Lucian Rice on his debut EP “right now, forever”
New music on love being more complicated than just “I love you” and focusing on today, because that's all there really is. His strong artistic connection and working with his close friend & Kiwi artist/producer Tom Verberne. Setting alarm reminders to listen to new music. Rum & cokes (only in tall glass!), and more.
Fuzzer: We'd love to start with your musical journey from when you first started making your own music. Where did it all begin?
Lucian Rice: When I started making my own music, I guess it's a different story. I grew up around Auckland, so I started off in the all ages scene and was in one all ages band. I was like 13 then, and we were doing a bunch of shows which was amazing and it's still taught me so much. And you've had Tom (Verberne) on before - so him and I went to the same school, and we had a version of Logic we all passed around to each other. And so then we all just figured out how to use that. And then I sort of moved away from doing band stuff and moved more towards computer stuff and then started making songs on that, and then I blink and here I am nearly 10 years later (laughs).
Fuzzer: (laughs) And who would you say are your main artistic, musical and creative influences?
Lucian Rice: Ahh it’s always the hardest question. I think the easiest answer, which is also the truest answer, is my friends. Because I think, I have so many musical inspirations artist wise or bands wise, but it's my friends that keep me going if that makes sense. Whether I'm working on it with them or just hanging out with them or talking about it with them, that's definitely the main thing that always keeps me going, for sure.
Fuzzer: Yeah amazing. And congrats on the release of your debut EP “right now, forever”!
Lucian Rice: Thank you.
Fuzzer: It sounds so incredible. How did you land on the name of this project?
Lucian Rice: I kind of always had it. I had this one, and I had another title which I might leave because I might use it for something else. But it was between these two titles that I kind of always had. And this is obviously my first body of work under my name Lucian Rice. And it just always kind of made sense, because like I said, I've been doing it for a long time, or what feels like a long time. I'm still young, but I've been doing it since I was really young. So it's sort of like the end of the beginning, if that makes sense. Putting all these songs together, I realized I could look back on what it used to be and reminisce. Or I can look forward to and dream of what I'm gonna have and what could be. Or I could just focus on today, because that's all there really is. It's gonna be today, every day, for the rest of my life. So why don't I just enjoy today?
Fuzzer: I love that! Bringing you to the point of “right now forever” which is so true. And what were some of the central themes that you wanted to delve into lyrically for this project? Did you have something in mind going into at the beginning, or did it kind of all come about organically?
Lucian Rice: It’s mostly, I guess, organic is the word. I used to always get quite upset when my friends would be doing so much music stuff, so much creating in general. And I could never really do that all the time. If I didn't feel it, I couldn't convince myself to do it because I was making something I didn't believe in. And so then I learned that the best thing for me to do is live a lot of life just to write a little bit of music. And I guess that's sort of what all these songs are to me. Some of them took years in the making. Some of them I wrote just in one night, and the lyrics are sort of just of that time period, those couple years. And a lot of them are the same thing, the same idea, but I just felt differently about it sometimes. So it's like they’re kind of the same song, or sister songs, but I have different headspaces in them.
Fuzzer: Yeah I love what you said about that, and I guess sometimes there could be pressure on delivering music as fast as you can, or a large amount in a short space of time. But I think what you said about just writing whenever you felt inspired to write, whether it took a year or shorter than that, is important.
Lucian Rice. For sure. It's not even a quality thing. I'm not sitting here trying to make it the perfect song or whatever. It's just, if I don't believe the song, I don't think anyone else will because that's the thing I'm really proud of about these songs. I really still believe them. Some of them are years old, but I really meant it and I hope you can hear that.
Fuzzer: Absolutely you can, it feels so genuine. And one of our favourite songs on this project is “brand new day”.
Lucian Rice: It’s one of mine too.
Fuzzer: Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind that one?
Lucian Rice: Yeah, that's one of those weird ones as well where it’s like, it kind of just came out of me one day. I'll spare some of the details, I guess. Love is a hard thing, a hard word, and sometimes love is more complicated than just “I love you”, you know? Sometimes those three words don't always say it. So with this song, I guess it's like I really care about this person, but I'm starting to realize like “Ah, maybe this isn't a good idea”. This was sort of like my wake up call song to things I had done and to things they had done, and that's why it's my dearest song to me too. Because I mean everything I say, and I feel like I usually dance around the feeling in a lyric, just write in subtext so it doesn't feel real. But definitely a lot of truth in that, for sure.
Fuzzer: Yeah, you can feel the rawness and emotion in it. And I think that's why so many people will totally be able to relate to the song as well and connect.
Lucian Rice: Hopefully (laughs).
Fuzzer: And also, we love your song “can't you see”. Just the level of production, I feel like we could talk about all day. What was the writing and production process like for that one?
Lucian Rice: I guess I've never really talked about this, but I was just down bad! (Laughs) I didn't even know - it wasn't like one specific event. It was just a series of unfortunate events, mostly my wrongdoings too. And then I was living with a good friend of mine at the time, and he went away for the weekend so I had the house to myself, and I just sat down and wrote that song, just immediately. And I remember it took me like two hours to just finish the whole song. And it hasn't really changed since that version. But I just remember finishing it and being like “oh man” (laughs) - just being like “damn, I'm an idiot”. I felt so stuck in the song, which was very euphoric or cathartic, I guess.
Fuzzer: Nice. And then, what do you think have been your core highlights or memories during the process of working on this project?
Lucian Rice: I feel like I've had some really sad stories going into these two songs. But honestly, the best part is just, I don't know how to explain it without saying it so simply, but just hanging out with my friends. For example, I write all the songs by myself and get most of the idea down by myself, but I work on all of it with Tom Verberne. He did every song on the EP, besides “can’t you see”, and I just think of him and I hanging out. Not even working on the song, but like around the time we're working on the song, and just him talking about it and me talking about it with him and making me appreciate it, I guess. And then with “brand new day” as well, we had our friend Garrett come over to New Zealand at like the end of 2021, and that's when me, him and Tom just worked on “brand new day” in Tom's room. I think of those moments, those are the things that I remember - just hanging out with my friends.
Fuzzer: Yeah I guess it's so special to have someone not only who you can artistically connect with, but has known you for so long and known you through different seasons of your life.
Lucian Rice: Yeah it’s really crazy. Especially with Tom, it’s to a point where I'll just send him a demo I made, and then he'll be like “alright, send me the session”. And so I'll send him the session, and then he'll just send me something back. We don't even talk about what it should sound like, he just knows. And every time he sends it back, I'm just like “yeah, this is exactly what I meant, even though I told you nothing”. I'm always so grateful for Tom, I feel like I talk about it all the time. Real special to have friends like that in my life, for sure.
Fuzzer: Yeah, absolutely. And one thing we're doing for each of our interviews is we're customizing a cocktail recipe in regards to the project we're talking about. So if “right now, forever” was a cocktail, what kind of cocktail do you think it would be?
Lucian Rice: Man, it's such a hard question. I don't even really drink cocktails. Yeah, I don't know. Probably, I always get a rum and coke for some reason. I don't know, it's kind of not that good, but I get it every time.
Fuzzer: Maybe there's some sort of familiarity to it (laughs).
Lucian Rice: It’s just simple, I think, and it can never really be bad. So it’s probably got some dark rum in it, a spiced rum. Where do I go from there though? I don't know, can I just say a rum & coke?
Fuzzer: Yeah absolutely! Unless you want to add any garnishing to it or like a lime?
Lucian Rice: Yeah, we can have a lime. Oh, a tall glass. That's like the big thing about a rum & coke is you always gotta get the tall glass. And everyone's gonna be like “oh, but you get so much more coke”. That's the point. Drink responsibly (laughs). So yeah, tall glass, rum and coke, little bit more rum than normal, but a lot of coke. A lime and a straw - I’ll take three of those.
Fuzzer: Yeah great! Sounds delicious. And then what kind of music are you listening to right now globally, and also do you have any favorite Kiwi artists that you have or songs that you especially like?
Lucian Rice: Yeah, I'll start locally. They just recently disbanded actually, but my favorite New Zealand band, and it's a massive thing to say, but maybe of all time has been Bleeding Star. They're just crazy, man. They just dropped their new EP, I think last weekend, that’s great. Everything they've done has been wonderful. I'm so grateful that we had just young kids like that that’re just doing it, and it sounds so perfect. When I was their age, I wasn't doing anything that cool (laughs). So, yeah, they're definitely like a good starting point. Obviously, all my friends. The easy plug. I'm not even gonna say them all, because actually it's just like all of the NZ musicians. They know who they are.I'm really passionate about NZ music. And I think the kids are alright, the future is going to be good, you know.
Outside of NZ music, I listen to so much emo stuff, like second wave emo stuff. It's kind of nuts. I'll spare saying all the bands - I guess I'm back in a Captain Jazz phase. Outside of that, I got The Teenagers’ “Reality Check” on CD recently, Curve’s “Doppelgänger” on CD, the Autolux’s “Future Perfect” album on CD, the one with the balloons on it. Also, you know when you have an album that you listen that you love, but then you just randomly forget about it, but it's like one of your favorite albums? Frou Frou’s “Details” - that album, I just listened to that last night with my headphones on in bed, just front to back, and I was like “this is great, this is life” (laughs).
Fuzzer: Yeah! That's a great list. And I think it's so funny because when I'm interviewing artists, I feel like they either listen to zero music and just focus on the artist project, or they're listening to everything, and I feel you've got a good span of music that you're listening to.
Lucian Rice: Yeah, I've definitely been on the other side. I think it was like a year or two ago, you know how you get your Spotify end of the wrapped thing? I remember I had abysmal hours, I had not listened to music, and I was just like so embarrassed by that that I was like “I need to make a conscious effort to listen to music more”. So I'd say I've been trying to listen to a lot of music. I actually have an alarm set every night at 9:30 that goes off to listen to music.
Fuzzer: I love how intentional your music listening is! I think it's fine to go through seasons where you don't want to. I guess when you're writing, sometimes you don't want to be influenced by other music while you're writing, in case that bleeds through.
Lucian Rice: I kind of love that though. It doesn't really sound like this most of the time, but I definitely steal melodies and chords all the time.
Fuzzer: There’s only so many chords and melodies (laughs). You’re not really stealing.
Lucian Rice: Yeah, we can all share, man.
Fuzzer: Totally! And what's your normal songwriting process?
Lucian Rice: I never really know. I did “can’t you see” by myself and so I like to do production by myself as well. But I only really care about the song, and I recognize that is like a fault sometimes. I'm lucky to have people around me to make sure that the song and the production, are just as good. But I'd say, I start with the song and I never really know how that works. It's mostly just I sit down, and then I just know that I've got a song, and then it just comes out and I don't really think more about it. And then I finish it, get some demo production so I can hear the full idea. And I'm kind of chasing it if that makes sense. I'm like “oh, I gotta do this before I forget how it's gonna sound”.
That's typically what happens, and sometimes that's the final version. “can't you see” is that. But then sometimes we go through so many sessions of just trying to get it to sound perfect. But I think that's what keeps me loving the song, is that if I really like the song, anything I do on the production, I don't really care too much about. I'm not going to be too strict on it, because at the end of it, I know at its core that I enjoy it. So that definitely keeps me sober with it.
Fuzzer: Yeah, I like that with any good song with huge production or whatever, whenever it's stripped back and it's still a good song, that’s how you know.
Lucian Rice: That’s the test. There's so many songs that you can take out of their context and completely change them, and it's still a really good song. I did a cover of “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys - and I love the Beach Boys, I'm such a big Beach Boys fan. And that song is great, but it's like a joke, a Dad song or whatever. But I just did a real distorted guitar cover of it, and it really works in that setting as well, which doesn't make any sense when you think of the song. But that just shows that you can put it into different places.
Fuzzer: And have you ever had a song idea that just comes into your brain randomly, you’re driving or whatever, and then suddenly you're like “oh, this song idea is coming - I've got to stop exactly what I'm doing just to focus on that”?
Lucian Rice: What I was younger I used to for sure, and that used to really frustrate me because I'd hear it, especially when I'm like eight or something, and I'd be in the car with my mum and I couldn't explain it to my mum, mostly because I didn't have the vocabulary or anything. But I just remember being frustrated that I knew something, and I couldn't explain it or express it or show it fully. And I think I've actually just learned to hold the feeling more. Even when I was like 18, I used to just pull over and do a little voice memo. But I end up listening back to those and being like “they're not really that good”. And I find that it's kind of luck with songs sometimes. I imagine it's like a dice that's constantly rolling, and when you choose to play and jump in, it's just an odds game on if you're gonna get the roll. And so when I'm driving, and decide to tune into the game and I get one, it's not really fair. You can always write another song, is the big thing that I try to remember.
Fuzzer: I think that’s so true and I love that analogy with the dice roll, waiting for that inspiration to come in.
Lucian Rice: And you can’t force it as well. That's again why I don't force myself to write, which sounds like a real lazy thing to do, but it actually just makes my writing so much worse if I try to sit down and write something. I have to want to do it. I find that if I've just been sitting at my computer for a week trying to write a song, I have nothing to write about because I've just been sitting at my computer for a week. Like what am I gonna say? I've been sitting here? (laughs). You have to go out and live some life to have things to talk about, for sure.
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