Chicago’s Indie Pop Band Lil Idli Premieres Debut Single “Little Girl”

Chicago’s Indie Pop Band Lil Idli Premieres Debut Single “Little Girl”

Chicago’s Indie Pop Band Lil Idli Premieres Debut Single “Little Girl”

The “Little Girl” music video was shot during the coronavirus pandemic in July 2020 at Loyola Beach, Chicago, Illinois. The entire video was shot on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone and was directed remotely via FaceTime by Sanjana Sekhar. The video premieres on May 14, 2021 along with the single.

Lil Idli’s first single off the album, “Little Girl”, is an ode to one’s younger self, a subtle rallying cry to entrust the magic and manifest of your inner child. The pair’s forthcoming EP Mitochondria is set to release in Fall 2021, as a concept album exploring the inherited lore traveling in their mitochondrial DNA, dedicated to the women before them, living inside them, and echoing their own voices. Their debut “Little Girl” is the first installation of this concept.

The new track opens with lush synths and a driving percussion section, with ghost-like harmonies in the outro, as an invitation for the past, present, and future selves to unite. Gopinath, the band’s main producer, percussionist, and co-arranger, draws from his experiences studying jazz, composition, and electronic arts at the Berklee College of Music, bringing thoughtful minimalism and contemplation of musical forms to this genre-bending track.

Lil Idli roped in veteran engineer Rob Murray (credits include ODESZA, Chet Porter, Diplo) of the Austin, Texas studio Poolside Sound for the final mastering. Lil Idli collaborated with seasoned filmmaker and regenerative communicator Sanjana Sekhar, who directed the music video remotely during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. Sangeet Khemlani joined the team as the video editor.

Mitochondria is a concept album that explores inheritance, environmentalism and genetic memory, and how these elements persist across shifting boundaries and the erosions of time. Mitochondrial DNA is exclusively inherited from mothers, and thus, the songs written for this album illustrate the women who came before me in my family, whose stories, both benign and traumatic, travel as inherited lore.