Interview With Lucy Spraggan

No stranger to the spotlight, Lucy Spraggan is one of the UK’s most exciting and talented young, female singer songwriters today.

Despite shooting to fame after only a short time on the primetime TV show X Factor, she found herself hitting the headlines and becoming a household name as a feisty, female champion for the LGBTQ community.

However, Lucy has successfully retained respect from fans and critics alike as so much more than another reality celebrity. An accomplished musician, Lucy’s songs ooze with her personality and jaunty lyrics full of humour,

Lucy starts 2021 with the release of ‘Animal’ the third single from her brand new album ‘Choices’ due for release on Feb 26th, inspired by a rich tapestry of life experiences, that have served in giving her the headspace to mature and grow, both musically and personally.

The tracks that have premiered from ‘Choices’ so far have had over 1 million plays on Spotify and the video for Sober has nearly half a million YouTube views.

I spoke to the Sheffield born singer about the new album and how she appears to have a new lease of life.

Your new album, Choices is released in February, having listened to some of the tracks it seems you have a new lease of life?
Literally 100% - your description is bang on! It’s about forgetting everything that’s gone before and having a new start. There has been so much going on in my life over the past few years. I have chosen a new start; I woke up one morning and thought this is not the life I want to be living, it’s time to change.

What made you decide to loose weight?
It wasn’t a decision that I made like “I’m going to loose weight” what happened was that I stopped drinking and the weight fell off. I didn’t actually diet at first. When I stopped drinking my body seemed to become more efficient.

How much weight did you loose?
3 and a half stone in total. I started to do some research as the weight came off after giving up drinking, you know the usual things that if you consume excess calories more than you burn off it is stored as fat. My diet now is far better than it used to be plus I try to burn up the calories now by trying to do 10,000 steps a day, I run once a day too.
It is exhausting being fat and it doesn’t feel great. The thing is though I feel the cold in winter a lot more now, I’m so cold now - even in the summer.

What is the inspiration behind your new single Animal?
It came about by the music I listen to whilst skipping - Bhangra music or to call it another name Bollywood music. I love Bhangra music as it has that rhythm that you don’t get with other music. The lyric though is if you want to be derogatory people might call you an animal and it is saying be careful what you call me, I will be an animal if you want me to be - but not a very nice one.

What have your experiences of the last few years taught you?
To do things for yourself, unless you're happy there is no point in making everyone else happy. It might sound odd but sometimes being selfish is important, I’ve spent my life trying to be someone else. If you listen to the song Choices (Don’t Be Afraid) on the new album I sing that you should not be afraid of being you - all those scars belong to you.

Has giving up alcohol changed your life?
It has - I’m a totally different person, it has been a total lifestyle shift.

Do you ever go back to Sheffield?
I go back when I play the shows. The city has some great venues such as the Leadmill and the o2 Academy. The shows up north are always good, I don’t mean to slag off the south but people are less reserved in the north.

Has Simon Cowell ever been in touch to congratulate you on your success?
I’ve never spoken to him, I’m not sure I would want to do.

We are now in the third lockdown, how has it affected you?
Usually I spend 8-9 months touring a year. The good thing is that it had helped me with my collective self. Like most of us in the music industry as with everyone else it has hit us with a bang.
I can’t wait to start playing live again. We have the tour coming up in April and the other day I did a live stream - inbetween songs I took questions from the audience who were watching at home. Did I get any weird questions? Not really - the questions were mainly about my songwriting and when are you going to be playing live again.
That’s what we have all been missing, as I say I can’t wait to get back playing the live shows.

http://lucyspraggan.com/