You are the Water Lilies: An Interview with Lucy DK
“If you are afraid to write it, that’s a good sign. I suppose you know when you’re writing the truth when you’re terrified.” - Yrsa Daley-WardLucy DK has never second guessed anything about her music career. It was never a decision to pick up a guitar and start writing music, and it was certainly never a decision to write about the most personal aspects of her life.
She started her journey playing pubs in her hometown of Leicester before making her way to the States for university. While earning her degree in politics and English, she got involved in different genres of music. It was when she began working with musicians in the rap and R&B genres that her sound really developed.
“For me it was a way of exploring myself, like processing experiences and traumas and all kinds of things,” she said. “It was more of a diary-type exploit at first and now it’s really exciting for me to be doing music the way I am because I feel like it's becoming more of a craft.”
When she first started playing live shows, her songs were her chance to share her feelings with her first supporters - her family and friends. It became her way of communication and properly expressing her innermost thoughts.
“I think that continues until now, and I think music for me has been a way of becoming braver and also being more confident,” she said. “It's always been the one place where I wasn’t shy and didn't have to have that filter.”
Her first full-length, Waterlilies, encapsulates her college years and while it was originally meant as an exposé on past relationships, turned into a sense of self-worth.
The turning point happened during a conversation with her sister where a recent relationship turned out just like the rest, but instead of a quick text reply, her sister responded with a poem. The first line reads: You are the Water Lilies, they were beautiful before Monet painted them. It was a real ‘eureka’ moment for her because it helped her understand that no one can create or define beauty for someone. It already exists.
That line of the poem soon became her mantra, and that poem turned into the title track of the album.The rest of the songs help tell her story of not knowing who she was through the journey of finding who she was always meant to be.
Waterlilies shares stories of Lucy DK’s four defining years as a college student, which she now holds as a time capsule as she creates a new story after recently moving to New York. New songs will be written, new journeys will be had; but Lucy DK will continue to never second guess it all.
“For me it was a way of exploring myself, like processing experiences and traumas and all kinds of things,” she said. “It was more of a diary-type exploit at first and now it’s really exciting for me to be doing music the way I am because I feel like it's becoming more of a craft.”
When she first started playing live shows, her songs were her chance to share her feelings with her first supporters - her family and friends. It became her way of communication and properly expressing her innermost thoughts.
“I think that continues until now, and I think music for me has been a way of becoming braver and also being more confident,” she said. “It's always been the one place where I wasn’t shy and didn't have to have that filter.”
Her first full-length, Waterlilies, encapsulates her college years and while it was originally meant as an exposé on past relationships, turned into a sense of self-worth.
The turning point happened during a conversation with her sister where a recent relationship turned out just like the rest, but instead of a quick text reply, her sister responded with a poem. The first line reads: You are the Water Lilies, they were beautiful before Monet painted them. It was a real ‘eureka’ moment for her because it helped her understand that no one can create or define beauty for someone. It already exists.
That line of the poem soon became her mantra, and that poem turned into the title track of the album.The rest of the songs help tell her story of not knowing who she was through the journey of finding who she was always meant to be.
Waterlilies shares stories of Lucy DK’s four defining years as a college student, which she now holds as a time capsule as she creates a new story after recently moving to New York. New songs will be written, new journeys will be had; but Lucy DK will continue to never second guess it all.
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