At Home With Lady Lamb the Beekeeper
Aly Spaltro is one lucky girl. The 23-year-old singer/songwriter, who records as Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, just released her debut album, Ripley Pine, to rave reviews and is about to tour Europe; on top of that, she’s somehow landed an exquisite two-bedroom apartment in Park Slope. It’s the kind of place most of us could retire to. She knows she’s lucky. And she doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
Spaltro’s father was in the Air Force, so she grew up all over the world: Arizona, Germany, and, most recently, Maine. After becoming a regular in the Portland music scene, she set her sights on Brooklyn and stumbled into her dream home — not to mention considerable success as a musician — within two years. She was kind enough to invite us inside her “nest” and show us that it is possible to get some peace and quiet around here.
How long have you lived in Brooklyn?
Two years and a couple months.
Why’d you move here?
I moved here because I was living in Portland, Maine, and the music scene got a little small for me, and I wanted to challenge myself.
What’s your favorite thing about this apartment?
My bedroom. I’m a huge nester. I’m on the road a lot, so I really love to know that I’m coming home to a beautiful, comfortable home. And so I made my room really cozy. It gets beautiful light — it gets the sunset, and it’s facing the backyard, so it’s really quiet and in the spring there’s beautiful trees. You can hear the crickets. It’s very peaceful.
What’s your least favorite thing?
I told myself when I moved again that I had one stipulation on which place I landed in, and that was that it needed to have windows in the living room. And this place doesn’t have any windows in the living room. I do have an air shaft, which is a little bit of light. But I got a brick wall, so I’ll take it.
What are the first three things you would save in a fire?
I would save my box of family photos; definitely my electric guitar…that’s probably it.
None of the acoustics?
Nope. They’re expendable. There’s this pillowcase that my little brother made that I love. It’s my tour pillow. He made this pillowcase in school that has the planets all over it. I would probably save that.
What’s your favorite time of day in the apartment?
It varies, I guess, with the season, but right now, in the winter, around five-ish or so, when the sun’s setting, because the light is so soft and beautiful.
If you suddenly received a windfall of cash, what changes would you make?
I would knock down the kitchen wall and bring the window back into the kitchen, for sure.
If you could move the house/block/neighborhood to another city, which one would it be?
I would bring it to Trier, Germany. That’s my favorite city. It’s like 30 minutes from where I lived there before I moved to Maine — I lived in Germany for a couple years. It’s a small city, probably the size of Portland or Burlington, and there’s a ton of history there.
