Indie-rocker Lucy Dacus returned to CBS This Morning over the weekend, where she made her first national television appearance three years ago. She played three new tracks from the album, “Brando,” “VBS,” and “Hot And Heavy,” after talking about her unique approach to songwriting.
“Everything I make I have to do in the periphery of my awareness,” Dacus told host Anthony Mason. “I think, to be really honest, I have to be not-fully paying attention […] It has to escape my brain.”
The thoughtful 26-year-old went on to describe the kinds of activities best-suited for eliciting brilliance: washing the dishes, taking a walk, knitting. “When I do chores around the house, I feel like I write a lot,” Dacus said. But it’s more than that. The quality of the songs improves when her mind is slightly distracted. “My most popular songs took like 10 to 15 minutes [to write],” she said.
When Mason asked how she remembers it all, he seems surprised to know that Dacus said she does it the old-fashioned way: singing or repeating the line over and over until she gets her hands on a scrap of paper. Dacus added that because she never studied songwriting in an official, academic capacity, she’s stumbled into her process by what feels right to her. She surmises that there’s something valuable in having to repeat those lines, because — instinctually or not — she’s making subtle tweaks to it along the way. On the other hand, Dacus noted, “voice memos are pretty clutch.”
Dacus will hit the road to promote Home Video this September and October in North America, with openers including Bartees Strange, Bachelor, and Shamir.
Watch the full CBS interview above, and check out Dacus and her band performing “Brando,” “VBS,” and “Hot and Heavy” below.
