Written during pregnancy and the days of early motherhood, new EP As a Mother finds Lerryn grappling with ideas of responsibility and selfhood within a moment of drastic change. Having founded the cult creative space Lerryn’s Cafe as well as fronting post-punk outfit Dead Arm, Lerryn’s identity has been as much shaped by the DIY scene of south east London as the scene is shaped by her, something the experience of becoming mother inevitably upended. The new EP, the first recorded under her own name, operates as a kind of dispatch from the present, where so many questions are forming but the world has not yet settled into its new shape.
Ahead for the EP’s release next month via Redundant Span Records, the lead single and title track pitches the audience straight into this fluid, conflicted state. “‘As A Mother’ was the hardest song to make on the whole record,” Lerryn explains. “This is because the subject matter is unresolved, and hard to confront. The lyrics play with ideas of lost identity and the pull for home whilst wanting to be out in the world.” And while no solid conclusion is reached within the frame of the track, Naima Bock lends vocals to suggest the communal spirit which has so long underpinned motherhood, as though to become a mother is to join a chorus of similar voices, each working to hold up the others. “This song was written and re-written and recorded the most times, I found myself to be so full of emotion and defensiveness when singing which would have huge effects on my vocals,” Lerryn continues:
It was frustrating! I had the idea to bring Naima in to the song, as we had been on some line ups together and her studio where she practices was opposite ours. I invited her to sing, because I started to feel the need for a female presence on the song as a reminder that it is the unity of other mothers and women that often pulls me out of these lost moments in motherhood. Her brief in the studio was to act as my birth partner, with occasional backing vocals that would pick me up and drive the vocals forward.
