Getting into musical character
Muirsical Conversation with Tricia Duffy (aka Little Lore)
Muirsical Conversation with Tricia Duffy (aka Little Lore)
With four EPs under her belt, including 2025’s water-conceptual River Stories, London based Indie-Americana singer-songwriter-storyteller Tricia Duffy, who performs under the name Little Lore, decided to get into character for her full-length debut, Being Serafina.
Named after the central character in the Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, Being Serafina transports the heroine from the stage to a 12 song singer-songwriter album that also acts as a modernised soundtrack to the Williams work.
Musically, the genre fluid album utilises, and in some cases mixes, Americana, country, Laurel Canyon folk, rootsy blues, pop, progressive forms and even some punk to help tell the story of Serafina’s journey from light to troubling darkness and back to light.
Even more impressive is the fact that Tricia Duffy took method acting cases to give her an even deeper understanding of the character.
Tricia sat in with FabricationsHQ to discuss the album – and Serafina – in deep dive detail, as well as the play that inspired it.
But the conversation started by going back to the last year’s River Stories EP, and its intriguing backstory.
Ross Muir: I’d like to start by dropping back a year to River Stories, which conceptually looked to your relationship with water, from rivers and boats to canals and swimming.
This was all inspired by your invitation to Johnson’s Island and the artist’s community there?
Tricia Duffy: Yeah, that’s right, although the intention behind going to Johnson’s Island was that I would write about the people who work on the island because, as you said, there’s a community of artists there.
When I first spoke to Angela Chan, who owns and runs the art studio, I had this idea that I would talk to the artists as they were bound to be interesting and have lots of stories; I would then create an album or EP from those stories.
But, a couple of weeks before I was due to do the residency there were two floods, that were part of the terrible storms we had in November 2023. Once because of the hurricane-like storm weather and then again due to a combination of a second storm and a very high tide – we are on part of the Thame’s tidal path here.
So, I’m due to start the residency on Wednesday and I get a call from Angela on the Sunday, who says:
"I’m in the studio with mops and buckets cleaning up for a second time! It’s fifty-fifty on whether I’m going to get it dry enough for you to come, so I’m just calling to warn you!"
I was down in Cornwall at the time, and I had my guitar next to me. When I hung up after the call I immediately thought "that river’s got two sides, figuratively and literally!"
I picked up my guitar and started to pick out what became the hook in the song The River; I wrote, and finished it, right there and then.
Named after the central character in the Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, Being Serafina transports the heroine from the stage to a 12 song singer-songwriter album that also acts as a modernised soundtrack to the Williams work.
Musically, the genre fluid album utilises, and in some cases mixes, Americana, country, Laurel Canyon folk, rootsy blues, pop, progressive forms and even some punk to help tell the story of Serafina’s journey from light to troubling darkness and back to light.
Even more impressive is the fact that Tricia Duffy took method acting cases to give her an even deeper understanding of the character.
Tricia sat in with FabricationsHQ to discuss the album – and Serafina – in deep dive detail, as well as the play that inspired it.
But the conversation started by going back to the last year’s River Stories EP, and its intriguing backstory.
Ross Muir: I’d like to start by dropping back a year to River Stories, which conceptually looked to your relationship with water, from rivers and boats to canals and swimming.
This was all inspired by your invitation to Johnson’s Island and the artist’s community there?
Tricia Duffy: Yeah, that’s right, although the intention behind going to Johnson’s Island was that I would write about the people who work on the island because, as you said, there’s a community of artists there.
When I first spoke to Angela Chan, who owns and runs the art studio, I had this idea that I would talk to the artists as they were bound to be interesting and have lots of stories; I would then create an album or EP from those stories.
But, a couple of weeks before I was due to do the residency there were two floods, that were part of the terrible storms we had in November 2023. Once because of the hurricane-like storm weather and then again due to a combination of a second storm and a very high tide – we are on part of the Thame’s tidal path here.
So, I’m due to start the residency on Wednesday and I get a call from Angela on the Sunday, who says:
"I’m in the studio with mops and buckets cleaning up for a second time! It’s fifty-fifty on whether I’m going to get it dry enough for you to come, so I’m just calling to warn you!"
I was down in Cornwall at the time, and I had my guitar next to me. When I hung up after the call I immediately thought "that river’s got two sides, figuratively and literally!"
I picked up my guitar and started to pick out what became the hook in the song The River; I wrote, and finished it, right there and then.
TD: Luckily, Angela rang me later to say it was fine and that I should come in on Wednesday.
At that point, I still had the idea that I’d be working with the artists, and interviewing them – so, when I got there, I was thinking to myself "I wonder who will be here this morning?"
But there was not a single person there! That’s when I realised these artists keep their own hours! [laughs]
Now I’m thinking, "OK what am I going to write about?" because the idea about interviewing the artists clearly can’t happen when there’s no-one there to interview!
I sat down in the studio, where the windows look right onto Grand Union Canal, and just started thinking about my relationship with the canal, the River Thames, and water generally; suddenly it came up within me that this was something I really needed to write about; five of the six songs came from there.
The other, Johnson’s Island, is about the island; it’s a kind of last word from all the artists there.
RM: Your debut album Being Serafina could, perhaps, be seen as the next conceptual step after River Stories, but the album isn't so much a next step as a giant leap in singer-songwriter kind.
This is a seriously deep dive into not just song-craft but full characterisation of the main protagonist, Serafina Delle Rose, from Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, which Being Serafina is based upon.
What brought you to Serafina, and writing a set of songs based around a Tennessee Williams play?
TD: Well, again, like River Stories, it didn’t start off as I intended!
I had a different idea initially but songs tend to have their own agenda, and I sometimes feel like I don’t really have a choice in it! [laughs]
The original idea was for me to explore method songwriting and write twelve songs – I knew I wanted it to be a twelve-song album; I just had a sense of twelve songs being right, and a nicer balance, in my head.
I also knew it would be a concept album because I love a concept album. I really enjoyed the River Stories concept, and before that I had written some concept songs.
So, my idea for these twelve songs was to have multiple characters, where each of the songs was about a different character’s point of view, with some sort of thread that tied them together.
I also thought I would take inspiration from Tom Waits, Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Bowie – all the great artists who had gone before me and written from character perspective.
I also thought that, maybe, some of the characters or ideas might come from plays, or books, or prose; others might come from my own invention.
That was the initial intention, but in order to do this thoroughly I also signed up for method acting classes!
Once I signed up I told my coach Alexander, who teaches a more modern-day version of the method, what I wanted to do.
He said "OK, but do you want to come with songs, or do you want to come to this as an actor?"
I said "I want you to treat me just like an actor; train me as if I’m going to be acting, don’t worry about the songwriting."
"Well," he replied, "you had better learn a proper monologue, hadn’t you?"
So, I started to look for appropriate gender and range playing parts for me, which was quite limited because, as you will know, there's a patriarchy, with the larger canon of work written for male characters.
RM: Indeed. Which would make it all the more difficult I presume.
TD: Yes, there really was a limited amount for older women characters, that I could find.
But, I’m a massive fan of Tennessee Williams and have been since I was a child; I also later played a Tennessee Williams part as a teenager.
I also had a copy of The Rose Tattoo that was given to me for my fourteenth or fifteenth Christmas by an aunt and uncle – they were actually second cousins, but we called them aunt and uncle! [laughs].
Anyway, I now had that play in mind, so looked it up on the Internet. I also flicked through my copy, which I still have, and found this one monologue that I thought was very good and that I really liked.
I thought "yes! I can probably jump off from this and write a song from it."
I started working on the monologue and doing the acting associated with it, so I could be in character as Serafina to write my song. I had a chat with Alexander and said “she is so brilliant this character; she is so fascinating!" He replied "of course, because she is very well written!"
Then he said "how many songs do you think you could write, from your own perspective, if you had no limit on time?"
I thought about that and said "I don’t know, probably thousands?" A lot, basically! [laughs]
"Well, he replied, you should be able to write the same amount from Serafina’s perspective, because if she is well written, there should be as many songs in her as there are in you!"
And he was right; the back story was all there already and I had the play.
I knew she was married at fourteen; I knew she was a Sicilian immigrant; I knew what food she liked; I knew her judgemental side and her beautiful side; I knew how funny and flawed she was.
The more I got invested in her the more it came to me that maybe I could write more than one song from her perspective – then, eventually, I knew I had to write the whole album from her perspective!
RM: That characterisation paid dividends because while I’m familiar with other plays by Tennessee Williams, I don’t know The Rose Tattoo – but, with Being Serafina, the listener will get a sense of the character, right from opening song Fair Weather, where the scene is set for darker things to come.
Additionally, the genre-fluid nature of the album – from Americana and country to progressive forms and even punk, which drives the song Atone – plays its part as much as the character of Serafina.
Which begs the question, did you write or style the music around the lyrics, or vice versa?
TD: Each of the songs had a different approach. For example, Fair Weather, which you mentioned, I wrote the lyrics first – but I knew instinctively that it needed that minor key to bring a sense of foreboding, and that everything isn’t as perfect as it seems.
But then Tennessee Williams would not be a very good playwright if everything he wrote was as idyllic as it appears to be!
At that point, I still had the idea that I’d be working with the artists, and interviewing them – so, when I got there, I was thinking to myself "I wonder who will be here this morning?"
But there was not a single person there! That’s when I realised these artists keep their own hours! [laughs]
Now I’m thinking, "OK what am I going to write about?" because the idea about interviewing the artists clearly can’t happen when there’s no-one there to interview!
I sat down in the studio, where the windows look right onto Grand Union Canal, and just started thinking about my relationship with the canal, the River Thames, and water generally; suddenly it came up within me that this was something I really needed to write about; five of the six songs came from there.
The other, Johnson’s Island, is about the island; it’s a kind of last word from all the artists there.
RM: Your debut album Being Serafina could, perhaps, be seen as the next conceptual step after River Stories, but the album isn't so much a next step as a giant leap in singer-songwriter kind.
This is a seriously deep dive into not just song-craft but full characterisation of the main protagonist, Serafina Delle Rose, from Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, which Being Serafina is based upon.
What brought you to Serafina, and writing a set of songs based around a Tennessee Williams play?
TD: Well, again, like River Stories, it didn’t start off as I intended!
I had a different idea initially but songs tend to have their own agenda, and I sometimes feel like I don’t really have a choice in it! [laughs]
The original idea was for me to explore method songwriting and write twelve songs – I knew I wanted it to be a twelve-song album; I just had a sense of twelve songs being right, and a nicer balance, in my head.
I also knew it would be a concept album because I love a concept album. I really enjoyed the River Stories concept, and before that I had written some concept songs.
So, my idea for these twelve songs was to have multiple characters, where each of the songs was about a different character’s point of view, with some sort of thread that tied them together.
I also thought I would take inspiration from Tom Waits, Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Bowie – all the great artists who had gone before me and written from character perspective.
I also thought that, maybe, some of the characters or ideas might come from plays, or books, or prose; others might come from my own invention.
That was the initial intention, but in order to do this thoroughly I also signed up for method acting classes!
Once I signed up I told my coach Alexander, who teaches a more modern-day version of the method, what I wanted to do.
He said "OK, but do you want to come with songs, or do you want to come to this as an actor?"
I said "I want you to treat me just like an actor; train me as if I’m going to be acting, don’t worry about the songwriting."
"Well," he replied, "you had better learn a proper monologue, hadn’t you?"
So, I started to look for appropriate gender and range playing parts for me, which was quite limited because, as you will know, there's a patriarchy, with the larger canon of work written for male characters.
RM: Indeed. Which would make it all the more difficult I presume.
TD: Yes, there really was a limited amount for older women characters, that I could find.
But, I’m a massive fan of Tennessee Williams and have been since I was a child; I also later played a Tennessee Williams part as a teenager.
I also had a copy of The Rose Tattoo that was given to me for my fourteenth or fifteenth Christmas by an aunt and uncle – they were actually second cousins, but we called them aunt and uncle! [laughs].
Anyway, I now had that play in mind, so looked it up on the Internet. I also flicked through my copy, which I still have, and found this one monologue that I thought was very good and that I really liked.
I thought "yes! I can probably jump off from this and write a song from it."
I started working on the monologue and doing the acting associated with it, so I could be in character as Serafina to write my song. I had a chat with Alexander and said “she is so brilliant this character; she is so fascinating!" He replied "of course, because she is very well written!"
Then he said "how many songs do you think you could write, from your own perspective, if you had no limit on time?"
I thought about that and said "I don’t know, probably thousands?" A lot, basically! [laughs]
"Well, he replied, you should be able to write the same amount from Serafina’s perspective, because if she is well written, there should be as many songs in her as there are in you!"
And he was right; the back story was all there already and I had the play.
I knew she was married at fourteen; I knew she was a Sicilian immigrant; I knew what food she liked; I knew her judgemental side and her beautiful side; I knew how funny and flawed she was.
The more I got invested in her the more it came to me that maybe I could write more than one song from her perspective – then, eventually, I knew I had to write the whole album from her perspective!
RM: That characterisation paid dividends because while I’m familiar with other plays by Tennessee Williams, I don’t know The Rose Tattoo – but, with Being Serafina, the listener will get a sense of the character, right from opening song Fair Weather, where the scene is set for darker things to come.
Additionally, the genre-fluid nature of the album – from Americana and country to progressive forms and even punk, which drives the song Atone – plays its part as much as the character of Serafina.
Which begs the question, did you write or style the music around the lyrics, or vice versa?
TD: Each of the songs had a different approach. For example, Fair Weather, which you mentioned, I wrote the lyrics first – but I knew instinctively that it needed that minor key to bring a sense of foreboding, and that everything isn’t as perfect as it seems.
But then Tennessee Williams would not be a very good playwright if everything he wrote was as idyllic as it appears to be!
TD: I should say as well, The Rose Tattoo is not, by any stretch, Williams’ most popular work.
A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof are all much more popular than The Rose Tattoo, but I think, for me, it’s an underestimated play; there’s so much more to it than people realise.
It’s tragic, but it’s also kind of funny and pantomime-y; it really does have everything you would be looking for in a play.
You also mentioned Atone, and the anger of it. For that one I went to Logic and put a kind of punky drum-beat on it. And, as you’ll have heard, it barely has two chords on it! [laughs].
RM: Yes, there’s a very Indie-punk vibe to Atone, but that helps pronounce, and bring out, the necessary anger.
TD: Yeah, it needed that anger, so the beats, and the minimal harmony, all serve that purpose. There are also some things in there that nod to the dramaturgy of the play.
I wrote my producer and friend Oli Deakin, who has worked with me on all my recordings, this really long note about that song and the associated dramaturgy, because Tennessee Williams tells us in his script that off-stage Alvaro, the new man in Serafina’s life, is chipping away at ice and it’s got that rhythmic "chip, chip, chip," beat.
That’s because Williams is trying to establish the sense of anger that’s building up in Serafina, which leads to her throwing the urn of her dead husband’s ashes across the room, where they explode!
So, I knew I wanted to have that chipping sound through very saturated drum beats.
You’ve also got, as part of the stage direction, a little boy counting down for hide and seek – "ninety-nine, one hundred; coming, ready or not!" That’s the exact moment Serafina throws the urn.
The whole thing, in the sense of the drama of it, has very specific stage direction and choreography.
All of that went into my production decisions and my note to Oli.
RM: Oli clearly plays a major part in your musical endeavours.
TD: Yeah, he does. Oli knows me really well and he never flinches, no matter how lunatic my ideas or suggestions are! [laughter]
I'll say I want to do this and I want to do that; I need this sound here and a build-up of tension there.
Oli just goes "yeah, all right, I think I’ve got you" and acts like I’ve just asked him if he wants a cup of tea!
The use of the clarinet, to depict Serafina’s husband Rosario, was another idea I had that we incorporated.
RM: That was inspired. It’s a clever story-enhancing device, from its introduction on Fair Weather through to its more distant, departing sound on final number Strange Things.
TD: Yes. I said to Oli that, for Strange Things, the clarinet is walking out of the room, releasing Serafina.
In stage and audio terms it’s behind the listener’s head, walking behind the audience, out of the room, and setting her free.
RM: Another song I wanted to mention is Lock Up Your Daughters.
The particular song has an intriguing juxtaposition where the serious and concerning lyric of a mother wanting to protect her fifteen-year-old daughter’s innocence is accompanied by a jaunty, country-vibed musicality.
A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof are all much more popular than The Rose Tattoo, but I think, for me, it’s an underestimated play; there’s so much more to it than people realise.
It’s tragic, but it’s also kind of funny and pantomime-y; it really does have everything you would be looking for in a play.
You also mentioned Atone, and the anger of it. For that one I went to Logic and put a kind of punky drum-beat on it. And, as you’ll have heard, it barely has two chords on it! [laughs].
RM: Yes, there’s a very Indie-punk vibe to Atone, but that helps pronounce, and bring out, the necessary anger.
TD: Yeah, it needed that anger, so the beats, and the minimal harmony, all serve that purpose. There are also some things in there that nod to the dramaturgy of the play.
I wrote my producer and friend Oli Deakin, who has worked with me on all my recordings, this really long note about that song and the associated dramaturgy, because Tennessee Williams tells us in his script that off-stage Alvaro, the new man in Serafina’s life, is chipping away at ice and it’s got that rhythmic "chip, chip, chip," beat.
That’s because Williams is trying to establish the sense of anger that’s building up in Serafina, which leads to her throwing the urn of her dead husband’s ashes across the room, where they explode!
So, I knew I wanted to have that chipping sound through very saturated drum beats.
You’ve also got, as part of the stage direction, a little boy counting down for hide and seek – "ninety-nine, one hundred; coming, ready or not!" That’s the exact moment Serafina throws the urn.
The whole thing, in the sense of the drama of it, has very specific stage direction and choreography.
All of that went into my production decisions and my note to Oli.
RM: Oli clearly plays a major part in your musical endeavours.
TD: Yeah, he does. Oli knows me really well and he never flinches, no matter how lunatic my ideas or suggestions are! [laughter]
I'll say I want to do this and I want to do that; I need this sound here and a build-up of tension there.
Oli just goes "yeah, all right, I think I’ve got you" and acts like I’ve just asked him if he wants a cup of tea!
The use of the clarinet, to depict Serafina’s husband Rosario, was another idea I had that we incorporated.
RM: That was inspired. It’s a clever story-enhancing device, from its introduction on Fair Weather through to its more distant, departing sound on final number Strange Things.
TD: Yes. I said to Oli that, for Strange Things, the clarinet is walking out of the room, releasing Serafina.
In stage and audio terms it’s behind the listener’s head, walking behind the audience, out of the room, and setting her free.
RM: Another song I wanted to mention is Lock Up Your Daughters.
The particular song has an intriguing juxtaposition where the serious and concerning lyric of a mother wanting to protect her fifteen-year-old daughter’s innocence is accompanied by a jaunty, country-vibed musicality.
RM: As can be heard on Lock Up Your Daughters, there’s clearly been a lot of thought in the arrangement of both music and lyrics, and how they play off of each other, as you’ve worked through Serafina’s journey.
TD: Thank you. I actually didn’t write in chronological order. Atone, which we’ve talked about, was one of the last songs I wrote; the first one I wrote was Did You Exist?, which is in the middle of the story, and the album.
I went in and out of places in the story; whichever one was calling me was the one I wrote next.
I also had eighty-four different song titles that I could have gone to at any point and then made title adjustments over time.
There was some repetition in those titles, but that’s how many I generated through character analysis.
RM: Again, the deep dive into a work of artistic endeavour, and passion.
Indeed, the listener who invests themselves thoroughly into the story, and the lyric, may also catch that passion and decide to check out the play, or read more about it.
TD: I really hope so! As I said earlier it’s not the most popular Tennessee Williams work, but I think it deserves attention. It would be nice if that happened.
RM: Another song I want to mention is Dummies, which I think is a true highlight.
It’s a genuinely sad song but there’s a lovely charm to its waltz-like sway, although it’s not in true waltz time.
TD: No, it’s in 6-8. And it is a sad song, because Serafina is really starting to recognise her own isolation.
At the start she’s hearing what she thinks are responses from her dressmaker’s dummies and by the end they are silent; that’s when she realises just how isolated and alone she is.
It's also the only song on the album that I co-wrote, with a friend of mine called Thiago Trosso.
We write together for other artists and other purposes quite often, but I really wanted to co-write a song for this collection just to see what it would be like, and if it would even make the cut, because obviously you can overwrite for albums.
I asked Thiago how he would feel about writing something with me for the album and he said "Yeah, up for it!"
I explained the premise to him, but that became very confusing during the writing sessions because at one stage I would say something like "Serafina wouldn’t say that because she’s starting to recognise her own isolation", then later I’d say "now at this point I’m in conversation with the dummies."
Thiago had to eventually say "wouldn’t it be easier if you just wrote as Serafina, instead of going between Serafina and Tricia?" Yeah, maybe [laughs].
And that was quite scary because before, when I was by myself, I was in character with no-one watching me. Now there’s someone else engaging with me, as a co-writer, while I’m trying to be Serafina. So it was a very different dynamic, but that song was very magical to write.
In fact, the guitar part you here on Dummies was the original demo that Thiago recorded as a guide track for me to put vocals to later, but we just couldn’t better it.
It was just so perfect; it just conjured what we had created in that moment, so we kept it.
RM: Many musicians call that the "beat the demo" challenge.
Sometimes you are, as you just said, in that moment, producing something natural, unfettered or spontaneous that just can’t be replicated. You might have to clean up the sound a little, but you know you’re not going to better it, so you don’t try, and leave it insitu.
TD: Exactly. Usually, Oli would overwrite any demo parts because he’s a multi-instrumentalist, but we didn’t need to this time. Normally I’ll do the demo guitar parts myself, then insist that Oli replaces them! [laughs]
I always say I play guitar like a songwriter; I‘m pretty good at playing live, but less so when there’s a click in my ear! [laughter] That’s when my skill levels eradicate slightly.
Also I find it’s a very different thing when I’m performing – playing and singing – than it is when I’m just playing guitar to lay down a track.
That’s why I absolutely insist that Oli replaces it, but I know he sneaks in the odd bit of my original demos occasionally, then doesn’t tell me until after the fact – "yeah, that’s your original guitar part in there" [laughs]
RM: To bring our chat about Being Serafina to a conclusion, it’s interesting to musically note there’s a sort of normal life dovetailing with final song Strange Things and opener Fair Weather; both also carry a calmer, folksy vibe.
TD: Yeah, it’s coming full circle. In fact, the words "fair weather" are also in the lyric of Strange Things.
There’s a lot of doubling in the play, or things that happen twice – Tennessee Williams used a device to double up things quite regularly.
Serafina, for example, has two big plummets of grief; the first when her husband dies and a second time when she realises he was having an affair. She’s also pregnant twice, and there’s the two Rose tattoos; her husband had one and the new man in her life, Alvaro, also has one.
There are lots of instances like that, so I also have quite a lot of doubling within the tracks.
You’ll notice that in the backing vocals of Lock Up Your Daughters there’s the same "ooh la la-la" vocals that arrive later in Love And Attraction; Don’t Speak and Did You Exist? have a similar sort of high-pitch drone in the background; the similarities between the beginning and end tracks, as you pointed out.
Not all songs have a pairing, but most do, or have some sort of relationship between them.
TD: Thank you. I actually didn’t write in chronological order. Atone, which we’ve talked about, was one of the last songs I wrote; the first one I wrote was Did You Exist?, which is in the middle of the story, and the album.
I went in and out of places in the story; whichever one was calling me was the one I wrote next.
I also had eighty-four different song titles that I could have gone to at any point and then made title adjustments over time.
There was some repetition in those titles, but that’s how many I generated through character analysis.
RM: Again, the deep dive into a work of artistic endeavour, and passion.
Indeed, the listener who invests themselves thoroughly into the story, and the lyric, may also catch that passion and decide to check out the play, or read more about it.
TD: I really hope so! As I said earlier it’s not the most popular Tennessee Williams work, but I think it deserves attention. It would be nice if that happened.
RM: Another song I want to mention is Dummies, which I think is a true highlight.
It’s a genuinely sad song but there’s a lovely charm to its waltz-like sway, although it’s not in true waltz time.
TD: No, it’s in 6-8. And it is a sad song, because Serafina is really starting to recognise her own isolation.
At the start she’s hearing what she thinks are responses from her dressmaker’s dummies and by the end they are silent; that’s when she realises just how isolated and alone she is.
It's also the only song on the album that I co-wrote, with a friend of mine called Thiago Trosso.
We write together for other artists and other purposes quite often, but I really wanted to co-write a song for this collection just to see what it would be like, and if it would even make the cut, because obviously you can overwrite for albums.
I asked Thiago how he would feel about writing something with me for the album and he said "Yeah, up for it!"
I explained the premise to him, but that became very confusing during the writing sessions because at one stage I would say something like "Serafina wouldn’t say that because she’s starting to recognise her own isolation", then later I’d say "now at this point I’m in conversation with the dummies."
Thiago had to eventually say "wouldn’t it be easier if you just wrote as Serafina, instead of going between Serafina and Tricia?" Yeah, maybe [laughs].
And that was quite scary because before, when I was by myself, I was in character with no-one watching me. Now there’s someone else engaging with me, as a co-writer, while I’m trying to be Serafina. So it was a very different dynamic, but that song was very magical to write.
In fact, the guitar part you here on Dummies was the original demo that Thiago recorded as a guide track for me to put vocals to later, but we just couldn’t better it.
It was just so perfect; it just conjured what we had created in that moment, so we kept it.
RM: Many musicians call that the "beat the demo" challenge.
Sometimes you are, as you just said, in that moment, producing something natural, unfettered or spontaneous that just can’t be replicated. You might have to clean up the sound a little, but you know you’re not going to better it, so you don’t try, and leave it insitu.
TD: Exactly. Usually, Oli would overwrite any demo parts because he’s a multi-instrumentalist, but we didn’t need to this time. Normally I’ll do the demo guitar parts myself, then insist that Oli replaces them! [laughs]
I always say I play guitar like a songwriter; I‘m pretty good at playing live, but less so when there’s a click in my ear! [laughter] That’s when my skill levels eradicate slightly.
Also I find it’s a very different thing when I’m performing – playing and singing – than it is when I’m just playing guitar to lay down a track.
That’s why I absolutely insist that Oli replaces it, but I know he sneaks in the odd bit of my original demos occasionally, then doesn’t tell me until after the fact – "yeah, that’s your original guitar part in there" [laughs]
RM: To bring our chat about Being Serafina to a conclusion, it’s interesting to musically note there’s a sort of normal life dovetailing with final song Strange Things and opener Fair Weather; both also carry a calmer, folksy vibe.
TD: Yeah, it’s coming full circle. In fact, the words "fair weather" are also in the lyric of Strange Things.
There’s a lot of doubling in the play, or things that happen twice – Tennessee Williams used a device to double up things quite regularly.
Serafina, for example, has two big plummets of grief; the first when her husband dies and a second time when she realises he was having an affair. She’s also pregnant twice, and there’s the two Rose tattoos; her husband had one and the new man in her life, Alvaro, also has one.
There are lots of instances like that, so I also have quite a lot of doubling within the tracks.
You’ll notice that in the backing vocals of Lock Up Your Daughters there’s the same "ooh la la-la" vocals that arrive later in Love And Attraction; Don’t Speak and Did You Exist? have a similar sort of high-pitch drone in the background; the similarities between the beginning and end tracks, as you pointed out.
Not all songs have a pairing, but most do, or have some sort of relationship between them.
RM: I think there’s also another duality at play here.
For the casual listener, there’s a lovely, genre fluid album to listen to and enjoy. But for those who want full immersion, they’ll find or hear many subtleties and nuances, and discover the full story, and character, of Being Serafina.
As I said in review of the album, there’s musical artist and then there’s musical artistry.
TD: Thank you so much. It’s hard just to break even, or recover costs – I’ve funded this one on my savings – but I’m hoping I can recoup on this one because it’s been going well in pre-sales, and I’m selling vinyl this time, too. It seems to be the nature of a concept album that vinyl always does OK.
Obviously I have to front the costs of that, but it was definitely worth it; as was getting Katie Tavini, who is an amazing mastering engineer, to master the album.
In fact all the people that have been involved in the record, from Oli and Katie to all the session musicians that I used, including drummer Morgan Karabel, have been incredible.
It is genuine artistry and no corner has been cut; I’ve paid market rates for everything and I just have real faith in it – although I know it may take a few years for it to wash its face.
But it’s there to be heard, as is Serafina’s story.
RM: Having discussed the work of Little Lore I must give a nod to the In Ten Years Time website, podcasts and workshops by Tricia Duffy, where you discuss, and advise upon, how to live a creative life.
TD: Thank you! It's very rewarding, but like the music it actually costs me more than I make to run it! [laughs]. Any help in keeping me going is very much appreciated – I survive on acts of generosity!
RM: Well, may you keep going for many podcasts and albums yet, because your artistry and creativity deserve to be heard, and listened to.
Thanks for taking time to discuss Being Serafina in such detail, Tricia; I sincerely hope the album achieves the sort of success, and exposure, it deserves.
TD: This has been lovely, Ross, and thank you so much for all your support!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Tricia Duffy (aka Little Lore)
June 2026
Being Serafina is out now.
Album (all formats) & various 'Bundle' options: https://littlelore.uk/being-serafina
Bandcamp (all formats, related merch and all previous releases):
https://littlelore.bandcamp.com/album/being-serafina
Click here for FabricationsHQ's review of Being Serafina.
In Ten Years Time: https://www.intenyearstime.com/
Donate: https://www.intenyearstime.com/donate
Photo credits: Approved Press/ PR images
For the casual listener, there’s a lovely, genre fluid album to listen to and enjoy. But for those who want full immersion, they’ll find or hear many subtleties and nuances, and discover the full story, and character, of Being Serafina.
As I said in review of the album, there’s musical artist and then there’s musical artistry.
TD: Thank you so much. It’s hard just to break even, or recover costs – I’ve funded this one on my savings – but I’m hoping I can recoup on this one because it’s been going well in pre-sales, and I’m selling vinyl this time, too. It seems to be the nature of a concept album that vinyl always does OK.
Obviously I have to front the costs of that, but it was definitely worth it; as was getting Katie Tavini, who is an amazing mastering engineer, to master the album.
In fact all the people that have been involved in the record, from Oli and Katie to all the session musicians that I used, including drummer Morgan Karabel, have been incredible.
It is genuine artistry and no corner has been cut; I’ve paid market rates for everything and I just have real faith in it – although I know it may take a few years for it to wash its face.
But it’s there to be heard, as is Serafina’s story.
RM: Having discussed the work of Little Lore I must give a nod to the In Ten Years Time website, podcasts and workshops by Tricia Duffy, where you discuss, and advise upon, how to live a creative life.
TD: Thank you! It's very rewarding, but like the music it actually costs me more than I make to run it! [laughs]. Any help in keeping me going is very much appreciated – I survive on acts of generosity!
RM: Well, may you keep going for many podcasts and albums yet, because your artistry and creativity deserve to be heard, and listened to.
Thanks for taking time to discuss Being Serafina in such detail, Tricia; I sincerely hope the album achieves the sort of success, and exposure, it deserves.
TD: This has been lovely, Ross, and thank you so much for all your support!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Tricia Duffy (aka Little Lore)
June 2026
Being Serafina is out now.
Album (all formats) & various 'Bundle' options: https://littlelore.uk/being-serafina
Bandcamp (all formats, related merch and all previous releases):
https://littlelore.bandcamp.com/album/being-serafina
Click here for FabricationsHQ's review of Being Serafina.
In Ten Years Time: https://www.intenyearstime.com/
Donate: https://www.intenyearstime.com/donate
Photo credits: Approved Press/ PR images