Interview with Lucy Francesca Dron

Brisbane, Australia's Lucy Francesca Dron recently released an outstanding EP entitled Leftovers. I recently did an email interview with her where we discussed the EP, having her brother in her band, her upcoming plans and more.  

Can you tell me a little about your musical background?

I grew up surrounded by music, mostly classical music. My mum is a music teacher and Dad is a classical pianist and they were always encouraging my brother and I to be involved in music at school and in our spare time which we did. My first instrument was the cello which I played from the age of 6 until I was 15 where I was then drawn to the guitar.

You just released an EP called “Leftovers" and I read that it’s called that because they are songs you feel don’t fit into concepts that you have for albums.  Can you elaborate a little on that?

I just felt these songs were all strong on their own but felt out of place within my other concepts. The songs I imagine for my other albums flow within the album together and I feel like they create their own little world and soundscape. The Leftovers EP ended up flowing well though but the tracks just stuck out a bit within the other albums

I read that these songs have been around for a few years.  Did any of them change drastically once you recorded them?

The songs developed a lot in the way I performed them. When I originally wrote them I would sing the songs in a much more emotional and loose way and the tempos were changing around. The songs pretty much tightened up a lot through time and practice and I've been exploring singing with more of a jazz technique.

I love the contrast of your vocals, which have a strong jazz feel to them, with the more indie rock sound of your music.  Having said that, a couple of the songs on the EP “Mirrors” and “Epilogue” (both of which I really like) definitely swing more towards the jazz side.  Have you considered doing more songs with that vibe?

Yeah I have a fair amount of songs that have a more jazzy vibe, I’ve definitely within the last two years been really into jazz vocalists and it’s been helping to refine my vocal technique a lot.

Can you give me a little background about your two bandmates - your brother Tom and Tex Keane?

Tom is my older brother and he taught me the first few songs I ever
learnt on guitar. He was writing music well before I started and I was always so in love with his songs so he would teach me them as well and we’d play his songs together. As I grew up and explored song writing myself he was getting really into bass and we just jammed and he's been my bassist ever since. I was looking for a drummer for ages and I heard about Tex from my old principal of Music Industry College because he was studying there. When I heard him he was 16 and absolutely phenomenal and we had a jam, connected and continued working together.

How is it working with your brother?

It is amazing and we work so well together. He understands my music really well and always comes up with the right basslines to complement what I’ve written and is a lovely person overall.

Do you do all the songwriting yourself or do either of them contribute at all?

Yeah I write all the songs on my own but they come up with their parts to go with the song unless I have a specific idea that I want them to play. 

You released your first EP “Eloqium” in 2017. How do you think your music has evolved since then?

They were the first songs I had ever written so they were quite undeveloped and simple. I've explored so many other angles to approach songwriting with now and of course I have a band to expand the sound even more.

You recently released videos for “What Is Next" and “Liquid Numbing Pain". What kind of input did you have in the music videos?

For “What Is Next?” I had no idea what I was doing because it was my first time so I let my team explore the concept and what they wanted to do with it. The more I got into it though the more I fell in love with making music videos and I was so determined and inspired to do my own concept for "Liquid Numbing Pain" and make it really good. I was extremely involved in the music video for "Liquid Numbing Pain" and it was a crazy experience.

You have quite a few other songs floating around between stuff on Soundcloud and various videos on Youtube and elsewhere.  Do you expect to have another release out anytime soon?

I don’t have anything officially lined up but I've been recording some stuff and plan to record a big project next when the time is right.

You have a demo for an almost 10 minute song on Soundcloud called “Tae”.  Can you tell me about that?

Tae was the person who recorded the song, the track is actually called "Venus Lake". This song is actually the title track for my biggest album I have planned, “Venus Lake” which I am so excited to start working on. I wrote the song when I was 18 in three different parts and it was a really, really special and therapeutic experience to me creating it. The album I envision this song on has all my favorite tracks that I have written and they are very ethereal, intricate and experimental. 

What can we expect from you now that the EP is out?

I’ll be playing some shows around Brisbane and going down to Melbourne later in the year, but nothing official is coming up.

Is there anyone in the Australian music scene right now that you think readers should be checking out?

 

Sammm, Kiri and Nicole Mckinney

(Lucy Francesca Dron)