About

Lady Lazarus is the solo project of Melissa Ann Sweat, a singer-songwriter, artist, and creative writer from San Jose, Calif., who received breakthrough press last year for her debut album, Mantic—including a 7.8 review from Pitchfork, and praise from Stereogum, One Thirty BPM, the Journal of Music, and more. Touching on dream pop and experimental folk, her spirited, lo-fi sound has earned comparisons to Cat Power, Smog, Grouper, Joanna Newsom, and Daniel Johnston, while her grand yet minimalist keyboard style nods to experimental composers like Philip Glass.

For press or other inquiries, please contact Melissa:  missmelissasweat(at)gmail(dot)com.

Taken from the Sylvia Plath poem of the same name, Lady Lazarus began as Melissa taught herself keyboard and recorded her first songs while living in San Francisco around March of ’08. About a year later she self-released her Home Recordings EP, and was motivated by the positive feedback and some press she received to continue pursuing music. She played her first live shows in the Bay Area in the summer of 2009, and began to play out more and tour the Western U.S.

Meanwhile, Melissa worked on her first full-length album from the fall of 2009 to late summer 2010. That February, she lost her grandmother to a long battle with Parkinson’s. The loss came with a strange timing of major press; the day of the funeral, Pitchfork featured Lady Lazarus’ track, “The Eye in the Eye of the Storm,” (off the forthcoming album) giving it a 7/10 review. One of her brothers had sent them a link to Lady Lazarus’ Myspace page on a whim.

Inspired by a cross-country train trip she had taken in early ’09, Melissa moved to Savannah, GA in the fall of 2010 and began making plans to tour in the region. On January 18, 2011, Lady Lazarus self-released Mantic, receiving a 7.8 album review from Pitchfork, and praise from Stereogum, One Thirty BPM, the Journal of Music, PopMatters, the Big Takeover, and many more blogs and websites here and abroad. From the fall of 2010 to June 2011, she played shows along the East Coast, South, and Southeast in support of Mantic, while also working on new songs and covers, including a version of Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist.”

In a bit of odd coincidence, Graveface Records label owner, and Dreamend-, Black Moth Super Rainbow-member Ryan Graveface, had moved to Savannah around the same time as Melissa. They became friends, and Lady Lazarus was asked to contribute vocals to the new Marshmallow Ghosts album—which came out in October 2011 to some nice press from IFC.com, Impose Magazine, and Consequence of Sound, among others. Lady Lazarus has since been asked to contribute songs for a 2012 Graveface charity series, along with Phil Elverum, Mike Watt, Xiu Xiu, the Black Heart Procession, and more.

Melissa is back living in her native Bay Area. She finished up a West Coast tour at the end of 2011, and is currently working on creative projects. More to come in 2012…