Steve Lacy has revealed some of his early influences in a new interview.
Speaking with The Guardian, Lacy opened up about his love for rock and indie artists such as Paramore, Weezer, Vampire Weekend, Mac DeMarco and Dirty Projectors.
“Growing up playing Guitar Hero put me on to a lot of rock and guitar music,” he said. “As I got older, artists such as Paramore raised me. Mac DeMarco, Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend. Even [the] Weezer [song] ‘Undone’ is one of my favourite songs ever.”
“Hayley [Williams]’s voice and melodies are crazy, because she takes the rock thing and makes it soulful,” Lacy said of Paramore. “With Weezer, I love the wit and humour. The dissonance of the chord progression of ‘Undone’ is truly just weird. For something like that to exist was super important for me in my musical journey, to be, like: ‘Oh, wow, you can make this sound fun and dope.'”
Lacy’s music is a reflection of his eclectic influences, as he explained: “When I make music, I take a small piece of everything that I love – I’ll take certain melodic approaches from Prince, but I’ll play it as if someone else was mimicking Prince, like if Jimi Hendrix tried to be Prince. But I like to mix different approaches together. It happens naturally. I’m never doing it all purposely. It’s just inside of me.”
