Interview with Sandra-Mae Lux
Sandra-Mae Lux is a Soul musician.
Why did you want to be a professional musician?
I think it's really important that the way you make your living connects to your skills and passions. Life is far too short to do a job just for the money. There has to be more.
I had an extraordinary high school music teacher named Jeremy Hepner, and I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for him. When it came to my final year of high school, I had to make a decision - play it safe and become a nurse (like my mom), or take a chance and go to music school. I had already applied to some nursing schools, when Jeremy took me aside one day and said "you don't pursue music, music pursues you." He went on to say that you can either do it now while you're young or find out that you have to do it later on, when it's a lot harder! He is absolutely the reason why I am here, and why I pursue music professionally with such passion to this day.
What inspires your music?
I'm inspired mostly by things that happen around me. Positive or negative feelings bubble up sometimes in the weirdest places, so inspiration can strike anytime, anywhere!
I was also very lucky that a lot of my parent's friends and family members had fantastic taste in music, and all of that soul, jazz, funk, R&B and classical music that was playing in the house when I was growing up absolutely influenced and inspires me to this day. Artists like Etta James, Otis Redding, US3, Amy Winehouse, Donny Hathaway, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra all have an influence on my songwriting.
What things get you in the mood to write songs, or do lyrics come spontaneously?
My writing partner Alan and I have been writing for years together, and he's mostly the lyric side, while I'm more on the music side (think Bernie Taupin / Elton John or Greenfield / Sedaka). However, we both influence each other's work. Generally I'll come to Alan with an "emotion dump," or an idea for a song, and he'll write it down (kind of like a therapist haha) and then he'll make sense of it and create lyrics.
Alan does a lot of automatic writing, and sometimes a poem will fall out. Both of us feel that a poem in its original form doesn't necessarily make good song lyrics. So we'll edit the poem and transform them into lyrics. Other times a great stray line will just fall out randomly, either from him or myself, and that becomes the basis of a new song. We have tons of stray lines written on post-it notes scattered all over our flat - we've got a lot more songs to write!
After we've finished finalizing the shape of the lyrics, I'll then sit at the piano (or guitar) and let the lyrics guide where the melody/harmonies/arrangement/groove wants to go. The song will tell you what it wants to do; all you have to do is get out of its way!
How do you want your music to affect people?
I want people to sit up and actually listen to songs again. To be moved by them.
We're in an age where so many songs are just the audio version of wallpaper. Good music has the power to evolve consciousness on a universal level. Good music that is created using songwriting craft, honesty and integrity can help someone feel emotions that they're afraid to feel or want to celebrate in feeling. Catharsis through art is deeply powerful, and I hope that people who listen to my music will experience a level of it in the same way I did when writing and recording it.
It seems like there is a dearth of good songwriting in mainstream music at the moment, so I hope my music can also be an example that the true craft of songwriting is still alive and well, and that we should strive to keep that high standard.
Do you test out your songs before releasing them? How do you do this?
Once we've finished writing and demo-ing a few songs, I'll have a few VERY close friends and a producer friend of mine take a listen. They'll give me their VERY honest opinion as to whether there's potential in the track, or if we need to go back to the drawing board. But the latter rarely happens haha.
How do you prepare for a gig?
Well, after I've dealt with all the gig admin (finding/hiring the band, writing charts, ticket links, venue details, timings, promo material, socials, sending invites, etc.) I'll make the set list. A great set list is like a musical journey, and I love honing it until the order of songs tells a great story. Then I'll practise singing the tunes and playing sax everyday until the gig! Oh, and fret feverishly and quietly panic for at least three days beforehand haha.
What is your favorite song that you've written?
Sadly and shockingly Jeremy passed away from a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Overwhelmed with grief, a song fell out in a rush, and the words that kept coming into my head and onto the page was "I'm still here." This is how the track "I'm Still Here" came to be, and it is one of the songs I am most proud of.
The track got so much attention, in fact, a soul music distributor approached me to release a 7" vinyl pressing of the track, with a new exclusive-to-vinyl release on the AA side called "The Last Time." It really is something special, and you can pick one up on my BandCamp page at https://sandramaelux.bandcamp.com/merch
Has there been a reaction to one of your songs that you've been surprised by?
I wrote a D'Angelo inspired slow-jam called "Do U Wanna" and everytime a muso hears it, they go crazy! I was so lucky to have Rob Mullarkey (the incredible bass player for Jacob Collier) play on the track, and his playing really lit it up.
What are some ways that you promote yourself?
It feels like social media is the only way people seem to promote themselves these days, but personally I haven't seen very many benefits from it. I still send out the odd newsletter via email (feel free sign up at www.sandramaelux.com) and that seems to do okay. With so many artists out there trying to promote themselves, it sometimes feels like I'm a voice lost among the crowd. But for the first time in 35 years, vinyl has outsold CDs which is so cool! I got an audiophile pressing of my 2020 album "Happily Ever Now" and it looks and sounds amazing! So that's been a nice way to promote myself and the music, and people love buying them at gigs or via my BandCamp page. Of course, publications like these really help, so thank you for the opportunity to share some of my story!
What would you say has been the biggest challenge of your career?
It takes me three "day jobs" in order for me to pursue music, which makes it almost impossible to find the time to do what I'm meant to do - which is to write, record and perform great music. Without art (cinema, music, visual art, acting, writing, etc.) the world would not be worth living in.
And, with so many artists and musicians out there who have all their music available with the click of a button, it's really hard to get your head above the parapet. Did you know that 700,000 tracks are uploaded to Spotify every single week? An independent artist like myself has almost no chance of getting onto a Spotify editorial playlist. The biggest challenge of my career has absolutely been getting the music heard. We've spent two years not being able to get out there, and gig, and I know my music has a place and a fan base. The biggest challenge is finding and connecting with people looking for music.
What have been your favorite places to tour?
I've actually not had a chance to do any substantial touring just yet. My first album was released during lockdown, so touring it was impossible. Mounting a tour now is unbelievably expensive. Even Michael Bublé had to cancel his latest tour because the finances didn't line up. For an independent artist like me, touring is almost an impossible dream. That being said, I would love to tour Europe, especially because it's all so close to the UK.
Are there advantages to being an independent musician?
Definitely! What's great about being an independent artist is that you get to write and record music when you're inspired to. There's no record exec jangling their gold chains, smoking a cigar and breathing down your neck demanding the next single/album. So you really get to write the music that you're meant to write, when you're meant to write it. Being an independent artist also means that you have full creative control over what goes out, what you look like, when/how to gig and tour, and most importantly - you have full control over your publishing, masters and recordings. So that means you also get 100% of the earnings!