I wanted a Joni Mitchell “Big Yellow Taxi” acoustic guitar-led feel, like all of the record, really. I love playing acoustic and like to use it just as much as a percussive instrument as melodic, so he made sure to build the tracks around it.
What do you hope this album conveys to those who listen to it?
I think the overarching message is don’t stop believing. Dreams do come true; you just have to be aware it’s about manifesting them. A big American road trip had always been my dream – what I didn’t reckon on was how it would end up to be a big awakening. Getting out there and engaging with life and others. Connection is everything. A lot of people talk about manifesting these days. I hadn’t heard of it five years ago when all that was happening, but it’s what happened. The happier I got being in my element, literally vibing with my surroundings – which was this epic California landscape – the more things fell into my lap. Synchronicities happened daily. The other big message I’d like to convey is that love is what it’s all about. It’s a tangible energy. I went out there with an open, loving attitude toward everyone I met. I’d been very lonely back in England, and this was my solution. Maybe it was because I was carrying my little guitar the whole time that people were open and curious to talk to me, but the result was making lifelong friends and tapping into this wellspring of creativity. Reality shifted dramatically for me.
Since you started out, how has your songwriting changed – both musically and lyrically? Do different things inspire you now? Where do you tend to get your biggest inspiration from these days?
I can be a jobbing songwriter and throw out songs, but that doesn’t do anything for me. Those aren’t the songwriters I admire or the songs I want to write. So in the past, I’ve always tried to write from an intuitive place and they come from experiencing something big emotionally. However, because I’ve always approached it like that, it’s meant I haven’t been prolific. It was about quality over quantity. Now – ever since those road trips – I’ve realized we’re swimming in a soup of creativity every day, and it’s just that the “reality” of day-to-day survival, working, keeping a roof over our head, relationships, make it harder to connect with it. I could probably write a song every hour now, I realize, it’s just a question of opening up the channels. I still need to experience things to write, but that creativity is there for all of us. I believe that. Everyone dreams at night. We may not remember them, but we all have an imagination and it all comes from what we’ve experienced in our day. So songs are just lucid, emotional dreaming for me.
Songwriting can be a really personal endeavor. Is it tough to share that stuff that usually might be private if you weren’t writing a song about it? Does unveiling the songs publicly, when you release a single or an EP or album, make you anxious or is it cathartic to have the songs out there?
That is such a good question because this whole album is pretty much a personal diary of how I got my sh*t together – I’m still growing and learning. But because it was such a mind-expanding, and healing, experience, I felt I needed to share it with people. The only way I could do that was to be completely transparent about everything. In fact, I’m writing a book about the trip that accompanies the record which I’m hoping to get out by the end of the year. In it, I’ve touched on things from my childhood, things I’ve never spoken about publicly, which I think are important to share now if it means it might help other people who’ve experienced trauma. I experienced so much good out on the road, so many good, kind people. If me sharing all that helps one person, then I’ve done my job. And if my music brings pleasure and happiness to many people, then selling my house to release it was worth it!
It’s not uncommon for an artist to be working on something new while promoting an album. Do you have anything in the pipeline to follow this album? What’s next from Holly Lerski?
Well, yes, my book, “Nepenthe.” Basically it’s the story behind each song as I traveled, and the lessons I learned. I’d love it to be like a “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” or an “Illusions.” I’m probably aiming way too high, but as I learnt on the road, you have to reach for the stars. I did, and it was life-changing.
