If Lily Vakili’s 2025 long player Oceans of Kansas revealed the width and depth of her songwriting, the new six-track EP Live Wire pulls the camera in close. Arriving after an East Coast run, Live Wire is a musical snapshot of an artist trying to bottle the electrifying charge that happens when her songs stop being just ideas and are played by a band.
Live Wire is framed as ‘intimate,’ but what it’s really chasing is immediacy, the feeling that proximity is part of the arrangement. With Eric Burns’ guitar bending around Vakili’s melodies, Joseph Yount’s drums pushing and pulling at the tempo, and Drew Hart’s bass acting like a potent backbone, the EP feeds off the group’s just-off-tour rapport. Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Reed Turchi at Second Take Sound, the EP highlights presence rather than perfection, i.e., human timing over studio polish.
Vakili is explicit about the premise, and she sells it with a performer’s clarity: “What makes my music most compelling is when I perform it live with a band. This is the message audiences have been telling me for a long time, so I decided to try to capture that sound in an in-studio session, recorded the way jazz and vocalist performances used to be made, with everyone in one room with no headphones, no click track – just like we would on stage. It either works or it doesn’t, but when it does, it’s electric and authentic.”
Entry points on the EP include “Anybody Knows,” a crawling, dirty blues song that underlines Vakili’s smoldering, femme fatale vocals. Yount’s drumming cracks and thumps with dark energy, infusing the rhythm with wicked heft.
“Heart’s Afire” drifts and oozes on Hart’s fat, round bassline as Vakili’s drawling, breathy vocals imbue the lyrics with simmering passion. For some reason, this track summons suggestions of Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.” Both are enormously sensual and unapologetic.
Tangs of swampy blues textures give “I’ve Been Hiding” an ooey gooey flow, while at the same time providing a nasty, bluesy matrix for Vakili’s deliciously howling voice. A fabulous guitar solo, tight and compact, packs the tune with burning licks.
On Live Wire, Lily Vakili breaks free of studio constraints, conveying restless energy and intense, instinctive songwriting.
Discover more about Lily Vakili here.
Check out some of our previous coverage here: REVIEW: Lily Vakili “Oceans of Kansas”
Tour Dates – East Coast Full Band Shows:
Wednesday, May 13 in Atlanta, GA at Smith’s Atlanta Room
Thursday, May 14 in Charleston, SC at Tin Roof
Saturday, May 16 in Charlotte, NC at Starlight on 22
Tuesday, May 19 in Washington, DC at Pie Shop DC
Wednesday, May 20 in Philadelphia, PA @ Nikki Lopez
Tour Dates – West Coast Duo Shows (With Guitarist Eric Burns):
Wednesday, June 10 in Phoenix, AZ at Thunderbird Lounge
Friday, June 12 in Los Angeles, CA at Kulak’s Woodshed
Sunday, June 14 in San Francisco at Lost Church
Tuesday, June 16 in Portland, OR at White Eagle Saloon
Wednesday, June 17 in Seattle, WA at Fremont Abbey