Amaya Laucirica
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Amaya Laucirica

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Amaya Laucirica : a delicate balance between happiness and melancholy

The first two songs from Amaya Laucirica’s new album, Early SummerMost Times I Feel Alright and This World Can Make You Happy – suggest a delicate balance between happiness and melancholy. Laucirica, however, is adamant she’s a glass half full, not half empty, sort of person. “My glass is always half full,” she laughs. “I’ve always written songs with a dark and light element, but I wanted this album to be positive. I write songs when I’m happy. I think the songs on this record are happy songs – but I don’t know what other people think.”

Laucirica started writing tracks for Early Summer almost immediately after the release of her debut album, Sugar Lights. “I have an unconscious way of collecting songs,” she admits. “The songs for this album came quickly. Usually I present a sketch of the song to the band, and then we jam on the song and come up with close to the final version.”

Laucirica describes the song-writing process for Early Summer as “more intuitive” than for Sugar Lights. Whereas the tracks for that albumwere written on guitar, for Early Summer Laucirica used the keyboard to explore and refine melodies. “For most songs I work on a melody,” she explains. “Most of these songs were written on keyboard – I was able to work around the vocals as well. That opened up space a lot more than the last album. I think I had more fun playing on this record than the last time.”

Laucirica acknowledges that her lyrics have a strongly personal element, sometimes exploring her own emotions and other times adopting the perspective of someone around her. “Lyrics are a funny one for me,” she admits. “Usually I write based on a feeling rather than a story. But usually the lyrics are biographical. I’ll often start with an opening line and go from there.”
 
The emotional element to the songs is important; it’s not always apparent what the true emotional meaning is, however. “The songs are all very personal – there’s a personal aspect in all the songs,” Laucirica muses. “Sometimes the emotions are mine, and other times they’re someone else’s. There’s always an emotional context to a song, although sometimes it’s under multiple layers.”
 
Having written and recorded the songs for Early Summer, Laucirica approach Victor Van Vugt in New York to help the record. Finances prevented Laucirica from travelling to the Big Apple herself, so the mixing process was undertaken via the internet. “I was listening to a lot of records that he had mixed and I really liked his style,” Laucirica recalls. “His style is smooth, but it’s not too polished, so I thought of him straight away when I thought about having the album mixed. We did the correspondence over the Internet and we emailed back and forth ‘til we got it right.”
 
For the album art, Laucirica headed to Hanging Rock, scene of Joan Lindsay’s famous Australian novel (and Peter Weir’s film based on Lindsay’s novel). “I was reading the book at the time I was writing the songs for the album,” she points out. “It doesn’t have much of an influence on the writing, but I was drawn to the atmosphere of the book and the film.
 
The album does have a bit of a cinematic element to – I thought of it as quite visual,” Laucirica admits. With that in mind, she approached photographer Lauren Bamford to take some pictures for the record; in a stroke of coincidence, Bamford suggested heading to Hanging Rock. Once on location, Laucirica was struck by the atmosphere of the natural monument. “There is something very spooky about it,” she says. “When you’re walking up the rock it feels like you’re being pulled down – everyone looks like they’re walking in slow motion. It’s definitely a very spiritual place.”
 
In recent months Laucirica has divided her time between playing – including supporting Mark Lanegan (“he was the loveliest guy – very kind, gentle and supportive”) and preparing for her marriage and honeymoon in New York. Laucirica is still pushing and hoping to succeed in her quest to become a full time musician and performer.
 
“Absolutely!” Laucirica says. “I’m working everyday for that to happen. I suppose I’m still in the same place I was five years ago, but with more songs,” she laughs.
 
AMAYA LAUCIRICA launches her new album, Early Summer, at The Workers Club this Friday October 1. She’ll be joined by guests Prince One Point Five and White Woods. Early Summer is out this week through Departed Sounds.