Inertia
Words:  PJ Cheng
Photos: Michael Spadoni

Inertia is 20-year old Lily Richeson, who laid down her cello for an acoustic guitar several years ago.  With an extra heater recently installed in the tour van, she will be hitting the road for a three-week trip that will take the soloist from the balmy pavement of Tampa to the frozen wasteland of Fargo, North Dakota.  But before the young folk artist (who's never seen a drop of snow or left town for more than a few days) ventures off to the cold weather states, I was able to sit down with her for a fine Mexican lunch at a Davis Island restaurant replete with ornamented Christmas tree, synthesized holiday tunes and 80-degree weather.  There's plenty to think about with a debut album about to be released and an upcoming holiday tour schedule that travels far away from home.  We discovered that some expectations are best kept simple.  Like building snowmen.

REAX:  Are you getting nervous about going on tour?
Lily Richeson:  Yeah, I've never been away from home this long.

REAX:  Dude, you are going to be cold!
LR:  We're going to Fargo, man.  It's gonna be freezing!  It's 80 degrees outside so it's hard to think about.  I'm going to be away during Christmas and New Years.  My Mom is pretty pissed that I'm going. 

REAX:  You better bring about three sets of thermals.  You're gonna need those.
LR:  What are thermals?

REAX:  You're in trouble.  This is your first tour, right?
LR:  Yeah, it's a big tour, too.  Three weeks but I figure I should just take the opportunity.  Why not?  Good or bad it'll be a good experience.

REAX:  What's the best part about playing shows and being the only one in the band?
LR:  When playing in a band with more people, I don't get that nervous because the attention isn't on me so much, it's on everybody.  When you go up by yourself, you get really nervous and excited and then coming down after that…it's almost like a small high.

REAX:  And the worst part?
LR:  Basically the same thing.

REAX:  So you're touring with another band?
LR:  I'm going on tour with Mount Awesome from Sarasota and Liquid Limbs who are a two-piece band.

REAX:  Let's talk about No Joking?  Aside from the acoustic, who plays some of the other instruments on the album?
LR:  My friend Stephen Hammill did a lot of them.  I played the cello and some of the guitar parts and he went back and did a lot of the instrumentation in it.  He was the producer on the album and I let him have creative interest in it.  Mmmm, synthesizers (referring to the Christmas jams over the house speakers).

REAX:  Why are you against using that in your music? 
LR:  Synthesizers?  They're in my music.  They're electric pianos.

REAX:  Would you ever go the Bjork route?
LR:  All electronic?  I don't know.  Probably not.

REAX:  So why folk music?
LR:  When I learned to play guitar, it took me awhile to learn how to write a song.  Folk music is what I listen to the most.  My biggest influence is Jonie Mitchell and I guess it naturally happened that way.

REAX:  You're a 20-year-old solo musician and you're about to go on the road to promote your first album. How do you feel about it?
LR:  I wanna build a snowman.  That's my goal for tour.

Visit www.myspace.com/iiinertia to learn about Inertia's tour dates, music and favorite Wii games.