Written by Fred Carlyle
Photo Credit: Coppertb
As her current roadtrip around Australia found the musician hunkered down in a Gold Coast caravan park for the evening of this interview, the Couchdog family spoke over the phone with Melbourne/ Naarm’s emerging electronica artist and online fashion icon, Lucy Lamb. So we got to know the genre-bending musician on a bit of a closer level; getting our heads around what exactly she does and what she’s up to while she strolled through the grounds of her home for the night, cladded in afternoon bathers while manoeuvring the residential scooter kids and bin chickens.
Let's jump straight into exactly what Lucy Lazar (who coined her mother’s last name ‘Lamb’ for a catchy stage name) offers us musically before we go any further as when it comes to getting an idea of what this rising creative is all about, her raw and compelling discography really does all the talking for itself.
Night Shifts, Lucy’s sophomore EP released last year, lacks no hesitation when it comes to enveloping all your senses and immersing you completely. Describing music as having a ‘magical ability to open up a whole new world’ for its listeners, Lucy doesn’t want her music to be just atmospheric, she wants to evoke the effect of creating a whole new sonic realm for us to get lost into. Filled to the brim with these chaotic and unpredictable landscapes of pulsating drumbeats and outlandish synthesisers, the instrumental layering of Night Shifts keeps you in this constant state of captivation as the relentless outpouring of sound swirls around you and envelopes all your senses like as though you’ve been teleported into the middle of a dreamscape.
However, it’s Lucy’s vocals that serve as the cherry on top when it comes to the illusory nature of the EP. Darting from a voice that’s airy and soothing on songs like ‘Colours and Bells’ to the distorted and manic delivery on the opening track ‘Bored’, Lucy’s celestial and distinctive style of singing is what truly amplifies the enchanting experience of her sound.
Whether it be her phantasmal tracks, quick-cut music videos, loud fashion or her boisterous live performances, everything associated with Lucy Lamb is cranked to the extreme, it's as though her dial is always switched to 11. From the get-go, since she first started making music in her early teen years, the fire of Lucy Lamb’s musical endeavours have been stoked by a simple yet admirable desire to use music to express herself with little to no restraint whatsoever. Living her life in the most colourful and expressive way deemed possible, the over-the-top and extreme nature of Lucy’s creative work is as sincere as it gets; describing her artistic persona as an extension of herself rather than that of a stage character she’s made, it’s easy to wrap your head around what Lucy Lamb is all about when you learn that she frankly, doesn’t want to be boring.
Photo Credit: Coppertb
However, we’re only dealing with half of the equation by only discussing her music, as Lucy Lamb’s wild and entrancing form of expression is equally expressed through her eccentric visual aesthetic. When it comes to the party girl fashion trends that peaked from the late 2000’s to early 2010’s, many people disregard this aesthetic as obnoxious or trashy. In Lucy’s case however, this era is highly regarded, as her own raunchy and unapologetic fashion taste takes prime influence from the contemporary scene. Praising its weird and ridiculous nature, Lucy boils the look down to an admirable value of ‘daring to be different’.
The importance of visuals doesn’t just stop at her fashion however. It's second nature for Lucy to interchange visuals with music as the combination of the two fulfils that drive of hers to express herself to the most extreme extent and to provide an experience to her audience that’s as immersive as possible. Because, if visuals can amplify the impact of her art, why shouldn’t she tap into them?
Discussing the way in which she likes to interchange visuals with music, Lucy gave us an example of what she means by telling us what to expect from her live shows. To put in the most straightforward way, we’re expected to witness her ‘not giving a fuck’. All the values and traits that make up the performer seem to be showcased and rolled all into one in her live performances. Having an overarching goal to deliver fun by surrendering to the performance in a carefree and crazed fashion; Lamb’s live shows reflect her character completely as the gigs display a preference over chaos rather than that of having a perfected and polished set as you’ll see the artist zig zagging across the stage, getting down on the floor and being as lively as physically possible. When we asked what she wants her audience to get out of one of her live performances, Lucy discussed that she feels privileged in the fact that she feels tapped into her emotions to an incredibly raw extent. So, Lamb’s desire to provide a memorable and frenzied adventure of a live show stems from a want for her audience to experience something in an incredibly emotive way alike to how she personally feels through her music.
Whereas it can sometimes take an artist a long journey and a lengthy process of trial and error until they finally find the genre that truly speaks to them. The electronica genre has been to Lucy the gift that keeps on giving ever since she first began to explore the sound in her early teens. Having released her first spotify single ‘Hello’ back in 2021 when she was 18, the discography of the now 22 year old has already seen some significant evolution. Her consistent exploration of finding new sub-genres to play around with has resulted in her having a distinctive genre-bending sound that continues to become more expansive as she continually hunts down more inspirations that can be thrown into her own melting pot.
‘A Pretty Syllabus’, Lucy Lamb’s 2021 debut EP, gave us the first taste of the eclectic artist’s forming sound as the release saw Lucy using the hyper-pop scene to get her footing in, using prime influences like that of Pinkpantheress as the first step of creating her own unique style.
Night Shifts: the Remixes, Lucy’s third EP released late last month, perfectly highlights the progress of Lucy’s expanding sound as this new four track EP reapproaches the songs from her previous release and revitalises them into something new altogether with the help of her current influences. Utilising a mix of long-standing influences like that of idols Crystal Castles and Grimes and fresh inspirations such as Sidewalks and Skeletons and Crim3s, Night Shifts: the remixes showcases Lucy’s newfound desire to make dance-floor suited beats. Using the sub-genres of Witch House and Dark-Pop for the current stage of her sound, original dream-pop like soundscapes of the previous release have been resurrected into these infectiously fast-paced and hypnotic-like house beats that aim to find their home at a high energy rave.
Check out Lucy Lamb's music video for the 'Bored' remix here^
If Lucy’s intent on making music is to provide an immersive world, by seeing her sound continue to evolve overtime is like seeing a small village steadily becoming a metropolis as her world continues to flourish and become more populated overtime as she continues to find ways in which to expand and sharpen her sound.
After getting to know her well during our interview, what I found really special about Lucy Lamb is her absolute sincerity. One of the many reasons that her music comes off to me as so distinctive and compelling is that it’s transparent in displaying the musician’s bold and confident ability to simply express and to be herself, no matter how insanely unapologetic it may be. Because, if there’s one thing I learnt after talking to Lucy, it’s that she’s definitely not boring, and sometimes that's all it’s about.
Check out Lucy Lamb on Instagram here
Listen to her latest EP here