Exclusive Track Premiere: ‘Tremble,’ LPX

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELIZA SOROS.

The MS of MS MR has been flying solo since the release of her first song “Tightrope,” and she is loath to lose momentum. Now under the moniker LPX, Lizzy Plapinger, the frontwoman of MS MR and a co-founder of Neon Gold Records, taps into her vulnerable side for her new song “Tremble.” Premiering exclusively below, the track was written in a jungle in Nicaragua by Plapinger, Joe Janiak, and James Flannigan. The result is an incredibly raw look into LPX’s own pain and fear.

“This song caught me at the peak of my fragility in the throes of an exhaustive relationship I wasn’t yet brave enough to remove myself from,” says LPX. “For the first time I was able to actually be honest with myself about the situation, what I wanted, and what I needed to say. I poured every last drop of juice I had into it, embracing every fracture, squeak, and ache in my voice. After we recorded ‘Tremble’ I wasn’t able to speak for a month. I’ve never poured myself so wholly, physically and emotionally, into a song. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever made.”

“Tremble” is simultaneously sensitive and in-your-face, rough but energetic, and refreshingly freeing. This is LPX’s sound: a far cry from the synth-heavy dream pop that MS MR produced, LPX gets its grit from Plapinger’s own musical history. She grew up on bands like Karen O, PJ Harvey, Siousxie Sioux, and Shirley Manson, and wants the music she makes as LPX to reflect who she is more accurately and earnestly. “I’ve unlocked and tapped into a different side of myself, especially my voice, that’s a more intense balance of aggression and vulnerability,” she shares. “It’s also a different experience having and executing a singular vision. I’m liberated in my sound and visual aesthetic in a way that’s really true to self and creatively satisfying.”

This liberation feeds into the feminist undertones that drive LPX’s music forward. Plapinger decries the man’s game that is the world of rock music and wants her music to thrive independently from it. “As a woman,” she says, “I want to make music that lives in its own lane on the pop spectrum where its roots wholly lie in the alt and indie rock world. There’s a whole legion of indie and stadium rock bands, but there really aren’t many women who fit inside that space and can play alongside those kinds of artists. I want to change that. I want to be a powerful female voice in all my strength and weakness in a space and genre very much dominated by male voices and points of view,” she continues. “There is nothing quiet or small about the music I’m making. My producer and friend James Flannigan and I like to joke, we leave the small choruses for our enemies.”

LPX has yet to confirm what exactly she’s working on, but if “Tightrope” and “Tremble” are any indication, her next releases will be organic and full of life. She’s currently at work in the studio, writing while she dreams of “intimate, dirty, wild club gigs as well as huge festival stages where I’m covered in sweat and blood dancing on the hands of the crowd.”

FOR MORE ON LPX, VISIT HER FACEBOOK.