April 3, 2025 • 11 mins
From boygenius and beyond, Lucy Dacus just released a stellar album, FOREVER IS A FEELING. She joined Bret on Zoom to talk about Red Rocks and poker.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's the Brett Sanders Podcast time. How exciting My
guest this week incredible talent singer songwriter Lucy Dacas. You
might know her from the band Boy Genius, but her
new solo album, Forever is a Feeling, is excellent. How
do you, Lucy Dacas?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Howdy back? I love that, my dad says, howdy.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Before we move forward, I just want to talk about
something that happened a couple of summers ago at Red Rocks,
a band which you are, remember, Boy Genius, a wonderful band.
We took some listeners backstage. I cannot relate to you
my gratitude for the warmth of what the three of
you provided to our audience. Not only did you do
(00:42):
a sound check, you put on an entire show for
these people, and they were so grateful, And I think
it's just a testament to all of you and your
own artistry, but also just a real warmth and love
and kindness that I sensed with that project and those people,
and it definitely radiated to the people who were with me.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Wow, yeah, thank you. I felt that too from everyone,
So I'm glad that it came across in such a
short amount of time.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Red Rocks speaking up, you'll be there May twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh my gosh, yes, I never thought I would visit
Red Rocks. You know, it's like this, It's like maybe
the most iconic venue, and it just felt like one
something far away. Literally, just as a music lever, I
would see it at all my favorite bands like tour lineups.
(01:32):
And then I opened for Shaky Graves, who's a huge
influence to me, like early on in how I learned
how to play guitar, and then open for the National
and then playing with my genius and now playing my
own show. It's just like really unfathomable. I think I'm
going to have a really weird day when I'm there,
because I actually have dreams about Red Rocks where you
(01:56):
know how like tall the seeding is. I'll have dreams
that I, uh, I'm on stage at Red Rocks and
I forget everything, or like a band member is missing
and I just the whole crowd starts to fall in
on me, especially a nightmare. But I say this to
(02:16):
maybe illustrate that there's a place in my psyche for
Red Comes.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Listen, I've forgotten stuff on stage there all the time.
It's a very forgiving crowd Lucy.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, that's I'm not like too worried, But it is
funny that, like my brain is like when I'm having
a stress stream, it's because Red Rocks is so like,
It's stature and importance is so secure in my brain
that it's like, oh, what if you messed up here.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, the place loves you back. I also wanted to
mention that since your show is on May the twelve,
handful of days before that, that's a significant day for you.
You're reaching a significant milestone and you'll finally be able
to drink.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Twenty one but no running thirty, which I'm so excited
about because everyone in my life in their thirties say
that thirties are better than the twenties, and I think
I believe them, And I don't know. It just seems
like it's going to be a good time, and I
do feel like kind of the most at peace and
(03:16):
happy and excited that I have ever felt, so hoping
that's true.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Hey, we should probably talk about the album because that's
why we're here. Sure, apparently we could just talk all
day and just shoot the breeze. Does your dad saying
that shoot the breeze?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah? He does are You from the City?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Tell me about this album. Forever is a feeling. I
sense a lot of warmth and a lot of growth.
How did you find yourself writing this particular group of songs.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I was really inspired and I had a lot going
on in my life, and really through writing the songs,
I learned what I thought about some things. And I
had a friend, all right, I guess I'll say Katie Gavan,
who's playing the Red Rocks show. She's like, it kind
of sounds like I'm just hearing you think, and I'm like, yeah,
that's true. Like I'll write a line of something I think,
(04:07):
and then that line makes me have a next thought,
and I'm figuring out my own perspective while I'm writing.
I learned a lot. I think that I have a
better idea of love now. I think that I like
I'm owning my life a little bit more like it
(04:28):
feels like kind of a pivotal point in my life,
and I think that's why I care about it so much.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
In this song Ankles, which was the first single we
heard from the album, it's just such a fun, uninhibited song.
It's nice to hear you as an artist. It's nice
to hear anybody open up themselves like that in a
public sort of way. I don't know how literal it is,
but just as an expression of feeling, it is really terrific.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Thank you. Yeah, I mean it's fun.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Right, Yes, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
You gotta have fun even when you're frustrated. Some frustration
is fun.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I also was just watching this video for Best Guests,
which is also another excellent song from the album Forever
is a Feeling, And I do have to ask you, Lucy,
are there in real life, Lucy Dacas playing cards that
I can purchase, Yes, at the merchant good.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You think you're kidding, but we actually, I don't actually,
I don't know if we've put them out yet, but
I have a pack in my tote bag. It's really cute.
And also if you get one the King and the
Queen and the Jack to take a look, they're cute.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah. You're a card player, right.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I mean through my life, like I grew up
playing around me with my family and like all different
card games, and I really like poker, but I can
never find people to play with me. So I gotta
find my poker group somewhere.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Well, now that you're turning thirty, you'll be able to
hook up with more grizzled members of the civilization and
and you'll be able to take them all.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Down, Lucy Davis, I'll take them down on.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The album cover, the portrait, which is beautiful. By the way.
What's the name of the artist, Will Saint John.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He's an oil painter trained in the pre Raphaelite style,
and I just really like his work, and so I
found an excuse to work with him.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I don't remember where I saw this, but you said
that you wanted to be one of the fates, the
great Greek mythological fates, the three which fate are you?
Lucy Well?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I don't think that, uh, Philliope is a fate. But
when it comes to like this mythology, what are the
names of the three fates? Do they have? Like? Is
it not?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's it's funny you should ask because I wrote them
down good, okay, but please forgive my horrific pronunciations. Either
clotho or cloth oh okay? At tropos okay?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And lakisis lakisis lakisis. Maybe it's just the L but
I'm gonna pick that one and hope that I didn't
pick the nastiest of the three.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You actually picked, in my opinion, probably the most neutral
and probably most reasonable of the three.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
The middle, well, that sounds like me. I had a
friend but recently that was like, you got to stop
being so nonchalant. You're always like man, it depends. I've
al very read by that.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Going back to the songs on this album, Lucy, I
was talking with Justin Vernon from bonnie Vere a couple
of weeks ago, and this also applies to your work
and the work of your friends, your contemporaries. Instead of
just simple songs which are great, simple love songs which
are great, you do spend a lot of time examining
the human condition.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I think my motivations there may be different in songwriting
than I think a lot of people write songs because
they want to write a song, or because they want
to participate in you music, or they hear music and
they are inspired to make things like it, or they
hear music and they want to make things that are
really different. Whereas like I love music, but I'm not
making music to be a part of music. I really
(08:15):
am writing so that I can know how I feel,
and it is interesting, Like I am a private person.
In the least private place that I am is my music,
and that's the most public thing that I have. So
it's this weird mix up. But yeah, I mean I
love I love the new body there stuff that he did.
(08:38):
It's it's really interesting and like, I don't know, relieving
like it. It's I love music that you can listen
to and have a kind of like wash over you,
or you can like pay a lot of attention and
be really rewarded for that, and he's always really good
(08:59):
at that.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I just watched the video with you at Rollingstone dot
com and you divulged that you were not going to
watch Twin Peaks the Return.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And I haven't. I could. I watched the pilot and
I was like, I don't know if my I really
was so drawn in. No TV show ever affected me
the way Twin Peaks did, and I just couldn't. I really,
I didn't watch TV. I didn't own a TV for
the next ten years. So that's what we're dealing with.
(09:29):
I'm like kind of afraid to watch it.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I hope that you will reconsider because, first of all,
unfortunately David Lynch only had a finite amount of art
that he produced, but Also, if you love Twin Peaks,
this takes everything emotionally intellectually to a whole different level.
You got to watch the conclusion of Twin Peaks. It
(09:52):
really is really a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You're not the first, and I do I want to
watch it, but I I know that it's gonna like
get in my head really deeply, so I just haven't
made the jump.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Sometimes it's nice to be traumatized by art as opposed
to real life, though, don't you think you know?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That's why people are into horror movies, right, You have
control over it. You get to push play and see
something terrible instead of something terrible happening randomly to you.
There's probably more to it than that, but yeah, I
think you're probably onto something.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Not only that. I've always felt that good horror movies
are incredible exaggerations, outrageous exaggerations of how people treat each
other in real life every day.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah that's dark, but.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Probably, well, I hope I'm as dark as your dad.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I don't know what he's bright. He's a bright guy.
He came to Red Rocks when I opened for the Nationallygue.
Came on his birthday and I got you know, all
nine ten thousand people to sing Happy Birthday to him.
So there's a really happy memory. I don't think i'll
top that, honestly.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
That's beautiful. Forever is a Feeling is the new album
from Lucy Dacas. It's really nice to get the chance
to talk with you, and I would be remiss if
I didn't offer you the opportunity when you're in town
to come and play at KBCO. You probably know I
KBCO and we're big supporters of your work, so thank you.
I know you can't always do that, but I want
you to know the invitation is open and thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Thank you too. Yeah, whoever's on my team on this
call is hearing you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I'm glad you listen.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I'm Brett.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I'll see you next time. We call this the Brett
Sonders Podcast.
Hey, it's the Brett Sanders Podcast time. How exciting My
guest this week incredible talent singer songwriter Lucy Dacas. You
might know her from the band Boy Genius, but her
new solo album, Forever is a Feeling, is excellent. How
do you, Lucy Dacas?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Howdy back? I love that, my dad says, howdy.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Before we move forward, I just want to talk about
something that happened a couple of summers ago at Red Rocks,
a band which you are, remember, Boy Genius, a wonderful band.
We took some listeners backstage. I cannot relate to you
my gratitude for the warmth of what the three of
you provided to our audience. Not only did you do
(00:42):
a sound check, you put on an entire show for
these people, and they were so grateful, And I think
it's just a testament to all of you and your
own artistry, but also just a real warmth and love
and kindness that I sensed with that project and those people,
and it definitely radiated to the people who were with me.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Wow, yeah, thank you. I felt that too from everyone,
So I'm glad that it came across in such a
short amount of time.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Red Rocks speaking up, you'll be there May twelve.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh my gosh, yes, I never thought I would visit
Red Rocks. You know, it's like this, It's like maybe
the most iconic venue, and it just felt like one
something far away. Literally, just as a music lever, I
would see it at all my favorite bands like tour lineups.
(01:32):
And then I opened for Shaky Graves, who's a huge
influence to me, like early on in how I learned
how to play guitar, and then open for the National
and then playing with my genius and now playing my
own show. It's just like really unfathomable. I think I'm
going to have a really weird day when I'm there,
because I actually have dreams about Red Rocks where you
(01:56):
know how like tall the seeding is. I'll have dreams
that I, uh, I'm on stage at Red Rocks and
I forget everything, or like a band member is missing
and I just the whole crowd starts to fall in
on me, especially a nightmare. But I say this to
(02:16):
maybe illustrate that there's a place in my psyche for
Red Comes.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Listen, I've forgotten stuff on stage there all the time.
It's a very forgiving crowd Lucy.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, that's I'm not like too worried, But it is
funny that, like my brain is like when I'm having
a stress stream, it's because Red Rocks is so like,
It's stature and importance is so secure in my brain
that it's like, oh, what if you messed up here.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, the place loves you back. I also wanted to
mention that since your show is on May the twelve,
handful of days before that, that's a significant day for you.
You're reaching a significant milestone and you'll finally be able
to drink.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Twenty one but no running thirty, which I'm so excited
about because everyone in my life in their thirties say
that thirties are better than the twenties, and I think
I believe them, And I don't know. It just seems
like it's going to be a good time, and I
do feel like kind of the most at peace and
(03:16):
happy and excited that I have ever felt, so hoping
that's true.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Hey, we should probably talk about the album because that's
why we're here. Sure, apparently we could just talk all
day and just shoot the breeze. Does your dad saying
that shoot the breeze?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah? He does are You from the City?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Tell me about this album. Forever is a feeling. I
sense a lot of warmth and a lot of growth.
How did you find yourself writing this particular group of songs.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I was really inspired and I had a lot going
on in my life, and really through writing the songs,
I learned what I thought about some things. And I
had a friend, all right, I guess I'll say Katie Gavan,
who's playing the Red Rocks show. She's like, it kind
of sounds like I'm just hearing you think, and I'm like, yeah,
that's true. Like I'll write a line of something I think,
(04:07):
and then that line makes me have a next thought,
and I'm figuring out my own perspective while I'm writing.
I learned a lot. I think that I have a
better idea of love now. I think that I like
I'm owning my life a little bit more like it
(04:28):
feels like kind of a pivotal point in my life,
and I think that's why I care about it so much.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
In this song Ankles, which was the first single we
heard from the album, it's just such a fun, uninhibited song.
It's nice to hear you as an artist. It's nice
to hear anybody open up themselves like that in a
public sort of way. I don't know how literal it is,
but just as an expression of feeling, it is really terrific.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Thank you. Yeah, I mean it's fun.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Right, Yes, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
You gotta have fun even when you're frustrated. Some frustration
is fun.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I also was just watching this video for Best Guests,
which is also another excellent song from the album Forever
is a Feeling, And I do have to ask you, Lucy,
are there in real life, Lucy Dacas playing cards that
I can purchase, Yes, at the merchant good.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You think you're kidding, but we actually, I don't actually,
I don't know if we've put them out yet, but
I have a pack in my tote bag. It's really cute.
And also if you get one the King and the
Queen and the Jack to take a look, they're cute.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah. You're a card player, right.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I mean through my life, like I grew up
playing around me with my family and like all different
card games, and I really like poker, but I can
never find people to play with me. So I gotta
find my poker group somewhere.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Well, now that you're turning thirty, you'll be able to
hook up with more grizzled members of the civilization and
and you'll be able to take them all.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Down, Lucy Davis, I'll take them down on.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The album cover, the portrait, which is beautiful. By the way.
What's the name of the artist, Will Saint John.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He's an oil painter trained in the pre Raphaelite style,
and I just really like his work, and so I
found an excuse to work with him.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I don't remember where I saw this, but you said
that you wanted to be one of the fates, the
great Greek mythological fates, the three which fate are you?
Lucy Well?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I don't think that, uh, Philliope is a fate. But
when it comes to like this mythology, what are the
names of the three fates? Do they have? Like? Is
it not?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's it's funny you should ask because I wrote them
down good, okay, but please forgive my horrific pronunciations. Either
clotho or cloth oh okay? At tropos okay?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And lakisis lakisis lakisis. Maybe it's just the L but
I'm gonna pick that one and hope that I didn't
pick the nastiest of the three.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You actually picked, in my opinion, probably the most neutral
and probably most reasonable of the three.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
The middle, well, that sounds like me. I had a
friend but recently that was like, you got to stop
being so nonchalant. You're always like man, it depends. I've
al very read by that.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Going back to the songs on this album, Lucy, I
was talking with Justin Vernon from bonnie Vere a couple
of weeks ago, and this also applies to your work
and the work of your friends, your contemporaries. Instead of
just simple songs which are great, simple love songs which
are great, you do spend a lot of time examining
the human condition.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I think my motivations there may be different in songwriting
than I think a lot of people write songs because
they want to write a song, or because they want
to participate in you music, or they hear music and
they are inspired to make things like it, or they
hear music and they want to make things that are
really different. Whereas like I love music, but I'm not
making music to be a part of music. I really
(08:15):
am writing so that I can know how I feel,
and it is interesting, Like I am a private person.
In the least private place that I am is my music,
and that's the most public thing that I have. So
it's this weird mix up. But yeah, I mean I
love I love the new body there stuff that he did.
(08:38):
It's it's really interesting and like, I don't know, relieving
like it. It's I love music that you can listen
to and have a kind of like wash over you,
or you can like pay a lot of attention and
be really rewarded for that, and he's always really good
(08:59):
at that.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I just watched the video with you at Rollingstone dot
com and you divulged that you were not going to
watch Twin Peaks the Return.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And I haven't. I could. I watched the pilot and
I was like, I don't know if my I really
was so drawn in. No TV show ever affected me
the way Twin Peaks did, and I just couldn't. I really,
I didn't watch TV. I didn't own a TV for
the next ten years. So that's what we're dealing with.
(09:29):
I'm like kind of afraid to watch it.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I hope that you will reconsider because, first of all,
unfortunately David Lynch only had a finite amount of art
that he produced, but Also, if you love Twin Peaks,
this takes everything emotionally intellectually to a whole different level.
You got to watch the conclusion of Twin Peaks. It
(09:52):
really is really a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You're not the first, and I do I want to
watch it, but I I know that it's gonna like
get in my head really deeply, so I just haven't
made the jump.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Sometimes it's nice to be traumatized by art as opposed
to real life, though, don't you think you know?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That's why people are into horror movies, right, You have
control over it. You get to push play and see
something terrible instead of something terrible happening randomly to you.
There's probably more to it than that, but yeah, I
think you're probably onto something.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Not only that. I've always felt that good horror movies
are incredible exaggerations, outrageous exaggerations of how people treat each
other in real life every day.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah that's dark, but.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Probably, well, I hope I'm as dark as your dad.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I don't know what he's bright. He's a bright guy.
He came to Red Rocks when I opened for the Nationallygue.
Came on his birthday and I got you know, all
nine ten thousand people to sing Happy Birthday to him.
So there's a really happy memory. I don't think i'll
top that, honestly.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
That's beautiful. Forever is a Feeling is the new album
from Lucy Dacas. It's really nice to get the chance
to talk with you, and I would be remiss if
I didn't offer you the opportunity when you're in town
to come and play at KBCO. You probably know I
KBCO and we're big supporters of your work, so thank you.
I know you can't always do that, but I want
you to know the invitation is open and thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Thank you too. Yeah, whoever's on my team on this
call is hearing you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I'm glad you listen.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I'm Brett.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I'll see you next time. We call this the Brett
Sonders Podcast.
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