Lucy Rose is a popular girl, when I met up with her at Truck Festival, she gave me apologetic glances for being surrounded by keen guys from earlier bands, eager to talk to her. I wait patiently and we then head into her port-a-cabin ‘dressing room’.
It seems you’ve been ridiculously busy lately!
Yeah! We played a gig in Latvia yesterday, and a gig in Norway the day before! This morning I woke up in Latvia…
And now you’re in Oxford, how are you still going?
I dunno, I’ve been sleeping a lot in sitting up positions, getting up at like four in the morning the last three days in a row!
Oh man! How did you enjoy your set at Truck festival?
I had a really good time. I get slightly paranoid at certain festivals about gauging whether the audience are having a good time or not. Sometimes half an hour can feel a bit short to me – it’s great, the organizers are trying to get a lot of acts on – but I’m used to having a 40 minute set and the 10 minutes can make a difference to getting into it. I had to cut a lot of slow songs.
At this point in the interview, Frightened Rabbit stumbled into the port-a-cabin, as it was their allotted time in it (oops!). Grant the drummer recognised me from an earlier interview, cheerfully exclaimed “Y’alright Phoebe”, complimented my penguin outfit (I was dressed up because it was wildlife themed) and we hastened outside to continue where we left off…
I saw you at a tiny band stand stage at Bestival a year ago, you’ve done loads since then! Your album’s out soon, has it all gone well?
I’m happy with where it is, I’m just excited for it to get out and hopefully people will like it! It’s hard to gauge it because a year’s such a long period of time. It’s been really slow and gradual over the last few years, it’s not been like a massive push. Some people just whiz up and hopefully it’ll just keep building gradually and people will keep sharing it, and next year I’ll be doing the same thing, but just a bit higher up. I want to move on and start creating new things.
You play the drums don’t you, you started out doing that?
Yeah, I liked drums because my sister played the drums, and I was of course jealous, so I just taught myself. It’s become quite handy in song writing, knowing drum beats. Then I learnt bass, and all of the instruments, as much as I could learn as possible! On the album, I very much wanted all my friends to play – the band are just my friends! I wanted them to be as much a part of it as I could make them, so they all felt a part of it. Emily and the Woods is singing all over the album!
She’s awesome, I saw her at Blissfields last year.
I love Emily, she’s one of my good friends, it’s really nice, some good vibes on the album. I like your penguin outfit!
Haha, thanks, what would be your animal of choice to dress up as?
A bumblebee, they’re really good those outfits.
I’d just like to point out that Lucy was devouring a burger (de-onioning it in the process) throughout this interview, whilst answering my questions. Skillful! She says “Sorry that was a shit interview, wasn’t it, I’m eating a burger”, but I reply “No it was great, thanks for your time.” She then offers me the rest of her burger, and considering she’s one of my favourite singers, I of course accept.
For more information about Lucy Rose, visit her website here. She will be doing shows in Winchester Railway on Monday 19th November and Southampton Joiners on November 14th. Her album, Like I Used To is available now.
