Sara Lov describes her budding solo career as “a happy accident.” The female half of dream pop duo Devics, whose debut album, “Seasoned Eyes Were Beaming” was released in August, decided to explore writing songs on her own when her Devics bandmate Dustin O’Halloran became occupied composing film scores.
“If I don’t make music,‚ I’m not happy” she explained. “I thought it would be a great time for me to try to do a solo thing.”
Lov, who performs at the Paradise Tuesday night, said she fell in love with music at an early age, as a coping mechanism to deal with a harrowing childhood that included being kidnapped at age four by her father, who fled with her to Israel. It was 10 years before a relative was able to intervene and have Lov repatriated to Los Angeles, but her sister stayed behind.
Seeking a mode of escape, Lov turned to records and harbored fantasies of being a rock star.
“I was a huge music fan” she said. “That was, like, all I cared about.”
A rattled-off list of her favorite artists includes PJ Harvey, Billie Holliday, Tom Waits, The Pixies, Nick Cave and The Smiths (“The first band that I completely fall in love with” she added. “I would just wallow‚ in their albums.”)
“I always wanted to do music, but I just never knew how I would make that happen” Lov recalled. “I didn’t know how I was going to be in music, but I really wanted to be a singer and have a band.”
For her current tour supporting Sea Wolf and Port O’Brien, Lov remastered “Seasoned Eyes” and uses a record player on stage, in lieu of a live band, to provide the backing tracks for her songs.
“I feel like when I play guitar and sing, it’s not enough on stage” she explained. “I feel like it doesn’t quite get there. “¦ (And) a record player’s cooler than an iPod.”
She and O’Halloran formed Devics after meeting in a drawing class when they were both students at Santa Monica College in the mid-“Ëœ90s. In Devics, the pair split songwriting duties, and Lov acknowledged that the autonomy she now has as a singer/songwriter does not always make for smooth sailing.
“It’s hard sometimes because I don’t have that other part … to sort of lean on and figure things out with” she admitted. “It’s all kind of up to me, so it sometimes can be a little more challenging.”
A cinemaphile who also cites old French noir and David Lynch among her inspirations, Lov certainly has enough personal hardship to draw from, but she downplays her background.
“I think everybody’s view of the world is affected by how they were raised and how their childhood was” she said. “I don’t think it’s just me.”
Maybe so, but few people’s formative years played out like the plot of a Lifetime movie.
“I might have had some more traumas” she conceded.
Sara Lov plays the Paradise with Sea Wolf and Port O’Brien Tuesday night.
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