Lizdelise tackles questions of gender and queer identity on new project Body; watch videos for “Sweet” and “Take It”

Phily trio Lizdelise is back with their latest project, Body. The four-track collection will be released in full in early 2021 via Sheer Luck Records, but two of the songs and their accompanying music videos are out now.

The new collection follows singer-songwriter and guitarist Liz de Lise’s journey to self acceptance while overcoming body dysphoria and celebrating their queer identity.

“The songs on Body feel like a neat little timeline of my mental health, and subsequently, my queer journey,” says de Lise, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns. “Part of this album is embracing my body as inevitable, but mutable, and not separate from who I am as a person…but also not the ruler of who I am. So much of my body dysphoria came from/comes from trying to perform a typical representation of what it means to be a beautiful (cis) woman, and ultimately, a sexually appealing (cis) woman, which news flash, I can’t be, because I ain’t one!”

While “Take It” deals with depression, social anxiety and intrusive thoughts (and all the highs and lows that come with those things), “Sweet” feels more like a revelation. De Lise says that making the song’s video, directed by their longtime friend Liz Charky, “was the first time I was like ‘hey! my gender is a question mark and I love it that way!’ It was playtime in the way that gender feels like playtime to me, more about communicating the essence of an emotional experience than about standing firmly in a single identity.”

Body was recorded in Philadelphia at Headroom Studios with bassist Mark Watter and drummer Sam Huntington. Listen to “Take It” and “Sweet” below.