November: Behind The Scenes

From The Waterfront... to Times Square.

We just got back to London from Montreal. The jet lag is real, the bathroom light is broken, but we’re glad to be home. It has been a difficult month. This letter is my attempt to take you behind the scenes. To reveal the grit behind the Instagram glitz.

Let’s start with the music: I have a new single out! It’s called The Waterfront. It’s pretty cool. It has flutes. A little taster of the forthcoming JF & Lail album. You can listen to it wherever you listen to music. For example right here on Spotify…

And why did we choose to release this song at this moment? Because it’s featured in a film! A coming-of-age road-trip romp. The movie is called Tripped Up, it’s directed by Shruti Ganguli, it’s released by Decal/Universal, it’s out now in cinemas across the US and will soon be available worldwide. The twist is that in the movie our song is sung by the actors! Or should I say characters? Here’s a clip of Sasha Fox and Justin Guarini beautifully performing The Waterfront…

To our huge excitement we were invited to come and sing at the premiere in New York. How perfect, we thought, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Montreal, where we would anyway be that month. A friend of ours offered us his apartment while he was away on tour. A week in the Lower East Side! How very groovy it was all going to be.

I wonder if, in my glamorous instagram clips of red carpets, huge screens and Chelsea Clinton (click if you're curious...), you all noticed the bags under my eyes, the croak in my voice, the weight on my heart. Never trust social media folks… never.

This is how our Montreal/New York trip actually panned out:

Day 3: JF gets Covid. Day 9 : JF’s mother gets Covid. Day 10: JF’s 98-year-old grandmother and I, Lail, get Covid. I won’t speak for anyone else, but I was so very sick. A symphony of symptoms. We delayed our NYC flights twice over, finally packed our bags and psyched ourselves up, and at the eleventh hour — you guessed it — 2-year-old Milo gets Covid! Cancelled all flights, cried a lot, laughed a little, and then JF suggested the inconceivable: That I go to New York — alone.

I should say I had never before left Milo overnight. I should say that my deliberations in deciding whether or not to go were not entirely proportionate. I should say that as the plane took off I was still highly undecided. I should say that in retrospect I’m glad I did it. I should say that 24 hours in New York felt ridiculous. I should say that the boys were just fine without me.

I should also say that I’ve missed a very big component of this story. The biggest component. A couple of days after JF tested positive, when I was still hoping Milo and I could avoid it by steering clear of him, and simultaneously worried we already had it so trying to spare the rest of the family — i.e. wandering the rainy streets and spending far too many hours in the children’s library — somewhere in the daze of those never-ending days, the war broke out.

We call it a war now, it was not a war at first. It was waking up to phone calls and messages from family and friends, trying to speak to my grandmother on the children’s library wifi, horror stories trickling in. What had happened, what would happen, and what is now happening, is of course worse than anyone could have fathomed. Needless to say that stressing over whether to leave my baby to go to a premiere in New York for 24 hours felt even more ridiculous. Our little travails were thrown into painfully sharp relief.

I got to The Regal Theatre early. Times Square is still insane. Within 2 minutes I saw a rickshaw of tourists blasting Britney; a businessman closing a deal on his cell phone; a cross-city bus graffitied with Free Palestine; a drug deal; someone walking around in an Elmo costume. I took a video of Elmo for Milo, who is newly into Sesame Street. Meanwhile JF and I took solace in another New York classic this month, turning to Friends like much needed old friends after too-long sessions of CNN. Sad to hear about Matthew Perry. I prefer to imagine they are all still hanging out at Central Perk with good problems and no cell phones.

Guys. Sorry if this has been as downbeat as the times. In an attempt to lift the spirits we will be playing a Christmas concert at the beautiful Heath Street Baptist Church on December 10th. In an attempt to lift the spirits further this will be an All Ages, Early Evening, Pay What You Can show. We have a very special guest called Lonny coming all the way from Paris. I’ve heard rumours of mulled wine. If you live in London you are invited — if you have friends in London please do invite them.

Grab your tickets by clicking here!

Peace & Love,

Lail