What inspired you to become a musician?
The pure joy of writing and playing music was my main source of inspiration. I loved playing in the school orchestra growing up and once I discovered songwriting, which truly helps me more than anything, I knew this was something I needed to pursue
What are some of your earliest influences?
Musicians such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, Carole King, Tom Waits and James Taylor. These classic singer songwriters influenced me early on in my career and to this day inspire me to be the musician that I want to be.
It has been well documented that before recording your latest album “Something’s Changing”, you toured South America playing for fans on social media that offered to ‘put you up’ in their homes. But how did these new places and experiences inflect the music you went on to write? Both in terms of their lyrical content and instrumentation?
It changed my whole perspective on life and music a lot. The simplest realisations, that nothing is more important than writing music that really means something to me, and if one person in the world connects to it than it was all worth something. I made this record a lot more simple, I wanted it to feel pure and the songs to be heard in the right way.
Would you be willing to share the best and worst moment of this tour?
It's actually too hard to pick out the best moments because there are so many, my short film 'Somethings Changing' shows many of them. When it comes to worst, we never had a bad time, we just had the odd challenge, travelling so much was tough, some 16 hour bus journeys but that's all part of the adventure.
It changed my whole perspective on life and music a lot. The simplest realisations, that nothing is more important than writing music that really means something to me, and if one person in the world connects to it then it was all worth something.
Upon your return I understand that you essentially self-managed and and self-funded the new album. Was this a scary experience or was the control empowering?
To be honest it all felt really natural. Because my vision was so clear a lot of things fell into place. I think because I had such a strong idea of the record and who I was as a musician it was easier to get the right team around me to put the record out. And yes I do love to be in control.
Would you recommend this DIY approach to other up and coming artists? What lessons did you learn?
If you're an artist that knows who you are and what you want, I can't recommend 'label services' more. It is essentially licensing your record through a distributor and you can choose which services you want, like a radio plugger for example. The more services from the label/distributor you choose, the change on the splits in your contract.
The lessons I learnt were that the music industry has so many amazing people in it that do care so much about music and putting it out in the right way. My faith has been fully restored.
Where do you think the inspiration for your next album will come from? (If not from a ‘fan-booked’ tour?!)
I really have no idea, life is full of so many surprises, I'll just have to see what happens next.
If you could work with anybody who would it be?
Such a tricky question, but I would love to work with either Neil Young, Bon Iver or Feist.
..the music industry has so many amazing people in that do care so much about music and putting it out in the right way. My faith has been fully restored.
Do you have a record or song that you are most proud of?
I think it would have to be 'Moirai' because I love the sentiment of the song.
In terms of the current music scene, who are you a fan of?
I'm a big fan of Bedouine's debut record, she is fantastic!
What are your plans for the rest of 2017 and beyond?
For now the tour is over until next year so I'm gonna relax over the Christmas period and see if inspiration hits and hopefully write some songs!
Many thanks to Lucy for taking the time talk to us. Lucy's new album 'Somethings Changing' is out now. You can watch the ‘Something’s Changing’ documentary capturing the trip around Latin America which inspired the album by clicking here.
Follow Lucy Rose @lucyrosemusic
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