Interview: Lucius talks “Good Grief”, the 1960s, and spilling beer on church floors

By: Gemma Mastroianni –

Lucius. (Photo: Piper Ferguson)

Lucius released their new album, Good Grief, on March 11th via Dine Alone Records. The band, who is led by its co-founders and vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, met in 2005 while attending Berklee College of Music. Following a nearly two-year touring cycle in support of their critically acclaimed debut album, Wildewoman, the Brooklyn-based quintet went through several varied emotions—loneliness, sadness and exhaustion, alongside excitement, fulfillment and some of the most joyful moments in their lives. And when considering album titles for their new album, the band wanted to be sure to acknowledge any serious subject matter, while simultaneously allowing themselves a comic sigh of relief from any personal turmoil. The yin and yang of the record naturally unveiled itself and, so, we have Good Grief.

In our new interview with co-lead singer Holly Laessig, we discuss the making of Good Grief, performing on Ellen, spilling beer on church floors, and more.

What was it like attending the Berklee School of Music? Do you think that it was useful towards your career and the band today?

Yeah, it was. It gave us a community of people that we could move forward with and we moved to New York and started playing with different people. Eventually, we found our band-mates.

What was the writing and recording process like in comparison to Wildewoman?

It was very different. The first album was written over the course of three years, some of the songs even longer and older because we weren’t really looking to necessarily make a record at first. When we met with Danny and found him, he was looking to produce and we were looking to record and maybe make and EP so, we decided to go ahead and work together on that which is how he came on board at first, than the other two followed. The first record was a long process and we had no real expectations or anything for it. This one was much quicker, and we also had a lot more experience tow ork with and a lot more stuff to talk about because we had just been in a whirl-wind of travelling and seeing and feeling so many different things. We just had this whole depth of material to embark upon and we got it done within the year. We had three months of writing, three months of recording, then mixes and preparing the artwork and all that good stuff.

Is there anything that inspired the sound of Good Grief in terms of different artists?

Everybody has “grab-bag” full of influences all over the place so, we kind of went in with these demos. Firstly, Jess and I had written these songs in their baby form and sent them to the guys who built arrangements around them. When we went into the studio, we had these two sort of demo’s; one very simplified, and one very arranged. From there, we went through this process with our producer Sean where basically we listened to each song; he then had us anonymously write down a song that we could take something from. It wasn’t like we wanted our songs to sound like other songs it was more like, “I really like the vocal sound from this mic here”, or “I really like the guitarist” or “I like how this song only uses three instruments” you know, that kind of thing. We would all write down one or two songs and anonymously put them in a box. He would pull them out and we would listen to them and we would all decide what things we liked about them, and wrote down all the elements on a dry erase board then try to tackle our songs with those things in mind. There were lots of songs, like twelve songs for each song that we were pulling ideas and inspiration from.

Lucius’ new album, Good Grief, follows up the band’s critically acclaimed 2013 debut album, Wildewoman.

Good Grief was written after being on the road for so long and experiencing a combination of emotions, what kind of ideas and themes did you focus on lyrically for this album?

We didn’t really; it was just kind of whatever came out. We had been on the road for so long and we were so busy that like we would have the radio shows in the morning, and then the load-up, and the setup, and the show, and then the next city. There wasn’t time or energy really to write so when we got off tour, we had journals and voice memos full of ideas and a lot of material to kind of put out on the table and look at. The sounds just came, it was a lot of built up feelings, emotions, and ideas.

When we sat down it was just experiences really; we didn’t think about it. We also didn’t think about what the record was going to be like as a whole and the kind of conceptual thing came after. We wrote the songs, and then until we had all of them it didn’t really reveal itself. It was a backwards way of doing, but that’s what happened.

Why did you choose “Born Again Teen” as your first single for the album? Or was this perhaps more of a label decision?

It was mutual, they pushed for it but initially we didn’t even consider that it would even be an option; we almost didn’t even put it on the record. It ended up being that way because it was sort of the “rebel” on the record and it didn’t sound like the other tracks and it was loud. In the end, it was pushing its way to the front so we thought we’ll just go with it, and we did.

What was it like to perform on Ellen? 

It was great, she was very enthusiastic. She stayed for our whole soundcheck and was very kind to us, we had a great time. I got a mug and everything, it was great.

Your style is very influenced by the ’60s, what is it about that era that you guys love?

A lot of things. It was a bold era, the aesthetic was bold, the music was bold, and there was a lot of experimentation in all avenues so I think that is why it is striking for a lot of people. It was our parent’s generation and we grew up listening to music with them as kids and we feel salvaged even though it wasn’t our era. There are lot of things that are attractive about it but we try to do something that is current and modern as well, with a taste of those things because we love it so much.

All members are from such different places; does this make it difficult in terms of practicing, recording and bonding as a band?

We all came from very different parts of the country; Jess is from California, I’m from Ohio, Dan is from Texas, Pete’s from New Hampshire. We all got together and lived in Brooklyn for a very long time, it was only until this year that we are sort of bi-coastal. So, Jess and Me and Dan are living in L.A and our other two are in New York. It works out fine because when we are recording well together and if we go on tour we get together about a week or two before-hand and rehearse, and they just stay in L.A. Then when we go on the road, were obviously all together.

You recently mentioned on Twitter how you managed to spill beer on a church floor on two separate occasions this week, how did that happen?

Well the first one was Andy, and the second one was me. It just happened. There is churches and chapels that are used as venues and everything you could ever imagine has become a venue at South by Southwest. So you know you have your beverages in there and you’re seeing a show, and honestly it was just clumsiness in both situations.

Lucius performs at The Opera House in Toronto on March 26. Buy tickets here.