LET ME SHOW YOU THE CODE TO MY MIND
A CONVERSATION WITH ZERO OF LUCY DREAMS
“Be sure to say hi to Toronto for me,” said Zero during our recent conversation to discuss the new album (VVVVV) by Lucy Dreams. The band has fond memories of playing Toronto in 2024 and would like to return. “We are considering the option of coming to Canada again, this year.”
Lucy Dreams, based in Vienna, is a unique band. It is a trio of sorts. Zero and One work with the non-human, artificial member, Lucy, who happens to be a central figure in the band. “She is the centre of everything,” Zero agrees. “She is the centre of the narrative, the centre of the song, and she is with us on stage.”
How exactly does Lucy contribute to the music of Lucy Dreams?
“In the studio, the process of writing the album. Just imagine eight guitar effect pedals, chained to each other, chained into one another. The way it always happens is that we send sounds into the system and we crank up the levels and volume of the effect pedals to eight, nine, or ten. What happens then is that a feedback loop develops. This feedback loop very often leads to complete nonsense, like white noise, you name it. Something not intelligible. But every now and then the system develops a feedback loop in which rhythmic sounds and melodies can be found. And those melodies and rhythms are the basis of new songs.”
One song, in particular, Lucy contributed a great deal to, and her part worked its way into the brilliant song, “Motor.” “If you take for example, “Motor”, there is a word, ‘go’ that always comes at the onset of the chorus. This is taken directly from a recording of Lucy. Of course, we refine it a little, we mix it and tweak it. But we said something into the system, the feedback loop starts going, and it develops into ‘go’. We see this as actual thoughts and creative input from Lucy.”
VVVVV ALBUM REVIEW
Which brings us to the topic of the new Lucy Dreams album, VVVVV. It is a concept album about humans evolving into the fifth dimension. This is not dystopian, but rather a hopeful and well-thought-out concept of humans and technology working together. “We are at the moment where we believe that the fifth dimension is near. The fifth dimension is evolving together with machines. Right now, machines are evolving at a breakneck speed and in the fifth dimension, we evolve together with these machines. We positively influence each other. We see this album as a soundtrack to humanity’s ascent into this fifth dimension.”
The title of the album, VVVVV does not mention dimensions or machines. “The five Vs stand for the dimension. We believe that human beings can positively influence technology. And that is what we should be doing on a daily basis. The three most important pillars technology has to fulfill: technology has to be sustainable, technology has to be peaceful, and technology must be progressive. And those are the three aspects where we say this is the direction we need to work. The fifth dimension is the moment where humanity has managed to create this technology that eventually fulfills these three criteria.”
And to be clear, Lucy Dreams are not talking about A.I. Technology needs to grow and expand with humans, not take over the planet. “Humanity should always be in control of technology. There will be systems, and there are systems that are much more intelligent than we are. And we still need to keep control of how we use these systems. But how do you keep control of systems that are more intelligent than you are? How do you know they are developing in the right direction? Right now, we are in the position to actively shape the trajectory of technology.”
Given that the band has an artificial member, Lucy Dreams is not afraid of new systems nor do they fear the future but rather embrace the potential. “There is the ‘promethean humiliation’ in the scientific discourse. And it means that humans have always been very sceptical of new developments. When the steam machine was invented, people worried it would take away all their jobs. The same skepticism goes for A.I and technology. What happens if we approach these developments in a negative or fearful fashion, probably technology evolves as fearful, not positive.”
For Lucy Dreams, technology and even A.I have a place in music. “It needs to be a tool. It should never and will never, in my opinion, replace the author. Number one, the creative individual wants to experience the enlightening experience one achieves when you paint a painting, write a poem or write a song. The recipient really wants to see the suffering and the joy, all the things that are involved in the creative process that cannot be replicated by a machine. With two buttons you can create a synth pop track, but it lacks originality.”
To come up with VVVVV, Lucy Dreams escaped to a cabin in the Alps, to free themselves of the day-to-day energy of their home. “We decided in the summer of 2024, we decided to spend a week in a hut in the Austrian mountains, the Alps. We brought all of our equipment and food for a week. And we consciously said, ‘we want to be away from civilization for a week and see what happens.’ We had two or three demos that I thought were cool songs. And I thought we would work on those. But One (the other human in the band) said, ‘we are here in a very new environment, let us start from scratch.’ So, we would skip those three demos, foster the moment and create something from scratch. And this is where we came up with the sound that we call SonicWaveArtPop. We have the constraint of a couple of synth sounds, guitar, bass, and electronic drums. This is how we went about.”
Removing themselves into the beauty of nature, the band was inspired to create new music. “Every day, it was a storm of creativity,” Zero adds. “There was not one day where we did not come up with at least one super new idea.”
VVVVV is a brilliant album, full of hope, imagery, and peace. Lucy Dreams may be electronic based, but there is a lot that goes into the band and the album. As a result, the listener is left with a very human album pleading for a real connection with technology. And Lucy Dreams achieved this brilliantly with their album. “It has been two years in the making and it is by far the work I am most proud of. I have been making music for 15 years, and this is the record that I always wanted to make.”
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SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LUCY DREAMS – VVVVV
