Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys are back with a new single titled “Rooms” – a gently brooding offering, and the first track from her new album A Human Home, due for release in May this year.
The track, written during the Covid-19 lockdown, explores what it means to centre yourself around the person you’re with, and ended up being an accidental duet with Kruger’s best friend. “I stole one of her voice notes and used it as a starting point for a sonic conversation. The song was an act of playing with overlapping memories to grapple with and make sense of the moment. An abstract act of intimacy and a necessarily creative way of finding connection in a time that required it,” Kruger tells me.
She continues, “Part of the song reflects on when we first met at University. We were living in the same block of flats. She was much braver than me and came to visit. It was the first of many spaces to house a constantly growing and shifting relationship.”
Swirling synths and a string arrangement draw you into the intimacy of Kruger’s mind, her personal space, her musical space, with tender energy. Layered sounds build to an eventual break, left beneath murky electronic rhythms and the refrain “I just wanna be close.”
“A Human Home was written before Heaving,” Kruger tells me, “and, in some ways, was the playground that allowed me to be more courageous when making [Heaving]. I think you can hear the searching in the record, and I like that. Tentative, at times, but explorative, and honest, I hope.”
During the writing process Kruger collected voice notes and texts from friends and spent time with those, exploring their experiences of isolation and allowing that to inform her writing. The idea was to create a collection of musical sketches which explore what it means to find, and to feel at home.
Kruger and co. are set to play SXSW this week, and will appear at Roadburn in the Netherlands later this year – both monumental slots for the group.
With a stirring live show that has grown organically over the years, these performances will no doubt be magical, offering intensity and tenderness no matter how big, or small, the room is.
See Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys’ full touring schedule for 2024 here.
