Photo credit: Andrea Morgan of AC Creative Unit

Exclusive Q&A with Americana/folk singer-songwriter Lucy Isabel

rj frometa Monday, October 14, 2024 Content Leave a comment

Fans of Lucy Isabel are already aware that she knows her way around lyric-writing and storytelling. Her songs are poetic and heartfelt, and the latest batch on her just-released album, “All The Light,” are a perfect example of the emotion-laden stories she tells. Her shimmering vocals are a comfort to the ears, and the beautiful twang of pedal steel and the floating flourishes of fiddle serve to elevate the songs to something supremely special. Fans of folk-centric Americana will find much to love in this new collection of songs. We sat down with Isabel recently to get the details on “All The Light.

Hi Lucy. Welcome to VENTS! How have you been lately?

Hey! I’ve been busy but good!

You have an amazing new album that just came out in October called “All The Light.” What can you tell us about it? What inspired you to write these songs and record this album?

Thank you so much! I wrote the album over the span of about a year and a half. My initial motivation for writing the album was that I felt like I was in a deep creative rut. I wanted to challenge myself to get out of that, and the best way I could think to do that was by putting pressure on myself to put something out into the world. Once I started writing, I found the process especially cathartic since I hadn’t written very much since the onset of the pandemic. I realized that I had experienced a lot of really intense life changes over the last few years, and that inspired the actual content of the songs.

Did you write all of the songs around the same time with the intention of gathering songs for an album, or did you write at different times? Did any of the songs take a while to come together?

I started the writing process knowing that I wanted to release another album. There were songs that I started writing with the intention of putting them on the album, only to discover that I didn’t feel like they were the right fit. It was a really fun process to try to put the puzzle pieces together. A couple of them took a few months to come together completely, but two in particular were written in their entirety over the course of a single weekend. They were the final songs I wrote for the album, so I already had a really clear picture of the overarching themes, and I was able to make those songs fit in nicely.

What were the recording sessions like? Any great stories from the studio that you can share with our readers? What was your favorite part about recording this album?

We mostly recorded the album one-on-one, just me and my producer, Jared Anderson. It was a really cool experience and really different from how I recorded my last album. We were able to be super deliberate, and we had time to try out different ideas. From there, we did a couple days of tracking fiddle, pedal steel, and drums. One of my favorite parts of the recording process was going into those tracking sessions, because it was really the first time anyone other than Jared or I heard the music.

What kind of sound or vibe were you trying to achieve on this album? Did it change or morph at all in the studio while you were working on it? How is this album different from (or similar to) your past releases?

When we began the recording process, I felt that the songs were meant to be ambient and lush. We listened to a lot of reference tracks, and I loved tracks where it sounded like the vocals were being sung in a big room, like a church or something. Ultimately, we arrived at our own interpretation of that, but it’s a little bit more of a raw vocal than I’ve aimed for in the past. And the instrumentation is definitely different than on my last project. It’s still an album that can and will be played with a full band live, but we used those typical instruments like bass, guitar, and drums in a different way this time around.

How do you feel about releasing the album now? What kind of emotions are coming forth as you share this collection of songs with the world? What aspect of the album are you most proud of?

It’s a little surreal to finally be sharing these songs with the world. You spend so much time writing and producing and recording an album, and then there’s a period of time where a select few people have access to the finished product. And then suddenly it’s all out there for everyone to see and hear. I’m excited for the release and to hear what people think about it! The aspect that I’m most proud of is that I didn’t let myself get super self-conscious about the writing this time around. A lot of it is autobiographical and a lot of it is poetic license. In the past, I’ve stressed about people thinking a particular line or phrase is true about me when it may have just been the right fit for the lyric. But that doesn’t worry me anymore, because I know people will bring their own life experiences to the table when they listen.

What do you have on tap for the fall?

I’ve got some tour dates lined up in the southeast this fall, and I’m likely adding some in the Mid-Atlantic and New England. I’m especially excited to tour this album. Since I wrote a lot of the songs almost concurrently with the recording process, there are a few of them that I have yet to play live. I’m looking forward to seeing the life they take on out on the road!