Let There Be Light: Hot Press meets Lucius

Much has been made of the aesthetic choices of Lucius’ central partnership of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. Namely, the fact they both dress identically almost everywhere they go, with a penchant for that ‘60s girl group look. It’s no surprise, then, that Hot Press finds Ms Laessig in a Brooklyn salon. “Me and Jessica are getting our hair done,” says the singer. “My hair is currently covered in foil. I look like something from outer space!”

It’s very much a case of multi-tasking for the two, who are preparing for their first European campaign as their eclectic, arresting debut Wildewoman gets a release on this side of the Atlantic.

“We only have a couple of days before we’re on the road again,” Laessig explains. “We just came back from SXSW. With the band as it is now, this was our second year. Jess and I have been there for the past five years. It’s always crazy and great. We're still recovering. Our favourite thing this year was playing Willie Nelson’s ranch. It was a bummer because we had to leave to get to another gig right as he was going on, so we didn’t see him!”

You would assume Willie Nelson’s ranch is predominantly used for cultivating a certain crop...

“It was part of a movie that he was in actually. They went into the desert and built this movie set. After the movie was done they were gonna destroy it and he was like, ‘No way, I love it, I’ll buy it from you!’ So it’s covered in all these three-sided ‘buildings’. It’s really quirky but really fun to play, there was a good vibe. And I’m sure there was pot somewhere!”

When they’re not on the road, or hanging out on Willie Nelson’s ranch, Lucius call Brooklyn home. Wolfe and Laessig initially met while attending the Berklee College Of Music in Boston, where they bonded over The Beatles’ White Album and soon started writing together. When they arrived in New York, a move to a former recording studio-come-Victorian mansion in Ditmas Park, complete with a Steinway from the ‘20s, acted as a catalyst for what would finally become Lucius. Not that it was quite as grand as it sounds.

“We were there for two years with nine musicians, two kitchens and one-and-a-half bathrooms,” Laessig smiles. “So you do the math!”

That experience brought them closer together, as well as into contact with Dan Molad (now Wolfe’s husband), Peter Lalish and Andrew Burri.

“I think the growth of our relationship as people and songwriting partners has been going hand-in-hand. The more Jess and I wrote together, the more we learned about each other. We’re able to finish each other’s sentences now.”

Key to Lucius’ musical blueprint is their twin vocals which often sound indistinguishable, like one unique voice is singing rather than two.

“That’s at the core of everything. I also think that’s why we're able to experiment so much as far as arranging and stuff. Because that’s the one thing tying it all together, so the arrangements are able to be a little more eclectic and all over the place.”

Live, they’re all about lifting their crowd. Lyrically, their songs act almost like self-help speeches.

“It’s funny you say that about them being like ‘self-help’, that’s exactly what it is! When Jess and I get together to write, often times it starts out with a conversation, a girly one, you know: ‘There was this guy I was thinking about yesterday, this is what’s going on.' So we go through it. It’s therapeutic and it started out as a self-help thing: 'Let’s figure all of this out, and then give that out to the audience.’ There's melancholy sentiment there, but our show is uplifting and empowering. It’s a funny juxtaposition.”

Lucius play The Workman’s Club, Dublin on April 19