Solo music act Lady Lazarus brings a unique and dreamlike style to The Irenic
By Logan Broyles | SDUN Reporter
Singer-songwriter Melissa Ann Sweat’s brings her solo project Lady Lazarus to North Park, where the artist will showcase her dreamlike style and intimate sound. Lady Lazarus plays at The Irenic April 16.
Now located in Los Angeles, Sweat hails from San Jose, Calif., yet has lived and traveled throughout the United States. Her style mirrors that of some of the great female vocalists and piano players, and she follows in the vein of an older era of music.
Sweat calls her style “dreamy and sensual,” as well as “slightly funky,” and she mainly plays the piano and keyboard, creating a melodic background beat that allows her voice to take center stage.
“I would say I’m a keyboard-based singer and songwriter that fits into the same category as older Tom Waits and Regina Spektor, or old Stevie Nicks demos,” Sweat said. “It’s also a little more experimental but only slightly. There’s some pop to it but it isn’t bubblegum.”
Lady Lazarus got the first big break in 2011 with the release of her debut album “Mantic.” This year, Sweat released a second album titled “All My Love In Half Light” as Lady Lazarus. The band name is derived from a Sylvia Plath poem that has a personal meaning to Sweat.
“I love Sylvia Plath, the poet and author, and there was a poem that she wrote that referred to the Biblical Lazarus that rises from the dead,” Sweat said. “I like the idea of someone coming back from a hard time, so even though the poem is really dark I took it to be a more positive thing and I think it fits well with the type of music that I make. It’s very dark in a way but has a positive message.”
Sweat got somewhat of a late start to her life as a musician after being inspired by her younger brother, who is in the band PaperCuts. She began teaching herself to play the keyboard in 2008 at the age of 25, and soon after was writing and recording her own songs while living in San Francisco.
“I didn’t have any musical background whatsoever and then just started teaching myself how to play the keyboard,” Sweat said, calling herself a writer and artist while growing up.
“When I started getting into music it was really easy for me to come up with lyrics since I had written for so long, making poetry and short stories. Songs came together pretty fluently and I just tried to essentially make an art project of it and it grew from there,” she said.
After a cross-country train trip, Sweat settled in Savannah, Ga. in 2010 and toured the East Coast to promote her self-released debut album.
Last summer she played at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City and released new music as part of Graveface Records’ Charity Release Series, with Mount Eerie, Xiu Xiu and Mike Watt, among others.
“I was actually a little bit of the producer in some respects because I had a clear idea of the sound that I was going for,” she said of the new album, which she will highlight at the North Park show. “I write everything and come up with the composition and the sound myself.”
While performing, Sweat said she will mainly play piano and keyboard, but occasionally she throws in some harmonica and other background instruments that she is currently learning to play.
“My live shows are pretty intimate,” Sweat said. “For me as a music fan, that’s what I really like: when you feel like you can get a sense of who an artist is and see that they’re a real person. … I am definitely a solo artist in the way that I really like having my own stance on what I’m doing creatively. It fits well with who I am that I have full control over a project.”
Lady Lazarus opens for Youth Lagoon at The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave. in North Park, on Tuesday, April 16. The all-ages show starts at 7 p.m. For more information visit ladylazarus.net or call 619-624-9335.
