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    Concert Preview: Tony Lucca

    I didn’t share this with Tony Lucca when I interviewed him a few weeks ago, but I tried to replicate his hairstyle after seeing him on The Mickey Mouse Club when I was in high school.

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    After exhausting a full tub of Dep firm-hold gel to no avail, I instead settled on a Luke Perry-inspired ledge.

    My follicles didn’t survive the 90s quite as well as Lucca’s, who emerged from his MMC days as a prolific singer-songwriter that has steadily grown his cachet as an independent artist over the past twenty years. His first studio album, So Satisfied, arrived in 1997, and his eighth and most recent eponymous set was released in 2015. In 2012, he was embraced by American audiences as a hopeful on the second season of the NBC reality television singing competition, The Voice, finishing as the second-runner-up and securing a recording contract with Adam Levine’s 222 Records label.

    These days, Lucca is back to making music on his own and is considering a new album in the near future.

    “I’ve just been down here doing the Nashville songwriter thing.” the native Detroiter explains on a call from his adopted Music City home. “Which is a lot of fun and a daily adventure. I’ve slowly been amassing a pile of songs that I’m connected to and that I’m entertaining putting up on the feed in the studio and making the next record with. I would like to kind of do some test marketing (laughs) and see what people respond to, you know? Really let the songs live and breathe before I commit to the arrangement and what key I’m going to record them in and that kind of stuff.”

    His official artist website, which Lucca uses to sign fans up for his newsletter in addition to selling his own merchandise and music, also turns twenty this year – having made its debut at a point when the internet wasn’t the sole driving force behind music promotion and sales. Recently, he’s branched out into a variety of crowdsourcing forums to generate interest and financial support for his projects – including Patreon, which allows fans to pay-by-play for exclusive artist content like digital downloads, videos, and virtual real-time performances. According to Lucca, it’s been a beneficial and productive platform that complements his regular writing and recording.

    “That’s been a game changer in a few ways – both Patreon and Kickstarter, because I did do one in 2014 that raised an amount of money that was just beyond encouraging,” he confirms. “In the big picture, yes they get to see these little videos and behind-the-scenes things I’m doing, but if I quit writing and recording and touring, that audience is going to go away. This isn’t a replacement for my regular body of work, and I’ve to got to keep that in mind as well. No matter what I’m doing, I’m able to feature it and frame it and produce it for the Patreon audience in a way that keeps them engaged and gives them first-look access to all that I do.”

    Lucca has been perpetually busy as a nationally touring musician. On Saturday night, Lucca will stop by Rumba Café, sharing the intimate SoHud stage with fellow Nashvillian Derik Hultquist.

    You’re an incredibly prolific songwriter – I imagine you’re in a perpetual state of creating music?

    “I’m kind of always writing, and especially now that I’m living in Nashville, I’m writing pretty much every day. At least three days out of the week I’m in co-write sessions here – that’s a workforce unto itself. It’s really like a nine-to-five, or a ten-to-four, environment where people are just writing all day, every day. And they’re turning out songs for everything from film and television placement stuff to more artist-oriented pitching, where you’re trying to get a specific song to a specific type of artist in a particular genre. So, yeah, I have been chipping away at that front and trying to get songs in the hands of other people. But again, as I do that, I’ve been accruing a stack of songs that I might like to call my own. I’ll usually take a body of work that feels cohesive and that makes sense for a record, and if I feel like I could afford a couple more songs for [it], I’ll dig in with focus to specifically write songs for that project.”

    I’ve been talking to so many artists recently about Nashville and its creative influence on the music industry all over the country – and how it’s really shifted the game away from places like New York and Los Angeles. How has living and working there stretched and shaped you?

    “I’ll tell you, there’s a specific element – the fact that over the years, a lot of artists and writers…it’s just naturally grown, the scene and the environment and the community of writers has just grown. So there’s just more talent here. But I think, maybe more philosophically, there’s an energy here. There really is. And I feel like I can say something like that without it sounding wildly cheesy, because I did live in L.A. for sixteen years, and I lived in Brooklyn for a year-and-a-half, and I’ve lived in Orlando and Detroit. I know kind of what I’m talking about when I say after four years in this town. It might be a temporary thing, but I don’t think so.

    It’s almost like Nashville is a demonstration in the art of abundance, you know – the law of abundance. It just seems like there’s enough to go around – enough vibrance and creativity and motivation. And everyone’s in a pretty good damn mood most of the time (laughs). After living in L.A. for so long, and certainly Detroit, it’s really refreshing to trust that when you go out and about, most people are going to be positive at the very least – if not friendly and most times constructive, if you’re open to it. You kind of just have to leave the house and things happen. I had told my wife that we’d have to schedule or allot for me to go out at least once a week and see other shows or other artists – just because that’s where so much ends up taking place.”

    You’ve been an independent artist for 20 years, and you established yourself as such at a time when there weren’t a lot of artists who were instead chasing major labels. What perspective and knowledge has that provided to you that you might not have been privy to otherwise?

    “I’ve had to sort of perpetually diversify and wear a lot of hats. At various times, I’ve taken a lot of pride in sort of how many hats I’m able to wear – I’ve bemoaned that I have a huge, huge hat rack, you know?  It’s afforded me a really wonderful, rich understanding of the big picture. The importance of every little piece of the puzzle and all the people you encounter – from the studio engineers to the sound and light people at venues, as well as publicists, managers, and agents. You really understand that when you see someone succeed and break out and they’re on the cover of Rolling Stone that it does not happen by accident. There’s a really incredibly symphony at work trying to bring that to fruition. And I’ve really developed a pretty sound appreciation and respect for all of it, and the process that it is.

    There are definitely times when I wish…I suffer from tour bus envy (laughs). When I see tour buses cruising down the highway, and I’m on hour six of an eight-hour drive, I think ‘man! That’d be really nice just sit in the back just going over songs on my guitar before the show.’ So, here’s that – and that remains the ever-elusive, diamond-encrusted carrot I case, you know? (laughs) But, in the meantime, it doesn’t change the simple things like being able to go and book shows, and see fans, and sell CDs – and get on the road and do it all over again the next day. I’ve been really fortunate to be able to maintain a national touring base that makes it possible for me to go on the road. And it makes it viable for me to continue to make records and sell them. I’m really blessed and I feel really fortunate to have the longevity I’ve had.”

    I’m really interested in Patreon, which you’ve really sort of plunged into as a platform recently. How has that impacted your reach as an artist?

    “It felt like a mandate from my fans to go and do what I love. And again, that sounds wildly clichéd, but that’s exactly what it was. The Patreon thing caught me by surprise because I had no idea what it was, or how I could make it work – but it seemed like there was something to it that I would be able to take care of, and handle, and do. What I’ve learned is that it’s…you get what you put into it, just like anything else in life. I’ve reached a nice groove with it, where I’m producing a few pieces of video content a month – and the fans enjoy some of the perks they get now and the rewards they get with the tiers they support. Some people are getting access to exclusive content and downloading MP3s, exclusive videos I’m producing, and personal at-home stuff that only Patreon fans are getting access to. There’s also everything from pre-admission shows – and I do Patreon ‘hangs’ before shows people can sign up for. Really just creating the ongoing VIP experience where if you’re part of the Patreon community, you’re the core of the core and you’re supporting me in the way that’s almost hard to quantify.

    But it really does make a difference, and I’ve been keeping an eye on, as one of the early adopters of the platform, other artists and how it’s been impacting their work. It feels like a gratitude platform, and it’s been really helpful because it’s held me accountable and forced me to stay prolific and relevant with myself. To really stay sharp and constantly present things to my audience.”’

    You have a rather ambitious touring schedule. As you piece together an outing on the road and you’re intimately involved in creating the show experience you share with your audience – what are your priorities? What are the most important elements that need to be in place for you to communicate your artistic vision to your fans?

    “I used to just go out and play shows and think that was it, you know? Now, I’m starting to get a little selective about who I tour with, what the tone of the show should be – if it’s all acoustic then it better be funny, or it better be entertaining, or it better have some serious dynamics to it with an interesting flow and a way to weave things together. Keeping costs down, obviously, by playing acoustic, but also going out with other artists that are into that sort of thing. Last fall, I went out with Alex Dezen, former front man of The Damnwells, and he and I did what we called ‘The Heads or Tails Tour’ where we basically both took the stage at the start of the show and flipped a coin to see who went first. Then we took turns telling stories and playing our songs back and forth – almost like a songwriter-in-the-round thing, except it was a two-way round. And people just loved that – they loved the melding of two artists and learning new things about them and hearing new music. It was a really enjoyable go.

    Similarly now, I’m going out with Gabe Dixon – he and I go back a little ways now and we’ve written a few songs together, and we’ve done some touring in the past. We may do a similar thing where we have one of us start and then bring the other one up and do a few things together, and then transition into the other person’s set. Trying to keep the audience engaged and entertained to where they don’t ever turn out. You want to keep them from having to run to the bathroom. (laughs) I mean, obviously, they need to go to the bathroom. Which you have to keep in mind as well because there are some shows where we’re just playing and playing and playing – and we’re doing our best work, but the audience is a little out of it because the fatigue sets in.

    Each show’s different, you’ve got to know what you’re bringing to the stage, and that way when fans see something it’s a little different each time and it’s not predictable in any way.”

    Tony Lucca will be at Rumba Café, 2507 Summit Street in SoHud, on Saturday, September 23 with Derik Hultquist. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 (plus taxes and fees; guests under 21 pay an additional $2 at the door for admission). 

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    Grant Walters
    Grant Waltershttps://columbusunderground.com
    Grant is a freelance writer for Columbus Underground who primarily focuses on music and comedy. He's a Canadian transplant, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and schooled in Vancouver, British Columbia. Grant is also the co-author of two internationally acclaimed books: "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1960s" and "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1970s." He has also penned numerous articles and artist interviews for the nationally recognized site, Albumism.
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