“Playing power chords but with the E tuned to low D, it's cool. But there's a little bit of sadness in there, in a driving way” Lilly Hiatt found domestic bliss and conquered her inner critic. She’s enjoying the ride again on ‘Forever’

A lot has changed in singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt’s world in the four years since she released her last album, 2021’s country-leaning Lately. After releasing five albums over the previous decade — including Walking Proof, her effervescent, Nashville-gone-alt-rockin’ critical breakthrough — Hiatt found love, got married, adopted a dog and bought a house.

But despite gaining the domestic world she dreamed of, her inner critic kept her paralyzed and unable to be fully present for it. She couldn’t shake the feeling of being on the outside watching her life unfold.

It wasn’t long before those emotions poured into her music. Working with her husband, producer and musician Coley Hinson, she began work on the songs that appear on Forever, her new, heart-on-sleeve long player.

Lyrics like “We make good music here, and our problems, they disappear,” from “Evelyn’s House,” nod to her struggles as well as the solution. But more than anything, with this new batch of tunes, Hiatt sounds like she’s enjoying the ride again.

“I was writing in terms of just wanting to make something fun for recording,” Hiatt says. “Of course, you have some writing with some heart in there, but also I was like, whatever I write, I want to sound good when we record it and be a fun process, like something we could play with a little bit.”

Lilly Hiatt - Shouldn't Be [Official Video] - YouTube

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Hiatt had plenty of time and space to work out those ideas. Instead of decamping to one of Nashville’s many world-class recording studios, she cranked her Rickenbacker in the couple’s home studio, away from the hustle and day rates of Music City proper.

It wasn’t the first time, either. Their self-titled 2023 record as Domestic Bliss served as a proof of concept for their partnership and created a space where Forever could blossom.

“In the city, everything is moving quickly, and I do think that that affects my writing,” she says. “I've noticed since I've been out here, sometimes I'm a little slower to get into the groove, but when I do, it's pretty focused. It definitely influenced the music.”

“Groove” is the operative word here. Songs like “Shouldn’t Be” and “Ghost Ship” establish a tight pocket groove that gives Forever a solid foundation for Hiatt to express her emotions musically as well as lyrically. “I'm a songwriter and words matter a lot to me,” she says, “but with some of my favorite records and songs, I don't even know what they're talking about, but I feel a certain way when I hear them.”

Hiatt and Coley coated the songs in a confection of melody and buzzy guitar riffs, with Hiatt’s vocals hovering above the fray, encased in watery reverb. The dreamy guitar tones they crafted in their music room, in particular, helped bring her ideas to fruition.

“If I want to plug in and sing through a mic and play electric, I can do that here,” she says. “And I did write a lot that way for this record. I did write a little bit on acoustic, but I was more inspired by the electric.”

One of the biggest surprises on Forever is how Hiatt decided to explore writing in drop-D tuning instead of conventional tuning, which she used to great effect on “Ghost Ship” and “Kwik-E-Mart.” Her decision came partly to make the songs feel more in the groove, but also to access melodies she couldn’t readily find in A440.

“Playing power chords but with the E tuned to low D, it's cool. But there's a little bit of sadness in there, in a driving way,” she says. “That made me want to write certain kinds of songs. For me, who never messes around with tunings, it was really fun to explore.”

Another way Hiatt reset her songwriting on Forever was by completing one song at a time. “It was kind of a singular approach,” she says, “just taking it song by song until there were enough to be a record.”

As Hiatt and Coley jammed and recorded — usually with the latter on drums and bass and Hiatt on guitar and vocals — they focused on wringing the most out of each tune. Then they would send the recording to Paul Q. Kolderie, the Boston-based studio pro behind seminal recordings by Radiohead, Pixies and Dinosaur Jr., for mixing.

Lilly Hiatt - Kwik - E - Mart [Official Video] - YouTube

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When Hiatt wanted to expand the sonic footprint of the album, she had plenty of options without leaving her inner circle. The sweeping pedal steel–guitar lines on “Evelyn's House” and “Man,” for example, came courtesy of her father-in-law, steel guitarist Steven Hinson, who has recorded or performed with Dolly Parton, George Jones and Randy Travis. Those were also the only songs she wrote on acoustic guitar.

The album opener, “Hidden Day,” is both the outlier and the setup of the song cycle. A collaboration with producer and songwriter Scot Sax, who also contributed drums, the song functions as the tipping point of Hiatt’s self-discovery, wherein she uncovers a secret day of the week where no one can find her. Tracked outside of the Hiatt-Coley home, the song features a roving, John Entwistle–worthy bassline played by Bear Mitchell underneath her fretwork.

Although the couple has plenty of music gear between them, Hiatt stuck mostly to her Rickenbacker electric and a Roland Jazz Chorus combo when it was time to mash the record button.

“I think that the effects are in the hands of the person playing,” she says. “So, if you have your ear tuned toward figuring it out with what you've got — I mean, obviously some things don't do certain things, but if it can't sound like this, maybe it can sound like this, you know?”

Forever is Hiatt shedding the past, but not severing it. Life lessons abound, and music provides the ride.

“I think I'm at a point in my life where I've done the young-and-brooding portion,” she says. “I've done this and I've done that, and now I'm here and just trying to get through it with some love and intention.

“I hope that comes out in the songs. But I also just write about feelings in my relationship, and through the way I see it, I hope that somebody else feels something from it.”