Ali Lacey began Novo Amor as a project of sorts - an act of defiance in the wake of a
break-up, but along the way, quite unexpectedly, he found something rich and
rewarding

Years ago, a summer spent by an evergreen-surrounded lake in upstate New York
supplied both the impetus and imagery that he would use to craft his debut album
‘Birthplace’ (2018), and the follow-up, ‘Cannot Be Whatsoever’ (2020) in a house in
Cardiff that was part-home, part-studio, a place where the distant chatter of a party
across the street, Bonfire Night fireworks and the seagulls that congregate on the
building site next door bled into his recordings

With ‘Cannot Be, Whatsoever’, Lacey contemplated a past soundtracked by songs of
quiet hope and longing. “I can still see the lake upstate when I picture ‘Birthplace’,
the songs sheltered by this place I’ve romanticised that doesn’t actually exist
anymore. These new songs feel immediate and noisy in comparison, almost
optimistic

If ‘Birthplace’ is the countryside, then ‘Cannot Be, Whatsoever’ is the city.”