Lucy Schwartz interview

When you were young, when did you first start singing, when did you find your way to a musical instrument?

We had a piano in the house and still do, and I guess when I was little I would always sort of creep up to it and start fiddling around on it. Then I told my parents I wanted to learn how to play it. I started to learn and I was sort of frustrated with reading things because that didn’t come naturally to me, and I actually almost quit. But then we found this other great piano teacher who’s still my piano teacher now, and she really encouraged me to write. That’s when I started to love the piano. I wrote instrumental pieces when I was little. Actually I won this national contest when I was in fourth grade, and it was exciting but very scary for me because I had to play in front of I think three thousand people. They were all PTA moms, which is a nice crowd (laughs).

You made your first album when you were in high school?

Yeah, I wrote the songs at like fourteen or fifteen and I recorded it around sixteen. It’s funny to look back now cause it wasn’t that long ago, but when I listen to it I feel like I sound like a little girl. But I guess I was sort of a little girl. I recorded it in my house, we actually have a studio which is very convenient, as my dad is a composer for television.

At what point in your mind did the light bulb go on where you said “hey, I might do this as a career?”

I did make the album just for fun, and we put it out there on iTunes and MySpace, and things started happening. I had a song on TV and I was like “Hmm, maybe I can do this.” I did go to college for a semester but then it just seemed like I was always torn between the two and I didn’t have time to fully do one, and I just thought now’s the time to do music.

“Help Me! Help Me!” is the name of one of the songs, but was there any specific reason you also chose that for the name of the EP?

It just felt like that was the song that inspired the EP. I was done with the record, cause I have a full record that I already recorded with Mitchell Froom, and Mitchell Froom had started another project and I was still writing and I wrote this song and I just felt like “I really want to record this song” and so we decided to do the EP. And it just felt like, I remember when I was writing it, “Help me” is such a simple phrase, just two words, and it says a lot.

When do most of your musical ideas come to you?

Usually at the piano, which is good because if I was out and about and thinking of ideas, I just be like “got to get home, what am I doing here, I’ve got to write down this thing.” But luckily I just sit down at the piano and it starts with the music first, and if I come upon something that strikes me, then I’ll keep playing it over and over again. I feel bad for my parents cause I’m always playing the same three chords forever and I just sing nonsense things over it. And it’s funny because certain words just seem to appear and they feel right. And then it’s just sort of a puzzle figuring out what the story is and how it all fits together.

You’ve had so many of your songs appear on TV and movies. When I look at the list I’m guessing I’ve heard your songs before and didn’t know it was you. Is that a strange thing to have your music heard by millions of people and yet they don’t know your name and your face to go with it?

It is strange. It’s very cool. And I think it adds to the show or the movie. Music, for me, completes a scene because it gets the feeling and emotion to it.

Your dad is in your band?

He is. He plays the bass. My dad and his engineer have produced some of the tracks that I’ve done, and he’s also in the band.

You’re the singer, he’s just in the rhythm section. Are you the boss when you guys are working together?

Yeah (laughs).

You’ve said that when you to make a video for your songs, you’re very hands on, always in control. Do you find it tough to outsource things like that because you want to do all those things, or is it because you have to?

Both. I always have a very strong vision for music videos and photos. I’m very visual and I think the song sparks a sort of visual thing in my imagination, and so I like to be a part of it. But I’m also an independent artist, so there’s a lot of things that I have to take care of for myself. So I end up taping the props and making the puppets, but it’s fun. At the end you feel like you really created something.

When the time comes, could you see yourself signing with a major label, or not signing?

I’m open to both. There’s a lot of great things about being with a label, it’s certainly much easier in some respects, and there’s a lot of hands there to help you. But it’s also great if you can do it on your own. I think that artists like Ingrid Michaelson are very rare who have just done everything themselves and managed to be heard. But I think the more artists that can do it themselves, the better.

Help Me! Help Me! is available in iTunes.

About Bill Palmer

Bill Palmer is Editor in Chief of Beatweek Magazine. His editorial contributions include interviews with musicians and iPhone industry coverage.