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It’s been six years between albums for pop band Lucius and nearly 4 years between correct excursions. But all that modified with their third studio album, “Second Nature,” which got here out April 8, and a 52-date tour that kicks off at MASS MoCA in North Adams April 28 and Roadrunner in Boston April 29.
It’s a homecoming of kinds for Jess Wolfe, 37, and Holly Laessig, 36, the 2 frontwomen and identically coiffed singer-songwriters. They met at Berklee College of Music in 2003 and started singing collectively two years later.
It was no positive guess any of this could occur.
Though Lucius, which shaped in Brooklyn in 2007, had launched two sturdy albums and achieved appreciable success, issues weren’t wanting good towards the top of 2016. Wolfe and Laessig determined they needed to put Lucius down for an prolonged nap. They had been burnt out.
“At the time, we had been touring relentlessly and, personally, my marriage was falling apart,” says Wolfe, on the cellphone earlier this month from her Los Angeles residence. She was married to the band’s drummer Dan Molad.
However, a chance introduced itself to maintain Wolfe and Laessig absolutely engaged in music. In 2015, they’d joined former Pink Floyd co-leader Roger Waters at Newport Folk Festival, singing backup; in 2017, he requested them to rejoin his band for an enormous North American tour.
“Here was a good opportunity to be part of somebody else’s machine,” Wolfe says. “To be re-inspired, to have a different perspective and hopefully return to the band with fresh eyes and fresh ears. And that is exactly what happened. It did feel like a step away for our fans, I’m sure, but we were exploring a different person’s vision.”
The pandemic and subsequent lockdown, after all, knocked everybody for a loop, derailing recording and touring schedules, to say nothing of wrecking psyches. But Wolfe and Laessig saved busy singing with, amongst others, Sheryl Crow, Harry Styles, The War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, Ozzy Osbourne and Elton John. And they saved working on songs by way of this anxiety-ridden time.
“We were writing about some heavy stuff which was cathartic and therapeutic in many ways,” says Wolfe. “I was facing divorce and we were all facing this pandemic together. Everyone was stuck inside — inside themselves, inside their homes, without a community.”
Wolfe and Laessig hunkered down and began writing songs because the March 2020 lockdown started. “It became apparent we needed something [musically] to lift ourselves out of this, even if we forced it,” Wolfe says. “Writing about these pretty difficult moments in life, what happened before the pandemic and at the onset of it.”
“We each have different strengths,” she continues. “We have been working together for such a long time that we’re very sensitive to one another’s experience, what needs to be said and how it needs to be said, and helping each other process the song. Sometimes, she’ll like a song better than I do or vice versa and if one of us doesn’t like it we’re not gonna force it. But there’s not a whole lot of drama between us.”
This time round, it was primarily Wolfe’s angst and turmoil that was explored in tune, however Wolfe says, “our lives are so intertwined, we write as one because we experience life together. Even though we have different experiences, we are witness to one another’s. My sadness became hers, in a way.”
Most musicians write music first after which lyrics to suit later. That, says Wolfe, is mostly the way in which the method works in Lucius, however “we don’t have a formula. It definitely varies. I would say melody does often come first, especially because, as singers, we want to be able to emote in a certain range that feels the most resonant. We’re often playing around with melodies and exploring what’s feeling good harmonically. But [the album’s closing track and ballad] ‘White Lies’ was one where words came with the melody as we were singing it.”
Last yr, Lucius, which (nonetheless) contains Molad and guitarist Peter Lalish, re-convened in Nashville to file “Second Nature” with Brandi Carlile and her longtime producing associate Dave Cobb. Lucius was joined by bassist-synthist Solomon Dorsey and guitarist Alex Pfender, as they are going to be on this tour. (Lucius was initially configured as a quintet, however bassist Andrew Burri left the band in September 2016.)
Carlile, says Wolfe, set a excessive bar: “She was there to make sure we were the most epic version of Lucius we could be. She had a strong vision for making this rhythmic, soulful record that was really sort of like a disco record. It was very joyful.”
Indeed, the primary two songs on the file, the title monitor and “Next to Normal” reveal a newly funky Lucius. “In a way, it was like fake it until you make it,” Wolfe says. “Let’s just make a dance record and dance ourselves out of the darkness. And see if it actually works and it did.”
They additionally got here up with the propulsive “Dance Around It,” with Carlile and Sheryl Crow including background vocals. A key line: “Our love’s burning out/ We’ll keep dancing around it.” Wolfe says it might function the album’s theme tune.
“Second Nature” isn’t by any means strictly a dance file. As with the 2 earlier Lucius albums, the band covers plenty of floor and defies anybody to peg them to any specific style. Shimmering electro-pop tunes and acoustic-based ballads share area with the funky numbers. References might embrace ABBA, Kate Bush and Robyn — all acts Lucius likes.
“I never know what to compare us to or what to call us,” says Wolfe. “I don’t really care what people call us or compare us to. Whatever helps identify it, I’m fine with that.”
“We always look to David Bowie as an example of artistry that is always evolving and changing,” she continues. “He never did anything you would necessarily expect, or the unexpected is what you expect. I really loved that, that you get to be theatrical and emotional and real all at once.”
With Wolfe and Molad sharing area within the band — and with Molad co-mixing the new album — one can’t assist however recall Fleetwood Mac or X, bands the place {couples} broke up romantically however stayed collectively professionally.
“It was always my fear that we would have to change the band or he would leave,” Wolfe says. “I think a big reason why we didn’t get divorced for such a long time was we were scared to lose that musical partnership. For us, it was archaic, luckily, to think that you have to lose somebody in your life just because the shape of your relationship changes.”
There was at the very least one upside to the pandemic for her and Molad. “It allowed for space and time for healing and thankfully we came out of it with a greater understanding and respect,” she says.
With Wolfe and Laessig, there’s a change from the songwriting to the studio to the stage. “We do become something else,” says Wolfe, of their performing selves. “Our costumes and stage set are an extension of what we try to create musically, so we kind of become these superheroes up there. It’s fun, it’s unifying, it’s transcendent, so we can live in a very different headspace even though of course these songs are coming from a very real place. The voice that we create together is very much a part of us but something outside of ourselves, too, something larger together.”
When they carry out stay, Wolfe and Laessig almost all the time sing in unison — two girls, one voice — usually going through one another and sporting the identical look, from coiffure to couture. On this tour, she says, “There’s a lot of sparkle. We have bedazzled our keytars we have disco-fied our drums and it’s going to be epic. Our hair is our natural color – brunette or ashy blonde – and very, very long. The show is so fun and yet has those heartbreaking, intimate moments so there’s a true dynamic and an arc. People will get what they came for from Lucius. We’re putting it out there.”
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