Tiger Friends

LADY LAZARUS

“Gonna grow my hair in homage to the ghost / this is my long forgotten Nazarite oath.”

-from “Nazarite Oath” off of Lady Lazarus upcoming LP, Mantic

Lady Lazarus is the music project of Melissa Ann Sweat, a poet, writer, and artist - born in San Jose, California, and now residing in Savannah, Georgia - who began teaching herself keyboard, piano, and writing songs not long ago. While living in San Francisco in 2008, Melissa took her initial turn at writing and recording music on a four-track tape recorder in her studio apartment; a year later she self-released these first songs on a handmade EP, Home Recordings, through her appropriately named Apartment Life Records. She has since been playing live in and around Northern California, the LA region, and Arizona.

This Spring/Summer 2010, Melissa plans to release Lady Lazarus first full-length album, Mantic, for which she has just completed a 14-song demo. Recently, Pitchfork wrote a favorable review for “The Eye in the Eye of the Storm,” a track to be appearing on Mantic: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11765-the-eye-in-the-eye-of-the-storm/.

Melissa is mostly a self-taught musician who credits her background in poetry and literature as an influence in her songwriting. She approaches music making with an intuitive mindset that she feels has lent itself to Lady Lazarus’ naturally experimental compositions and spirited style.

Musical influences include Experimental and Minimalist artists such as Smog, Mount Eerie / The Microphones, and Cat Power, as well as the unique styles of Joanna Newsom, Tom Waits, Vashti Bunyan, Nina Simone, Dirty Three, Sparklehorse, Guided by Voices, Pavement and others. Increasingly, Melissa finds herself becoming interested in more Experimental Classical/Avant-Garde musicians such as Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Brian Eno’s Ambient work.

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