Lucy La Dusk is the enigmatic journey of a spellbinding singer and producer, here to guide you through the stellar towards the sun.
I caught up with Lucy to talk about her early musical experiences, how she started creating her own songs and the making of her upcoming album “Forget Me Not” which is set for release on June 10th.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you as a kid and what artists or bands did you enjoy the most?
L-I vividly remember each song. I grew up in front of my Norwegian grandmothers piano, singing Norwegian songs and lullabies with her and my father. Dainty, emotive, careful songs. When I was with my Chilean mom we would listen to 90s hits, a whole lot of Eminem and whatever trance and pop music she felt like listening to that day. My parents had me at 18 in 1998 and so whatever they listened to was synth heavy, strange, energetic and at times dark. I was born in the year of Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’ and in the era of Tricky, and so when I was in my mothers womb she would watch the music video for ‘Teardrops’ over and over again, since the video revolves around a fetus.
The first two songs that shaped me, of which I can pinpoint listening to on my own would be the hauntingly beautiful ‘Grizzly Man’ by Rockettothesky and ‘Mad World’ by Gary Jules. I was likely around eight years old when I found the two songs, they both hit a nerve I had not previously known I had. My mind has always been full of melodies, imagery and massive, depressing, existential questions.
There was this one night as a child when I couldn’t sleep, no matter what I did. I grabbed my moms ipod, hit shuffle, and skipped a ton of songs until the first few keys of ‘Mad World’ started playing and everything in my mind just went quiet. I must have listened to it on repeat for two hours and it resonated with me on a deep level. My mom always say that I came out of her womb as a seventy year old woman, and with that comes a lot of troubling thoughts and emotions – I’m an empath so I’ve struggled with depression ever since I can remember. When I first heard ‘Mad World’ I felt like my mind made sense, and the comfort of knowing that someone else out there was puzzled by life felt ever so big.
When I first heard ‘Grizzly Man’ by Rockettothesky, which is one of my fathers all time favourite bands, it had set a dark mood in my mind but yet the angelic vocals of Jenny Hval teleported me to utopia. I was familiar with Rockettothesky because of my father, but the first time the song truly unveiled before my eyes was when my grandmother and I watched Werner Herzog’s ‘Grizzly Man’, a soul-stirring documentary about Timothy Treadwell, an environmentalist who lived among grizzly bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park for 13 summers, Treadwell and his girlfriend was later eaten by Grizzly Bears in the environment they had loved and cherished. As the movie ended, ‘Grizzly Man’ played and I never got the images or feelings of Timothy and Amie’s ending out of my mind. Till this day I still feel and see my grandmothers livingroom whenever I listen to the song.
Other than that, the first four albums I ever downloaded on my own ipod and played on repeat for years was the Norwegian duo Röyksopp’s ‘Senior’, Kent’s ‘Du & jag döden’, Robyn’s ‘Bodytalk’ and of course, Rockettothesky’s ‘Medea’. I still listen to these albums on repeat till this day, and surely, if you listen to them as well you will hear the influence they made on my mind and my music.
CMM-When did you start recording and performing as Lucy La Dusk?
L-Lucy La Dusk is the result of my first project, Lucy 22, where I produced everything myself. Lucy 22 was a project I did for fun, but as I started feeling more confident in my writing and production, I created Lucy La Dusk. I work with different producers on the Lucy La Dusk project and I love experiencing my sound through their ears and minds. When I create music with other producers, I kind of just let them do whatever they want to, and if I resonate with the sound I’ll go record on it instantly.
I have my friends and family to thank for how far I’ve gotten with my sound, especially Graydon Mack Fritzsching, who is the most spectacular producer and mixing engineer ever. Him and our dear friend Geoffrey Hufford from Two Feet are the two people that inspired me to evolve the most as a musician, as they were the first people ever to truly recognize what I could do and actually tell me how to do it, and since they are both New Yorkers they were also blunt enough to tell me what not to do. Geoffrey is fantastic at working with modular synthesizers, it’s incredibly inspiring to be around people who are that passionate about music.
My entire sound was crafted at the absolute impeccable music studio; S1 aka Southfirst Records, in Brooklyn, New York, where I’ve been surrounded by spectacular producers and artists almost every single day for the past three years. S1 legends include Graydon, Geoffrey, Frankie Bones, Luke Tankredi, Nick Hadad, Ize, Tilla Giovanni, Therese Aniksdal, Dan Fisher Berger, Matthew Marvin, Adan Hadari, Ernest Parrilla, Malik (00cer0), Richie Quake, Devin Lamoureux, Fabio Malzbauer, Felix Roth, Dasia Dosette, and our extended family; Marcus Gamboa (Brothel) and Simone and Bruno from Somewhere Special. I also worked a lot with this fantastic DC crew called Full Circle Music, where legends include Okami 2o2, Diggs, Plugg and Zeke Mishanec.
All the people I just listed helped shape the sound of my first album, ‘The Angel Sent’, both as producers and mentors. In addition to these fabulous angels I had the great Tricky guiding me through the entire process. He was like a mentor to me during my first album. Tricky has been a huge inspiration to me always so having his opinion on everything was surreal.
My album to come was produced by rock prodigy Adam Kobylarz from Lady Radiator, he helped me experiment with a new sound and I’m forever thankful for that. ‘Forget Me Not’ comes out June 10th and will be a completely new sound.
I love all my people and would not have my sound if it wasn’t for them.
CMM-Your new record called “Forget Me Not” is fantastic. What was the writing and recording process for those tracks like? Any particular gear or instruments you used during the recording sessions that helped inspire you?
L-Thank you! I love ‘Forget Me Not’ and some of my favourite songs I ever wrote are on there. The writing process for the album was incredibly intuitive. Adam, who produced the entire album, also wrote all the music and played every single instrument on the record. He would record delicate rock melodies on his guitar, show me the instrumental, and then I’d write vocal melodies and lyrics to it either on my own time or during the sessions while he was writing the music. My mind is vivid and so when I hear sounds I start seeing stories and events happen in my head that I later describe in my lyrics. It’s easy to write when the music is dark, gloomy and beautiful.
CMM-If you could score any film director’s movie who would it be and what would the film be about?
L-Gaspar Noé, no doubt. I absolutely love his perverted mind and all the chaotic landscapes he creates. One of my favourite movies of all time is ‘Love’. I would love to do a dark, heavy synth song with creepy vocals for one of his films. The film would be about a brothel and each scene would feature troubled human beings indulging in their hedonism.
One of my great dreams was to work with David Lynch and I was so sad when I passed. He’s inspired my sound and visual Universe immensely. I also love Hitchcock and Polanski and would have loved to work with them.
CMM-What do you have coming up next?
L-I have one final single from my album coming out May 8th, it’s a sad song, and it’s my favourite from the album; ‘Today, Madeleine’
My album, ‘Forget Me Not’, is out the 10th of June, and I’m performing at PIT (Porsgrunn International Theatre festival) on the 13th of June. I can’t wait to be surrounded by freaks and fairies in the Norwegian ether and just belt out my songs to them.
