INTERVIEW: Lucy Rose

Known for her love of tea which has driven her to create her own blend (Builders Grey; two parts English breakfast, one part Earl Grey) and also her sweet sounding pop/folk tracks, Lucy Rose has been on everyone’s radar since her work with Bombay Bicycle Club back in 2010. She released the follow-up to 2012’s Like I Used To just this month on July 6, titled Work It Out, which has seen her develop her sound, making it known she can do it all by herself. With a slot at this year’s Truck Festival, we catch up with Rose to chat about her change in sound, on stage nerves and have a little gossip.

2015 marks Rose’s second performance at Truck Festival, with her first “three years ago, just before the first record came out.” Reminiscing on these shows and past tours, it’s hard to miss that the three years since the release of her debut album Like I Used To have seen a lot change for the 26 year old, though it’s more a sign of growing up than her being the “old, haggard woman” she jokes about becoming.

When talking about her change of acoustic to electric for Work It Out, Rose recognises the heavier use of samples, seeing “a lot of different sounds being replicated by playing samples.”

“When I first started out I just had an acoustic guitar and that was pretty much all I had instrument wise to play on,” she explains. “Over the years I’ve been able to buy a piano and I’ve bought another electric guitar, and that’s the thing with a lot of musicians; you do need a lot of equipment for when you want to write some basslines for example and get more experimental.”

Becoming more “experimental” with sound, it’s only normal she becomes nervous with her live sets. “Even before I was walking on stage, all of Rae [Morris] and her band were saying “Go on! Good luck!” but I was just thinking how I just really don’t want to go on stage.” But with so much welcome from the packed Market Stage as she mixes the newer likes of ‘Like An Arrow’ with the acoustic ‘Middle Of The Bed’, it’s hard for Lucy Rose to be cautious any more as the never-ending applause and whoops (even her mum was there egging her on) trigger her to give it everything as soon as she’s up there. “It’s really tough as audiences change, but now I can’t wait to play the next gig! That was so much fun!”

Regrouping after her signing and our hunt for a burger (Didcot Rotary Club be proud), talk moves onto dream festival food as we see her eyeing up the food in our hands. “I’m really unfussy! I’d have anything now, I’m looking at your burgers and I’d definitely have one.”

Now given the job of returning her to the Market Stage, we make our way back discussing other acts of the day. “How was Rat Boy?” she asks, before commenting on how she’s “seen a lot of [his] stuff going around” since the announcement of him supporting The 1975 later this year. After the reassurance his set did kick off, making any lover of a good stage invasion proud, conversation moves onto experiences with The 1975.

“[Matty’s] not arrogant, he’s very enthusiastic about it all, and I think there’s a very fine line between people who are really modest and those who are like ‘we’re gonna rock it’.” She explains, asking for reassurance that she’s the former of the two. Then delves into the story of when she “sent him a private message on Twitter, asking if there’s anyway [he] could post a link to my album to help me out, and he said ‘let me have a listen and I’ll let you know’ and he never got back to me, so I was like guessing that’s a no.”

After a few issues of which way we take, “we got told it’s the first left turning when we got here, but we just kept going down so many wrong turnings,” Lucy offers as a help, we finally return her back to her band and crew. Our reappearance to the back of the stage coincides with Peter Hook’s entrance of ‘Dead Souls’, so with the unintended Wombats pun of whether she was going to dance along to Joy Division, we get instructed to “go get out of here girls! Go enjoy yourselves!” With one last hug goodbye, we finally part ways as she runs to join in with the game of football her band have begun backstage.

Lucy Rose’s second album ‘Work It Out’ is out now, and she heads back on tour later this year, full UK dates can be seen here.

Becky Rogers
@beckyrogers29