‘I thought I’d spend this time being quite insular with the writing process’: Lazy Day on creating in quarantine

The London indie band’s lead singer and songwriter Tilly Scantlebury tells us about the frustrations and opportunities of life during lockdown

Lockdown didn’t come at an ideal time for anyone, but for London band Lazy Day it was an enforced stumble just when they were building up real momentum. Last year the quartet released their Letters EP to much acclaim, and followed it with a series of tours of the UK and Europe, steadily building their fan-base. They had plotted for 2020 to be the year they would release their debut album and play their biggest gigs to date, including a couple of “bucket list” appearances at Wales’ Green Man Festival and Germany’s Haldern Pop Festival. Now, none of that is happening.

For the last few months, Lazy Day have been stuck between gears and scattered across the capital. “Not being able to be in a room with the band is so strange,” says Tilly Scantlebury, the band’s singer and principal creator. “This is the longest I’ve not seen them for, ever.”

She’s spent the last few months locked down in her family’s Camden house with her partner, parents, two brothers and a dog – but still finds space to work on music. At the start of lockdown, she gave her bedroom recording studio a makeover so it’s “more purposeful and less cluttered”, meaning “it’s really easy to plug in and go, which is the best way for me” 

Scantlebury cannot devote all of her time to music though, as she’s currently balancing it with work for the final year of her PhD in modern and contemporary art. “It’s about rhythm,” she explains. “Sometimes one is way more fun to do and more successful than the other – but I think I’d find it hard to do either without the other.”

This healthy dichotomy has allowed Scantlebury to continue to be productive, even though her songwriting process is stunted by not being able to see her bandmates. Usually she would take her songs to the band to flesh them out, but currently they’re stuck in the demo phase as she doesn’t like to collaborate remotely. “I find the lag of sending an email and waiting for the responses actually quite distracting and anxiety-inducing,” she admits. Instead, she’s using the isolation positively: “I thought I’d spend this time being quite insular with the writing process and see what comes out.”

This has allowed her to rest in her thoughts a little more and allow deeper feelings to come to the surface. Unsurprisingly, the current global news has made its way into a couple of her new songs. One circles around “feeling completely useless and not really knowing where to sit yourself in your own life”, a state that has been consistently weighing her down during this trying period. Another new track zooms out from the personal to look at the recent Black Lives Matter uprising: “It’s thinking about how in a very extreme and vital political moment we’ve been called into action, and it’s all being mediated through an online exchange,” she reveals.

Both of these topics seem perfectly suited to being blown up into Lazy Day’s muscular rock sound, leaving space for Scantlebury to show off her musical, lyrical and vocal abilities. Yet, by the time she’s able to work on them with the rest of the band, they could possibly have been scrapped in a fit of doubt – or perhaps they won’t sound like any Lazy Day song we’ve heard before.

Previously, Scantlebury has ensured Lazy Day’s songs only have as many layers as they would be able to reproduce on stage – “usually I’m very fixated with that,” she admits. Now, however, working alone in her room has provoked her to cast that barrier aside and throw herself into trying all sorts of new ideas. This has included using more pianos and synthesizers, and “having loads of fun” with drum programming. “I’m thinking in a wide and broad way what might be possible, rather than pinning it to actual possibilities,” she says. “Because there aren’t actual real possibilities right now.”

While finishing new songs and playing gigs remain off the table, Lazy Day have nonetheless been doing their best to maintain and build on their relationship with fans during this strange period. This has seen them release a song called “All The Time”, which they had been working on for a few years, as well as a piano version of the same song recorded from quarantine, all the proceeds of which went to the Homeless Black Trans Women fund.

They also had a ‘release party’ for “All The Time”, which Scantlebury hosted via Instagram live, where fans were invited to watch her having catch ups with her bandmates, making cocktails with her best friend, talking to her dog, and playing a few songs solo. “It was a mixture of really fun and joyful, but also reminded me how much we’ve lost in this time,” she reflects. “Being together on screen felt like a party in a way, but then I turned off and I was just a bit drunk in my room; it was a real thud.”

While they may have been waylaid, separated, and run through the emotional wringer, Scantlebury clearly has a great hunger to get Lazy Day revved back up to full speed as soon as is safely possible. When they are able to reconnect, the quartet’s pent-up energy should drive them to build up the new songs, to take them on the road and perfect them, and to ultimately create the long-awaited album. The cool-headed Scantlebury has no doubt they’ll get there: “The way to releasing your debut album is always a precarious one – this is just another spanner.”