A Concerning Women Exclusive with Atlantic Recording Artist Lucy Woodward

Lucy Woodward's new CD "While you Can" has been getting a lot of attention. Even though the first release entitled "Dumb Girls", might give someone the wrong impression - Lucy is smarter than you think. CW caught up with her during a break in her recent radio touring schedule for an interview.

CW: I was reading over your bio and it says that you grew up in England and Amsterdam and your family is quite musical. You've had a number of different influences. Can you tell me about them?

LW: I was born in London, moved to Amsterdam and then to NYC when I was five. My Dad still lives overseas, in Holland, and my Mom lives in NYC, where I am. They are both classically trained musicians, she (Mom) was an Opera singer and a belly dancer - she was really a Musicologist - and did a lot of editing and bibliography for Musicology. She started dancing in Amsterdam, she and her friends, and there was a lot of middle Eastern music in the house when she would practice. My parents got divorced when I was five and my Mom and I moved to America. When I would visit my Dad in Holland it was all classical music. I got into rock and soul music later in life. I wanted to be a classical flute player until I was around 15, then I started singing around 12. I knew I wanted to make records and started getting jobs and singing backup for other people and making my living as a singer. But, I've had so much influence with different types of music growing up and it all kind of came out in this big melting pot (laughs).

CW: I noticed one of your influences is Etta James, I heard Soul influences in some of the tunes. Where did that come from?

LW: I went to high school in the Bronx and that's were I started listening to R&B and club music and hip-hop. The first LP I ever had was Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" and was imitating him at a very young age. So, to my Mom, since she was classically trained and very protective of my voice, which most Opera singers are, Michael Jackson was one of the few records she would let me listen to because he sang high - in his falsetto. She would let me listen to him, but not many other Pop records, because to her it sounded like everyone was hurting their voices.

CW: I noticed that you collaborated on writing every song on "While you Can" and wanted to ask you, what is your process like?

LW: Every song is different. Most of the time I'll have a melody first and I write a lyric to it later. I find it a lot harder to write a melody to a lyric. Most of the songs start with a melody and you know what words sound good, like certain vowels sounds. Then I start formulating the idea lyrically and add some chords to it. Sometimes I have total faith in the chords I come up with and sometimes I don't. And I feel like, okay I'm going to bring it to John Shanks (who produced most of the record) and I feel John might come up with better stuff that I did. It's all about having faith in the writer you are collaborating with. Sometimes I might be holding onto a song title for two years before I actually write it. You know that there's something there but you don't know what it is yet. So, it can come at any way shape or form.

CW: Like the line you write down on a cocktail napkin and stick in your pocket?

LW: The bottom of your shoe, anything (laughs). You have an idea, you can't forget it you know. You wake up in the morning sometimes and your head is so clear and a lot of ideas come early because your mind is very relaxed and free. And then you're like, oh, that's a great idea and in your mind your thinking of a melody or a lyric and you're saying to yourself there's no way I'm going to forget that. Then you might go back to bed, you wake up an hour later and its gone. So you need to write it down when you think of it or you're totally screwed. You might have lost the best idea ever - it comes and goes - so grab it while you can.

CW: You mentioned John Shanks and you work with Kevin Kadish as well. How did you meet them?

LW: John Shanks I met a couple of years ago through my publisher. We were set up to write together and we hadn't really ever met. It was before Michelle Branch, kind of before he was a household-producer name. So, we wrote “Trouble with me”, was the first song we wrote together with Shelly Peiken, and I kind of walked in and said listen, I've never worked in a setting with professional writers before but I know this is good and let's do this. I'm used to writing and jamming with my musician friends. And it's definitely different when you're writing with a stranger for the first time. A lot of writers can do that you know they just walk into a room and say here's this idea I have, I don't know who you are, but let's just try to work on it. With John, I was like Okay I've never worked with a person I don't know. And he said "shut up, sit down, pull up a guitar - let's go" and we wrote “Trouble with me” that day and we knew we had something good. That was a couple of years ago and we've written a some songs over the past few years. Then I always knew I wanted him to do my record - from that day. Great things happened to him and we've kept in touch and we wrote songs. I would travel to LA to work with him and it just blossomed into this really awesome working relationship. Same with Kevin Kadish, we met through my publisher and we were friends for about eight months before we wrote our first song. We actually tried writing for a while and then it was just bad timing or something. And then I had started the “Dumb Girls” idea in New York and brought to him to work on it with me. And he ended up doing the demo, in his bedroom and that was the record. So, we didn't even re-cut it. “Dumb Girls” the single is the record.

CW: I really like the song “Blind Sided”. Its got a lot of good qualities about it and brings out much of your R&B/Soul influences. I think that's something that will set you apart, that makes the record diverse.

LW: That's the next single, we just found out today. I'm so glad you said that because its very hard, there are a lot of girls - rap, etc. and you have to differentiate and “Dumb Girls” kind of falls into that category (Pop). Then the Soul side of me that doesn't want to be hidden for people that only had the record. I thought “Blind Sided” was a really good way to get that out.

CW: Can you tell me more about the song “Done”? I read that you wrote that after 9/11.

LW: Yes, John and I wrote that again with Shelly Peiken. It was about three weeks after 9/11 and I lived in NY and I was home when it happened. And I went out to LA, where we were going to write and it was so much on everyone's mind because Shelly and John are both New Yorkers. It was kind of a time where no one really wanted to write or be creative it was so bizarre that whole month. Living in NY and no one knew what to do. Do we go back to work, do we go to the park? Explaining that to John and Shelly, we were all kind of angry about what happened. John had this drum track sample with some chords and we starting writing. I went over one night and we wrote the whole melody that night. Everything - verse, chorus, bridge, just came out in 25 min. and then the next day we started writing the lyrics together. Shelly and I started it and it just came out. We knew we were going to talk about hope and the warmth of the sun. We knew that on the first night that we wanted to make it hopeful and I don't know if we realized it was about 9/11 yet. Just that whole idea “I still feel the warmth of the sun” “no ones gonna knock me down” it could sound like a relationship song. Like someone broke up with me and I'll never let it happen again, but it was really about 9/11, the essence of it. While making it ambiguous so people can take it however they want.

CW: I was reading through some of the articles about you and some other interviews that you have done. One of the questions that a NY news paper asks you is: How your looks have helped your career? I found that a little “teen-beat”. What was your reaction?

LW: I've always done music, that's how I lived and breathed and it was almost like music is first. Later on in that article I was like, when I'm working I'm greasy, I don't shower (laughs) okay, I shower, but I mean you just get so into a work mode you don't care about what you look like. Music is always first - not how much lip gloss am I going to wear to go to the studio. Yeah, looks weren't that important I love dressing up and I love fashion but I was always just like let's make some music. Now, when you get a record deal, yeah, it does help. I'm changing lanes on that. It does help, but it was never a priority before. It was always more important to get the music right first rather than - how low is your cleavage. Looks have helped I'm sure. Its an important question and a very strange one to answer. I've always had priority about music first.

CW: I was going to ask you the reverse question, in some respects it can kind of hinder you in a way because some people see you in a superficial sense?

LW: Yeah, I'm not singing “I love you baby, I love you, love me to” even though I respect those kinds of songs and if you can make a great song out of that, then cool, Ill buy your record. But, its not totally where I'm coming from. That's not the kind of music that I'm writing. You can have an I love you baby song but it's the whole package, who the artist is and what defines them.

CW: I was reading that you did a radio tour back in January, how's that going for you?

LW: I still kind of on it. I'm home for about two weeks and I've been doing it since January. It's amazing you go to these stations, you might go out for four days and come back home for two or you might go for seven days and come back for one. It's a lot of back and forth, three cities in one day sometimes. So, you build your chops up really fast vocally to be ready to sing on the air, live at 7am. I've got that down. Mentally it's a different world radio, it's very interesting. It's so much fun though. You have to remember to nap and take care of yourself and drink a lot of water and stuff. I was in Alabama for one night and was at the radio station in the daytime and went to sing a show that night at an amusement park with the same radio station for a charity. And while I was on the air (after school) this one girl just walked into the station and she's around thirteen and she said “I was listening to your song on my way home from school, it was on the radio and I heard you were here and wanted to come by. Will you sign my CD?” She had my CD in her car and when you meet these people face to face it's unbelievable. She was so sweet and young and so inspired and she wants to do music. For whatever reason, my record hit her and that is the most important thing, you know, she really connected to it. She was inspired to go and pick up a guitar herself. That's how I was when I saw someone in concert, I just wanted to talk to them and pick their brain.

CW: So, you might be going on tour. Is that a definite thing?

LW: Things are in the works for the summer.

For more Lucy Woodward info visit: www.lucywoodward.com

"While You Can" Online LP: http://lp.instavid.com/lucywoodward

Lucy Woodward "Dumb Girls" VIDEO
WMP Lo: http://demand.stream.aol.com/wmg/gl/epromo/atlanticlabel/7_2561954_3.Wmv
WMP Hi: http://demand.stream.aol.com/wmg/gl/epromo/atlanticlabel/7_2561954_18.Wmv
Real Player: http://demand1.stream.aol.com/ramgen/wmg/gl/epromo/atlanticlabel/9_2561953_3.Rm