What is there to say? A lot actually. Live from the Lair with Jillian Matundan tonight, and a release of 6 new not-our songs, produced and performed by us and sung for good purpose on Bandcamp Friday. Which is THIS Friday. Fortunately, Heather's gonna say it, cause you hear from ME allllll the time...

ilyAIMY is Live from the Lair on facebook.com/ilyAIMY, YouTube/ilyAIMY and twitch.tv/robilyaimy every Wednesday at 7pm ET. 

Full a full calendar, please visit www.ilyaimy.com/upcoming-and-incoming/

The pandemic is with us seemingly eternally, so it doesn't hurt to call a venue ahead of time to make sure there are no surprises! We try to keep everything up-to-date on ilyAIMY.com - but our social media is more up-to-the-second! Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are where we'll post last-minute changes - so make sure you follow, Like, subscribe... whatever it is you do on those crazy thangs!

"If I’m honest, I’m not a very hopeful person. I’ve always had a toe in nihilism, but for a strained string anchoring me to shore. The siren void calls, but the ringing of the plucked cord wrapped around me has always sung out: “If YOU do not live as honorably as you can … If YOU don’t try … only THEN does NOTHING matter.” You should write THAT song, people will often say to me. But I find my complex ethical contract too cacophonous. And so earlier this year, I camped on higher ground for a few weeks, arranging the lyrics and melodies of teenagers into seaworthy vessels. And … found my heart buoyed along with them. 

This Friday, ilyAIMY (with Chords of Courage) is releasing that music. Radically different from anything we’ve ever done before, free from genre constraints or our own musical habits, we did whatever served the starter song given to us. There’s Funk, Pop, Country/Americana, Reggae … Rob has a blazing guitar solo. Kristen brings out the steel pans. I sing SOPRANO. It’s surprisingly upbeat and shimmering for telling the stories of heroes among us who’ve suffered to do real good in this world: Mothers left behind to speak for sons lost to LGBTQ and racial hate. Others choosing the power of the pen as bodies fail. And of those who run toward the flames.

Because (as Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre’s poem reminds us) some of us might let this haunted house of a world burn … except that we remember there are children inside. 

So, I invite you to be reminded. To be buoyed. To let those children pluck the cord that holds us to hope. 

Why are we releasing this music now? Because I need it. You need it. And because on Friday, Dec. 2, Bandcamp forgoes all its revenue share to give 100 percent of proceeds to artists. Which means ilyAIMY can give 100 percent of your purchases of this benefit album to Chords of Courage, a songwriting workshop and contest for teens in Frederick, Md, RIGHT as they begin this year’s crop of hopeful anthems. Follow ilyAIMY on Bandcamp and you’ll get a notification when the album drops this FRIDAY, when your purchase goes the furthest to help the non-profit organization. 

ilyaimy.bandcamp.com

-Heather Aubrey Lloyd
ilyAIMY
Baltimore, MD 
www.ilyaimy.com