Lucy Dacus plays songs from 'Forever is a Feeling' in The Current studio
June 16, 2025
Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus says that throughout her life, she’s been called “an old soul.” That introspection and perspicacity, coupled with an ingrained discipline for journaling, has lent itself well to Dacus’ work as a songwriter, resulting in thoughtful and insightful lyrics.
That songwriting is on full display on Dacus’ latest album, Forever is a Feeling. While in town for a pair of shows at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Lucy Dacus visited The Current to play songs from the new album. Afterward, she chatted with The Current’s Jessica Paxton about a variety of topics, including her approach to journaling and her short list of favorite filmmakers.
Watch the musical performance in the video player above, and watch the interview below. Beneath the interview video, you can find a full transcript of the conversation.’
Interview Transcript
Jessica Paxton: I'm Jessica Paxton, afternoon host here on The Current, and I am joined by Lucy Dacus, who is here in town for two nights for performances at the Palace Theatre, along with special guests, Katie Gavin of MUNA and jasmine.4.t. Welcome back to The Current. I want to congratulate you on your beautiful new fourth solo album, Forever is a Feeling, called "a gorgeous and tender collection of songs about falling in love."
Lucy Dacus: Thank you!
Jessica Paxton: Absolutely beautiful. So the set you just performed with members of your band, absolutely stunning. I just got goosebumps and chills and a lump in my throat. There is a depth and a maturity and, like, a calming stillness to your music that feels wise beyond your years. Where does that come from? I read that you started writing songs at age eight.
Lucy Dacus: I don't know where it comes from. And actually, like, at a young age, my parents were like, "What's up with you?" I feel, I've been like, called "an old soul" my whole life. I just turned 30, and I feel like people are still telling me that. So I'm wondering what age it's gonna flip over and people gonna be like—
Jessica Paxton: You're gonna regress?
Lucy Dacus: ...Yeah, no, or just like people will stop calling me "an old soul." Like, how old do I have to get for that to stop? But yeah, I don't know what that's about.
Jessica Paxton: So I also read, too, that journaling is really important to you, and your journals, and that it's like you're talking to your internal self. What does that — I mean, how important is that practice to you in your daily life? I mean, is that something you feel compelled that you have to do?
Lucy Dacus: I wish it was daily. It used to be, for, like, many years, and now I'm so busy. It's probably around like once every 10 days now. I'll try to recap what's been going on. So I miss a lot of things nowadays, but it's still such a good tool to just get right-sized about stuff. Like, sometimes I'll go to write about something that feels like a small thing, and then I'll realize, "Wait, this matters so much to me," or I'll have this huge feeling, and then put it into words and be like, "That's actually not a big deal at all."
Jessica Paxton: That's so interesting.
Lucy Dacus: It's very humbling. It's like getting in touch with reality.
Jessica Paxton: Is it like an internal voice that you're kind of dialoguing with? Or is it ... ? You know, so I guess I'm trying — is it one sided or two sided or or multi sided?
Lucy Dacus: Whoa, I don't know what that would look like.
Jessica Paxton: Like a group chat.
Lucy Dacus: Group chat with me and all my personalities! No, I guess it's one sided. It's me. I guess it's me storytelling to me. Of like, what does my life look like? And having to actually put words to it is so helpful, and I know it's a bad sign if I haven't been journaling. And I know a lot of people journal when they're pissed off, and so all their journals are that, or people just journal when they're happy and want to remember happy things. So I think it fills a different role in each person's life. And for me, I think it's just to, like, say to myself, like, "This really happened." And, you know, I think it's easy for my brain to kind of de-legitimize things, or legitimize things that are not real. And so that's very helpful.
Jessica Paxton: That's so interesting. I there was a quote from Hozier, who I know you collaborated with on one of the songs, "Bullseye," on the new album, Forever is a Feeling, and I love that he said, "I love the eye through which her lyrical voice finds the world." And I just thought that was so beautiful and so insightful, especially from someone who's a really, really prolific songwriter himself. I swear he's — you're that way, too, given all your multiple creative musical projects. But it's like, "What, there's already there's already another Lucy Dacus album?" "There's also already another boygenius?" "There's already another Hozier?"
Lucy Dacus: There's no stopping because it's like what life is made of. I mean, I'll go like, months without writing just because. But I think if I ever really stopped writing, I would stop knowing who I was, and I would feel so bad. But that's very sweet of him. He's on different levels, though; I feel like he's plumbing like ancient myths and like old art and...
Jessica Paxton: And I would say that about you.
Lucy Dacus: Well, thanks. I feel a little more, I guess, because I wrote it, I know where it came from, so it feels all tangible to me. I have that bias, I suppose. But yeah, he's awesome. His voice sounds so good on that song, too.
Jessica Paxton: Well together, it's really stunning. Well, that was a good segue to talk about the album, Forever is a Feeling. Talking about, I feel like there's this mediaeval, Rubenesque, ancient quality to you, your look, your music, and certainly that's reflected on the album cover and the oil painting by Will St. John, which is really beautiful. Did you actually have to sit and pose for a portrait?
Lucy Dacus: Not like for the duration, but we did a whole shoot to get reference images. And then, yeah, I love the painting in person. It's very stunning. It looks like—
Jessica Paxton: I was gonna ask, is there an actual painting? Do you have it in a frame?
Lucy Dacus: Yeah, so it's an actual, yeah, it's like a physical object.
Jessica Paxton: That's amazing.
Lucy Dacus: I thought it would be cool to have, like, no digital aspects to the art. But, yeah, it kind of like, would have been cool if I had two months to just, like, sit—
Jessica Paxton: To pose. Exactly.
Lucy Dacus: But Will did a really great job. And, yeah, it's interesting, like, it's not one time period I'm trying to evoke. It's just like romantic eras through time, but Rubenesque is a great word for it. And just like writing all these songs, love songs, I was like, "Love is so old," and it's been a motivator for art forever. So it's given me the chance to, like, go back and look at a bunch of old art and feel small in a history of things, which is a great feeling.
Jessica Paxton: That is so beautiful. That makes me think of something else that you said: "Love is such a money maker. It's not always pleasant whenever you love something, a lot you're booked for grief."
Lucy Dacus: I said that? Yeah, I guess ...
Jessica Paxton: I read that in an article. Yeah, it was ...
Lucy Dacus: Sounds like me.
Jessica Paxton: Yeah.
Lucy Dacus: I guess someone was asking me about, like, why write about love? And I guess, like, in a weird way, like, love, you feel that it's rote. Like, "Oh, everybody writes about love."
Jessica Paxton: Yeah.
Lucy Dacus: And then I look around and I'm like, "Is everybody writing about love?" Or like, I don't really feel that that's true. Or like, there's a lot of stuff about love that I think is, like, pretty poor representations of what love could actually be. And, yeah, and I think love is not necessarily this, like, happy, exactly, thing. And, yeah, love and loss—
Jessica Paxton: J. Geils Band, man. "Love Stinks."
Lucy Dacus: "Love Stinks." I mean, it feels like, harrowing. Like when you really love someone or something, and you know that you will lose it eventually.
Jessica Paxton: It's the most terrifying thing ever, and even if it's rock solid, you feel like you can't count on that solidity sometimes.
Lucy Dacus: Well, because we all know we're passing through, like, on a base level, we all know that, and that's part of why, like, love feels really important to actually talk about and to stay focused on, and like, get real about. But it's really elusive. Like, I ask people how they define love, and people have a hard time. Like, people feel like it's all anybody ever talks about, and yet you try to talk about it, and it resists definition.
Jessica Paxton: It's very hard to articulate, and it's so, it's such a different experience for everyone. Well, there's romantic love, there's platonic love, obviously the love you have for your friends, your fellow musicians, your colleagues. I feel like, you know, you are also really unique, because you have intentionally let yourself be a — you know, you're a consummate collaborator. I see you working with all different musicians, uplifting them. They uplift you. You're touring now with this incredible lineup. How did that come about? I mean, the fact that you're touring with Katie Gavin and jasmine. 4.t.
Lucy Dacus: Yeah.
Jessica Paxton: And you have this amazing band who's with you today.
Lucy Dacus: Love my band! Yeah. Katie is a good friend, and Jasmine is a good friend, and I just am one of the luckiest guys that I get to swap Voice Memos with them and, like, get their opinions on stuff I write. They ask for my opinions. I just feel like I learn so much from them. And it's lucky that I get to choose who I play music with, because really, like, nothing's worth doing unless the people around you are people you like being around, and we all really like, love each other and each other's music, I'll like, watch their sets and just be like, "They make an embarrassment of me." But yeah, they're both such good songwriters. If anyone listening hasn't listened to Katie Gavin's solo record or the jasmine.4.t record, they're so, so good.
Jessica Paxton: Well, and they're gonna get the chance when they see you guys all perform at the Palace for two nights, you know. And, you know, I think there's also this element of you have intentionally embraced being a role model or an advocate and activist for LGBTQ+ rights. Is that something you take into your songwriting and the way you present yourself in your performances? Or is that something that just happens to be one element of you, like having beautiful dark hair?
Lucy Dacus: I guess, like being a role model. Like, I don't think of myself as a role model, but also I don't think you get out of influencing people. Like, people who would reject that they're a role model, it's like, you don't really get to choose how other people internalize how you are. So, I mean, everyone is a role model. Like, children are a role model to role model to me, like just the way that they see the world and have simple understandings of complex things, or their curiosity. And so yeah, I do stuff because I want the world to be that way. And if people want to follow me, then, yeah, I stand by how I act and, you know, causes I care about, and try to, like, put money in other people's hands, and there's any ... I am resisting listing, like, all the stuff that's wrong right now, you know?
Jessica Paxton: You and me both, yeah.
Lucy Dacus: I mean, yeah. Like, I try to stay donating to trans people's GoFundMe's. I tried to stay donating to the Palestinian Children's Fund, Defense Fund, and just giving money to my friends and if not money, like time. That's something on this tour that is different from the previous tours, is usually we collaborate with charities to raise money locally, which we're still doing, but we also asked if anybody takes volunteers. So there's like a QR code at the end of the show where people can get all of those resources in one place that they can return to. Because I have a lot of, like, younger fans, and a lot of time, you don't have money, but maybe you have free time.
Jessica Paxton: And it's really important to be involved and engaged and to feel like you're doing something, so providing people with that opportunity.
Lucy Dacus: Yeah, you know, like it's interesting, people talk about activism like it's separate from just life, and I think that keeps people from being active, because they're like, "Well, I'm not an activist."
Jessica Paxton: Exactly.
Lucy Dacus: And actually, you are doing actions all the time, and so at any point, you could do an action that gives you self respect, and you don't need to, like, get all heady about whether or not you're an activist.
Jessica Paxton: Absolutely. That's amazing. I know you're in a hurry. Two quick questions: your lipstick shade and brand. It's beautiful.
Lucy Dacus: It's not this one, but the one that I wear the most, that I want to shout out, is Lisa Eldridge — what is it? — Velvet Ribbon. That's like the red that I wear all the time. And then this one? I don't know what this one is. So sorry!
Jessica Paxton: I read that you went to college to study film. Favorite film, favorite director?
Lucy Dacus: I mean, it feels like ... I feel like everybody's answer is Paris, Texas.
Jessica Paxton: Incredible film.
Lucy Dacus: Yeah, it's just like a perfect film. And I also really love The Fall by Tarsem Singh. I love Robert Altman. Of like, recent films, like, Moonlight was a big deal to me—
Jessica Paxton: That was beautiful.
Lucy Dacus: ... as it was many people. Barry Jenkins, great director. I could keep going.
Jessica Paxton: That's amazing, I'm a big film buff, too.
Lucy Dacus: So, what are your faves?
Jessica Paxton: Well, you know, I just saw Eraserhead for the first time on the big screen over the weekend, and it was astounding to watch it all these many years later. And it was so weirdly beautiful.
Lucy Dacus: Yeah.
Jessica Paxton: I like, I had forgotten.
Lucy Dacus: It's like, entrancing.
Jessica Paxton: Absolutely.
Lucy Dacus: That was, unfortunately, a laptop watch for me. I need to watch that on, like, a proper—
Jessica Paxton: It was an incredible opportunity to be able to see. And it was a restored 4k. It was just astounding. So that's kind of what's top of mind for me right now. Well, thank you so much. I know you've got the tour, you've got the performance. I just want to say congrats on a really beautiful record, and good luck with the rest of the tour, and we look forward to having you back down the road.
Lucy Dacus: Thanks!
Songs Performed
00:00:00 Best Guess
00:03:42 Limerence
00:07:14 Ankles
All songs from Lucy Dacus’ 2025 album, Forever is a Feeling, available on Geffen Records.
Musicians
Lucy Dacus - vocals, guitar
Alan Good Parker - guitar
Sarah Goldstone - piano
Phoenix Rousiamanis - violin
Credits
Guest – Lucy Dacus
Host – Jessica Paxton
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Audio – Eric Xu Romani
Video – Evan Clark, Ruben Schneiderman
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producers – Reed Fischer, Luke Taylor
External Link
Lucy Dacus – official site