#IMMusicMondays: 10 Questions with… Nora Lilith
Nora Lilith has been providing her listeners with enticing, beguiling, and intimate music since releasing her 2020 debut single, ‘Button‘. Lilith’s approach to songwriting involves themes of female autonomy, desire, and self-reflection. She provides a satiating mix of vocal techniques alongside gentle beats and instrumentals.
Following her EP ‘Daysof8‘ in 2021, Lilith has been working on new music. The singer released two new tracks in late 2024, ‘Flesh‘ and ‘Now or Never‘. On her Instagram, Lilith shared some words about the recent release, writing, “a vulnerable anthem of the void, a spiraling out of Self, a silhouetted unraveling…
compulsions to pull, a pirouetted dance of reassurance seeking.
a corner of my mind ive found myself in one too many times..”
This Q&A with Lilith digs deeper into her lyric writing process, her inspirations, and what we can expect in 2025.
What is your first musical memory?
One of my earliest memories, in general, is of me hiding under a chair when I was around 3 or 4 years old, trying my hardest to teach myself how to whistle. Maybe not directly musical, but I remember being very frustrated at not being able to achieve the melodic aptitude I was hoping for, haha!
I love that you refer to yourself as a ‘singing succubus’. How would you say these mythological ideas of autonomy and womanhood feed into your lyrics?
Thank you! The character of Lilith as this succubi definitely inspires me in many ways. What she represents to me is an expression of unapologetic truth and moving forward with fierce integrity. I don’t necessarily focus on these themes consciously when I’m writing lyrics. But, I try and feel into these energetic qualities when I’m writing music in general. I think this allows me to unmask more and really arrive in my truth and my voice. It feels so life-affirming to me to honour the seductive qualities of the dark, death, and our shadows and get curious about how beauty and aliveness live somewhere within those things, or how we can embrace and alchemize these things into light.
You taught yourself how to use Ableton to produce your own music. What was it like coming to the music production side as a novice?
It was simultaneously daunting and exhilarating! I learned so much about how a track comes together; the intricacies of instrumentals, textures, composition, etc. Before that, my voice had been my primary instrument and my understanding of music was so skewed to center vocals which shaped the way I related to and listened to music.
I’m grateful to have widened my horizon in this way. Now, I can appreciate music in a much more multi-dimensional way than I did before. It completely transformed my relationship (with) music. And for the first time ever, I was able to have the creative control I had long dreamed of. It definitely took a long time to move through the frustrations of learning a new skill. The gap between my abilities and taste is still ever present (and might always be), but there’s at least a bridge between those two worlds that I can walk on.
If you could play in any venue in the world where would it be?
I don’t have a specific venue in mind. Somewhere grand and historic like an old cathedral feels like it would be my kind of vibe 🙂
What is your writing process and what extra-musical things influence it?
My process changes and isn’t generally very structured. I usually either start making a beat on my laptop or singing and accompanying myself on piano, and later produce around those initial melodies. There’s a lot that influences my process. The biggest one probably being whether or not I’m able to tap into creative spirit, or however you want to name the energetic collaboration that occurs when we are in flow. A lot of times my own moods/states or neurosis may get in the way. But, no matter the interference my biggest aim is to arrive back in that liminal creative space that is both grounded and untethered.
Berlin and Austin are two very different sound worlds. How would you say place and home play a part in your life as an artist?
They are! The term ‘home’ has always been a mystery to me, as I somehow feel at home in many places and yet also chronically feel estranged from this feeling of home – having moved so much and not had stable family dynamics growing up. This confluence of energies allows me to source from a variety of places within my art, yet also informs my art in the sense that my art becomes a place for me to process and alchemize these themes of non-belonging. In return, (it) creates a home for me that is not bound by place.
Who would be your dream collaborators on an album?
James Blake, Portishead; Leon Vynehall.
What inspires you to write the music you write?
I’m inspired by my shadow, themes of loneliness and heartache, identity and shame, and my personal emotional evolutions. I’m inspired by communion with spirit and the intimacy and clarity of feeling connected to myself. I’m also inspired by textures and sounds in everyday life, sounds we are so used to hearing that we barely notice, yet that add so much richness to our lived experience. (Further to this), I’m inspired by people and relationships and how we all uniquely strive towards connection.
What are you listening to at the moment?
I’ve been listening to Rosie Lowe a lot lately.
What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I’m still in the process of releasing another single in early February and then my EP in early March. I’m also looking forward to starting a Substack where I aim to share unreleased music, as well as more of my art within other mediums like photography, writing, and poetry.
Nora Lilith is on Instagram and TikTok. You can find more interviews here and stream Lilith’s recent tracks below.
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