Lucy describes her genre of music as being part of; folk, rock, acoustic and alternative. One of her main influences is daydreaming: a visionary fantasy experienced while awake, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes, or ambitions.
Her eight favourite artists whom she is both influenced and quite similar to are; Laura Marling, Florence and The Machine, Noah and The Whale, Thom Stone, Jose Vanders, Regina Spektor, Johnny Flynn and Slow Club.
Laura Marling:
Laura Beatrice Marling (born 1 February 1990), is a folk-pop singer-songwriter from Hampshire, England. Marling has toured with a number of well-known indie artists in the UK including Adam Green and Jamie T.
She performed at the 2007 O2 Wireless Festival and also performed at the first Underage Festival in August 2007 in London. Her debut single came out on WayOutWest Records, with subsequent singles out on Virgin Records. She appeared on "The Rakes" track "Suspicious Eyes", from the band's second album "Ten New Messages" and "Mystery Jets" single "Young Love" released 10 March, 2008. Until May 2008 she was a member of indie band "Noah and the Whale", and performs on their recently released debut album "Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down" from which the current hit "5 Years Time" is taken. Charlie Fink, lead singer of Noah and the Whale, produced Marling's debut album "Alas, I Cannot Swim" which was released on 4 February 2008.The album was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize.
Florence and The Machine
Noah and The Whale
Noah and the Whale are a folk rock band from Twickenham, England formed in 2006.The band consists of Charlie Fink (vocals, guitar), Doug Fink (drums), Tom Hobden (fiddle), and Matt Urby (bass), and after a handful of singles, have released their first album, "Peaceful The World Lays Me Down" in August 2008.
"Laura Marling" and "Emmy The Great" were members of the band before going solo, although they both continue to perform with the band occasionally with Marling recently splitting her time between her solo work and Noah and the Whale.
They have been compared to The Magic Numbers, The Little Ones, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Postal Service, and Belle & Sebastian.The band cite both punk rock and folk as influences.
Their name is a marriage of the title of one of the band's favourite films, The Squid and the Whale, and the director of said film's name (Noah Baumbach). The band have made several appearances at festivals including Leeds, Latitude, SXSW,V Festival and Glastonbury.They also plan on playing a mini US tour, most likely around their Lollapalooza performance, though the dates have not been officially announced.
In May 2008, the group's side-project, "The A Sides" performed a one-off show at The Push Club. The bands' debut album; "Peaceful, the World Lays me Down" was released on August 11th and has received a mainly positive critical response.
Thom Stone
Jose Vanders
Regina Spektor
Regina Spektor (born February 18, 1980) is a Soviet-born Jewish-American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered on New York City's East Village. She was influenced by music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues.
Spektor has said that she has created 700 songs but that she rarely writes any of them down. She has also stated that she never aspired to write songs herself, but songs seem to just flow to her. Spektor's songs are not usually autobiographical, but rather are based on scenarios and characters drawn from her imagination. Spektor's musical style has drawn many comparisons to fellow singer-pianists Tori Amos and Fiona Apple as well as the vocal stylings of Björk. Spektor has said that she works hard to ensure that each of her songs has its own musical style, rather than trying to develop a distinctive style for her music as a whole.
Spektor possesses a broad vocal range and uses the full extent of it. She also explores a variety of different and somewhat unorthodox vocal techniques, such as verses composed entirely of buzzing noises made with the lips and beatbox-style flourishes in the middle of ballads, and also makes use of such unusual musical techniques as using a drum stick to tap rhythms on the body of the piano or chair. Part of her style also results from the exaggeration of certain aspects of vocalization, most notably the glottal stop, which is prominent in the single "Fidelity". She also uses a strong New York accent on some words, which she has said is due to her love of New York and its culture.
Her lyrics are equally eclectic, often taking the form of abstract narratives or first-person character studies, similar to short stories or vignettes put to song. Spektor usually sings in English, though she sometimes includes a few words or verses of Latin, Russian, French, and other languages in her songs. Some of Spektor's lyrics include literary allusions such as to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in "Poor Little Rich Boy", The Little Prince in "Baobabs", Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood in "Paris", Ezra Pound and William Shakespeare in "Pound of Flesh", Boris Pasternak in "Après Moi", Samson and Delilah in "Samson", and Oedipus the King in "Oedipus", and Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome in "2.99 cent blues". She also used a line from Joni Mitchell's California in her song "The Devil Came to Bethlehem". Recurring themes and topics in Spektor's lyrics include love, death, religion (particularly Biblical and Jewish references), city life (particularly New York references), and certain key phrases have been known to recur in different songs by Spektor, such as references to gravediggers, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the name "Mary Ann". Spektor's use of satire is evident in "Wasteside," which refers to the classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov The Twelve Chairs, and describes the town in which people are born, get their hair cut, and then are sent to the cemetery.
In Spektor's early albums, many of her tracks had a very dry vocal production, with very little reverb or delay added. However, Spektor's more recent albums, particularly Begin to Hope, have put more emphasis into song production and have relied more on traditional pop and rock instruments. Spektor says the records that most impact her are those of "bands whose music is really involved", specifically naming The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Radiohead, Tom Waits, and Frédéric Chopin as primary influences.
Johnny Flynn
Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit are a band signed to Lost Highway. They are fronted by Johnny Flynn, a 25-year old actor, poet and songwriter who cites W.B. Yeats and Shakespeare among his influences. He is a member of the propeller theatre troupe, acting in several plays including Twelfth Night. Band members of 'The Sussex Wit' include Matt Edmonds, Adam Beach, Joe Zeitlin, Lillie Flynn and Johnny Flynn.
Slow Club
Sunday 2 November 2008
Initial Ideas
We have decided to create a music video for a fellow student and friend from school: Lucy Holliday. Lucy is 16 and studying for her A-levels in; Music technology, English, Sociology and Business Studies.
Here are some photos of Lucy performing at some gigs:
We are still in the process of choosing one of her songs as there are many of them. One of my favourites is "Music Man", below are the lyrics and a video on her myspace site of her performing the song:
Music Man Lyrics:
music man, wont you give me your tambourine,
id like to play it ever so loudly,
and as we skip across the road hand in hand our soles get broken
and as the rain falls soon our socks are soaken,
and music man
wont you play your melody as softly as you can
music man can you remember the time that we first met
the music was so loud but you were the only thing that was in my head
and everybody jumped up and down but i still kept your eyes in sight
and knew from that day that you were the one that i wanted in my life.
and music man
wont you play your melody as softly as you can
for music man i think im falling again for you
and music man, i think i love you.
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