With a background in musical theatre, the feisty young popstar, Lucy Roberts, wants to soundtrack the formative years of future generations like the multitude of iconic singers that came before her.
Exposed sat down with Lucy to talk about her future in music and her upcoming musical release, ‘Red Flag’. Alongside her day job, Lucy has been chipping away at building up a discography of heartwrenching breakup tracks and summer bangers.
“I was always a very dramatic kid,” said Lucy, “There are so many videos of me and my brother just dancing around when I was five. I was always singing. Then I started doing musical theatre when I was around eight and I nearly went on to drama school. So that’s where a lot of my musicality came from.”
From her days of musical theatre to playing the piano, Lucy’s love for music also comes from constantly being surrounded by it. She said, “I just think it’s all around you. When you watch TV or play a video game, there’s a score behind it. I think that mixed with my experience in musical theatre makes music a very emotional thing for me.”
When talking about what inspired her own music, Lucy was quick to name many of pop’s breakthrough artists. “Maise Peters is a big one,” she said, “I’ve been listening to her music since 2017 and I think it was her first album I found on Spotify Discover Weekly. I listened to her and I was like oh this is great. This hurts me to listen to because it’s so beautiful. She can do so much, she’s got range and that’s so inspiring to me.
“In a way, everything I am unable to put into words goes into my music.” Credit: Daniel Duggan
“I’ve also loved Caity Baser since she got popular in lockdown. I recently went to her gig and her stage presence is insane. I sit and listen to her about ten times a day. Her vocals and lyricism are genuine art.” Just like Caity, Lucy’s energetic personality is so infectious that you can’t help but instantly warm to her, a quality that will take her far in an industry based around human connection.
“And I’ve always loved Sam Fender,” she added, “I think he’s fantastic. You know, he’s really northern and from a working-class background. He’s got so much grit to his music and the way he creates sounds. I’ve tried to replicate it in the studio and it’s really hard!”
Her first single, ‘You Broke Me First’, was released at the end of March but has been years in the making. The song had been written three years prior, after going through a breakup. Watching her ex quickly move on while she was still in love with him, added petrol to the songwriter’s fire.
She said: “In a way, everything I am unable to put into words goes into my music. I only have ‘You Broke Me First’ out now, but I have a million unreleased tracks in my little repertoire. Some are unfinished, some are ready to go. But everything is done for a reason. It’s not just mindless words on a page, I’m really trying to get a story or a narrative and I do like to think I do it in a personal way.”
“I would love to think that someone took my song and thought ‘that defined a part of my life’, which I know sounds really dramatic, but artists have done that for me”
The track was first played on BBC Radio Sheffield a few months before it was released to the public, which Lucy says was a surreal moment. “It was really scary and then I heard it on the radio. When it played, it was the awful rough-cut version before I actually finalised it,” Lucy continued, “Me and my best friend were in my room because we were getting ready to go out. It wasn’t exactly the vibe for a Saturday night but we still had the radio station anyway. I just felt like I was holding my breath the whole time.”
When asked about what she wants to achieve with her musical, Lucy talked about being the soundtrack to teenagers’ lives. As she grew up listening to Sam Fender and Taylor Swift, she now wants to be the artist that young people scream to in the car to get them through a tough day.
“In the age of social media, it’s so hard to find a genuine connection to things. That’s why it’s so important to have those artists literally soundtrack your life,” she said, “I would love to think that someone took my song and thought ‘that defined a part of my life’, which I know sounds really dramatic, but artists have done that for me.”
Like every good musician, Lucy’s first gigs have been in pubs and bars around her hometown, Doncaster. But her most memorable gig so far took place in the French Alps, when Lucy was working as a ski rep. The lead singer of the resort’s band, 29 Fingers, had fallen sick leading to an almost disastrous performance.
Lucy said, “They won’t mind me saying this but they were quite bad. They were singing female soprano songs and they were all bass men. My manager storms up to the stage and goes please let her sing! I was in my ski stuff and I’d had quite a few beers at that point. I don’t think they expected that I could actually sing so they were very shocked. I’d never seen the bar so busy. We were jumping into the crowd and climbing on things. It was so much fun!”
In terms of what’s next for the young performer, the artist teased a new track coming out just in time for summer called ‘Red Flag’, which will be a complete change from ‘You Broke Me First’.
“I would love to think it is like a shout in the car, sunny day, windows down kind of song.” Credit: Daniel Duggan
She said, “I love ‘You Broke Me First’, I’m very proud of it as my first official song, but ‘Red Flag’ is a different level for me. I would love to think it is like a shout in the car, sunny day, windows down kind of song. It’s a girl anthem because again, it has really personal lyrics but I’d like to think that anyone can relate to it.”
Lucy’s second single ‘Red Flag’ will be released on 1 June. You can keep up to date with Lucy Roberts by following her social media: Instagram
