Q&A: Lucky Break Defines “Making It” on Her Debut Album
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Margaret Elle
LUCKY BREAK RECLAIMS HER INNER COMPASS — For indie rock artist lucky break, “making it” has nothing to do with industry metrics or outward validation, it comes internally from staying true to one’s roots, especially throughout their early twenties.
That philosophy sits at the heart of made it!, her debut coming-of-age album arriving May 8. Across the project, lucky break maps the emotional terrain of early adulthood with unflinching honesty.
One of the album’s most striking moments comes from the standout single “Head Down,” a track that centers around the tension of wearing a mask and keeping one’s head down. Sonically, it’s built on bright, dreamy guitars and airy, double-tracked vocals that feel almost weightless. But beneath that softness lies something sharper. The song interrogates what it means to be in a place that doesn’t align with your values and you are confronted with having to wear a mask. The accompanying visual, directed by longtime collaborator Margaret Elle, mirrors that duality.
Made it! can be traced back to a period of personal transformation. The forthcoming project by lucky break began when the musician fell in love for the first time and moved abroad. After getting ghosted and getting sick, she was heartbroken and confined to her bedroom where eleven heartfelt tracks became her first proper collection of songs that capture her life between the ages of 19 through 23.
“Making it is staying true to your center and your values,” lucky break says to Luna. “I feel like if you can get through your early twenties following your own inner compass, then you've made it. There's so many forces I think that are trying to shift us away from ourselves and what we really want and who we really are.”
Produced by Grammy-nominated engineer Jessica Thompson and with friend and co-producer Elliott Woodbridge, lucky break drew from the sounds of her childhood. The musician adds, “I solidified the sound of the record by blending everything I grew up listening to, from pop music and country music, and inspiration from 90s alternative indie like Pavement and Liz Phair to Lucinda Williams, John Prine and Joni Mitchell found their way into the album as well.”
As lucky break prepares to bring these songs to audiences on a run of U.S. tour dates this spring and summer, made it! is an exploration of what it means to stay grounded while everything else shifts.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
LUCKY BREAK: I'm really inspired by the things that my 13 year old self would think were cool, like I started making music because I felt out of place as a kid. A lot of my creativity, and the stuff that I make comes out of just being in my bedroom. It really comes from creating a sense of freedom for my inner child. Lucky break is a music project, but it's also a multimedia project. I draw. There's going to be a zine coming out with the record that's a very feminist zine. I also write. I have a Substack where I write about music, but I also write about culture. I'm really interested in cultural criticism. It's like a three parter where there's the music, the visuals and the writing all together.
LUNA: Wearing masks can be seen as a performative force but also can be used in a deeper, emotional sense. What emotions or feelings pushed the story of your newest single “Head Down” to the surface? What did you set out to capture?
LUCKY BREAK: This is a song I wrote when I was working in a job that I felt like really didn't align with my values, and I felt like I was in a place where I had to wear a mask. I feel like masks are fun when they're used in a performative sense, like lucky break in a sense, is a mask, but also I felt like there was a lot of darkness underneath — the world that I was experiencing day-to-day. The song's about the tension underneath, some of those more appealing masks that we wear, or that other people around us wear, and taking a look under the hood at what's really happening.
LUNA: The music video, directed by Margaret Elle, expands on the feelings of wearing a mask even further. You can see that you and the director have a close-knit relationship. How did you and Margaret first conceptualize that visual tension — especially with the angel wings? How was your experience filming it?
LUCKY BREAK: Margaret and I've been friends for a long time, and the first video we did was the “Burning String” music video, and we just filmed that in my apartment. We had this synergy. With her behind the camera, I don't feel self conscious at all. I feel like I can fully embody this character without any fear, really. All of our videos are based on just our deep friendship and the things that we loved when we were teenagers. We both were on edgy Tumblr and she has an amazing artistic eye, so we both have similar muses, and I think we bring out the best in each other creatively. But in terms of conceptualizing “Head Down,” she had these cool angel wings, and we knew that the song touched on purity culture. We were like, let's just go around the neighborhood and let's go on the train and just create a feeling. I think that's where all of our all of our visual inspiration comes from just trying to create a mood around the song.
LUNA: Your debut record made it! documents a period of major personal transformation. You’ve been very hands on with this project since its inception through your DIY roots. What does the title made it! mean to you in the context of those years?
LUCKY BREAK: Making it through your 19 through 23 age is really a feat. It's the trenches. One of my favorite bands is Big Star, and I always loved that they had these tongue-in -heek titles, and that was part of why I called the project lucky break. It's this idea that you can do whatever you want if you believe in yourself, which I think is something that's like an idea that I like to play with and maybe poke holes in with the project as well. Made it! is sarcastic, but it's also true at the same time. I'm an indie DIY artist that does pretty much everything on my own. I literally did make it, but also the concept of what even is making it in this industry in this unjust, hierarchical world. Making it is staying true to your center and your values. I feel like if you can get through your early twenties following your own inner compass, then you've made it. There's so many forces I think that are trying to shift us away from ourselves and what we really want and who we really are.
LUNA: I would love to touch more on the creative process behind the album. You worked with producers and engineers Jessica Thompson and Elliott Woodbridge. What was it like bringing them into your creative process, and how did they influence the sound of the album?
LUCKY BREAK: Elliot is a dear friend of mine, and we met when I was opening for his band at Neck of the Woods in San Francisco a few years ago, and he's the first producer I ever worked with, and I feel really lucky for that, because he's just super creatively open. One of the songs off my first EP, we literally made in his car. I think we both have this by any means necessary, punk attitude about making music. Made it! was made really through a lot of resilience in our circumstances, and just making it in a little closet and on his laptop. Just making the art to the best of our ability with the tools that we had.
Jessica is super amazing. She really respected that aspect of the project, because she's working on stuff that's high budget. We're like, we just made this essentially in a tiny room / car, and she really made it sound super. She kept the soul of the songs, but also really polished them and made them sound really beautiful. I'm really grateful for both of their strengths of being able to create something really raw, and also ready for consumption.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on made it! — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who lucky break is right now?
LUCKY BREAK: It changes a bunch. I think right now, my favorite is “Burning String,” because I wrote that song in a very specific moment in my life where I was having relationship problems. I just moved to a new city. Everything I owned was in boxes, and I had no idea what the future was going to hold. I don't know if that feeling really ever goes away, there's always uncertainty. I think that song really stays true for me regardless of how much time passes.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?
LUCKY BREAK: That's such a beautiful question. The biggest thing I think is that as a woman, there have been a lot of times where I've been dismissed because I was deeply feeling or expressive. I felt that being deeply feeling or expressive kept me out of places. I just want women to take away from this that deeply feeling and expression is the path to find your people, and it's the path to create a life where who you are is celebrated and valued and loved. You get there through expressing yourself, not through repressing who you are. I hope that this album gives women the strength and empowerment to guide them into whatever future it is that they want.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
LUCKY BREAK: Right now, I'm feeling excited because I have a tour coming up. I have an album coming out in a month. I'm just a little bit antsy, but I feel good. The rest of the year is crazy because I'm playing three shows this month, and in May, I'm playing in LA and then in June, I'm playing in New York, and then in July, I'm going on a tour through the South, which is going to be really fun. Then hopefully, I'm going to pack everything in a car and drive across the country and move to New York in the fall, so it's looking busy.
