Singer-songwriter Lucy Spraggan shot to fame in 2012 when she appeared on the ninth series of ‘The X Factor’, for which she successfully auditioned with her original song Last Night and made it through to the live finals.
Illness struck and she made the decision to withdraw from the competition, but she was a hit with viewers and later landed a recording contract with Columbia Records for her major label debut ‘Join the Club’.
Now, 10 years later she’s back with the nostalgic single Everything Changes (Beer Fear Pt. II) – the first track from her forthcoming eighth studio album, that comes at a time of personal reflection and self-discovery for the musician.
Your new single Everything Changes (Beer Feat Pt. II) celebrates your journey so far and samples your ‘X Factor’ audition song Last Night. Tell us about the track.
That song is the biggest song I’ve ever had and people remember it even now, which is wild. It’s been viral on TikTok, the sound has been used like 20 million times, and I wanted to write something that’s super nostalgic, but also incorporates the change from the beginning of that song to now. I had it in my head for ages and that’s just what came out.
Did you set out to do something that’s self-referential or did it just turn out that way?
I knew I was gonna sample it. I don’t really think anyone’s ever done that, sample their own song…
It’s funny how artists try to make their songs go viral on TikTok but yours just did without you even knowing.
I was speaking to some young people about it and I was trying to explain what my music was like. I said, ‘I have this song called Last Night,’ and they said, ‘Oh, the TikTok song!’ I was like, ‘For fuck’s sake.’
But you’re not just a girl with a TikTok hit – there’s 10 years of music and seven albums!
Somebody told me the other day that I’ve released the most albums of any ‘X Factor’ contestant – that’s quite cool. But I’ve just been touring the world and releasing records, and that’s all I ever wanted to do.
How do you find the time to be so prolific?
There’s this circadian rhythm that every two years I release an album. So for the first six months to a year after the album is released, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’ll never have enough songs to do another album in a year.’ And then the writing process is that they just appear and I have the songs. I’ve been writing songs since I was like 10 years old.
Wasn’t your last album (2021’s ‘Choices’) your best-charting yet?
Yeah, No. 5, which is wild! But again, it’s kind of breaking the mold of like a lot of other careers, and mine has not really been the conventional career anyway. No one really ever goes the way that I have.
You were in all the tabloids when you did ‘X Factor’ and landed a major record deal for your 2013 album ‘Join the Club’, but went on to release your next projects independently. Why was that?
To be honest, you face all kinds of roadblocks in life anyway, but I think, being queer, you get told ‘no’ a lot, or there’s loads of things that you can’t do the same as everybody else. Which is sad, but it gives you this mindset of, ‘OK, I’ll do it my own way’. In saying that, the queer community, when I wasn’t being picked up by anyone, completely had my back and got me to where I am. So I always felt weirdly really supported and, to be honest, now I’m seven albums in and the last one got to No. 5, the same labels that turned me down then are saying, ‘We’ll do a deal with you!’ I’m like, ‘Fuck off!’
That’s so great that you’re in a position to do that and have success independently!
Well, it forces you to be financially responsible as well, because I self-funded everything. It’s hundreds of thousands of pounds – if not millions of pounds – and when you’re that on it, it teaches you to be responsible. So my business is very much run like a business.
So when it comes to this new album for your 10th anniversary in music, what can we expect.
Everything Changes is super nostalgic and I made sure it sounded super pop because of who it’s for, but the album itself has a very live sound. I’m recording it in Dublin, ao it’s got this Celtic or Gaelic sound to it, but also commercial. Lyrically, it has quite a reflective nature because it’s me, seven albums deep, being like, ‘What the hell?’ It’s kind of therapy, finding yourself and realising who you are.
Is that journey of self-discovery ongoing?
Yeah. I realised that if you claim to know everything then you’re completely wrong, because we’re all developing all the time. I think that’s the magic of life. I have a book coming out next year and I write about the fact that there’s stuff I wrote 18 months ago that I look at like, ‘Who wrote that? You idiot!’
What’s easier: writing a book or writing songs?
Definitely songs. Oh, my God. Writing the book has been the hardest, but also the most empowering, thing I’ve ever done. It’s like, thinking really deep into all the trauma in your life. But it’s great. Like I say, it really helped me find out who I am.
Finally, there’s talk of ‘The X Factor’ returning to screens. What would be your advice for future contestants?
It wouldn’t be to the contestants actually, it would be to the show itself. It would be that they really have to work on the reality of reality TV. They have to work on the trauma that being famous is – and especially that kind of fame. They just need to look after everybody a little bit more. But I I believe they can do it.
Do you think things have improved on reality shows in terms of support for contestants etc.?
I don’t actually. But I do feel that… Well, I’m gonna stick my big fat oar in very soon and have my say about things. And I think that that will encourage some really interesting and positive conversations.
Everything Changes (Beer Fear Pt. II) is out now on Ctrl Records
