Upcoming rising star LYLE! returns with a brand new single ‘My Gurlfriend’ featured along with an official video
LYLE! is set to release their brand new, unashamedly queer, anthem ‘My Gurlfriend’, a no-holds-barred, playful exploration of sexual experiences. LYLE! takes a Funk-Pop sound with oscillated synths and trumpet fanfare and gives it a whole new lease of life. ‘My Gurlfriend’ isn’t a track you’ll be forgetting any time soon.
Talking about the new track, LYLE! shares: “My Gurlfriend was my attempt at a big classic queer anthem, which I felt well placed to make; yet the first couple of times I sat down, I wrote some over-thought rubbish that felt inauthentic and watered-down.
After failed attempts at trying to say something that was universal, I ended up writing a song that was profoundly personal and singular, which is really what queerness is all about!
Ironically, I later ended up realising that rather than a self-centred declaration of my own self and life, this was a song for almost everyone, for the lesbians and gays, for the bisexuals, and for the straight couples too! More and more I’m finding that everyone can get behind a good strap-on!
The radio edit came up because I wanted to (naturally) get some radio play wherever possible; I focused on the female empowerment that the song provides, and so I changed the lyrics to ‘My Gurlfriend she’s the bad one, you better bet she’s big and strong’. I feel strongly that we don’t have enough popular music that represents women as these strong bad-asses that can withstand so much.”
LYLE! is about extremes. Juxtaposing mushy lullabies with balls-to-the-wall bedlam, harmony and rhythm are slapped in your face with reckless abandon. LYLE!’s sound is a concoction of hi-fi electronic production with the bombastic nature of contemporary jazz-funk. Inspired by the video game music of the early 2000s, these narrative grooves are nostalgic, ironic and charming.
The Bristol-based alt-pop/jazz-funk project is led by multi-instrumentalist Lyle Anderton. This unapologetically feminine, make-up wearing producer has played all over the UK, including a sell out show at Crofters Rights (Bristol), and more recentently being selected to perform at a festival at The Amersham Arms (London). In 2019, Lyle made his debut at Glastonbury Festival, performing with pop-soul songstress Chrissie Huntley after winning Michael Eavis’ Pilton Stage competition.
Following in the footsteps of contemporary nu-jazz pioneers like Thundercat and Knower, LYLE!’s live shows deliver dangerous spontaneity (with great helpings of improvisation), baffling the audience with comedy skits, banal anecdotes or an emotional breakdown.
LYLE! puts two fingers up to ‘boys don’t cry’, says F-you to musical conventions and preaches the power of loving yourself. ‘Songs for Player 2’ is LYLE!’s debut EP, released in March 2021, dealing with themes of heartbreak, first loves and drunken nights.
As we turn towards the next, hotly anticipated EP, this glamorous maverick promises to deliver yet more radical sounds to release your inhibitions to.
