Learn all about them…

You’ve just released your new album ‘Gravity’ – what has the writing process been like? 

Angela: We write songs pretty much all the time and have done so since almost literally the first day we met. On ‘Gravity’, there are songs that we had from some years back and some that were written just before going into the studio.

We write songs in the following two ways: either I have an idea for a text that I then hand to Sylvain who puts it to music or Sylvain gives me the music, usually with a melody, and I take that as my inspiration for writing the lyrics.

What have you learnt from writing the album? 

Angela: Even though all our songs are composed and arranged by Sylvain who then demos all of them on an old 24 track table, songs evolve in rehearsing and also once in the studio. We already knew this but that is yet another reason why the studio team has to be great (as they are thankfully). In the studio you have songs that become more interesting others less so, which is why we record more than we actually put on the album.

What were your main inspirations? 

Sylvain: composing a song is something I do naturally, there are no preconceived notions or a list of criteria to follow. I just let the guitar and my imagination loose to see where they take me.

Angela: If the music comes first then it is Sylvain’s music that inspires me but in terms of subject matter, anything goes. I like to take small details as a start and go to bigger ideas but a feeling, an image or even a word (as in “Gravity”) or a dream can be a departure point for a song.

Tell us three random facts about LUX The Band… 

1. Up until now (and we hope not to change) we have done all of our recordings on tape – 100% analog with the base tracks of the rythm section all recorded “live” as on this album. 
2. The first cover song that we ever sang together was Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done” (Sylvain’s a big Neil Young fan)
3. As mentioned, Angela is American, born and raised in New York but her father was English – a Londoner.

What do you have planned for 2023? 

The first big thing will be the release concert in Paris at Café de la Danse on 17 March. We are thrilled to play in this very cool venue. We hope it will serve to help us book other gigs as Covid set us back a bit and we have not yet toured as much as we would like.

Image credit: Johnny Walker