Needle In The Haystack Artist Takeover: Lady Lamb The Beekeeper
posted in: Features
When I first sat down to write this blurb introducing you to the magic that is this week’s NITH artist Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, I began by formatting a blog post which she had sent me via email. She had separated every line or two, not writing in traditional paragraph form that we’ve grown so accustomed to here on the OurStage Magazine. About halfway through consolidating her sentences into paragraphs, I stopped myself. Something in her description of her dream worlds and how they inspire her work was so melodic and beautiful that I realized it would have been a shame to lump her poetry all together. Funny how writing can become so second nature for an artist that everything becomes a song. Without further ado, I give you “Artist Takeover” by Lady Lamb. Now if only we might get her to write a tune to it?
“Last night I ate an entire apple pie with a spoon while sitting high up on a ladder.
When I had finished the last bite of the pie, I stepped down the ten or so rungs to the ground and walked to the outdoor stand where I had bought the pie only minutes before. The woman behind the counter was busy wiping crumbs from around a pie she had just sliced and placed on a pink serving plate.
I walked up to her and ordered another. She looked at me as though she was trying to place whether she had just served me a full pie that I had very apparently eaten in the few minutes since returning. She handed me the pink plate and as soon as she did, I woke up.
Coincidentally, today I went out to eat with a friend who mentioned that he was craving pie.
We went to a family bakery. Having felt as though my dream had been vivid enough to have satiated my personal pie craving, I ordered a slice of chocolate cake instead.
Dreams are a main inspiration of mine.
Photo by Shervin Lainez
No matter how silly or contrived or terrifying my dreams may be, they are such a massive part of my life.
They tend to carry into my day, and seemingly find their way into my songs.
I’m sure later on when I take out my guitar I will undoubtedly find myself singing about baked apples and ladder rungs.
After all, my attempts to lucid dream three years ago”which coincided with beginning to make music”brought about my moniker; I was keeping a notebook by my bed to semi-consciously scribble parts of my dreams down in the dark.
Roughly three years ago, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper was found scrawled out on a page in sloppy cursive. I put the name to the recordings and went full-force from there.
Whether I’m dreaming of apple pie or airplane crashes, it has become apparent to me that the images and interactions my brain cooks up overnight have been placed there to be embraced.
I once had a dream in which an old friend of mine looked me straight in the eyes as I was making my bed and said, “You know, almond-colored sheets are best for dreaming.’
At that point, I was struggling with having terrible nightmares nearly every night.
I went out and bought a beige colored fitted sheet and (as best I could match) an almond-colored top sheet for my bed.
I’m not asking you to believe in the power of recalling dream-sentences and taking them seriously, but it worked.
Paying attention to my dream world has helped me better understand my real world and served as a way to channel fear and hope and desire into music that I hope is very visual. Dreamily visual.”