Lucy and the Night Sky are a special kind of band that will captivate you from the first listen, with their lush music matched to the original songs of classical pianist and singer, Lucy O’Grady. Despite having formed as recently as December last year, the band have already released an album called The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me, of which they are officially launching with their very own tour.
“It’s exciting but scary,” front-woman Lucy admits. “I’m really looking forward to just trying to see if we can build new audiences. There’s only so long you can rely on the good will of your family and your friends,” she laughs.
Previously creating solely at her grand piano, Lucy moved from a singer-songwriter to Lucy and The Night Sky when Surf Coast’s all-male instrumental band Moonah were seeking the fresh vocal prowess of her voice as an additional instrument.
“I’ve been writing songs all my life and they just sort of stay on the piano and don’t really go anywhere, so I just felt like now is the time if I’m ever going to do something,” she explains. “I asked the instrumental band if they would do my songs as a side project, and they were all very happy and excited to do that.”
Joined by Lucy’s back-up girls, the dedicated musicians paint a dense backdrop onto which Lucy weaves her voice of many colours and adds an undertow of classical piano.
“It’s been amazing,” Lucy smiles, “to have nine people in a group who are really enthusiastic at this point; everyone’s up to everything, coming to rehearsals weekly and it’s a really lovely group and it’s really amazing to have a band rather than just me lonely at the piano doing my own thing,” she laughs, as she explains how the band has come to bounce ideas off each other more and more. “I was originally just sending songs, putting them on garage band, but as we’ve gone on and on, they’re contributing too, especially Mark the guitarist, he is writing riffs and grooves, and I’m writing to that.”
Representing a beautiful blend of masculine and feminine, hope and despair, fun and seriousness, Lucy and The Night Sky is completely dedicated to their craft, as they continue to fuse a variety of genres including folk, rock, Celtic, classical, blues and funk.
“I never intended for it to go this far,” the pianist and singer-songwriter extraordinaire admits, after pitching the idea to record in the hope of securing future gigs.
“The recording process was amazing, and the musicians didn’t really know their parts yet but somehow in the recording studio they just nailed these amazing parts, and we were left with these 11 tracks that were actually really well recorded, then we thought what the hell do we do next.”
It was here that an album tour was in sight. Official launching at Geelong’s beautiful Courthouse Theatre this month, the evening promises to be a collective ecstatic experience through music with a supporting performance by local, award winning singer-songwriter, Tim Hulsman, who has also been Lucy’s guiding hand to the music industry.
“It’s a really lovely feeling having your mentor supporting you,” Lucy explains. “It’s just been a really lovely flow of generosity and momentum and creativity and we will just keep riding the wave until there is no more wave.”
When & Where: Geelong Courthouse Theatre – Saturday October 21
Written by Talia Rinaldo
Image sourced via Lucy and The Night Sky socials
