Lucy Mae: Making It Happen

As she prepares to take the stage to open up for YolanDa Brown with her love and collaborator Luc Phan, the supremely talented Lucy Mae spends a few minutes catching up with JS. We talked about music, Manchester and making it happen in the Jazz world.
Dec 2017

We are in Lucy's dressing room at Band On The Wall in Manchester. She is only a few minutes away before taking the stage and she is very relaxed.

Interview

JS
How’s it going?
LM
It’s going really, really well, I’m very excited.
JS
How are you feeling right now?
LM
A little bit nervous, I’m not gonna lie, we’ve played ‘Band on the Wall’ a couple of times, always with a full band and we were asked to do a more stripped back gig, and we’ve done that, we did the sound check earlier and it sounds great, as a singer it’s a dream to be able to hear everything and get your message across, little bit nervous though, it’s a very very vulnerable place to be. I am excited, YolanDa’s amazing so it’s an honour, it really is.
JS
And you have with you your partner in crime?
LM
I do I do.
JS
Well its wonderful to know that you as a singer and you’re bringing, your fiancé?
LM
We’ve been together for 4 years me and Luc so we’re as good as married.
JS
I believe he writes with you, is that correct?
LM
He does, he does indeed yes, he’s my main man yes.
JS
Perfect, so how does that work? How does the writing part work?
LM
We don’t have a system...
LP
She’ll take care of the lyrics and usually I’ll take care of the music and the arrangement...
LM
But it could be either, it could be I go to him and say I’ve written these lyrics and might sing it to him acapella or just, I’ve got them there written down, or he might have a little rift and I’ll go, oh I’ve got lyrics that would fit that vibe very well, I’ve been trying to find that kind of sound. It’s just a constant ongoing process, there’s no rule that we’ve got in place and we live together so it’s very easy.
JS
How do you come up with a melody in your mind and then present it to your partner?
LM
It’s weird, to be honest I don’t really know because we’ve gone down different avenues with it in our relationship of writing together it’s always been a different way of doing that. Usually the most common way is that I would just record it on my phone when I get an idea, for example a song we’re playing tonight called ‘Letter to the World’, I wrote walking back from I think the dentist back to my mums house, and I was just walking down the street and I had this melody, and I had these lyrics and there was a lot going on in the world and I felt very strongly about it and I was just singing along, so I recorded it on my phone and just kind of jammed along to it and then played it Luc and he found a rift for it and then we just jammed together until we found something that worked for both of us and got the message across well.
JS
That is so interesting, the reason why I had to ask is because when we write or when we think of a melody or an idea, often people question oh is it because you’ve listened to something else, or is it because you’ve had something presented to you that would enable you to think of the melody?
LM
It does happen. Creativity comes from influence.
LP
But also it’s really bizarre because I can say to you I struggle with melodies a lot, especially when you’ve got a very specific message to get across and the minute it becomes a song and not a poem or a piece of writing, you feel like you might need to take words out or nothing’s going to work because it’s got to be a song now, sometimes all of a sudden you can have a melody, and I don’t know if you’ve ever found this but you can be drifting of to sleep, it’s 4am and you’ve basically created an entire melody in your mind and you’re like this is it and then the next morning you’re like I can’t remember it and it comes to you at the strangest of times.
Luc, Lucy Mae & Julie E Gordon Photo credit: Ian Valentine


Interview continued...

JS
Luc, where are you from originally?
LP
France.
JS
So with you being Manchester based and you from France, there’s obviously going to be influences from both paths so how does that work, do you influence each other, through your cities?
LM
Luc is half French half Vietnamese and I’m half English and half Spanish, my father is massively into Hispanic music, you’ve got the Buena Vista Social Club, the gipsy kings, he’s [Luc] lived in Vietnam obviously the French music and then being Manchester based, when we met It was a mutual love of Jazz and soul wasn’t it but with having all those different backgrounds within us, everything naturally kind of comes out of that as well, it’s a really weird, it works well, it works very well.
LP
For me I arrived in Manchester randomly but I ended up staying because I realised that loads of the bands I really like are from Manchester, it seems that Manchester has a really good concentration of this kind of new Jazz around and loads of talented musicians, and some kind of emotion going on so yes it’s very nice, I was supposed to stay in Manchester for 3 months, 5 years later, I’m still here.
When I meet my friends and they are from you know Germany, Brazil, France, everywhere they show me Manchester through completely different eyes and I respect it a lot more.
JS
As an artist what do you feels important about bringing people together? What is it that you would think could make Manchester even greater than what it is now just through your music?
LM
Its a big question, but growing up being from a half Hispanic household, I travelled a lot and all of my friends you know they’re not even from England and I never really appreciated Manchester for what it was and I don’t think you appreciate where you’re from ever and when I met my friends and there from you know Germany, Brazil, France, everywhere they show me Manchester through completely different eyes and I respect it a lot more and I don’t think Manchester could be greater because it is a brilliant city, full of creativity, its a very friendly place, people love each other and I just hope that we can add to it, I don’t think I can make it better, I think I can just add to that the friendliness of it and the fact that everybody tries to send a message out, you know everyone’s very supportive, when the Manchester bomb happened, everyone came together, of every race, religion and background, it was the most beautiful thing to see and you can only hope to add a tiny little bit of that to it and help people a little bit, that’s all I can hope for.
JS
You’re clearly an accomplished performer now, but what was you first ever gig like?
LM
Well it was in a pub where I worked and my manger said I heard that you sing and made me do a gig, there was just a backing track, and the pub was filled. Obviously because I worked there and that was first ever gig it felt like most terrifying moment of my life but it started me off, it really built my confidence, it makes me flustered when I think about it now though.
JS
And how many gig have you done since then?
LM
Wow, a lot, a lot, it was a very special moment though because I did Performing Arts at college, I don’t even know why I did Performing Arts because I just wanted to be a singer, I went to uni and I dropped out, I just wanted to write and sing, and this opportunity that was given to me was one I couldn’t really say no to because it was my boss and yea it was a weird experience.
JS
Thank you so much Lucy, I’m really so honoured to be sat here talking to you because I know there’s going to be so much riding on this amazing talented lady and I think everyone is going to be absolutely in ore of you tonight with that voice.
LM
Thank you!

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