In most aspects of life, it's usually a good idea to keep your options open, lest you deny yourself the opportunity to explore avenues that might lead to transcendence or a little bit more happiness. But sometimes the best course of action is to find your path and stay focused, which is the approach that shaped Lyla Foy's debut album, Mirrors the Sky. Everything changed for the 25-year-old London songwriter one day in early 2012, when she canceled her evening plans to work on music at home. After years of collaborations, she decided to go it alone, and that night produced the gorgeously stripped-down "No Secrets," which she eventually shared with the world under the moniker WALL. "When I first started writing for the project, I wanted everything to be really focused on the melodies, but also really simple and minimal," says Foy. "Just using a lot of bass, and simple drum patterns. I wanted to try something new, and that one song felt like the beginning of something." Foy isn't shy about listing off the artists who have inspired her over the years, from Chuck Berry to Teenage Fanclub, Jenny Lewis, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Karen Dalton, and The Supremes. Perhaps it's those disparate tastes that make her own sound hard to pin down. The reaction to "No Secrets" confirmed Foy's suspicion that she'd stumbled onto something pretty special. The track led to an appearance on British web-series Black Cab Sessions, and the Black Cab folks formed a label to release WALL's debut single, "Magazine." The English accolades poured in via glowing reviews and radio spins-BBC Radio's Steve Lamacq went so far as to call "Magazine" his favorite song of the year-and by the end of 2012 Pitchfork was giving her props for her haunting cover of Karen Dalton's "Something on Your Mind," and spotlighting the title track from 2013's Shoestring EP. But that was then, and this is now, and Foy has decided to come out from behind her WALL and adorn Mirrors the Sky with her given name. She's still in the same musical mindset that produced "No Secrets" and she still plays with the guys - Oli Deakin (bass, keyboards), Andy Goodall (drums), and Dan Bell (guitar, keyboards)- who helped bring WALL's songs to the stage. For a project that began as a single song in a London bedroom, Lyla Foy's hypnotically hushed songs have come quite a long way over the past two years, figuratively and literally, as her worldwide deal with Sub Pop will find her spending quality time supporting Mirrors the Sky around the globe. Funny how a singular route has led to such a momentous journey.