Breaking out of the bubble gum machine of pop music and discovering just
what musical styles and material appeal to her, Lucy Woodward has crafted an amazing collection of songs on Hooked. Her CD will be released on the Verve label on June 15, and the CD contains several songs penned by her and a few standards that are near to her musical heart. The Rage Monthly spoke with Lucy about all this new territory, why the change in heart regarding her musical style and just how a broken heart can conjure up a brilliant song. Lucy Woodward covers a wide array of material from swing, retro-lounge, blues
and even a few bump and grind beats added in for good measure on a couple of songs. A majority of the songs are arranged by a noted name in music, Tony Visconti. Visconti is well known in the industry for his work with T. Rex and David Bowie. Woodward shares the experience of having him on hand for this record. “He’s amazing. Amazing! I can’t wait to do my next record with him. He has so much musical knowledge. At first, when the label hooked me up with him, I didn’t know if he would be the right match for me. He comes from such a Brit Rock kind of world…Bowie and T. Rex. So, we started talking and he came from Doo-Wop vocal groups, he played back-up bass for a lot of cabaret singers. And he’s a great singer. After five minutes of talking with him, it was like…he knows what he’s talk- ing about.” One standout track on Hooked is a song which Woodward wrote called “Purple
Heart.” Complimenting Lucy on her songwriting and her beautiful voice, I ask just where the emotional pull came from for her to write “Purple Heart.” The song is heartbreaking and full of lyrical metaphors. “It was so crazy. My friend, Michael Ripple, who I wrote it with, is an incredible guitar player. We met through American Idol world. We both worked with some people in that world. I just loved his playing so much that I knew I wanted to write with him. I didn’t know what kind of writer he was. He barely knew who I was…so we just sat in a room. We both had gone through a similar break-up. He was kind of in the middle of it right at that moment and I had gone through it earlier like a couple of years ago. But, I’d never written a song about letting someone go. I’d written a million songs about being broken up with. Letting go of someone who you know you love so much but it’s not going to work is just the hardest decision. I could just cry right now talking about it. It hangs over for a long time. So, as we were talking he said, ‘I have this title Purple Heart.’ I just saw the vision of purple being bruised but it’s a heart so it’s still trying to pump out something and keep alive. It just literally wrote itself. We wrote the song in like an hour.” Lucy Woodward has described herself as “coming into her own” with this record.
She elaborates on this, “I put out a record on Atlantic Records in 2003. I loved the whole experience and I loved my producer. I loved writing the songs for it and it was in a very different stage of my life. I was writing a lot of pop/rock songs and landed a record deal. But, I got really, really thrown into that pop machine and running around and singing to 12-year-old fans. They could buy records and they knew all the lyrics to your songs. I thought ‘Oh my God…I’m a blues singer and this doesn’t even feel right.’ This isn’t totally my audience. I felt they would almost appreciate anybody who was on stage. I didn’t feel a deep connection with the 12-year-olds (laughter)! A lot of labels are pumping out young pop artists. You know…. pack and seal and just ship them out. I fell into that. The record was done very fast. It was on the air very fast. I did Jay Leno. I toured the world. A lot of amazing things came out of it but it also died really fast. I was definitely ‘flavor of the month.’” The singer/songwriter has definitely stamped her individual style on the songs
presented on Hooked. “I felt coming from the last record in 2003 that I was buried. I have a lot of colors in my voice but it was lost. I felt right at that time for doing it and then I grew into my own. I wanted less production and more vocals on [Hooked]. Those are the kinds of records that I listen to. Why don’t I want to make that kind of record? The Verve label is perfect. The people that they sign…I’m amongst such incredible artists and I’m proud to have people like Nellie McKay and Melody Gardot, who are all my label mates. I feel I just fit right in.”
JUNE 2010 | RAGE monthly 23
“A lot of labels are pumping out young pop artists. You
know…. pack and seal and just ship them out. I fell into that. The record was done very fast. It was on the air very fast. I did Jay Leno. I toured the world. A lot of amazing things came out of it but…it also died really fast.”
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