I enter the Zoom with nerves and trepidation because interviewing the two lead vocalists of Lucius, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, comes with internal pressure. After all they are responsible for pop-meets-melancholia which isn't an easy feat for any artist.
Good morning, Jess and Holly, it's a pleasure to speak with you both. How are things on your end today?Jess: Things are good on my end. I can hear my baby cooing from the next room.
How does motherhood go whilst you're on tour?
Jess: We are very lucky to have a nanny that comes on tour with us and our kids are in love with her, so that makes it a lot easier!
Let's jump into your latest record 'Lucius', which is incredible. The lead single 'Final Days' feels extremely significant as it explores the sort of taboo-ness of death. Was that something you guys were thinking about whilst recording?
Holly: Yeah, I mean that song started because of a tree that was being cut down in my yard. I was just thinking about this tree and whether it knew it was happening.
Because I'm feeling an obvious sadness for this tree and riding the sadness. You begin to think of the human experience and between the four of us [in the band] we had experienced a lot of beginnings and endings of life cycles throughout the making of this album.
What losses occurred that shaped this album?
Jess: We were having babies, we were experiencing pregnancy loss and one of our bandmates lost his mother during the creation of 'Lucius', so you can definitely hear those moments of that throughout the record.
I certainly felt that whilst listening to it. Holly, I need to ask – what happened to the tree? Did you have a silent funeral for the tree to acknowledge its pain and show its growth of leaving the world and entering the new abyss of the world?
Holly: I mean, it left quite a hefty stump and now I've begun dreaming of building a treehouse on it to give it a second life cycle.
That's certainly poignant which leads me to my next question. Talk me through the process of making the 'Final Days' music video? Personally it feels like a huge nod to cinema with '60s themes – what was your creative process like?
Jess: You know I think it's the first time we actually didn't specifically think about a visualisation whilst we were creating the video. We wanted it to feel good, to feel familiar. We wanted it to be rich and have a lot of depth.
I think in the past we were drawn to huge visuals – the visual extension of the music, but whilst making the record, we kind of made a point to not have something guiding us visually so that we could tell the stories of what was happening in our lives – right there and then.
Yeah, I can see that Jess. It feels like I was watching 'Married With Children'. . . in the '90s as a kid with my parents but with more depth and not with a laugh track in the background.
Jess: That is pretty funny *laughs* I get what you mean.
What did the creative process look like with young children? Did you do a Rolling Stones and lock yourself in a cabin creating magic whilst co-parenting with Ms. Rachel in the background?
Jess: Yeah basically! I found out I was pregnant in the studio and unfortunately had a miscarriage whilst we were recording. It happened many times.
Holly, similarly you know, we were both pregnant and then not pregnant and pregnant again. So, Pete our guitar player lost his Mom and Danny got married and bought a house. So we had a wedding at the house, so we recorded a chunk at Danny's new home.
Holly: We were here and present, there was Ms Rachel and Raffi in the background but because of that we were really able to dig our feet into the ground and sort of explore sonically from a place that felt completely different.
It feels like a huge leap of faith from your other albums and 'Lucius' is a remarkably honest album. How are you finding your audience reacting to it?
Holly: Oh thank you, it still feels quite early but it feels the most comfortable because it's a collection of songs that feel easy because it's so honest and so where we are right now in life and that always connects he most with our audience.
You recently completed a US tour with some notable musical stops such as Woodstock and Portland; which one brings the most energy and do you feel that you need a holiday after playing a show there?
Jess: Well, I mean New York always feels like coming home but there's a lot of pressure that comes with playing there. The same with LA, I guess.
There's a lot more critique going on in a major city so sometimes it's a smaller, unexpected city that becomes a new favourite. We played Woodstock and that was my favourite of the tour. It just felt so alive and so comfortable. It was a diverse crowd and it felt very uplifting.
Did you feel a connection to the audience because of the diverse crowd?
Jess: Absolutely. I just felt that people were there for every breath and they were so connected with us. It was such a beautiful exchange between audience and performer. Of course, it was the end of the first leg of the tour so that sense that we were going somewhere just as we were finishing.
You bring up a good point Jess; and that sort of taps into the whole argument particularly in Australia that we are seeing the death of music festivals. It must be refreshing to play Woodstock that is one-on-one not via an iPhone screen?
Jess: I didn't think of it in the moment, but I think you're onto something. It definitely felt present and I didn't feel distracted because our audience is a mixed crowd and there were certainly some older audience members. I don't know what it was but it definitely felt present. I never felt distracted by a sea of iPhones; it was more of a quick photo to remember the moment vibe.
