Name: Lucy Roleff

Nationality: Australian

Occupation: Musician, artist
Current Release: Lucy Roleff and Lehmann B Smith's Dark Green is out via Youngbloods.
Recommendations: I am forever returning to this Steven Isserlis performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. It is a real journey and he is my favourite cellist - a wild, sensitive and unconventional player.
Also Helen Garner’s The Children’s Bach which I have read at least once a year since I was a teenager. It describes so beautifully this elusive, private, quiet, domestic world I am always striving to articulate and express through music and art.

[Read our Lehmann B Smith interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Lucy Roleff and would like to know more, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started voice and piano lessons at five years old. I was trained in classical music on various instruments and classical voice until I was about 16 or 17. Around this time I quit all formal training and started writing songs on guitar.

My Dad was a tenor and a very musical person, so music was pretty much always playing or talked about in our house.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

That’s a good question and something I’ve not given much thought to! My brain really hones in on lyrics and voices, so I would say I respond to music visually if the lyrics are descriptive - like I will see in my mind what is being described. But if I am particularly moved by a piece of music, I will feel it in my body - like a ‘shivers down the spine’ sort of feeling, or a strong sense of longing.

I think this influences my approach to creativity in that I want to be able to create this feeling for others.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I think finding my own voice took me a fairly long time. In music it probably wasn’t til I was in my early 20s that I wrote anything that felt like it was ‘me’ and similarly in art, it took me years to get to what I’m doing today.

In both music and art I have experimented with different styles and approaches, but always ended up circling back to my roots - grounded in classical and traditional influences with a strong desire for the well-made and authentic.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I would say I am drawn to the natural world, things that are well made, simplicity, stillness - as a person in the world and aesthetically. So it’s interesting to notice that my taste in art / music and just generally how I strive to be as a person seem to align like that.

I am definitely an introvert and someone who prefers one-on-one interactions, and I think my art and music strive for this sense of intimacy and quiet conversation as well.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

I think similar to what I mentioned above, I am striving to have a conversation with the viewer / listener. I suppose I am trying to invite them into my world, to share a part of myself that I’m maybe not so skilled at expressing verbally in a day-to-day way.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I think that originality for its own sake doesn’t really interest me. I am inspired by all sorts of art and music, but my own interests in what I’m trying to do do seem to circle back to a sense of tradition.

Not just banging out the same hits over and over, but I am definitely influenced by traditional practices and feel excited by the idea of being part of a lineage of musicians and painters.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

I suppose in music it’s classical guitar and harp, and in art it’s linen, brushes and a handful of paints! All feel natural, simple and ‘human’ to me.

I am not attracted to gimmicks or gadgets so I guess my strategy is to honour these simple tools and the years and years of tweaking and refining that got them to where they are today.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Wake up, wash my face, moisturise, brush my hair (if I remember), feed my cat, eat a small breakfast, make coffee, pack my bag, walk to the studio, drink my coffee and read emails, chat to my studio mates, start painting, break for lunch, keep painting, start to pack up when my tank is running low, walk home, do life admin things if need be, shower, dinner, chat on the phone maybe, some sort of activity or read or tv or write, feed the cat again, bed!

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

I guess my process is never really consistent. But if I were to pick an album of mine as an example, I’d say Left Open in a Room.



It is always a slow burn to be honest. Songs are accumulated over years, then brought to the table with whoever I am collaborating with (in this case, my friend Pascal Babare) and arranged a little before recording, and a lot after recording the bare bones of the song. Then tweaked, sculpted and refined over months.

It’s never quick because my motivation wanes but I think that’s okay and I don’t beat myself up about it anymore. It takes as it needs to and I trust the process much more these days.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I would say I gravitate to solitary activities 90% of the time, but once I get started on a collaboration it can be a really wonderful thing. I just need to be pushed out of my cave a bit I guess.

So I suppose my art and music are quite solitary in sound, like private or confessional, whereas the collaborations I’ve worked on are more conversational.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I would like to think my work taps into a shared human longing for a sense of quietude, solitude and personal space. I think in general, music for me is a way of making this longing tangible.

So I suppose the main role is articulating this for myself and others, and if this serves society in some tiny way, then brilliant.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

I think art and music have always helped me to process and feel through difficult times I have experienced. Listening to a moving piece of music might help one to ‘feel’ what they otherwise haven’t been able to allow yet, and maybe as a result feel less alone.

I would say I struggle to write or make art work from a place of acute suffering, it tends to come after the fact when I can look back with some distance. But I respect artists who can make work from that raw or confused state.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I would say for me it is different because I still have some weird identity issues around music. Since I grew up with it, it was expected of me, and I had to figure out my own relationship with it. Whereas making coffee I can just do without (much) thought.

I do know people for whom music is just an extension of themselves, like breathing. Maybe when I’m ‘in the zone’ this is more the case, but it takes a lot of gentle persuading to get me to write or play these days.