- Words Notion Staff
- Photography Ronan Park
Looking back on the making of their debut album, Burning Castles, Lucia & the Best Boys' Lucia Fairfull talks us through 10 tracks that inspired both the record and the artist she is today.
‘Time After Time’ by Cyndi Lauper
If there was any song I wish I’d written it would be this one. I love her intention in the vocal and how her voice and the story carries the whole song which is what I wanted to achieve with ‘Burning Castles’.
‘The Pipe on the Hob’ by The Bothy Band
This is one of many traditional artists I’ve gotten into over the last few years. I think it was a mixture of how much I was diving into trad and the fact that we were situated on the Isle of Lewis whilst recording the album which inspired me to put bagpipes on 'Butterflies'. I always wanted to be in a pipe band as a kid and find the sound of the pipes really moving, having them close the opening track really felt like entering a portal into the world of ‘Burning Castles’.
‘The Frail’ by Nine Inch Nails
Haydn was the first person to really introduce me to Nine Inch Nails as he went through a period of listening to them constantly. I loved how the piano sound in this song really makes you feel like you were sitting in the room as it was being played. I wanted both ‘Hurt Somebody you love’ and ‘Waiting On You Now’ to have the same intimacy.
‘With Every Heartbeat’ by Robyn
Robyn has played a huge part in my journey to discovering my obsession with pop music. I’ve always wanted to have a big sub bass banger of my own and we originally put one under ‘Favourite Thing To Lose’ for a laugh. I remember us all looking up at each other at the same time thinking ‘this needs to stay’!
'Sea, Swallow Me’ by Cocteau Twins
Elizabeth Fraser has such a mystical and endearing voice that feels almost limitless to me. During the process of writing the songs on the album I started to really enjoy challenging my vocal by singing in ways I hadn’t before… If you’d have asked me to sing a lot of the songs on the album five years ago my voice wouldn’t have been physically capable because I’d never trained my voice to sing in these octaves.
'she found now’ by my bloody valentine
We’d been listening to this song to find guitar tone inspiration whilst Adam was tracking the entrancing and winding reverb-y guitars which bring ‘Butterflies’ to a close. The droning layers of the guitars and the pipes are probably one of my favourite parts of the whole album.
'The Turkish Reveille' by Lankum
We’re all massive fans of Lankum and they’re probably one of the few bands that we could all individually say are one of our favourites. The harmonium is a beautiful instrument, the way that Lankum use it in their music really inspired us to try and take it into a totally different setting - there’s harmonium on the poppiest songs on Burning Castles. There was one in Black Bay that we used and it appears all over the album - we used it so much that the 100+ year old foot pedals snapped and we had to sew them back together.
‘Is It Cold In The Water?’ by SOPHIE
I’d been listening to this album a lot and still do; I love this song in particular and the way the tension builds, but I felt really inspired by the tasteful contrast of the industrial sounds against the soft synths across the whole album. We explored the pier outside the studio looking for old pieces of metal to create our own percussion for ‘HSYL’ and ‘Angels Cry Too’.
‘If I Were you’ by Stevie Nicks
Being one of my most listened to musicians of all time I feel like I owe her somehow and it felt wrong not to include her in this playlist. I couldn’t quite pin down a specific reference or example of how she influenced the album but I think it was more just wanting to be able to recreate the feelings that she gives me when I listen to her music for other people!
‘I love it’ by Icona Pop & Charli XCX
I remember when this song came out, however I only realised its greatness seven years later… I was instantly reminded of it when writing 'So Sweet I Could Die' with Ally and Chris. I was reminded of the driving beat that continues throughout the whole song along with the harshness of the lyrics, as it was the never ending hooky bass that Chris made which began the inspiration to 'So Sweet'.