At sixteen, Lola Kirke discovered Gram Parsons and the Cosmic American genre he defined. In spite of being a New Yorker by the way of London, Kirke felt a strong connection to his Country-Rock sound. “For whatever reason, I thought I could resolve all my problems by just becoming him.”
Kirke is no stranger to shape shifting—as an actress with a steadily ascending star, she’s had major roles in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” and Noah Baumbach’s “Mistress America,” as well as the Golden Globe-winning Amazon show “Mozart in the Jungle.” While less in the fore, her passion for music has stayed constant, with her guitar following her from dressing room to dressing room.
Born to a musical family (her father is Simon Kirke, drummer of Bad Company and Free, and her sister is singer-songwriter Domino Kirke), Lola embarked on her own musical journey with her four track EP released in 2016.
Tracked live to tape in East Los Angeles and produced by frequent collaborator Wyndham Garnett (Elvis Perkins in Dearland, WYNDHAM) her debut LP, Heart Head West, asserts her as part of the artistic tradition she holds so dear: delivering her own heart, laid bare for someone else to hear as theirs. “It’s a really personal record about basically everything I thought about in 2017–time, family, loss, social injustice, sex, drinking, longing—essentially everything I’d talk about with a close friend for 40 minutes.”
The opening track, “Monster” delves into themes of self esteem and alienation, a lyrical narrative that reappears through the album. Says Kirke, “I wrote ‘Monster’ while I was watching someone I love struggle with self love and care, but in the process of writing it, I realized that I hadn’t exactly mastered the delicate balance of those things either.”
Her more upbeat second single, “Supposed To,” features searing guitar licks from Lilah Larson (Sons of an Illustrious Father) while attempting to weed through the expectations we create for ourselves and the expectations others have of us.
Heart Head West was released summer 2018.
