Interview: Lucy Rose

“A voice that could melt the stoniest of hearts.” – Q magazine

 We met up with Lucy Rose before her show at the O2 Academy.  On the night she modestly marvelled at how The Klaxons and Keira Knightley were confined to the smaller Academy room, whilst she played to a packed-out crowd below.

You’ve played in Oxford quite a few times, the last one being Gathering festival in October. How do you find playing here?

Oxford’s awesome. Gathering was pretty mental, and we’ve been to the Jericho Tavern a few times, but this [The 02 Academy] is quite big for me.

For people that don’t know your music too well, who are your inspirations?

Barry White, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell.

Everything I listen to influences me, even music I don’t like will influence me… to not sound like that. It’s the same as any art, everything you take in will influence you in some way.

“Absolutely beautiful” – Fearne Cotton, Radio 1

Have you ever had musical inspiration from your dreams?

Sometimes when I’m just about to go to sleep I’ll think of a song or a drumbeat. If I’m not feeling too lazy I’ll quickly write it down or record it, other times I’ll just go to sleep and it’ll be lost forever.

Can you tell us about your own brand of tea, ‘Builder Grey’?

http://lucyrosemusic.firebrandstore.com/lucy-rose-builder-grey-tea

That should be a joke but it’s true. I love tea, and I always drink a mixture of Earl Grey and ordinary, putting two bags in a pot, and then I realised I was going through a lot of tea bags… so I decided to make ‘Builder Grey’.

Lucy and Dave

What was your road to being a musician like? Apparently you turned down a place to study Geography at Bristol, and then again the next year at UCL?

 At the beginning I was just so unsure if music was going to work out. I thought if I really, really suck at this then I’ll still have a core university place. I figured that maybe I could do both at the same time, but as every year went round the thought of university was so far from what I wanted to do.

I do  feel that I’ve missed out massively from not going. All my friends say it was the best time of their lives, and I haven’t had any of that experience. However, I was just enjoying playing music and being free from all of it. When you’re 18/19, life just gets a bit serious too soon. I felt like I was really finding myself, my main worry was “Is this song good enough?”

Do you have any advice for young, budding musicians?

It’s important not to take it too seriously. Even if you’re getting 10 views on YouTube, that’s awesome, 10 people have still watched it. If you’re good enough and you’re songs are good enough and you’re determined, then I think it will happen.