Tell us about your touring vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
I have a Subaru outback. It's relatively new to me – I've had it for about a year. My previous outback was on my way home from a gig last July. Needless to say, suddenly finding myself without a touring vehicle was a big problem! I wrote to Subaru asking if they would like to sponsor a folk singer whose car has been totalized. I sent them a photo of me, the car and my dog (who is on tour with me). I was hoping they might send me a new car! They wrote back and said no … but they thought my dog was cute. I ended up buying a used outback to replace the entire one.
How do you eat cheap and / or healthy on tour?
Sometimes it is really difficult to find a good time to eat while on tour! Since eating right before a show is usually not ideal, my mom and I usually eat one large meal a day when we're out together. On a typical touring day, we'll wake up, head to the next town, find dinner with all day breakfast, eat some eggs, and then go to the sound check! We usually have some popcorn after the show 🙂
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace it?
I only broke one string on tour. It was 2008 in Australia and I was performing at a festival with my father Loudon Wainwright III. I had been sick for a few days and had a fever and broke a cord in the middle of a song. My dad came to the rescue and gave me his guitar while he took mine to replace the broken string.
Where do you rehearse?
I mostly rehearse and write on my couch or bed!
What was the title and sample text from the first song you wrote?
Well, my very first song was co-write with a family member around the age of 7. It was called "On The Farm" and since I grew up in NYC and had next to no farming experience, the lyrics were very simple … there were cows and chickens involved.
Describe your first appearance.
My first solo performance was in NYC at the Rockwood Music Hall. It was a pretty terrible show and I was terribly nervous, but I had a lot of supportive friends and family members showing up and pretending it wasn't that bad.
What was your last job What was your favorite job
I taught elementary school. I really loved this job. I taught 2nd and 3rd grade and it was always incredibly interesting and different from day to day.
How has your music-related income changed in the last 5-10 years? What should it look like in 5-10 years?
I would say that my income has slowly grown and stabilized over the past 5-10 years. The only exception would be that digital music revenue has dropped significantly since Apple Music changed its approach and since Spotify rose. If you had asked me this question 7 months ago, I might have suspected that my income would remain about the same or hopefully grow slowly into the future. Now that we've been in the pandemic for 6 months, I have to honestly say the future of my income from music is very, very uncertain. It really is a scary time to be someone who has survived from live music.
Lucy Wainwright Roche and her mother Suzzy Roche shed light on our troubled times on their third collaboration, I Can Still Hear You.
Recording began in Nashville; Then Suzzy and Lucy completed the project from their quarantine homes in NYC. The 11-track album features 8 soul-seeking, thought-provoking originals and 3 perfectly selected complementary covers, and features guest appearances by Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls.
I can still hear you exploring topics such as good and bad, youth and mortality, the absurd and the serious, the real and the imagined, and the connection between the present and the past.
I Can Still Hear You is the third collaboration between Suzzy and Lucy after the award-winning Fairytale and Myth 2013 and the acclaimed album Mud & Apples from 2016.
Connect with the duo online.
