LA based cellist and singer-songwriter Kelsey Lu, (born May 21, a Gemini) is something of a prophet to me.

Their album Blood (which came out April 19 2019) became a bible, their voice a North Star during the unrelenting, emotionally exhausting, shapeshifting (un)reality of 2020, promising me that moving through would eventually lead me out.

Their latest album, So Help Me God (June 21, 2026), some seven years in the making, is another poetic, generous, crack-your-heart-open offering of rich and complicated music that speaks to the immense personal growth that Lu has experienced since her debut.

In their open-hearted, deeply thoughtful and honest way, and, in the instance of the questions answered by voice note, in a cadence that is – unsurprisingly – almost lyrical, they answered some of our Big Questions: about SHMG, about creative process, and about God.

So Help Me God is out now.

if this album was a colour, what colour would it be (and why)

I think So Help Me God's colour is oxidised steel. Because, you know, the conventional oxidation that happens when metal is mixed with oxygen, and it becomes rust, and all the other elements of nature, it can weaken it.

But when it's a controlled oxidation process, it enhances its protective barrier against corrosion, and makes it stronger.
And I think I relate to that in the process of making this album because it took seven years.

And over the course of those seven years, I feel like I definitely went through a bit of an oxidation process. Of meeting with all the elements to … break some things down, so that I can become stronger.

what did you learn about yourself during the process of making the album ?

I've learned that life is truly precious, and I'm not as alone as I've often felt.

Also, that intimacy is letting someone witness the parts of you that don't necessarily translate, and that, though I'd been looking for love in some of the wrong places, and in the wrong people, forgiveness is a practice of loving all the parts of yourself that can get messy, in order to turn towards the things that are aligned.

how do you mark the completion of a project ? do you have any little rituals

I usually cry, not because I'm sad, but in a cathartic way, and knowing the thing isn't mine anymore.

I clean my house, wash every single cup, change the sheets, open the windows, sweep and mop, go into nature, and disappear somewhere.

I think anonymity is one of the most luxurious things an artist can experience. And nature is always so humbling.

do you create to understand yourself or to help other people understand you ?

I think creating is how I pay attention.

It's how I study my desires and my fears and the things that keep returning in different disguises, and making art has taught me that understanding isn't necessarily something you arrive at, but it's something that you practice … and if other people are able to find themselves in the work, then I feel like I've done my job.

But I don't expect people to understand me, ‘cause I'd rather that they stay curious.

what’s your biggest vice ?

My biggest vice is romanticising absolutely everything.

I'll convince myself that a delayed flight is divine intervention, that someone not texting me back is a Greek tragedy, that buying another candle I can't afford is a spiritual practice.

And then I have to remind myself that sometimes a broken elevator is just a broken elevator.

Although, part of me still doesn't believe it.

1. can you describe the last dream you remember

I was running from a cloaked figure similar to that of the death rider in LOTR … through thin pine forest, in winter, sparse, grey overcast, sunless, damp floor, crushed decay … I wore a long rose red cloak with a dark blood red dress underneath. I could feel it nearing closer … out of breath, about ready to submit to an end, a girl appears on a horse, tells me to get on with haste, we ride, there is something familiar about her facial expression, concerned determined and fearless, she tells me to change immediately, I drop my red cloak to thwart death if even more a moment longer … the view is Ariel, I’m jumping on the horse sitting behind her, dramatically twirl on the large dark grey cloak blending into the environment , we ride … through the thin pines as if I’ve astral projected to know just how far apart we are, I spy on the death rider finding my red cloak and hear the shrieking scream of discontented anger.

I was at some kind of party, being celebrated for the defeat of the death riders .., like seemingly fashion party it felt like, a requirement for me to be there to collect a bag, but I didn’t want to be there, but it was also a celebration, put on by Vogue Magazine in honor of me bc I’d just defeated the death riders that were terrorizing the town … when I did fight and defeat them the timeline was medieval, but the party felt modern … they wanted me to take a picture, and I was complaining to my team about how I didn’t have my sheer tights and didnt want to show my legs bc they were fucked up from escaping through the forest and fighting the death riders, but Vogue’s request was for me to wear the shorts I was wearing when I was fighting the death riders, they were stained in mud, ink and blood … and Becky came out of nowhere in the changing room where I was crying bc I didn’t want to take the photo bc I didnt like how my legs looked and she said I’ve got tights! and then we had fun at the party.

2. what's the last tarot card you pulled

The Tower

3. where do you seek comfort

It depends on the day or I suppose on whether there’s a specific incident that’s happened or is happening in order for me to feel the need to seek it out. If I’m at an event, I seek comfort in my breath and tapping techniques. If I’m in need of grounding, I’ll find a source of nature that provides the type of holding I need to remind me that I’m not alone. I find romantic comfort in the first cigarette of the day with coffee. I find pleasurable comfort in whatever I inhale after I get off of stage, particularly understanding that it’s not to take me away from the high of the moment but rather a moment to myself to breathe in the transference that just occurred. I seek comfort in the strangers of NYC, particularly in my park in the summertime. In the ocean, in the arms of my lover and in death knowing that in order to embrace a new beginning is to allow the end of another.

4. what are you hyper-fixated on at the moment

It was my album for a long long long time and I guess it still is but in a different way, now it’s out in the world and I’m getting ready for tour so I’m really interested in how to build the world of the album into a live experience, carrying the essence of all the life it has contained within it.

5. what is the last piece of music you want to hear before its lights out

I’m really into The Moon and the Melodies by Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd at the moment, I’ve just been listening to that on repeat.

6. what makes you rage

Rage is a spectrum, so you need to be more specific.

7. what’s your most tightly held belief

Death is a necessary part of living.

8. what is your most prized possession

My faith.

9. what book(s) and / or album(s) are required reading for a good life

All About Love by Bell Hooks - its title is literally what it’s about, so much more than just romance.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LE Guin - her work is so cinematic, the world has so much weight and atmosphere that feels lived in, vast and intimate at the same time, it’s necessary in how to find empathy, a great feat of alternating perspectives.

Promises by Pharoah Sanders + Floating Points w/ London Symphony Orchestra - it’s a single continuous composition that is deeply spiritual and meditative with a seven note motif as a base that keeps you in a trance.

10. what’s the last thing that made you properly laugh

A twisted scary clown escape room. Just try it.

11. describe the most spiritual experience you’ve ever had

I was in Indonesia for the first time, staying on the grounds of an ancient temple that also happened to be the grounds of The Ubud Royal Family. I was going through a heavy death period in my life and it became my haven for the transition. I would wake up to Gamalans being played at the temple across the river from my cabin house, their repetition bringing me into a trance that was both peaceful but also guttural to the effect of each rhythm falling in time with the falling of my tears. I was there for about a month and towards the end of my stay I had a Melukat ceremony. It’s a traditional Balinese purification ritual that’s meant to cleanse the mind, body and spirit from negative energy, stress, and emotional weight that people carry through their day to day life and boy did I have a lot of weight to release. I was fortunate enough to have the ceremony performed by Tjok Gde Kerthyasa, the son of the head of the Royal Family, a beautiful healer and alchemical explorer. During the ceremony, which was held at the same river I would mourn next too each day, three giant boulders that surrounded the temple which was nestled near the bottom of the hill near the river, cracked open and plunged into the river.

12. what is the last thing you googled

How to spell Tjok Gde’s name correctly.

13. what do you miss the most about being a teenager

Salsa dancing with my crush who would spin me around and dip me onto his leg or even his foot before pushing me back up to do it all over again. It was so sweaty, so hot.

14. what’s the most woo woo thing you’ve ever done

After I broke up with an ex, I went to the butcher shop and got a goat's head and boiled it until all the skin fell off and kept it on my altar for many years to come.

15. what did your childhood bedroom look like

Pastel yellow walls at one point then like a turquoise color at another point and then another kind of pastel like coral, I had one poster on the wall a Honda S3000, I loved cars.

16. what piece of art has made the biggest impact on you

That’s really difficult to choose but what comes to mind first most likely because it’s what I researched and became obsessed with during the making of So Help Me God … the artist Caravaggio - his last known work The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula - I got to see it while I was visiting London and staying with my dear friend and collaborator Sophia Al-Maria. It felt like walking into the scene of crime almost. His unique ability to shape and transform how painting was approached at that time, and the way he observed and painted the world in all its complexities, how he felt ostracized and found solace and beauty in every day people in the prostitutes he would paint as saints because they deserve to be painted as such, in anyone or thing, including that of dead flowers, thrown away or looked at with disgust he captured its essences of beauty and life.

18. what would you like to be reincarnated as

A giant caterpillar.

19. who is your biggest inspiration

Mycelium.

20. have you ever had a supernatural experience

Just being alive is a supernatural experience.

21. do you believe in god

Yes.

22. what’s your favourite idiom

Raining cats and dogs.

23. what is your relationship to the internet

ehhhhhhhhhh