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Emerging Headliner E50: Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys: Pale Bloom

·32 min·3 clips
At 16, Lucy Kruger discovered Joni Mitchell's Blue and realized she could use singing to express her own sticky, hard-to-articulate feelings.
The episode is an interview with Lucy Kruger, a South African-born, Berlin-based musician fronting the art pop noise project Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys. Host and guest discuss her relocation to Berlin in 2018, which allowed her to become a full-time musician due to better funding structures and the possibility of side jobs compared to South Africa. Lucy recounts her early musical influences, notably her brother's partner introducing her to Joni Mitchell's album 'Blue' at age 16, which was a revelation for using music to explore personal feelings. She studied theatre at university in Grahamstown (formerly Wakanda) and later moved to Cape Town, where she formed the initial Lost Boys by asking a family friend's son to join her band. After moving to Berlin, she had to find new band members through what she calls 'musical dating'. The episode delves into logistical reasons for choosing Berlin over the UK, citing visa difficulties for South African passport holders. Lucy talks about opportunities like the Europavox Spotlight Prize, which selected her without an application and led to festival performances in places like Zagreb, Croatia. She also runs a Patreon page started during COVID, which provides income and a grounded connection with fans. The conversation focuses on her upcoming album 'Pale Bloom', with singles like 'Reaching', 'Anchor', and 'Damp'. Lucy explains her songwriting shift from guitar-based sketches to starting with simple computer beats in Logic, aiming for minimalism. She describes the album's recording as a layered process, working with band members separately. The live experience is highlighted, with plans for a UK tour in March featuring the full band, including viola. Lucy expresses excitement about performing the new songs live and shares a recent live session of 'Ambient Heat' on YouTube as an introduction for new listeners.

As heard by us

A grounded episode on Berlin, Patreon, and the practical work of keeping music alive.

Berlin supplies the episode's central pressure. Lucy reflects on moving from South Africa in 2018 and on a city where artistic possibility now sits beside rising rents, while the conversation opens out to the narrower funding routes available to artists in South Africa.

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Why you'd press play

You want to hear what keeps Lucy writing when streaming changes the income puzzle and touring crowds her time.

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