AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block. Songs by Lucy Wainwright Roche seems to be told with a shrug.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND")
BLOCK: She sings with a note of apology or modesty, and yet talk about an impressive musical pedigree. Her father is the witty and acerbic singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright. Her mother is Suzzy Roche, one-third of the harmonious Roche sisters. Then there are her half-brother and sister, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, each of them acclaimed singer-songwriters. But Lucy looked around at all that talent and said, no thanks.
: I had no interest in being a musician because I was surrounded by them, and it seemed like a terrible plan.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOCK: So, Lucy Wainwright Roche steered away from the family business. She got a master's in education and settled in, teaching elementary school. But then Rufus talked her into coming on tour with him. And, as she told me, she got swept up into the romance of being a musician, even though she thinks she's really, really shy.
: The very first show I did alone had been a terrible, awkward, horrible disaster. And then the second one, about halfway through, I realized that I should just be the way I would be if I were just talking to one person. That solved the problem. Then I was like, oh, I'm not really building the mystique. I'm just sort of being normal. And that helped because I'm not much of a mystique builder.
BLOCK: I want to ask you about the song on the new album that's called "Seek and Hide."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEEK AND HIDE")
BLOCK: What do you think is going on in this song?
: That song, I guess, is about just in the rush of what it's like to be in a relationship at first, and it feels like everything is so different; and this sort of realization that you are stuck with you no matter what is going on, and no matter how much time has passed. And that's sort of like your constant companion, like it or not - is yourself, and sort of the shortcomings of that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEEK AND HIDE")
BLOCK: I imagine it was a deliberate choice to not have any of your family members on the album - your mom, Suzzy Roche; your dad, Loudon Wainwright; your siblings, Rufus and Martha Wainwright. None of them are on here.
: None of them are on here. In part, that was due to recording in Nashville in a very short period of time, and they were all in New York. But I think it was hugely different, a challenge and also great to kind of do it in a little bubble, away from the family. It was interesting to see what would happen when I went off by myself, as if I was just some person who didn't know anybody else making records.
BLOCK: You do one cover on this new album. It's the song "Call Your Girlfriend," which was originally a dance hit by the Swedish singer Robyn. Let's take a listen to her version first.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND")
BLOCK: And Lucy, here's your version.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND")
BLOCK: So Lucy, you've taken this hyperactive dance hit, and turned it into just about the most stripped-down song you can imagine.
: Yeah. That's one of my specialties - is taking upbeat things and turning them into, as a friend of mine said, sad snoozers.
BLOCK: (Laughter) Sad snoozers?
: Yes. I love that song. When I first heard that song, I was like, wow. I have never heard someone say exactly that, in that way, in a song before. And then in the recording process, I discovered with the producer that we both had a deep love of this song. We kind of looked at each other like could we possibly? And...
BLOCK: Turned it into a sad snoozer?
(LAUGHTER)
: Yeah. Is there any way that we could find a sad snoozer in that song? And sure enough, we did.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND")
BLOCK: You were saying you'd never heard somebody express quite that emotion in a song.
: Yeah. I'd never heard somebody say like, look, call your girlfriend, tell them we're going to be together now; and just tell her it's fine. You know, I thought it was quite direct, an interesting approach; although I'm not sure how well it would work in real life. But I was smitten with the idea of the song saying that.
BLOCK: Tell her it's not her fault.
: Yes, tell her it's not her fault. She'll be fine; it's fine.
BLOCK: Yeah. I'm sure she'll love that.
BLOCK: Yeah. (Laughter)
BLOCK: I'm talking with Lucy Wainwright Roche. You know, I was thinking, Lucy, as I was getting ready to talk to you - the first time I met you in a song was in a song that your dad wrote about you when you were a baby.
: Oh, yeah, "Screaming Issue," right?
BLOCK: "Screaming Issue."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SCREAMING ISSUE")
: "Screaming Issue" was written by my dad and my Aunt Terry; written, I think, New Year's Eve, right after I'd been born. I was born Dec. 16. And I was just a horrible baby that screamed constantly - for a while - and so that they were up with a screaming baby, and they wrote that song.
BLOCK: But it turned into this lovely, beautiful, beautiful lullaby.
: It is a really beautiful song. It is. As a kid, I really didn't like it because people would always sing it to me. Like, once I had a math teacher that would sing it to me and point out that each of the notes in the song had the same length, and he thought that was really interesting.
BLOCK: And you really didn't want to hear about it.
: No. I was just horrified. But now, I really like that song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SCREAMING ISSUE")
BLOCK: If I have this right, your dad wasn't part of your life from a pretty early age.
: Well, he was a part of my life, but my parents split up when I was about 2, and he lived in England part of the time. We definitely didn't spend large amounts of time together, and so that's been really interesting to tour with him as an adult. I think it's a thing that people who don't spend a lot of time with a parent as a kid, you rarely get to make it up. And we have, in a way. So that's been a really interesting chapter for us, I think.
BLOCK: That's Lucy Wainwright Roche. Her new album is "There's a Last Time for Everything." Lucy, thanks so much.
: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
BLOCK: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
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