Lucette "Talk to Myself" Official Audio

On her sophomore album Deluxe Hotel Room, indie-pop artist Lucette turns her title phrase into a metaphor for experiences both highly specific and widely familiar: fleeting romance, emotional displacement, isolation, the gulf between the presumed glamour of the artist’s life and the reality of getting by. Produced by Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Sturgill Simpson at The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville and backed by Simpson’s touring band, Lucette embeds Deluxe Hotel Room with so many unexpected flourishes: brooding drum-machine beats, luminous synth lines, and-perhaps most strikingly-the soulful saxophone work of New Orleans musician Brad Walker. Along with shining a new light on her gracefully sculpted melodies, the album finds Lucette bringing a previously unglimpsed boldness to her vocal presence. “The only direction Sturgill really gave me with the vocals was, ‘Sing it like you mean it,’” says Lucette. “Because of that, I think you can actually hear what my voice sounds like for the very first time.”
In looking back on her path as an artist, Lucette observes a certain shift in her motivation to make music. “When I was a teenager, I mostly wrote songs because I wanted to have my voice heard,” she says. “Now it’s more cathartic, a way of telling people what my life’s been like.” But as Deluxe Hotel Room proves, her songwriting goes beyond confession to offer something of greater purpose: a sense of solidarity and solace for those who’ve endured similar troubles. “To me these songs are a way of getting through to anyone who’s had problems with depression or anxiety or issues with their body and, letting them know they’re not the only ones who feel lost sometimes,” says Lucette. “Making the album helped me realize that my strength doesn’t lie in how a partner or the public sees me-it’s about being open about mistakes I’ve made and things I’ve been through, and then moving forward with hope.”