INTERVIEW: LUCY ROSE @ O2 ACADEMY

Lucy Rose and co. played a fleeting set in Glasgow, halfway through the UK leg of the City and Colour tour to which she had been the main support act. I met with Lucy and her band in a middle-eastern cafe in the city's east end, the ever gracious singer-songwriter paused to discuss everything from tea to the future. Enjoy!

Having spent a lot of time on the road recently, do you have any words of wisdom or lessons that you've learnt so far?

"Take it easy in the morning, our days start when we soundcheck around four so I've learned not to use all my energy up in the morning. Even though we've been driving since eight and we've been on a ferry, our day starts here. Reserve energy for the evening, read a lot, stay positive, a lot of it is mental game, give everyone space. You need social awareness of how everyone's feeling, being on tour everyone misses their friends and family and you need to take into account people's moods."

It seems like you've not stopped since the last album was released!

"Little gaps here and there but it's been good now we've started going again. We're away to India next week it's pretty non-stop, then we're organising the South America trip at the moment so we arrive home a day before festival season starts. So hopefully I'll have stuff to write about for the third record."

Do you have any tour traditions or rituals when you arrive in different places?

"So we have a ritual before we go on stage we do hands in and we say "balls deep" which is a bit weird but it's tradition now and just what we do. Warming up our voices together and not eating too close before stage time because we've been making that mistake."

Do you have any places you look forward to going back to?

"Everywhere really, you don't know what to expect from each place. Travelling Europe has been really good actually, part of this tour we've been to places like Cologne and Munich and they've all been really good gigs. Back in the UK there's pressure because this is where i'm from whereas in other places people don't know me."

What are the differences between gigs home and abroad?

"On this tour the crowds have actually been a little more enthusiastic in Europe, they seem to like to come down and watch us both whereas sometimes here during the supports people would be getting their drinks or chatting to their mates and stuff which is a bit difficult when you're supporting. Some places we've played have been completely silent."

There's always the trouble of all male gig line-ups and lack of representation, as a female artist, supporting a male artist, is this something you've been affected by?

"Not really, maybe in some ways it's worked in my favour because they think oh sh*t we need some girls here, who knows, generally it's not just artists it's everyone. City and Colour doesn't have a single female on the tour bus apart from Dallas' wife but with crew and musicians there isn't one girl. I think it's down to some reason guitar players, musicians, guitar tech's, roadies all just seem to be male. Whenever i'm looking around for someone all the names recommended are male. I don't know why, if men are more inclined to do those jobs or whether girls don't feel like those roles are possible.
If we encourage more girls to go into it, that would be a positive thing but at the moment i'd imagine if you were the one girl on the crew you could feel quite left out and feel inclined to quit. Touring is really tough."

Having first heard about you via Bombay Bicycle Club do you still have input in each others work now they're on a break?

"I still see them a lot as friends, as far as I know Jack's making an album and so's Ed, so far we haven't collaborated."

You decided university wasn't for you, what advice do you have for people that are unsure?

"There are huge amounts of opportunities for lots of exciting jobs in the music industry anyway that you don't hear about as much and you don't need qualifications for, it's not like going into medicine or law. The problem is there's a lot of pressure to go to university from school. From my school it was expected that this was the next logical step as an adult, and as an adult I should be applying for university and that was a big part of my last year because everyone was applying and just saying "i'm not doing it" I don't even know if that was even allowed. So I did apply I just didn't take my place.
My advice would be: research more because there are jobs like booking agents, PR, A&R, labels, publishers, there are so many things you can do that you don't need a degree for within the music industry."

Being the night of The Brits, what are your thoughts on it?

"They seem to celebrate the very very successful that have sold a lot of records which is great but I think the diversity of genre's is quite bad. It's most likely pop. It doesn't celebrate jazz or blues or grime or R&B which is a shame for such a huge award."

Plans for 2016?

"South America, festivals, recording the third record. I'm not putting pressure on it but i'm hoping to do it in the Autumn for it to come out next year."

TEA CHAT:

"People like to ask me about tea a lot. I just love tea, no explanation.

In the mornings I'd go for a strong english breakfast milk no sugar. 

Now we're in a Turkish restaurant i'd have a Turkish tea because that's appropriate.
A good peppermint tea particularly good for an icky tummy or if you're feeling a bit weird.
Then Earl Grey before bed. Mix it up a bit." 

Despite not being a fan of listening to music pre-gig here are a few of Lucy's favourite tracks:

Twitter: @lucyrosemusic