Lucy Rose, a 25-year-old acoustic folk singer from Warwickshire, was performing at The Art School in Glasgow last Friday and we got the chance to speak to her beforehand. She’s out touring her newest album ‘Work it Out’, her first release since her debut album ‘Like I Used To’ and it appears she’s taking her work in a new direction, a bit faster and more up beat, however she’s insistent that there are still songs on this record which maintain the feel and style of the first album.
Lucy’s performance was flawless technically; her voice did not waver once. However, early on it was noticeable that she was nervous and unsure about the set-list, which she did address but as the gig progressed, her confidence grew which was clear as she began to interchange between songs on the old album and on the new one fluently. When she first addressed the crowd she seemed a bit shaky and nervous however, not long into the gig as her performance gained confidence so did her exchanges with the crowd and her character and humour was evident. It was a thoroughly enjoyable gig, and I’d recommend going to see her wherever possible as her tour continues across the country until mid-April with some dates in summer at a number of festivals.
How’s the tour going?
Lucy Rose: Yeah it’s really good, we’re in the early stages, I think it’s only our fourth gig, and yeah it’s going really well. We are still trying to work out the set list though because it’s still really hard to play all these new songs with the old ones when they’re so different, so we’re still working on that.
The new track ‘Our Eyes’ has obviously just come out, and it must feel really good to be getting attention from people such as Zane Lowe and institutions like Radio 1 and the NME…
Lucy: Yeah it feels really good. Radio 1 and Zane have been really supportive. Although, I stupidly read comments on my YouTube video for the first time last week and I thought all was going really well and the response had been really good, and then I read the top comment and it said ‘you’ve been really badly advised by your label, you shouldn’t be doing this’ and so I guess I had a reality check, not because that’s true, just because it made me realize we’re not living in a fantasy world where everyone is going to like this new direction because it is completely different. Nobody has made me do this, its music that’s just come to me naturally and music that I wanted to write and I wanted to write music that people can dance along to and music that will make people feel good because a lot of my last album was quite depressing, which I think is fine, I just didn’t want to make the same album twice.
‘Our Eyes’ and ‘Cover up’ are different to a lot of work you’ve already done and the video for ‘Bikes’ is also completely different to other videos you have, do you feel its important to keep challenging yourself and changing what you’re doing?
Lucy: I think it is, definitely as a songwriter. I wrote the first album with an acoustic guitar in my bedroom but I felt like it was important for me to challenge myself and my songwriting and said let’s try it with beats and basslines, which was all stuff iv done on my own as well but I mainly chose to because my confidence has been rising, and in my first album where my it was low, my instinct was to look inside and make that kind of music and I’m so happy people can relate to that and also this new album does also have tons of stuff that could be on the last album. The one you’ve heard now is the single, its not going to be the quietest one on the album. That’s why ‘Night Bus’ wasn’t a single from my last record even though it’s many people’s favourite, it’s an album track. So I don’t want people to write this album off because this single’s a bit more poppy than my other work.
You’ve done a lot of work with Jack Steadman and Bombay Bicycle Club, how did you get into working with those guys?
Lucy: I just went down to one of their gigs early on, when they were playing in my local pub, called The Old Queens Head and I just got chatting to them about my music and luckily for me they took and interest and we became friends and I started singing with them.
Do you feel like much has changed since recording your first album in your parent’s living room to now touring the country and having over 2 ½ million views on ‘Middle of the Bed’ on YouTube?
Lucy: Well it does, it feels like a lots changed, the first album was definitely a struggle to make because I had no interest from anyone who could put it out and I had all these songs that were made so it was difficult but I had great friends around me who wanted to make music, and we made it in my parent’s living room but I feel very excited to be in the position I am now, being signed and with someone believing in me early on before the record is made, putting me in a cool studio in Manor House. I’ve never recorded in a studio before and I’ve put out an album and toured it in loads of places all over the world but I’ve never actually recorded anything in a studio so all those things that you imagine early on in your career is happening to me now and I’m really excited about it.
How do you like Glasgow, and do you enjoy playing here?
Lucy: Glasgow’s really cool, Scotland generally reminds me a lot of the east coast of Canada, and I love it there as well and yeah very friendly and chatty people in Glasgow. I don’t know what to expect from the show later, I’ve sometimes had a really quiet show and then a really raucous one, so we’ll see.
And finally, who are you listening to at the moment?
Lucy: I put a Spotify playlist up the other day, which had a combination of everything I love, like Warpaint’s album, the War on Drugs album, Real Estate. I really like Future Island’s latest album, there’s a lot of good music out at the moment.
The new video to ‘Our Eyes’ has just been released, check it out – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8tOngmlES0
