Brooklyn quintet Lucius are set to release their new single Tempest on August 25, just a day after their appearance at Reading Festival.

Here Pete Lalish from the band speaks about their busy year.

 

Have you seen Lucius soar in popularity this year, releasing your debut album Wildewoman, touring the UK and Europe – plus appearing on ‘Later with Jools Holland’?

There almost hasn't been a break this year to stop and reflect. But it's felt great. We are all very fortunate to receive the response we have been getting - we are just happy to music together and travel and meet new people along the way in new places. Couldn't ask for a better job!

Has it taken a long time to get there? How does it feel?

We released an EP almost three years ago. We immmedietly started touring, booking our own shows at first and then working with more and more people along the way. So it feels like we have been on the road almost non-stop for almost 2 years. Again , we love to play music for a (modest) living. It feels good to push yourself and to work hard at something you love.

What advice would you give to a band starting out?

Play a lot of shows. Trust yourself. Listen to others (occasionally). Give your audience something unique at each show. Keep the van clean because eventually it becomes your home. Keep your mind busy in the van, eventually it will start feeling like jail. Support your music community. Bless your whole crew.

You’re playing Reading Festival in August. What do you have planned for your fans?

We try to do something unique at every show. Maybe it's a new cover or trying a song stripped way down or bring the music into the audience, to be as close to them as possible. Sometimes it can be hard to so that on larger festival stages, we are trying to work out the logistics that go into homemade pyrotechnics.

Have you been to Reading Festival before?

Nope!

What are you most looking forward to about playing there?

It's always fun to be thrown in front of an audience you have never met before and one that might have never heard you. All you can do as a band is put on your best show and hope that at least one person walks away from the show having experienced something they will remember for a long time.

What has been your greatest gig so far, and why?

There have been many many memorable shows this year. We got a chance to at the Newport folk festival this year. Newport has such a incredible legacy in the history of folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass, rock and roll as well as many important moments in America's civil rights movement. Mavis Staples has been a person who's been very celebrated every year at the festival. She joined us onstage this year and sang on one of our songs. Everyone was all tears and smiles. She's an incredible woman, so full of life and love and it is channeled so powerfully into her voice and her music.

How would you describe your sound?

Like a two headed banshee taking a drum solo backed up by a punk band that writes love songs and or make out jams. We have no idea how to describe ourselves. We love catchy music. We also love loud, bombastic music, we also love old soul music as well as make out jams. It's more fun to ask outsiders what they think we sound like.

Where would you like to be this time next year?

It feels strange to say, but basically exactly where we are now, travelling, making music with ourselves and other friends that we love, meeting new musicians who are doing the same and meeting a new audience everyday. We can't wait to revisit a lot of the places we have already been to this year, with a new record in hand. It will be interesting to see how this band has grown since the last time we were there. It's very easy to lose track of time when you are touring. Sometimes the only reminders that time has actually passed, other than the change of the seasons or the occasional oil change are when you go back to a town you were in and you see all new faces in the audience and how music is like planting a seed, you spread it out and then come back and see how it has grown. That's the gift that the audience gives back to us and what keeps us going.

http://www.ilovelucius.com/