Lucy Dacus sits at a picnic desk in Elysian Park blinking in opposition to the solar on a windy afternoon in early March. Final evening, the 29-year-old singer and songwriter went to Elton John’s annual Oscar viewing social gathering to look at Chappell Roan — “a new friend,” she says — carry out “Pink Pony Club” with Sir Elton; tonight she has plans to catch Coronary heart’s present at Crypto.com Enviornment with a bunch of friends that features Roan and Katie Gavin of the band Muna. (Coronary heart’s Nancy Wilson will later put up backstage images of the crew on Instagram.)
Between these amusements, Dacus is right here to speak about her new album, “Forever Is a Feeling” — her fourth solo file however the first she’s made since she turned one thing of a pop star as a member of Boygenius, the indie-rock supergroup she shares with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. Intently noticed and exquisitely organized, the LP is essentially about falling in love — and lust — with Baker, with whom she’s now in a dedicated romantic relationship; “Best Guess” goals of “tracing your tan lines” and “zipping your dress,” whereas “Ankles” asks a lover to “bite me on the shoulder” and “pull my hair” then “help me with the crossword in the mornings.”
“Lucy has a way of way of writing about these very real, very up-close relationships where you don’t lose any of the magic that’s there in the realm of yearning and fantasy,” says Gavin, who’ll open for Dacus on the highway this yr (together with two dates in Might at L.A.’s Greek Theatre). “She actually makes real intimacy very enticing.”
But “Forever,” due March 28 from Geffen Data, additionally feels formed by the numerous high-flying experiences Dacus had with Boygenius, which gained three Grammy Awards, appeared on the duvet of Rolling Stone dressed as Nirvana and opened an Eras Tour date for Taylor Swift, who went on to say Dacus by identify within the title monitor of “The Tortured Poets Department.” Boygenius’ 2023 “The Record” is filled with sharp ideas about artwork and tradition, not least the tune “Leonard Cohen,” which ponders the “horny poetry” Cohen wrote whereas present process “an existential crisis at a Buddhist monastery.” Dacus does some extra fascinated about fame’s absurdities on “Forever Is a Feeling” — “I missed your call because I was in a boardroom full of old men guessing what the kids are getting into,” she sings in “Come Out” — at the same time as she herself appears at low danger of getting misplaced within the sauce.
Says Gavin: “Basically, the babe’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
Dacus, who grew up in a devoutly spiritual household in Virginia, recorded “Forever” in Los Angeles and Nashville with collaborators together with Bridgers and Baker in addition to Hozier, Blake Mills, Bartees Unusual and Madison Cunningham. We spoke per week after she performed a few of the new songs in a gig on the Huntington, the place her followers listened so intently that applauding nearly felt impolite.
You reside in L.A. now, yeah?—Ish. Been touring rather a lot. I actually didn’t prefer it right here once I first was visiting. I believe I simply went to the fallacious neighborhoods and didn’t love sufficient folks personally. Then as soon as I made extra buddies — the folks that love a metropolis present you the right way to adore it. I’m hooked now.
Final time we talked, you have been dwelling with a bunch of roommates in Philadelphia.I nonetheless spend lots of time in Philly, and my buddies nonetheless stay in that home. I miss the East Coast rather a lot — I miss shade and creeks. That is the primary place I’ve lived the place I can’t hear the prepare.
I assume Boygenius is what drew you west.We have been right here a lot — recorded the file, did all of the press and the music movies — that I used to be like, “Dang, I’m spending so much on hotels, I should just get a place,” Julien and I each. Phoebe is an enormous purpose that I like this metropolis — she mentioned, “Skip this stuff. Eat here. See these people.”
What did you assume while you heard Sabrina Carpenter’s tune “Dumb & Poetic,” the place she talks a few man getting off to Leonard Cohen? Leonard caught just a few strays during the last couple years.I don’t consider mine as a stray — it was meant with love. However what I mentioned is true: He was having an id disaster at a monastery and nonetheless managed to be sexy. That’s so admirable. I want upon everybody the vitality to keep up horniness for that lengthy in a life. As for the Sabrina tune — I imply, if her mission is predicated round horniness and cleverness, then after all she’s into Leonard Cohen. Who’s extra sexy and intelligent?
I remembered the Boygenius lyric whereas I used to be listening to “Forever Is a Feeling,” which feels lengthy on sexy poetry.Thanks a lot.
Is that truthful?Oh, for positive. I believe there’s perhaps somewhat bit extra looming loss and dread in it. However I attempted to have just a few solely lusty issues occurring.
Did writing that type of music really feel like a brand new enterprise for you?Frankly, it was only a new enterprise in my life — the music is an offshoot of that. I write from a really heady place, or an educational place, so to jot down principally from the physique was actually cool and embarrassing. I believe embarrassment is a vital feeling — it reveals that you just care, that you just’re risking one thing, that you just’re truly pushing.
I believe followers most likely hear “Ankles” as a tune about queer need. I questioned whether or not you felt liberated to speak about tough intercourse as a result of the tune exists outdoors of a kind of heteronormative framework.I haven’t truly considered that, although I’ve been noticing that individuals are speaking to me about queerness far more after Boygenius. I’ve by no means specified pronouns in my music, as a result of though I like connecting with what I really feel like is my group, what I might actually need my group to be is lovers, which everybody will be. So “Ankles” wasn’t related to queerness — it was extra related to missing disgrace, which for me equates to extra queerness in my precise life.
Lucy Dacus in Elysian Park.
(Marcus Ubungen / Los Angeles Instances)
Leonard and Sabrina apart, who’re your bards of need?James Baldwin. Garth Greenwell. Jeanette Winterson. I’ve been studying the Brontë sisters one after the other.
Why?Boygenius went to the Brontë museum [in England], and I used to be in the midst of “Jane Eyre” throughout that. Then I learn “Wuthering Heights” lately, and I’m gonna learn “Agnes Grey” subsequent. They have been repressed and wanting romance, and though it’s a a lot totally different world now, I believe lots of people are feeling repressed and wanting romance. Wanting a mystical, cosmic love to return your method, or the concept that you’re keen on somebody so undeniably and inexplicably that they could possibly be the villain of the story and you continue to have to like them — that pursuits me.
What about musicians who sing or write properly about need?I hearken to a bunch of previous stuff. Labi Siffre I’ve been obsessive about ceaselessly. I like Billie Vacation and Julie London. Barbra Streisand, relying on the tune. She will be able to do something, but when it’s a heartaching love tune, you are feeling it in her voice.
Are you a Streisand head?I’m not a Streisand head — I haven’t learn her e-book. However I grew up listening to musical theater due to my mother, and I believe a few of these actually nice singers influenced me greater than I believed. They put lots of the storytelling within the precise tone of their voice.
Oh, SZA — simply so as to add to the bards.
I noticed a video on TikTok of you in a dressing room at Joni Mitchell’s present final yr on the Hollywood Bowl. You’re in there with Joni and Elton John and Brandi Carlile.And Annie Lennox. It was so bizarre. I simply received movie again from that evening — I deliver my little movie digital camera round, particularly when it’s a state of affairs that I might by no means have anticipated my life to go. I’m like, “I should get a picture to prove to myself later that it was real.” However yeah — Brandi invited me, and I introduced Chappell. They have been like, “Come back and say hi,” after which we simply walked into the center of this circle of legends.
What’d you consider Joni’s present that evening?It was probably the most profound reveals I’ve ever seen.
Lot of deep cuts.She’s in it for her heads. She needs to fulfill the individuals who’ve actually been paying consideration, and there’s one thing actually honorable about that.
Generally I dread listening to the album an artist makes proper after they obtain a sure stage of movie star, simply because the disillusionment can really feel actually acquainted. However in a few of your new songs, you method that have in a method that feels recent.After I meet well-known folks, inside 10 minutes we’re speaking about our stalkers. Everybody’s somewhat bit scarred, I believe. So yeah — you find yourself writing from a extra protected place, whereas in your early music, you’re not as protected and also you’re writing no matter. I really feel like I’m nonetheless writing no matter, which is good. However the price of nonetheless writing as I might discuss to a buddy is that I really feel far more weak placing it out. I believe it’s price it, and I’m pleased with this file. However I get why folks shut off.
Phoebe Bridgers, from left, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus of Boygenius with Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff on the 66th Grammy Awards in 2024.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Instances)
Listening to Taylor Swift sing your identify actually painted an image of your new actuality.You simply should construct psychological blocks in opposition to that mattering an excessive amount of. And fortuitously, I’m replete with folks that know me deeply and love me and have for a very long time. That’s actually the place my middle is.
You instructed me in 2021 that you concentrate on your friendships far more than your romantic life — that the number of friendship was extra attention-grabbing to you. Now that you just’ve moved right into a type of pop area —Whoa.
Did you are feeling obligated in any method to write about love as a result of that’s what we count on from pop stars?Positively not. I hate to say it, however final time we talked I wasn’t feeling very impressed romantically. I had these very complicated friendships that have been so wealthy, and now I really feel like my love life received sophisticated in such a method that I’m like, “Oh, now I see the layers to this.” And I’ve solely ever executed buddies to lovers. That’s the opposite factor — the romance is a part of an extended historical past with folks that I like and belief. Persons are like, “You could never pay me to date one of my friends.” However the concept of sitting down for a date and quizzing one another to see in case you’re soulmates is like — what?!
Anyhow, I stand by what I mentioned. And I’m hoping that by means of my life, I can see the paradox that is available in romance. I believe what’s bothered me about romance is that folks have these stratified steps and a playbook and guidelines. And that’s so antithetical to like. What it sounds wish to me is the consumerism of affection: You pay this conduct with the intention to get this safety. It’s truthfully somewhat manipulative. I’ve buddies who I like, and the way in which they put together for dates, I’m like, “Are you trying to trick this person? Do you not want them to know who you are?”
Your singing connotes a level of knowledge — it’s the voice of somebody who’s thought by means of a state of affairs and reached a conclusion. However do you ever need to categorical some crippling uncertainty that you just discover your voice will not be naturally suited to?There’s occasions the place I really feel like I get shaky. I take into consideration the top of “Please Stay” — I began to cry after the take, which I can hear in my voice. However I believe a part of what works concerning the music is that the lyrics are nearly all the time about uncertainty. So if I’ve arrived anyplace, it’s realizing I’ll by no means know and being at peace with how issues are. Perhaps that’s what you’re getting.
What did you need this new file to sound like? It sounds rather a lot totally different than “Home Video,” from 2021.I believe it does too. I used to be fascinated about love songs by means of time — going again to the previous, to a few of the artists we have been speaking about earlier than, then even additional again for the visible facet of issues, to the Pre-Raphaelite period. I needed to attach these songs again to a historical past of affection. So there’s violins, there’s harpsichord, there’s harps — there’s rather a lot within the preparations that make it really feel older or basic or one thing.
To what extent was that sound world formed by having been on the highway, enjoying huge rock reveals with Boygenius?I really feel like rock continues to be the bread and butter of what I understand how to do. However I simply need to hearken to the songs and take into consideration the easiest way they are often introduced. What are they asking for? Whenever you mentioned earlier it was a pop factor, I used to be like, attention-grabbing. As a result of I don’t really feel like I’m in a single style.
I assume I meant pop in a extra cultural or industrial sense — the major-label debut of all of it.I’m loving working with Geffen. Matador was nice for a place to begin. However I did nearly all the things myself — there was just about no cash for something. I didn’t need to fake for this that I’m nonetheless on an indie label. So let’s get the oil portray for the album cowl, let’s go to Paris for a music video, let’s fee a Rodarte gown. I needed to focus on people who find themselves placing a lot research and ability into craftsmanship.
You’re doing a little world-building, which to me looks as if a requirement of pop stardom within the 2020s.I’m not so fascinated with contributing to popular culture, although. I do know people who find themselves in dialog with the tradition on function, however I really feel somewhat extra in dialog with myself. What’s gonna show to me that the album is profitable or not isn’t whether or not it makes a splash or if it’s on-trend of off-trend. I don’t even know the way in contact I’m with these issues. I took a yr off social media — I’ve missed rather a lot.
Took a yr off since you wanted inventive area, or what?We have been simply so overexposed on the finish of Boygenius. Earlier than it began, we mentioned one yr and it’s over. And we solely prolonged that to do the Grammys. Day after the Grammys, it’s off — Boygenius is completed. I used to be drained, and if I get too drained, I’ll cease. And I don’t need to cease, so I wanted to get the power again by some means.
Says Lucy Dacus: “I feel like rock is still the bread and butter of what I know how to do.”
(Marcus Ubungen/Los Angeles Instances)
Is Boygenius executed executed?I might say indefinitely dormant. Generally we’ll all hang around and be like, “Oh, my God, we should do this or that.” However there’s no plans.
I noticed Julien at your present on the Huntington.My little man. That’s my No. 1.
Your ambivalent relationship with social media is amusing given that you just’ve dropped some world-historical tweets.I believe that comes from not taking it too critically. However I don’t know which of them you’re fascinated about.
Clearly, “war criminal” with a frowny face in reference to Obama. Telling Matty Healy, “You don’t hear from me at all.”[Laughs].
Would you say you get pleasure from when certainly one of these bon mots blows up?I do know one thing’s actually taking place once I get like 20 texts in an hour from buddies being like, “Are you OK?” It’s a combined bag, similar to something that reaches lots of people. And with a bon mot, it’s only a few mots, you already know? I might have mentioned much more that may have contextualized every of these issues, and I might if I have been in a dialog with a buddy who I do know is taking me in good religion. The web default is taking what you say in unhealthy religion. I’ve buddies I disagree with, and we are able to get to some place of understanding about it. However the web’s not your buddy.
