78. EP Review of Roommates by Lavender Fire

Originally Published on January 8th

About the Artist

I’ve always been obsessively curious about the songwriting process; not just my own, but my peers’ experiences as well. Sometimes, it is difficult, sometimes the pen doesn’t stop. Sometimes the music is written and the lyrics are plugged in afterwards. Sometimes some words are written down and we spend minutes, hours, days, or months at our instruments trying to find the perfect melody to tell our story. 

Whatever the case, whatever the process, it always seems to be the most absolutely necessary process for the work. My working theory is that is a cohesive bond with where we are in our lives, emotionally. It relates to what we’re experiencing and how those experiences make us feel. This obviously dictates they style our music is written in; happy, sad, up tempo, down tempo, but it also dictates the simplicity or complexities of our writing processes. And one doesn’t dictate good or bad. Ive personally experienced writing songs I’ve been proud of that took me fifteen minutes to write, and some that took me years to perfect.

The process is always interesting. I think this must particularly be true for Lavender Fire, a Norfolk, Virginia - based, indie/folk artist. Formerly by her name, Cecilee, she has been releasing music for 4 years; since she debuted her EP, Water on Glass in August of 2021 and her debut (and only to date) album, Never Enough Flowers, in November of 2021. 

However, it wasn’t until July of 2024 that Cecilee would mark a significant change in her musical releases. The most significant is dawning the stage name of Lavender Fire and releasing an EP of that same name. Sylistically, Lavender Fire symbolized a number of differences as well. First, Cecilee’s music was more organically composed, using very little to no digital effect to support her compositions. There is also more of a classical influence to the performance. This changes with the release of Lavender Fire, though still primarily driven by piano work, she incorporated a digital influence to her music, percussively and with ambient soundscapes backing the instruments. Vocally, her performances got bigger as well. 

To be honest, I absolutely hear Cecilee performing but it seems like a different person. A different personality, per se. Lavender Fire seems a bit more raw, emotionally empowered, and emboldened. Reading about how the name was conceived, it makes perfect sense:

“Someone asked me once why I get out of bed in the morning to create the music that I do. Here’s why: So I can speak my truth.” (Spotify Bio)

She goes on to explain that she struggled with her sexual identity for a long time. So much that, when she accepted her sexual identity and began to open up about it, she realized it came with a different voice. A voice that, not just advocated for herself, but for the community of people just like her. That voice deserved recognition and a name of its own.

As Lavender Fire, she plans to release her debut LP in the Spring of 2025; a project that has been titled “Of Light and Shadows.” But more recently, she has just released a follow up EP to July’s Lavender Fire debut.

About the EP

Roommates - EP Released on January 6th, 2025. It is the second EP release of Lavender Fire. The work consists of 4 songs and has an approximate run time of 13 minutes. It features Lavender Fire on vocals and piano and synths, with digital percussions supporting most of the arrangements. This release in most properly in the categories of Indie/Alternative and Folk/Alt-Folk music.

About the Music

Musically, Lavender Fire is heavily influenced by piano and vocal performance. Stylistically, her piano is a beautiful mixture of chord and arpeggiated performance. Vocally, her lead vocal is a solo arrangement with heavily layered backing and accompanying vocal parts to fill the space. The first two songs are the title track Roommates and an Acoustic Version of the same song. 

The fact that Roommates is the featured song on the record is purposefully done, as these songs are very strong and the most impactful performances, in my opinion. Stylistically, I definitely get Tori Amos vibes, which is an artist Lavender Fire did say she compared to. One she did not mention however, is I hear a similarity between her music and Florence and the Machine. It’s more prominent with the more percussive songs, like Roommates. 

I really love the piano and electric percussion blend of the instruments in Roommates. It has a nice hook to a lot of trending music, as there is almost a retro feel to the digital percussion. The layered backed backing vocals also really contribute to the atmosphere of the overall performance. 

If I can make one small criticism, it would be that there are times where there are some pitch control moments with the lead vocal part. Oddly, it doesn’t happen with the backing vocals. In actuality, it is a pretty subtle thing and I may only be picking up on it because I’ve listened to the EP several times and am in that stage where I am really just honing in on everything. 

Is it unpleasant? Not at all. It doesn’t hurt the quality of the very well written music. In fact, pitchy performance is a staple in Florence and the Machine’s releases as well, including some of her best work. Additionally, the tone is very pleasant. I would not be surprised at all to find out that this vocalist has had classical voice training. There is a precision to the notes that are being sung that sounds like it has been practiced. Also, the vibrato has a very experienced control to it. Finally, we never want to compromise emotional context for technical perfection. A technically perfect song will often lose to something that is emotionally authentic and not technically perfect. In fact, that’s really what music is all about.

I only mention it as an opportunity to embrace this beautiful flaw or, to bring awareness if it something the artist is interested in correcting going forward. My opinion? Leave it. The performance doesn’t steal away from the emotional attachment to the music. If anything, you might consider layering your lead vocals to give it a bigger presence in the mix of the songs. These are all things I would say as a producer.

As a listener, I love the music. I love the vocals. This is fantastic work. The slow groove of Beautiful Alchemy is such a dynamic piece that gives energy without exerting too much. The accompaniment of synths is so special in its minimalist approach but it feels all the sound space. 

About the Lyrics

Lyrically, I want to talk about Roommates. I think this is such an important song. I’ve listened to it several times and I keep thinking about the history of our society. How we have evolved as a people with our acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community. On one hand, I can identify the progress that has been made. On the other hand, I know that discrimination continues to, not only slow progress, but tries to even reverse it. 

A few months ago, I had an independent artist admonish me for being “political.” It was amazing how quickly other artists came to my defense because the claim was music should not be political because the polar stances in our country woul alienate a potential audience. Those that defended me explained that music has historically and always been political- at the very least, in part.  I’m not trying to restrict a debate about that fact. It’s honestly not even a debate. But, after hearing this song, I am brought back to that conversation. Not because this isn’t a very personal, very emotional song, because it is both of those things. It is so personal. It is so emotional. I highly doubt there was any concern in whether or not it would be politicized when it was written. The fact is, the more listeners songs like this reach, the better off humanity will be. At the end of the day, we aren’t fighting a political battle. We are fighting a battle against a group of people who want to de-humanize the communities that don’t fall in line with their agendas. They use tactics that constantly dehumanize to make us more expendable. Different races are compared to animals like dogs, rats, or monkeys. The trans community is attacked for their desire to find anonymity by attacking their pronouns. For instance, calling a trans woman a “heshe,” or “it.” The gay and lesbian communities are not immune to these designed attacks either. How we approach this is to prove our humanity. 

Roommates is an incredibly human and emotional song.

“We’re just roommates, nothing to see here. Only roommates, she knows all my fears and I know hers. We’re just roommates living our best life. Only roommates writing in the night to each other.”

Roommates is a song about a young woman learning and coming to terms with her sexuality. She’s identified that she is attracted to this woman but she’s coming to terms with society’s perception of her and her lover. 

I don’t know the specific inspiration. This could be a situation where the subject is possibly struggling/contemplating with coming out to the people in her life. Maybe she’s telling them her lover is just her “roommate,” but they know it’s more than that. Maybe they know and that’s how they refer to her lover; as just being her “roommate,” as a way to dismiss the sexual identity of the subject. When I listen to the lyrics, these are the possibilities I think about. 

“They all will see years from now all they see. There’s no men, must be roommates. Yeah they’re roommates.”

Again, lyrically, I can see this being one of two things. Either the subject is harboring their own secret or their lover’s secret, or they’ve come out to their friends/family and they are in denial about it.

Either way that it’s interpreted, I find extremely moving. To go back to my first though when I started writing about the lyrics of this song, I love how emotionally connected to the story our author is. She had taken us to a place where we can revisit these experiences with the author to some capacity. It creates a layer of supportive empathy that refuses to let the subject and the object of her affection as anything but human beings. Human beings who are going through a very beautiful, very complex experience.

Without trying to, the author has created a work that tilts the scale in favor of those who want to see a world progress. She’s made a connection every musician only hopes to do with their audience. I am speaking about her audience of one (me) currently as I do not intend to speak for anybody else. I am simply identifying how moving I find her words to be. 

Final Thoughts

It’s so fascinating to go back and listen to Cecliee’s music and then to listen to the two releases produced by Lavender Fire. Artists do this all the time. Solo artists perform with bands, or utilize stage names. I’ve written about artists who do that. There are many reasons to do it. Maybe an artist doesn’t want to be known as a soloist but they identify that their co-musicians might not be steadfast so they create a stage name to be a catch-all for the volatility of collaborative artists they work with. Maybe an artist is insecure about what they’re producing and they want to hide their identity so that it doesn’t get back to everybody in their personal life. 

In this instance, I hear an artist who is emboldened by their stage name and identity. Witnessing this blooming, budding transition is nothing less than amazing. 

Lavender Fire is a minimalist musician but there is nothing minimal about the complex nature of the music she is producing. It is emotionally powerful, it is captivating. It is inspiring. By telling her story, she’s channeling a cultural significance that every person has experienced, from one view or another, and she clarifies how ridiculous it is to politicize human beings for being diverse. Differences have never made people less human. In fact, they’ve always been the things that have separated us from our primitive beginnings. Our will. Our reason. Our evolution. 

If this was the intention of Lavender Fire, I couldn’t be sure. I won’t pretend to know. It’s not a responsibility I would or could put on any person. We have the right to convey emotions without having to commit ourselves to leading a movement. Sometimes, we become leaders without intending to. But again, I wouldn’t dare make that implication. I just want to acknowledge that this is the type of thing that inspires change.

You can follow Lavender Fire on Spotify, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. 

You can listen to Roomates here and here. You can subscribe to her YouTube channel right here. 

Go press play.