Lucy Dacus appeared on the musical landscape seemingly out of nowhere, a then-21-year-old Virginia-based film student turned singer/songwriter whose 2016 full-length debut, No Burden, arrived so fully formed — with warm Indie Rock guitar and cortex-sticking arrangements accentuating her vivid lyricism — that none other than Matador Records rereleased the album a few months after it surfaced.
Dacus’ follow-up, 2018’s Historian, expanded her sonic palette in sometimes unexpected ways: horns and keyboards, among other additives, revealed new textures and depths. Exhibit A is album-opener “Night Shift,” a slow-burning tour-de-force that moves from pensive to rousing over the course of six-plus minutes and begins with this typically evocative lyrical turn: “The first time I tasted somebody else’s spit/I had a coughing fit.”
CityBeat reached Dacus by phone to discuss everything from the upcoming release of an EP of cover songs titled 2019 to her recent essay in Vanity Fair celebrating Bruce Springsteen’s 70th birthday.
CityBeat: You’ve been on the road pretty much nonstop since Historian dropped last spring. How has playing live so much in recent years impacted your songwriting? Are you currently writing songs for the next album?
Lucy Dacus: I’ve actually written them all. I’ve written a whole other record, and I can tell how it has changed (in light of performing so much). Seeing that people care to see me headline rooms is gratifying. People are showing up, and so I feel like I’m allowed to take people closer to me. I feel more comfortable being open about some things, to be a little bit more vulnerable and specific to myself. I feel like I write a lot about archetypes or things that can happen within a friendship or family dynamics in general or self-belief, but a lot of the next songs are about just me, like personal stories. That feels like totally new territory. It’s terrifying, but I am really happy with what I’ve been writing.
CB: Your musical collaborators, Collin Pastore and Jacob Blizard, are both trained musicians, whereas you’re completely self-taught. How has that dichotomy impacted how you guys work together?
LD: I think the pitfall has been vocabulary; like I want to say something, but I don’t know the words for it and I’ll kind of have to figure it out. I’ll get frustrated because it’s not what I want. I’m getting better at that over time. I’m much better at speaking music, but one of the best things that has always been true is that I think of things that neither of them do because they think in patterns and they’ve been told what’s right or wrong and that certain chords are meant for Jazz and certain chords are meant for Emo bands. I don’t really have any idea of tropes for music. I know what I hear. I will write a song that has seven chords in it and they will be like, “What? How did you do this?”
CB: Your upcoming EP includes covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” and Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.” Why were you interested in tackling such iconic songs?
LD: I basically just love these songs and I’m just having fun. After putting out two records and people telling me that the stakes are rising, I’m like, “You know what, I really need to shake off expectations and I need to spend time in the studio and do things that are personally fulfilling.” When I write a song, I feel this weight that it has to be perfect, it has to be of me and it has to have my essence in it. But when it’s somebody else’s song, I get to explore the studio and sound and it felt really relieving to do that in between the last record and this next one because I also learned so much about the studio and about engineering and mixing and I feel all the more confident about putting out the third record just from this exercise.
CB: Speaking of Bruce, I recently read your piece on him in Vanity Fair. There was a passage in there that stuck out to me: You wrote that he is “an example that comes as a relief to writers who are ill-suited for the limelight but well-equipped with words.” Were you referring to yourself as one of those writers?
LD: I didn’t mean to say that he wasn’t fit for the limelight but I think just his appearance — he’s not flashy. From having performed myself, everything turns back to the song. There are tons of people that do costume changes and it’s beautiful and I love to watch those shows but I don’t have that person in me. I don’t think I’ll ever be an arena star. I’m not larger than life, I’m just life. So seeing Bruce exist — he is an arena person but his demeanor is humble and he seems genuine.
At the core, I just really love to write songs and to sing them. I don’t feel flashy and I feel very exposed when I’m on stage, and so I try to be honest about where I’m at with the crowd because some days I feel really nervous or just like in my head and other days I’m so connected to the crowd. I think more recently I’ve been really connected to the crowd because the new album has had time to set in and whenever people are singing along, I feel so grateful. I try to look people in the eyes and telepathically try to tell them, “Thank you for spending time with the record.” So, yeah, I just think that the song matters more than the pomp and circumstance.
CB: Outside of music, you haven’t been shy about voicing your opinion about various cultural and political topics. Do you feel a responsibility to speak up about issues? How do you go about balancing that aspect of your voice with your artistic one?
LD: I would not say that artists, on the whole, have a responsibility to be activists, but I feel the responsibility. I think it makes sense that artists feel a responsibility because you literally see your audience and you’re on a mic and you are saying things and people are listening. So, if you do want better for the world, why wouldn’t you talk about it in a way that you think makes sense? Some people are like, “Oh, if I say something, I’m going to lose all my fans.” But it’s like, “Why does that matter more than the change you wish for people?”
Lucy Dacus performs Tuesday, Nov. 5 at The Woodward Theater (1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine). Tickets/more info: woodwardtheater.com.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 12, 2019.