Cooper Handy has been working on his music as Lucy since 2009, slinking through leafy and flower-edged synths dripping in old school 80s. Timezones corroborate morning coffees ahead of an afternoon nap, with record releases energy speeding alongside our communication.

Hey ! Thanks so much for connecting. I am glad we managed to make this work across our timezones. Where are you right now ?

I am in Northampton, Mass. It’s all a little grey and cold but we are hoping to get back into beautiful green space soon. This is also near to where I started the project back in high school in 2009 on Cape Cod, a couple of hours from here. There was not much of a scene there growing up, so it was kind of helpful to keep the project sort of anonymous and really low-key at first.

Where does the name LUCY come from ?

I never have a good answer for that…I think I just thought the project would stay internet-based, with me releasing demos as and when. I never really thought about it so much, or thought to change it. I never envisioned this becoming my ‘work’, I was playing in rock bands (I still play in one called The Taxidermists) and thought that would be more my musical route.

Is that more the kind of music you grew up listening to ? Rock and punk music ?

Yeah, for a huge part of growing up that is what I was listening to. So I definitely thought that my trajectory in music would follow that. But I listen to all kinds of things, and just slowly started to realise the possibilities with making music alone and where the limitations are with making rock music alone, for example. I like to work it all out with keyboards and computers and stuff. I don’t really know how to use many of them, but I can figure it out and make it work.

I read that you’ve been using pretty much the same drum samples and loops and synths for the duration of the project, is that true ?

Yeah, it’s true ! It’s not that many sounds, it’s about seven or eight pieces of an 808 kit and six or seven pieces of a 707 kit. I’ve been using those two for the past however many years, paired with the same couple of Casio keyboards that have a few sounds I like and reuse. Obviously, there are now so many more plug-ins and parts to add but I would just get super carried away if I allowed myself access to the whole spectrum.

Do you think restricting yourself with your tools gives you more freedom somehow ?

Yeah, I think so. It helps me stay in the same direction and focus with the songwriting. My writing process starts mostly with a hook that I can then figure out on the keyboard, usually rushing to get it down before I forget. I leave myself a load of voice memos when I’m out as well.

Do you like to work with friends as well?

There’s a handful of people I have projects going on with. I like to produce and swap beats, things like that. I find it hard to make vocal sessions with other people just because of the pressure, too. It often feels like there isn’t enough time in the studio when there’s a lot of people involved.

Is the anonymity of the project still as important to you as it was in the beginning?

Not as much; there’s a line between the online presence and reality that I see a lot of people getting really carried away with. It can be a really good thing but there will be a point in the future where transparency across social media and distance from reality become so blurry. Younger people who are coming into it now are perhaps not as aware of the importance of good sound and video quality because of platforms like instagram. People don’t even listen to whole songs anymore, let alone entire albums.

Has your process changed during Corona-time or not so much since you are working a lot on your own?

It’s made me a little more experimental. There’s less time pressure on the project. For the first five months of this, I was in LA, for the first time for an extended period. I got into a really lucky situation and had access to a studio and everything. It was really cool to just tune out in this space and focus on my solo work. It’s been so much easier to try things out and make time for my own project.

And I bet you are so excited to play live (finally) again?

Yeah, it’s been on my mind so much. I had a tour lined up with King Krule which I was super stoked about but everything has been so up in the air with tours and live shows.

How did you connect with King Krule?

I think he’d known about my music for a while, and he then reached out to me online. I let him know that I wanted to open for him while on tour in Massachusetts, and it all kind of fell into place somehow. It was so exciting and seamless.

I also wanted to ask you about retaining authenticity in your music because there are links there between you and Archie (Marshall).

I guess it’s really about staying away from being too preachy. Keeping it all vague enough that it’s left open to interpretation, so every listener can take my words so that they resonate in their own personal way. I do this a lot by thinking about how it could impact or sound to certain friends. But I’m not so good at sending WIP to friends, I like to show people my work when it’s actually finished. If I’m not totally into it, I can’t expect anyone else to be, you know. It’s a bit of perfectionism, sometimes I will record a backing hype vocal like 50 times just to feel like it’s right.

Do you have people in your circle making similar music to you?

Not really…I have a friend I work with, his artist name is God’s Wisdom, and we live in the same town. We’ve made a bunch of music together, but it sounds pretty different to my stuff, the technique is the same though. Most of the people I see or hear around are playing more live music, using bass, drums, guitars etc. Since I got back to Massachusetts, I have been doing this all a bit more. Just remembering how to practice my instrument and play with live drums and everything.

I know you don’t like to talk about your influences so much, but I wondered if you had others that aren’t musically-focussed that you could talk about.

I am really influenced by my own routine, I need to have a kind of work-flow to keep me focussed. I’m influenced by a lot of music, listening to an artist or two per month. Sometimes, I stray away from listening to music with vocals for a time period as well. I’d like to keep more updated with current music but I can get quite overwhelmed with the delivery of it all. It’s also something that I worry about with releasing my own music.

How would you like your music to reach your audience/s ?

It’s pretty hard right now to see these possibilities, just because of the way the music industry is at the moment. It’s hard to get it to audiences in the right way. There is no perfect vision, especially from a ‘big label’ side. I’ve been doing it all mostly on my own so that I can be in control of when and how my music is released. It keeps me in control of perception of the project. I’m not even sure what people are drawn to now.

Is this where you get the title of the record (The Music Industry is Poisonous) from ?

Yeah, I think so. It’s the idea that there’s a lot more going on than just the music. It’s kind of a funny title, but there’s some truth in there for sure. I stay pretty under the radar, I’m not out here trying to be a big star you know.

Let’s talk about the record (out today).

It’s the first in-studio record I have done. A lot of the music I made beforehand at home, but then added to it in the studio with the engineers and everything. It was pretty cool to be a part of the mixing process as well. We used a studio in New York, where I also recorded all the vocals. It felt a bit tricky, recording in front of people, but I feel excited about the record and I like how it came out. It’s been finished for such a long time, so I have also gone through periods of listening to it a lot and then totally avoiding it as well. I started working on it about two years ago, there’s even a few songs that are a little older.

Why did you want to make the record ?

I think I just wanted to make another self-release, I didn’t think there would end up with a whole campaign and everything. But a lot of people wanted to come and stand behind me and support it, so it felt like the right thing to just make the album with the label and take the pressure off myself.

You speak a lot about not wanting to be tied or linked too resolutely to things.

I think the bigger the label you work with, the more the darker side of the industry comes into play. There are weird restrictions on playing locations or venues more than once or whatever. Or not being able to release music as and when you want. So it’s mostly about that; about keeping myself free to create and produce how I want to.

What do you think about the state of the industry at the moment ?

I feel pretty out of touch with it, mostly like how we were talking before about people only listening to excerpts of songs online or instagram or whatever. That’s such a different part of music and the industry. But I love short songs, you know, that are like a minute or so long. More people are doing this now and I don’t know if it’s in response to this digestible part of music or content or not. I’m kind of happy to see ‘fast music’ coming back into the arena. The radio is even moving at a faster tempo now, which I am really pleased about.

Maybe it’s because everyone wants to get to the dance floor faster.

Yeah, definitely. I really miss dancing for sure. I’m close enough to New York and Philadelphia as well so I’m looking forward to going and being and even playing there. I once flew out and did a little tour of every city in Poland. I also played a show in Berlin on my way out of there. Poland was super strange, not what I’d expected at all. So small, as well, it was pretty shocking coming from the US to realising you can hit an entire country in almost a day.

Do you think you’d want to stay in the US ?

I’ve not really travelled much outside of the US (aside from this tour in Poland) so I would love to explore, and I know that there is so much more out there. Mass. is nice and sweet and happy, but there’s a lot of other places that could influence or I could influence…I don’t know.

Thanks so much for talking to me about the project, I hope you’re excited for the release and to share the project.

I am super excited, and a little nervous, to share the music and I also have a lot more to put out later in the summer which I am really looking forward to !