Lily Kincade Provides a Sneak Peek of “Cinematic (Deluxe)”, Makes Something New Out of Something Old, and Talks About the Beauty of Humanity and Nature
- Louise Geri
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Lily Kincade is in full transition mode. Seven months after the release of her debut album Cinematic (2025), she and I meet on a sunny April Nashville morning to talk about the upcoming release of the deluxe version of the album, which will be out August 7th.
“It's like a little post credit scene, tying up the story, but also… giving some excitement, getting some mystery for the next era,” Lily describes the four additional songs in the deluxe edition. These songs will be mastered on tape. Lily marvels about how the first fourteen songs were “shiny”, but now she wants to add extra texture.
“People, Places, Things”, the first release off the deluxe edition, started off very sad, “But [then] I was like… let’s make it a little more exciting… we're over this person.” She leans into this energy as the deluxe edition progresses. “Reverse Psychology”, an intriguing title, represents, “One of the number one psychological tactics that people use… Think of little kids. It's like… ‘You can’t eat any vegetables. You can only eat candy’… And they're like, well, I want vegetables.” Of “Tell Me One Thing”, a track she says reminds her of Taylor Swift’s old work, it’s about when you’re with a person and realize, “They don't know anything about me.” The closer, “Nothing Left to Break”, while a sad song, describes Lily’s personal heaven. “Girls are going swimming, they have their bikinis on. I love summer… [This song represents] the ending of [the emotional turmoil.] It's kind of like, ‘You know what? I don't want this person back!’”
Transitions like this can be counterintuitively rough for the closure they represent, but they’re important, “It's a good feeling to be [fully] done with something, but it's also scary because… anytime there's a transition… you're like, I don't know what's happening now. But it's good…. transitions are weird in general.” This is likely a little because of how she’s the “go big or go home” type, “I’m neutral to everything unless it’s something I love… I’m not wasting my energy.” This feeling fits as Lily closes out the Cinematic era with her sophomore album in the works. She’s doing it all.
Not excluded from “doing it all” is providing a great homebase for fans. I’ve been listening to Lily’s music since the 2020 release of her debut single, “Sweet n Low”. She presents me today with a gorgeous Cinematic T-shirt and a set of stickers that I immediately decorate my phone case with. A mirror selfie I later take, in which my phone case is the main focus, is quickly posted on the “official IG dedicated to Kincadians”, @thekincadians, run by Lily herself.
Lily’s online presence is impressive – between writing, recording, performing, marketing, outreach, and everything in between, it’s hard to find the time and resources to pull it all off. Lily informs me that she’d been up until 3 am the night before our meeting, filming videos with a green screen background, watching YouTube tutorials, and using items she already had to create a mood. She likes making new clothing items out of something old instead of buying new clothing. Following this revelation, I ask her about her creative process when songwriting, which she describes as flipping from one side of the brain to the other. And still, she clarifies an interesting opinion, but one that makes perfect sense if you sit on it for a minute, “Creativity without borders is… not creative.” Think about it; it would be difficult to make a deluxe edition for an album if the album’s vibe is just “good music”. If it’s “dream pop music that has the energy of Coca Cola on an 80-degree August day” (this isn’t the theme of Cinematic, per se, just a similar example), there’s more creative direction to follow.
How does this apply to generative AI?, I wonder. Lily demonstrates a lack of concern for the music industry hitting a pothole, “AI can do all this stuff, but like, it doesn’t have a soul… you have to have a soul.” Lily equates her perspective to that of a patient in a hospital, “Patients need to feel understood. They could probably have a robot doctor talk to them, but they don't. That makes them feel alone. They want to… have somebody that's talking them through whatever they’re going through. It's real, real sympathy.” In general, she describes AI as something that “neutralizes things”, hence, “No matter whether you like it or not… it's gonna be good in the long run.” This fits with her perspective on life in general: “You have to be positive… you [can] be negative, but what is that doing for you?”
To remain positive, Lily sees beauty in everything, “I'm a [massive] nature, girlie... I'm literally like… ‘Stop, and look at the flowers’… Sometimes I get so existential and I’m like ‘This is crazy… this flower just… grows.’” She finds a lot of peace in the outdoors, particularly enjoying Nashville’s Sevier Park and driving through LA (specifically Malibu).
Music makes a centerpiece and backdrop for everything, and Lily is about to provide the world with more. Below, you can watch Lily’s preview of Cinematic (Deluxe), which she is showing exclusively to my blog! Pre-save here.
Massive thanks to Lily Kincade for giving me the joy of providing a sneak peek to Cinematic (Deluxe). This is truly such an honor.
Comments