Resonating through generations: Lady Pills releases new concept album, ‘Renowned in the Roaring Twenties’

A recording artist is connecting her family’s western Massachusetts roots to her new album.

Lady Pills, the solo indie pop/alt-rock project of multi-instrumentalist Ella Boissonnault, released the album “Renowned in the Roaring Twenties” on April 4. It’s a concept record that “examines the post-pandemic treatment of artists — how creatives were celebrated during lockdowns, only to be sidelined, underpaid, and burnt out in the years that followed.”

One of Boissonnault’s most significant musical influences is her father, who not only created a musical foundation for her by teaching her how to play guitar, but who also inspired her eventual move to the Pioneer Valley, where she lived (in Easthampton and Hadley) in 2020.

“It had this allure, and I knew that I wanted to be there at some point,” she said. “During the pandemic just happened to be a great time.”

He grew up in Springfield and went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he met Boissonnault’s mother. There, he was in a band called The Valentines (not to be confused with Sasha and the Valentines, another band that started at UMass Amherst).

Boissonnault was able to connect to her dad’s music through a cassette tape of The Valentines’ songs. “I listened to it so much that I warped it. That was his archive and I just destroyed it, awesome,” she laughed.

She lucked out, though, while her parents were moving during the pandemic. In the process of cleaning out their attic, Boissonnault’s father found a reel-to-reel tape with a recording of the band’s music from the early 1980s. Finding someone who could digitize the tape was a challenge, but she eventually connected with Bearded Cat Studio in Mystic, Connecticut, which had the necessary equipment for the job. She listened to the tape during the writing process for “Renowned in the Roaring Twenties.”

“Some of those [songs] were ones I had heard; some of them were new, but also, listening to them as an adult musician instead of an 8-year-old was way more exciting, and I could think about [the music] harmonically, understand and appreciate it a little more,” she said.

Those songs, which bring to mind The Dead Kennedys or The Cars, reflected “a lot of Reagan-era politics, so, in a lot of ways, similar to what we’re processing now,” she said. (One of the songs, “Russia,” is about a man dating a “red-hot Russki”; another, “American Man,” sung from the point of view of a teenage boy eager to be drafted, says, “When Uncle Sam calls me / I will go and I’ll do the best I can / I can’t wait ‘til I’m 18 / I will keep my gun clean!”)

Even with that, Boissonnault said, “There was still a lot of joy and conviction in the music that I thought was inspiring.” It resonated with her and furthered her own conviction about the role of an artist, which, she pointed out, is often political. Her latest album might not have an exact sonic parallel to her father’s – her press materials compare her to Mitski, St. Vincent, Waxahatchee, and Soccer Mommy – but having that album gave her a unique insight into her father’s life and craft at the time.

“I’m sure that when he recorded those songs, he didn’t think that his daughter would be learning them and listening to them on guitar,” said Boissonnault, but now, she is – “and I think that’s pretty cool.”

Boissonnault sees a connection between musicianship and her other current pursuit, acupuncture – both, she says, are forms of community care. In the future, she’d love to open a traveling clinic that can address the specific needs of musicians since record labels don’t always provide their artists with health insurance.

“Music is community. It’s localism, it’s activism, it’s a good thing to be involved in,” she said. “I think continuing to put your body and your presence where things are that matter to you – it can be an endangered art form, in some ways.”

Unfortunately, Boissonnault doesn’t have an upcoming show in western Mass, though her nearest one will be in Saratoga Springs, New York, at a venue called Desperate Annie’s on May 12.

After that, and other upcoming tour dates, “Rinse and repeat, keep writing, see where it all lands next,” she said. “Just gonna keep following the path as it unfolds and trusting in the process.”

Carolyn Brown can be reached at [email protected].