Lucy Dacus, singer of Boygenius: ‘Nowadays, songs about love are only ironic or sassy. As if being honest feels too naked. Dom, right? « 

She is ashamed in advance, when Lucy Dacus (Virginia, 1995) imagines what it is like to have to read the lyrics of her new album aloud. She puts the cutlery down, looks shocked at her Eggs Benedict and seems to want to disappear in the huge bank in the Amsterdam hotel suite. Long a hurled discomfort her with about the most obvious what is for a singer: writing songs about love. And that while she is already open her very successful career about topics that are uncomfortable for others. Her solo albums are always overloaded with good criticism and with her occasional group Boygenius she overwhelmed the pop world a few years ago, she stood kissing with bandmates on huge stages, won several Grammy’s and never took a political magazine. But sing about romance? No, no. That was a bridge too far.

Dacus does a handful of small shows before her record Forever is a feeling comes out. Good to get the new songs in, to beat the hype for a larger Tour this summer and to speak some press. At the beginning of March she was in the Amsterdam Vondelkerk, for which a small group of fans could get tickets through a lottery. Well chosen that location, because she sang on her previous album about growing up as a bisexual girl in a Christian environment. But also because she sees an art -historical thread in her new album and the Vondelkerk was designed by Pierre Cuypers, a few years before he designed the Rijksmuseum.

« The song » Modigliani « is named after one of my favorite artists, » explains Dacus. The album cover is adorned by a portrait in oil paint. In the video of the first single she plays a character that escapes from a painting. But more importantly, she finds how the ambiance of museums determines her new work. « I write a lot in museums. Because of the atmosphere there, my own pace goes down. I can hum myself quietly in myself. And I always find inspiration. » In paintings, novels, always search for new ideas. Also in conversations. When the interview is about a book that establishes a relationship between the concept of romantic love and the rise of book printing, she seems to leave the new album for what it is and to dive deeper into different definitions and forms of love. But every time Dacus comes to herself again, as if she has realized just in time that she drives away from the most important topic.

The problem of irony

« Honesty is a muscle that you can train, » Dacus thinks about why she has made an unmistakably romantic album. She also takes that quite literally outside of her music. In interviews, for example, she spoke open about how she gave home from a negative view about abortion. That went so far that her mother wanted to send her to Klinieken’s waiting room with a protest board. As an adopted child, the very young Dacus would have a lot of impact there was the idea behind it. She does not revolve around the shame over her old views, nowadays uses her stage to raise attention and money for pro choise Organizations.

Even when it comes to love, Dacus thinks she should show that honesty. Because she hears it so little around, in today’s music. « Look at a singer like Whitney Houston, who sang with a big open heart. In recent years everything seems to have to be ironic. Or sassy. As if being honestly feels too naked. Apparently the fear of the inconvenience is so great that people don’t even dare to say they love each other anymore. » She drops a silence for a moment, sitting down a bit with both hands under her legs. « So stupid, right? »

I would prefer everyone to sing everything along and then forget me totally

That honesty also ensures that Dacus regularly discovers how she thinks about something after writing a new song. « Sometimes I write something that suddenly has to adjust my life. Do I really think this? Take ‘Limerence’. That rule is in it: ‘I want what we have. A Beautiful Life. But the stillness. The Stillness Might Eat Me Alive.  » Daaaaang, I thought when I laughed it back. Do I really think this? I had a wonderful life, but it couldn’t be mine. From that moment I started to end my relationship at the time. « 

The album approaches love from quite a few perspectives. It is still between rock and folk, but there are now lush strings and much more detailed arrangements than in its earlier work. And much more important than the break-ups or the deep love for girlfriend and Boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers who sings them, is the love for that other bandmate: the whole album sounds crumbs about a relationship with Julien Baker, something that has long been rumors about. Although, as always in the world of fans, the border between rumor and wish thinking is thin.

Honesty as a weapon

On the painfully beautiful opening number ‘Big Deal’, Dacus sings how she presented herself as a guest at the wedding of an unattainable love, read Baker. She would not imagine herself at the altar, but Baker Great Get the very best. Where and unbelievable at the same time. But more slowly seeps through. In the last minutes of the album, the blanket is completely pulled away in ‘Most Wanted Man’. It is about mosquito bites on thighs, a sexual nod to watermelon dripping from a chin, how it is difficult to imagine that she has finally managed to catch the most wanted person in the whole of Tennessee. Yes, Julien comes from Tennessee, says Dacus in Amsterdam, clearly training her honesty muscle and keeps her face in the fold. « That song is about her. Like many other new songs. »

Dacus’ honesty is also a weapon against fans and media who always want to speculate. She still has to get used to how she has suddenly become a fame with the incredible success with Boygenius. « I would prefer that tonight at the concert everyone will sing along, wildly enthusiastic. And if the audience walks out after the concert, everyone totally forgets me, » Lucy Dacus sighs. The unblocked fans who have been open for the Vondelkerk for a long time before the doors are open later that evening, are silent if necessary, wildly enthusiastic if possible. But they certainly did not forget Dacus when they leave the church.

The album Forever is a feeling will be released on March 28. On June 14 she plays at the Best Kept Secret Festival, on 16 and 17 June she will play in Paradiso.

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