Anoushka Lucas is a West London born and raised composer, actress and recording artist who has starred in the 2016 award winning ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production and more recetly been working on her debut album, ‘Dark Soul’.
Layering pop sounds with Jazz, Funk and soul accents, Anoushka Lucas combines silky smooth vocals with effortless lyricism and emotion providing a breath of fresh air which is accompanied by her endeering personality.
On Friday, Anoushka Lucas opened the Barclay Card stage at BST Hyde Park. Following her effortleselly beautiful perfomance we caught up with her backstage to discuss her brand new album ‘Dark Soul’, the process behind making an album, Brown girl magic and more.
You opened up the Barclay card stage earlier, how was that experience?
It was absolutely amazing, the sound system was amazing, the audience was so warm and friendly and I just had a great time on stage.
And your album ‘Dark Soul’ is set to release next week how are you feeling about that?
Yeah, next Friday! I have so many emotions about it that I’m not even sure how to answer this. I’m happy, ecstatic, nervous because I can’t believe that it’s finally finished and ready and that I can put it out to the world. Lots of positive feelings for sure.
How long has this album been in the making?
It’s been quite long because I’ve been doing a few other things at the same time so it’s taken four years from the first day to the final release moment. It’s mad but it’s such a huge sigh of relief and I’m having this big album launch and I’m kind of treating it like this big album launch which I’m treating as this almost emotional release party.
What can we expect from the album?
You can expect a bunch of songs that I co-wrote with everyone on the album and they are Jazzy, funky songs about falling in love and falling out of love with a lot of melodic jazz harmonies happening on there.
‘Dark Soul’ is quite a hard-hitting album title, what was your inspiration for the name and for the album?
Yeah, so ‘Dark Soul’ is the lead single off the album and is the album title and it’s a song we wrote about how we’re living in a time where the world has so much darkness in it and it’s very difficult for that to not come inside of us and how do we manoeuvre than and almost honour the fact that you are affected by what’s happening around you but also how you turn it into something beautiful.
You mentioned how much darkness there is in the world, is there anything you do on a day to day basis to stay positive?
My answers are yoga and friends. I’m very close to my sisters and my friends and I see them a lot and a glass of wine with friends can definitely help a lot and just regularly moving and exercising and looking after my body so that I can process everything that’s going on in my mind.
And how did you go about the process of choosing which songs made it on the album, I’m sure there were loads which didn’t make the cut?
So yeah some things I loved didn’t make the cut because they didn’t hold in with everything else because when you’re making an album there needs to be kind of a through-line in either what the songs are about or what the feel of it is and originally I wanted to put them in an order where it told a story but when I listened to it back it didn’t really flow so then what I did was listen to see what flows and trust that the flow of the music makes it good to listen to.
How many tracks did you actually record for the album compared to how many made the cut?
Well it’s a small album, I think we recorded around 14 or 15 but only 8 made it, the key 8.
Are you looking forward to catching anyone particular on stage?
I’m really excited to see Josh Groban who I am a huge fan of both musically and as a person.
There are so many icons performing at BST festival series, if you could collaborate with any big-name icon in the world who would it be and why?
It would have to be a toss-up between- well there’s three. I would have to choose between Janelle Monae, John Lennon and Stevie wonder because I think I would learn a lot from working with them and I would love to see them in the studio and see their songwriting process. I think that their music is perfect and I would love to know how to make perfect music and also love to collaborate with someone who pushed me like that.
Is there a song which you wish you could have written, sang or been a part of?
Yes, it would be the Donnie Hathaway cover of ‘Jealous Guy’ by John Lennon as I think that’s the most perfect record of all time and I had wished that I sang that.
From your Instagram I saw you often use the hashtag brown girl magic, I wanted to know what that personally meant to you and anyone who you think embodies brown girl magic?
I think we’re living in a really exciting time where brown girl magic and black girl magic is something that wasn’t celebrated when I was a kid so to have it visible was something I consciously make an effort to do on my social media because I am proud of my heritage and where I’m from and there are lots of different places and lots of different things. There are so many amazing individuals that I spend hours listing but the likes of Keri Washington, Janelle Monae, Michelle Obama, both of my sisters, who are both extraordinary women doing incredible things in their fields, I could literally go on forever.
What’s been the highlight of your year so far?
I would probably say this, well I would say a toss-up between today and the album. I think especially the last push of the album and getting the vinyl’s printed and getting the marketing and setlist in place that’s been really satisfying to finish something which I’ve started.
Lastly, what are you most excited about in the year to come?
I’m so excited to release my album and then I have a couple of really exciting projects, that I’m not currently allowed to talk about, for later on in the year and I’m also going to start looking into my second album, recording and getting back into the studio. I’m just feeling very creatively blessed at the moment and there will hopefully be a tour in Autumn but I’m going to stop there because I’m not sure what I’m allowed to give away.
Anoushka Lucas released her incredible debut album ‘Dark Soul’ today which is available across all major streaming platforms.
Be sure to keep up to date with all things Anoushka Lucas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and let us know who you think embodies ‘brown girl magic’ over on Twitter @CelebMix