One year on after her first X-Factor appearance, it’s all change for Lucy Spraggan. She is currently in the middle of a 19 date UK tour, making a stopover at Manchester Ritz on Monday 28th October, her debut studio album Join the Club has been released and her singles ‘Last Night (Beer Fear)’ and ‘Lighthouse’ have made the charts. Lucy and I had a chat about life after X-Factor, the tour, and her album.
Despite being three days in to her first UK tour, Lucy is remarkably calm and laid back over the phone. She described her shows so far as “a laugh”, and she’s particularly looking forward to playing Manchester. “I can’t wait, I’ll be seeing all my mates and stuff, it should be such a laugh. It’s going to be packed out”, she explains. In 2012, Lucy auditioned for the X-factor in Manchester, but she highlights that this element of nostalgia isn’t the only reason she’s looking forward to the show. “I used to go out in Manchester a lot actually, so I’ve got quite a big loyal fanbase there”.
The tour comes off the back of her debut album Join the Club. The album features several tracks from her self-released album Last Night at the Zoo as well as a few new songs. Lucy spoke to me about the difference being in the studio has made, saying “the support that comes with releasing something professionally is great. It’s very exciting [to have the album out]. The chart position that we got as well”. Within a week of its release, Join The Club hit number 7 in the official albums chart and number 4 in the iTunes chart. I asked Lucy if she had expected it to take off so well, to which she replied “Not at all really, it just did! It’s all very exciting and it’s been a lot of hard work”. Despite having shot to fame via the X-Factor and a top 10 album, she still seems very down to earth and humble. A distinctive feature of the album and Lucy’s musical style in general is the fusion of genres. Lucy described her own tastes as, “I like sort of hip hop and a lot of rap music so I take a lot of inspiration from that. It’s more truthful and quite genuine”, and this influence is very evident in her album, all the tracks are very expressive and at times emotional.
With regard to the X-Factor, Lucy’s very thankful about the opportunity it has given her, despite pulling out due to illness in week 6 of the competition last year. “I just think it’s nice to have such a platform like this. There’s a huge variety. I’ve been doing it for so long and not really getting anywhere so it’s nice really, it makes it worth all the hard work before that”. During the competition last year, Lucy broke with tradition and performed many of her own songs with her guitar as a backing. This could suggest that the X-factor is no longer about generating another samey pop act, but Lucy was quick to deny this, “That is what the X-Factor’s about but it wasn’t when I was on the show. It’s also about what you make of it”. She admits she was “that person who’s like ‘oh well he’s off the X-Factor’”, when asked if she feared being judged by this background as opposed to the hard work and perseverance behind it, but seems proud of her experience on the show. “If you want something and you love doing it so much you will actually do anything to get it. I guess the people that slag it off are kind of jealous because they’re not doing something about it”, she affirms. “Sometimes people are like ‘Oh yeah I’m going to go on the X-Factor’ and you have to remind them they probably won’t get through the first round.”
In Lucy’s first audition for the X-Factor, she mentioned how nervous she felt before performing. So I asked her if she still gets that feeling before a gig. “I’ve played T in the Park this year, and lots of big festivals; it’s nerve wracking at first, you don’t know what to expect but then it all turned out amazing. Me and the band get more excited than we do nervous”. As a testament to how things have changed for her, Lucy’s now performing and touring with a band, “It sounds so much better and it’s just good fun”, she told me.
Lucy is appearing at the Manchester Ritz on Monday 28th October, and her album Join The Club is out now.
