Written by Tom Bedding
The story of Lucy May Walker so far is one that will make you both smile and feel inspired. From busking to day time TV appearances all down to a certain someones admiration for her, this singer-songwriter is continuously building on her great catalogue of music and obvious talents as a lyricist/melody writer. Now after releasing her latest single, 'Broken Home', which was our Track of The Week on Phoenix 98FM recently, it was great to chat to Lucy about the new song and everything that came before!
The new single ‘Broken Home’ is a great mix of wholesome sounds but honest lyrics, how did this all come about? The song initially was inspired by the break up of my parents. Over the past couple of years a lot of relationships seemed to be breaking down around me and the reason always seemed to come down to because of a lack of (or just bad) communication. I think the older generation in particular are kind of known to not really speak about their feelings or problems - and I just wonder how many relationships could have been saved if they’d have communicated their problems early on. You have such a collection of songs already, how has the songwriting experience been during the pandemic for you? It’s been interesting - initially I wasn’t writing that much because a) I tend to write about what’s going on in my life, and nothing was really happening & b) I guess I found it difficult to motivate myself. That all changed when I launched my song commissions - it is a new project of mine where people can gift somebody a personalised song - they tell me what they want the song to be about, then I write & record it. It’s a really simple idea but it’s completely transformed my writing.
How was writing after the release of the ‘Bad Day’ EP, did you feel like it was a start of a new chapter or a continuation? Yeah it felt like a new chapter. I don’t really write with an end product in mind, I just write and then you kind of know straight away what songs are singles and what are album tracks. I’m really enjoying writing at the moment without too much pressure of getting something ready for the next tour or whatever. Your way with words feels so relatable, the way you use every day moments and common situations is fantastic, would you say lyrics come first before a melody or the other way around? Ah thank you so much! I am definitely a lyric lover - whenever I go into a writing session I make sure I know exactly what topic I want to write about. When you’re passionate about what you’re talking about I think naturally it comes across and more people connect with your words. For me I do focus on the story-telling element before I think of melodies - another reason why commission writing comes easily to me.
The Christmas release was awesome! How was it writing a festive song? Thank you! I think it ended up summing up how a lot of people felt about 2020. Christmas in general can be a really difficult time for so many people, including myself. My manager challenged me to write a Christmas song and I was like, okay but - can it be sad? It just didn’t feel natural to me to write an upbeat cheery song about it, so I just wrote how I felt - and it turned out a lot of people felt the same.
‘Happy For You’ is a personal favourite! What was the experience like writing this song?
Oh thank you! I always like hearing what people’s favourites are. I wrote 'Happy For You' with my awesome musician friend Melanie Baker - it was my first time writing with Melanie and I just remember the ideas seem to roll out of us really quickly.
It’s a song about realising who your friends are - when exciting things happen in your life, you want to share them with the people around you, but when I had some success in my music career I didn’t experience that positivity from everyone. I call it the ‘jealous little bitches’ song when I play it live.
Naturally the question has to be asked….How would you describe looking back on being discovered by Jeremy Vine while busking? It’s an incredible tale! What song was it did he hear you play haha! Haha, I’m always so happy to talk about this story because it brings me so much joy. Jeremy Vine discovered me busking at Charing Cross station back in 2018 and it lead on to some amazing things such as playing on his BBC Radio 2 show & also his daytime TV show, which was just wild.
I have no idea what song I was playing because I didn’t clock him at the time, it wasn’t till he tweeted about me afterwards that I had any idea he was there - thank goodness for twitter! I honestly owe so much to Jeremy Vine, I will be eternally grateful.
What can we see from yourself next after ‘Broken Home’? Hope this difficult year has been too tough on yourself!! I have been writing a lot and I’m slowly building up a pretty big catalogue of songs so there will definitely be new music coming, we’re just not 100% sure in what format as of yet. 2020 has taught me to not plan too much ahead this year, and be okay with change. For now, I’m really enjoying writing, getting demos ready to record when I can get back in the studio and also live streaming on Twitch. Name us 5 musicians that have inspired you recently or simply enjoyed? 1. Taylor Swift I’m sorry but that woman is an absolute machine. Two new albums in a pandemic and she’s just announced another one. 2. Nina Nesbitt I have loved Nina Nesbitt for YEARS but more recently, she has really inspired me to be creative and fun on TikTok. It’s a bit of a minefield when you first join, you’re not sure which kind of path to go down, but I really love how she’s managed to incorporate music into hers. 3. Maisie Peters Absolute lyric QUEEN. 4. Jade Bird I love that she seems to be in her own lane in music, I can’t think of anyone else that brings out music like she does. She also makes me wanna be a rock and roll star but I’m not grungey enough. 5. Melanie Baker My friend Melanie recently set herself a challenge of writing a song a day for a month and I just think that’s incredible anyway, but every song she wrote seemed to be a BANGER. One of the songs ’Suzie’ even got a BBC Radio 1 play on the introducing show so she is definitely someone who inspires me and generally one to watch in the next couple of years for sure!
Lucky May Walker's latest single, 'Broken Home', is out now!