LUCIENNE’S BUDDYING UP IN NEWTOWN

We were lucky to chat with Lucienne–a musician full of soul and light–fitting, as her name means light. Fresh in the Sydney music scene (but with a whole musical life lived all over the country), she’s kicking things off in the best possible way: a single release party at Buddy’s in Newtown this Friday, with support from Miss Darcy and Gus Sheaves. We heard it was gonna be a night full of wintry magic, dancing and transformation, so we sat down in the grass with Lucienne to talk about the show, and her new single The Same Death, out Saturday the 21st of June–which is of course the Winter Solstice.

Wanderer: Starting simple: what have you been up to today?

LUCIENNE: I have been writing interview questions, listening to records and lying on the lawn in my little back garden with some tea. And rolling around.

Somersaults?

Yeah, exactly. Bit of yoga. Slow one today,  preparing for the show.

Well, you've got your single release party on Friday–how excited are you on a scale of one to 10?

It'd definitely be 10–or 10,000. Somewhere in between, for sure. I'm nervous, but I'm very excited. It feels like I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time.

I imagine you've got some other feelings rolling around in there as well.

Absolutely, yes. It's my first headline in Sydney and lots of people haven't heard my original tracks. I've also got the first [song] coming out the next day. Which is wild! So hopefully we'll still be partying when it actually comes onto the streaming services.

Oh, of course you will be. What's it been like getting everything ready for the show?

It's been really fun, actually. I've got lots of great musicians who've become a part of it and I've got a really great band and line up planned. My friend Miss Darcy, she is performing as well, and she has this incredibly unique style of like circus, musical theatre cabaret.  I just adore her and what she does. And then I've got Gus Sheaves, who is my band-mate, and he's got this incredible cinematic spaghetti western blues rock vibe.

For anyone who hasn't heard your music before, can you describe your sound?

I would say it sort of goes through lots of different vibes. It can start at like, you know, acoustic ballads that are pretty raw and stripped back. And then it also can just take a straight 180 into crazy desert rock and sort of really sparkly gospel soul pop that my new song is more in line with. I've got so many genres that I really just try to just go with whatever comes out of the top of my head. I am pretty heavily influenced by like Adele and Florence and The Machine and London Grammar.

So your single is coming out on Saturday. Why did you choose to release it on the Winter Solstice?

[It's] a song about basically killing off the part of yourself that is keeping you locked away in fear. I wanted to use the winter solstice as kind of a way of casting a spell. You know, to let that part of myself die and make way for Rebirth, which is my EP.

And you're playing at Buddy's in Newtown. Have you been there before?

I have. It's a great venue. Yeah you actually serve yourself.

How do you feel about that setup?

Oh, I think it's great! Last time I went there, we made some really interesting concoctions, because you can just like get lots of different stuff–different types of margaritas, and mix them all together and get really creative with the cocktails on tap and can also pour your own beers, which I really enjoy.

When I was there I used so much restraint to not just pour a little bit of every beer into my glass. I was trying to act chill.

It's great. I loved it. I went there and it turns out that, after I'd actually secured the gig there, I found out that one owner has known me from when I was like nine, because he went to school with my brother. So that will be an interesting reunion!

Oh, this is great. And what should people expect if they're coming along?

It's gonna be big, sparkly, extravagant. There will be a big prize for best dressed. I want people to have the best time, and just be in that moment of excitement with, and I want people to sort of share in that, and it also feels like a wave of showing my gratitude for the support I've had around this song.

You can grab tickets to Lucienne’s launch party here, and stream her existing song Already Blue below.