In this heartfelt interview, Holly Lovell opens up about the deeply personal stories that inspired her upcoming album, Hello Chelsea. From capturing her family’s grief to finding solace in music, she takes us on a journey of love, loss, and healing.
Hi Holly, welcome to News Blackbird. Thanks for joining us! Your latest single, When Did I Lose You, has been described as “soul-stirring.” What inspired you to write this deeply emotional song, and how did you decide to include the raw wailing and screaming in the final mix?
Hi, thanks for having me. I appreciate you taking an interest in the music. When Did I Lose You is written about the disintegration of a relationship over time, specifically my mom and her little brother. They grew up being best of friends and slowly over time he stopped calling back and stopped showing up. It was one of the great heartaches of my moms life, and then he passed away unexpectedly. An unfinished sentence. No reconciliation. That’s why I left the wailing at the end of the song, it feels like listening to my mom lose her brother. It’s an important part of the overall story of the album and needed to be represented however painful it is.
Your forthcoming album, Hello Chelsea, explores themes like addiction, grief, and healing. How did living and recording in the remote woods of Eau Claire, Wisconsin influence the album’s creative direction?
It’s quiet out there in those Eau Claire woods. They let me take a deep breath at the end of each day of pouring out my story into the microphones. The recording environment also held me in a different way than any studio has. It’s constructed inside of an old barn so the outside looks like any typical worn building and the inside is full of curios and beautiful lamps, artwork and instruments. Old sitting chairs and bookshelves in the control room. It’s cozy and inspiring in itself. It’s also intimate and closed off if it needs to be, often we would pull the curtains and be lost in the world we were creating. The intimacy of that time comes through in the record.
The album features collaborations with an incredible team of musicians, including producer Brian Joseph and Sean Carey. How did working with such a talented group shape the sound and feel of Hello Chelsea?
Brian Joseph is a master of curation. He curates environments and experiences and this was no different. He hand picked all of the musicians based on how he felt the room would feel with all of our personalities in it. I had never met any of them before we started and yet the minute we started playing together their mastery made it feel like we had been working on this for months. Ultimately, to answer your question, the entire shape of the record is due to Brian and the musicians chosen, without them this would still be a file of memos on my phone.
You’ve mentioned that Hello Chelsea is about trying to “justify grief” and “paint a complete picture of a person that mattered.” Can you share more about who or what inspired the story behind the album?
The record is about my uncle who lived in New York City most of my life. He was my moms only brother and my grandparents’ only son and I grew up observing their relationship slowly decline. The delicate dance everyone did around him and his choices. The patchiness in his calls and visits home. The secrets. The bailouts. It wasn’t until years into this that we found out he had a pretty severe drug problem that led to his eventual overdose despite many attempts at rescue. When he died it felt like no one understood our grief because no one knew the years of heartache going before it. We had always been grieving in a way. This record was me trying to help my family understand our grief and help put it to rest a little bit.
Your journey has taken you from Australia to the U.S., living in different places and even a renovated school bus. How have these life experiences shaped your music and storytelling?
Moving to Australia at a young age is what first made me turn to music as an emotional refuge in the way I did. I was experiencing a lot of big things that a lot of 12 year olds don’t have to face yet and I found such solace in writing about it in music. Moving back to the U.S. to pursue a career in music only solidified my love of songwriting and performing, it just made the stakes feel a little higher since I had moved continents for it.
Artists like Patty Griffin, Brandi Carlile, and Missy Higgins have influenced you. What lessons or inspiration have you drawn from their work, and how do you incorporate that into your songwriting?
Patty Griffin doesn’t shy away from ugly truths. I love her for that. Her poetic honesty is something I think many songwriters strive to achieve. Brandi Carlile opens the door and then holds it open for others. I love her for that. In Brandi’s world there’s always enough to go around and she is such a generous woman. She shares her stage, her platform and her voice with others freely. Missy Higgins was my first singer-songwriter obsession when I was 15. She’s an Australian songwriter who got big right out of high school and when I discovered her entire album was on UltimateGuitar.com to learn to play…well the rest is history. Between these three and UltimateGuitar.com I basically learned to play guitar and piano.
As Hello Chelsea prepares to release in February 2025, what message or emotion do you hope listeners take away from this project? Are there any upcoming live performances or events where fans can experience the album in person?
The intent of this album was to give back to family and help them feel understood and help them grieve. In doing that though, I hope other people feel the same permission in these songs. The same visibility. The same catharsis as I have felt in making it. I am currently constructing an immersive live show with elements of projection to tell the story of the album in a live setting. It’s the next phase of this story telling that I am really excited to dive into.
You can connect with Holly Lovell through her website at www.hollylovell.com, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram @hollylovell_, Spotify, or YouTube @hollylovellmusic
