In Bloom: Lucia Fairfull on Lucia & The Best Boys' new album
Lucia & The Best Boys' new album, Picking Petals, took root in Scotland's landscapes, but as Lucia Fairfull tells us, it was a close-knit community of friends and collaborators that helped it blossom
The lineage of iconic Scottish frontwomen is strong, from flame-haired force Shirley Manson of grunge giants Garbage to Aberdeenshire-born global sensation Annie Lennox. And Lucia Fairfull is no exception. In fact, if anything, she’s aware of the baton passing from the greats before her. “We played Bearded Theory at the weekend, and Shirley messaged me saying, ‘What day are you playing?’ I said, “Fucking Wednesday and you’re on the Sunday!”
Despite the lack of crossover time with an artist who took Lucia & The Best Boys out during the European and UK leg of Garbage’s summer tour a few years ago, Fairfull is thrilled to be back on stage again. “I've been craving that human connection from playing live shows,” she admits, tucked onto the sofa in her Glasgow flat. "When you're recording an album, you romanticise the idea of putting it out, but forget that it’s a long process!”
Lucia & The Best Boys have indeed been teasing us with new material since the beginning of the year, slowly unfurling again in the warmer spring climes. In February, Fairfull shared Lonely Girl, the first single from second album, Picking Petals, a fist-pumping singalong tracing her journey alongside someone who’s trodden a very similar path. Guest vocalist Lauren Mayberry moved from the villages of Stirlingshire to global stages with CHVRCHES and delivers the sentiment profoundly as she soothes, 'They say you’ll need to move away to live your dreams / Where I thrive is where I am / Yeah, I don’t need to leave.'
Picking Petals is the embodiment of that deep rooting. Written partly during retreats to Highland bothies and shaped by the landscapes that surround them, the record finds Fairfull looking closer to home than ever before. That spirit runs not only through the songs themselves, but through the people she chose to make them with. Among them is photographer Ronan Park, whose work with artists including Caroline Polachek and Rita Ora sits alongside a decade-long creative relationship with Fairfull. His creative vision shines through the album artwork, though Fairfull is quick to point out that the image was a collective effort.
“The day before, I borrowed a lighting kit from my friend. My two pals that I always have on shoots, Ponyboy’s MV Brown and Reece Spencer, did my hair and makeup. My florist friend (behind Neptune Studios in Glasgow) sourced a giant lily. Reece was blowing a leaf blower at my face. I was singing Cher into the flower in my living room,” she says, laughing. “But Ronan captured it, and it’s like magic.” It's an anecdote that neatly sums up the spirit of Fairfull’s latest project: songs that began life in isolation but came into bloom through a community of friends and collaborators.
Another longstanding friendship informs recent single Big Romance, a slice of baroque pop featuring The Last Dinner Party frontwoman Abigail Morris. Filmed in Woodside Hall in Glasgow’s Maryhill, the video finds the two facing one another, stark in black lace against billowing white curtains as they desperately try to reach for one another. One fan compared it to "Gaga and Beyoncé's Telephone, but for the whimsical." Fairfull laughs, before reflecting. “There's an art in making something minimally beautiful on camera. Simple, but epic at the same time.”
Lucia Fairfull (L) and Abigail Morris (R). Credit: Ronan Park.
Having written the record during retreats to Highland bothies, Lucia & The Best Boys will now return to those landscapes to perform the album in its most stripped-back form as part of a Highlands & Islands tour. The natural setting comes through instrumentally with a lot of raw and organic sounds: bagpipes, the fiddle, and the harp, core Celtic components that they’re hoping to bring to their reimagined set. “We're playing the bones of the songs for the first time in the place where they were made. Honing in on those folk, slightly trad elements that are threaded throughout. It's the only time that we'll ever play these songs in this way!”
The tour takes in the Isle of Barra, Glenuig, Aviemore, and Fairfull's beloved Isle of Skye (“I go two or three times a year if I can”), alongside a specially curated one-day festival, The Garden @ SEA in Brechin. “These communities in Scotland deserve to have these moments of music and human connection, just as much as the cities do. I've drawn so much inspiration from that land and that place, and I want to give back to it. It's going to be one of the most memorable tours that I've ever gotten to do.”
For some people, Picking Petals will be a coming-of-age album. For Lucia & The Best Boys, it’s just coming home.
Picking Petals is released on 31 Jul via Communion Records
Lucia & The Best Boys play Castlebay Hotel, Isle of Barra, 6 Aug; Glenuig Hall, Glenuig, 7 Aug; Kilmuir Hall (Talla Chille Mhoire), Isle of Skye, 11 Aug; Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore, 12 Aug; The Garden @ SEA, Brechin, 16 Aug; Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, 23 Oct