Web Exclusive: A conversation with Flyleaf's Lacey Mosley
It’s been a little more than four years since Texas five-piece FLYLEAF unleashed their self-titled debut full-length on the modern rock world. In the interim, the album went platinum, and the co-ed melodic metal band became regulars on the Family Values Tour and even traveled to Afghanistan to play for U.S. troops. This month, the band finally released their sophomore album, Memento Mori, a culmination of years on the road, personal loss and intense philosophical debates about mortality. Front woman LACEY MOSLEY spoke to LUCY ALBERS about the meaning of the album’s title and plenty more.
What was the writing process like for Memento Mori?
Sameer [Bhattacharya, guitar], Pat [Seals, bass] and I just wanted to write in response to life. We’ve been writing songs for this record since before the first record came out. We have a new song at least every couple of months, but it’s kind of been a long process. Between the three of us, and since we’ve been on tour all these years, we usually pick a song to play onstage during soundcheck. We play it in the venue and kind of figure out how we want to play it. It’s definitely different from the way we wrote our first record because we weren’t on tour; we were just in James’ [Culpepper, drums] garage and had other jobs and stuff. So this is a little more concentrated, I think. That made a difference in the process. “Tiny Heart” was written before the first record, and “In The Dark” was written right at the end. It’s definitely structured over a period of time. At the last minute, though, we were still writing.
Did you play the songs anywhere before the album release?
We actually played a secret show [in Waco, Texas] on Halloween in 2008 while we were still writing. We played, like, five songs that we were excited about and wanted to try. We dressed up as different people and went by a different name and opened up for two local bands. It was a really amazing show. The crowd didn’t know who we were. They just kind of stared at us when we first started. We had this feeling that if we just started playing music, people would be drawn to it. We’ve played festivals where we got onstage and there’d be like two people, and then we start playing and they just come trickling in and next thing you know, you can’t see the end of the crowd. In the club, it was like, “Oh, who cares about this band? Nobody knows them.” And when we got onstage, I think our outfits intrigued them because we were pretty decked out. They started paying attention as soon as we started playing. They were all right there cheering and being crazy and moshing and stuff. It was a hometown show, so some of the people figured out that it was us. But it was pretty funny. It was one of the first [smaller] shows we’ve had since we started doing big shows. We got back in our little van and packed all our stuff in and did everything ourselves and did everything like we did when we first started.
Do you think fans will attach themselves to these songs as much as they did with the first album?
Our fans are so crazy. It’s amazing that they already know the songs. I think the lyrics got out somehow. I was talking to this one guy who knew every song and it one wasn’t out anywhere. I asked him how he knew all the lyrics to “In The Dark” and he said he heard a clip and listened to it over and over and just memorized it. We’ve had an amazing reaction, and it’s just so encouraging. It melts my heart a lot of times that kids pay attention to the lyrics because they’re at a rock show and sometimes its just about the music. Whenever a kid is listening to the lyrics and really taking them for themselves, it’s crazy.
You did a run of listening party dates for Memento Mori. What was the idea behind that?
When we first started as a band, we opened for other acts and there weren’t many people that showed up, so we had to win those people over. Then we had to stand at our merch booth and say, “Buy our CD!” The whole thing about that was getting to meet people face-to-face and hear their stories. Personally, I’m a people person. I love people and hearing their stories. What we wanted to do was just kind of begin this cycle the same way we did the first one, even though it’s a little impossible because we play rock shows and a lot of people show up, so it’s kind of hard to meet everybody. But that’s something really good to do even though we’ve gotten bigger.
So we decided to do listening parties that these super-fans could go to. They could come and sit at a venue and listen to the whole record and view some of the videos that we made. So we just put it out like that, but we didn’t tell them two of us were going to show up and play a couple songs. They didn’t know about that. So whenever we had the listening party it was so small and intimate and we got to meet everyone that came. Pat’s also an artist and made these lithograph prints, kind of explaining Memento Mori; it’s, like, a picture illustration of what it means. So we got to sign all of them and talk to the people and play for them. It was really interesting to be able to do that. I mean, I don’t know if there’s any band that I’m so crazy about that I would go to a venue and sit and listen to the record. There might be. But I don’t know. I can’t think of anybody right now.
There seem to be a lot of different translations for the Latin phrase Memento Mori. What is the actual meaning behind it?
It means, “Remember you’re dead,” or “Remember your mortality.” It can mean both of those things. We got the phrase from a painting. I can’t remember the name of it right now, but it’s a little cryptic. It has a picture of a woman holding a mirror and in another panel, it shows her as a skeleton and on another one it shows her as a devil or something like that. The point was that everything that you see and everything physical fades away. As soon as man makes something using material, it starts to go towards its end. So the most important thing in life shouldn’t be material things or even things that are going to fade away; it should be eternal things like faith and hope and love. And that’s kind of our whole big lesson we’ve learned over these years. Our lives are precious and short. We need to make the most of every opportunity we have with the people around us. We need to make those things the most important things in our lives instead of everything else that can distract you from them.
How did your trip to Afghanistan affect you?
It was just like memento mori in your face. It was the biggest exclamation mark on what the phrase means; to see all these people-all these young people–with such conviction to really live and die for something they felt was honorable. Everybody there thought, “I’m here so you’ll be safe at home,” and we really felt what that meant while we were there. Everywhere we went, we were wearing body armor and helmets and they were telling us where the bomb shelters are and saying that if the bomb hits wherever we’re sleeping, we should just pray. It was right in our face all of a sudden.
When we got home, we were driving down the road to James’ house, which is kind of out in the country, and it just hit us that we were safe and there was peace around us. I don’t know, it just felt like we got why [the troops] were doing it. You watch the news, and it’s scary and confusing and you don’t really know what’s going on. It feels like we don’t really know as a country what’s going on. But they’re so focused over there. It was really reassuring, but it also makes you wonder: “Am I living for what I should be living for? Am I doing my part to live for something I would die for? Is there something in my life that I believe in that strongly? Am I taking care of the people around me like I should be? Am I loving the way I should be?”
What specific topics do you cover with the lyrics on the album?
Well, it’s really just different stories. The 14 songs kind of cover stories of situations that were happening in life and how you would respond to it in light of, you know, how short our life is and how big of a difference it could make in the big picture. How is what I’m doing an eternal thing? We all have crappy days, and that’s part of being human. But in the middle of the situation, if I’m being crabby to someone or something, I just think, “What if today was my last day with them?” You see different scenarios in the songs that make you think, “Well, what does this really have to do with forever or this short and precious moment?” alt
