Ifeel like a modern woman,Eliza McLambsings over a bursting guitar riff.
I get up late, Im always saying/Man, I gotta hit the DMV/Always bills Im paying.
Modern Woman is a highlight on the album.
Eliza McLamb in Brooklyn, August 2024.Griffin Lotz for Rolling Stone
Trips to the DMV?
It was my first big-girl purchase.
But ultimately it wouldve just been a burden out here.
I downsized a lot coming from L.A.
I just realized, Im 23.
Theres no reason for me to have all this shit.
But I asked [the landlord] over the phone, Are you going to fuck me over?
And he was like, No, this is a good place.
It worked out great.
McLamb chronicles her cross-country move in God Take Me Out of L.A., out today.
I would hope that the song comes across as, Im not cut out for this.
Its not that theres a problem with the city.
Im not used to not seeing green and feeling dirt and moisture.
It was disorienting for me, and that song was me connecting.
I felt stranded out there.
Its only natural to be like, Get me the fuck out of here.
Its a city that I think, much like New York, doesnt work for everyone.
But Eliza is loving New York.
Theres some things about her that are so metropolitan.
It was a good call.
For McLamb, thats OK.
I see myself as a pretty classic artist, she says.
But Im not interested in that.
I have very consciously resisted attempts to brand myself as one specific thing.
She continues with a few big-picture comparisons: Leonardo da Vinci invented a bunch of shit.
Joni Mitchell thinks of herself as a painter first.
Thats very much the school of thought that Im in.
Theres so many inspiring people who are doing all different kinds of work.
Shes expanding peoples ideas for what the modern artist can look like.
Then the pandemic hit.
I had little to no physical skills at the time, she says.
Its embarrassing that I cant work with my hands.
I knew I wanted something that was grounding and challenging, but in a way that was healthy.
Farming was everything I wanted it to be.
While she was on the farms, McLamb started to upload songs onto TikTok.
I was hitting a really good streak with the algorithm, she says.
There was one week where basically every song I posted was getting upwards of 700,000 views.
It was more just a space to shout into the void and share your songs.
One song, Porn Star Tits, blew up on the platform.
Suddenly, she realized she could make this her career.
A pathway opened in my mind, she says.
I started thinking, What if I took this seriously?
McLamb says she was soon approached by almost every major label.
Well give you six figures to make a Porn Star Tits music video in a bikini, she says.
Im like, OK, youre not getting it.
I wasnt interested in any of that.
I didnt want to be the Porn Star Tits girl.
Ive done as much as I can to distance myself from it.
When I come home on the holiday/You tell me everything/In my bed/Whispering like were 13 again.
And I was like, Damn, Im pretty sure that happened when I was in college.
I used to make fun of them for it, and then I saw the light.
I remember one time I put some live show on to work in the background to.
That wonderful Jeff Tweedy warble in the first five seconds, I immediately started welling up with tears.
I noticed a screened-in porch and it was close to a creek, she says.
Those are my two musts, and everything else Im sure will fall into place.
Maybe Ill get a good pretzel.
