Pop music gets a bad rap. Often times we associate pop with disposable, empty calorie anthems that are here today, gone tomorrow. Then there’s good pop music — the type that reaches across genres and personal taste and grabs you. It’s not just a catchy earworm, there’s something about that strikes you on a deeper level.
This is the type of music Lilies of David is creating.
We spoke up with Jeremy Rotolo about their single “119,” their plans for their album elease in 2026, their origin story and more as they get set to play It’s a Wonderful Year at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey on Saturday December 27.
I want to start off with the new single, “119.” I am not a pop music guy but this song is one of those songs that makes you sit up straight and you pay attention because it kind of grabbed me by the throat. This is the type of slickly produced song that gets on satellite radio and in commercials ASAP. What does this song mean to the band in terms of its future direction?
That’s a great question, because when you’re writing a song it starts one way in your head. When I’m writing music, myself and Deirdre [McGrath] were the only songwriters, for Lilies of David, I’m usually sitting there with an acoustic guitar, that’s my main instrument. It’s just my voice and Deirdre’s and we’re just coming up with a melody and seeing how the shape of the words fit into the verse and chorus, and figuring out the song and arrangement. It’s really like a puzzle piece. Then, when you come to the process of recording it and producing it, it’s a totally different experience. both are really cool, and both are very necessary, right?
I’m going there because “119” was the first song that I felt, because I’m the main producer for Lilies of David, was the first song that I’m like,’This is what I’ve been going for in my brain,’ sonically speaking, as a producer. It definitely really clicked, for me as a producer, and then for us as songwriters on that song. We have plenty of songs like that song, but that was the one that really clicked.
For me, it felt like the aha moment sonically and everything. Like you said, we are an alt-pop band, really a pop band, but at the end of the day we love all types of music.You will probably hear a lot of inspiration from a lot of different artists from the ’50s all the way till now, and even before then, even classical music. We tried to blend that within a pop sense, because that’s what’s most digestible for radio and just mainstream right now. So, we take that pop route just because it’s catchy, it’s digestible, and we want to be able to sneak in our own twist on that. But yeah, 119 really kind of cemented where I want to go with our sound.
What was that exact Aha! moment? When did this one click?
I think there’s many different moments of that. But, I’ll start at the beginning, when Deirdre and I first started writing together, which was during COVID 2021 era. I think “119” might have been written in 2022, for example. After doing a couple open mics and things like that, and assembling our band and the project as a whole we wanted to go into the studio. This was December of last year and so we went in to record our first three singles, which was going to be “Tangled Up,” “Skin and Bones,” and 119. We got into the studio and, “Tangled Up” we banged that out super quick. “Skin and Bones,” banged it out super fast.
And “119”… I guess you could call it intuition, or God, but it wasn’t time yet. I knew that because we were going to start recording it, and Deirdre, her voice wasn’t quite sitting right for her yet. So we did a 180, and we recorded “Diamonds and Ruins” instead, which will also be the name of our album coming up in February. We also did “Binky Bossa Nova,” which I did primarily in my studio. Why I’m saying that is because the process of “119” has always been an interesting one. I love that song. It’s probably my favorite song on what’s going to be this album.
It wasn’t time yet, and then all of a sudden I started working with a new engineer, Rob from Dim Studio, and it was time because we banged that out super fast and I was just very, very happy with the way things were going sonically, and how the instrumentation was. So to answer your question, we started building out the track in January of this year. We didn’t actually sit down to get it done, probably August-ish. But once we did, I just knew … there’s something in your gut. It’s my intuition, and just I trust my ears and I trust my instincts.I’m not one of those musicians that are super-trained musically but I did go to school for musical theater so I have the basics of music theory down.
It’s nothing in-depth like a lot of these people, but what I have is I trust my ear, and everything we were doing on that track — I even recut Deirdre’s vocals twice on that track until I got the right vocal take. I was very pleased with what I was hearing, and I was super excited to share it, because I felt that if it took this much time to get this product that we want I’m gonna be super happy to share it and see how it’s gonna be received. So when you say things like that to me, and other people say things like that to me this kind of got you in a chokehold almost, that makes me extremely happy.
So, you have the new record dropping in February, so tell me about the plan you have for this album. Your sound is highly accessible, and I’ve seen where you’ve played, and it’s all very hyper-local, smaller rooms. But this is a sound that could easily take on the road. You can’t just be 40-miler and sit on this. Also, tell me about the second album you’re already working on because I can see the glimmer in your eye that you’ve already got it cooking in your brain.
Yeah, I talk about dreams and, you know, I dream big. Deirdre dreams big too. So we have goals and aspirations to take this as far as we can logistically speaking. We have a show, so in January, the first show we’re gonna have for 2026 is gonna be at the Landis Theater in Vineland, NJ. That’s a really nice space, a 600-seat theater. We’re actually opening up for a Stevie Nicks tribute band (Nicks in Time), which they’re really, really good.
February, we have the album release show, which is gonna be at Asbury Lanes, keeping it local. That’ll be the springboard to then all the other shows that we have planned in 2026. We have one in New York City and then we’re planning an East Coast tour down.
Oh, if I didn’t answer your other part of your question … I mean we have so many songs. Do I have enough for another album? Yes, I do. But I’m not focused on that.
I would love to know the story behind Lilies of David, as the name of the band.
It’s actually kind of a hard thing to answer. When Deirdre and I started the project, I kind of just wanted her to be the face of the band. I love her voice, I love her aesthetic, it’s just great for marketing. Then the band started to get involved — Matt Sonzogni on bass, Derek Arnheiter on drums, and Mike Pulice on guitar. We were looking for a name, and nothing worked. We were trying different names, there was a stupid one called Academy Hill. We never went out with it, and that’s the reason — if it doesn’t feel right, or sound right, or something, like, I’m really turned off by those things.
I was going through a tough time with internal things, but tied with the external a little bit of depression and anxiety and stuff, and I found myself, going back into my Catholic roots. I found myself reading the Psalms, because they brought me a lot of peace. The Psalms by King David and for some reason I was reading one of the Psalms, and “Lily” in the Bible is apparently like a melody, or it means music, loosely translated.
So I combined Lilies of David because I know King David was a musician, and it just felt, in a weird way, like it was totally given to me. It was like Lilies’, period, David, but for some reason in my crazy brain, I combined the two. Then I brought it to Deirdre. We write secular music, as you can tell, this isn’t Christian rock. But I’d say that it’s still part of my personal experience growing up in the church so that must have been in my deep subconscious or something. I brought that to Deirdre, and I was like, what do you think of the name Lilies of David? It came to me, this is how, XYZ. And she said, ‘I like it, like, it’s different, it’s, it’s weird.’
And here’s the thing, I looked on Gmail, I looked on Instagram, I looked on everything there’s no band called Lilies of David. We’re the first name on Instagram, on Gmail, on Facebook … there’s nobody else that has that name. So I was like, that’s kind of a sign.And so… and then it’s also cool because it captures the masculine and the feminine energy. So, it’s multifaceted, and it’s very much with songwriting — it comes to me, and then I have to decipher what it means and go deep and figure it out later.
So, the theme of this interview series is What a Wonderful Year. Tell me about 2025. Give me a retrospective on this year for Lilies of David.
For us, it’s been, it’s been great. We released our first song, “Skin and Bones,” in February of this year. We had our first open mic in Asbury, at The Asbury Hotel, you know, so that’s really like a home for us. So to tie it all together at the end of the year together with What a Wonderful Year in Asbury and not to mention the album’s coming out now. 2025’s been amazing. We shot a really, really cool music video for “119,” that’ll probably come out in the new year down in Savannah, Georgia.
There’s so many highlights, and so many blessings. I couldn’t name them all with you, but honestly, 119 has been a huge part of this year for us as well. Very happy with that song.
As you should be. Let’s talk about let’s talk about Telegraph Hill Records.
Oh, they’re the best. I mean, Joe [Pomarico] and Fern [Mike Fernicola], they’re awesome. Fern and Joe have been big fans and big supporters of us. They’re like, we want to get you on this, we want to get you on that, and we’re happy to play as long as we can make it work with our schedules. Telegraph Hill’s been great to us. I love what they’re doing in the local scene.
