The Luyas Find Lyrical Inspiration From Being 'Lost in the Universe' -- NXNE

Since releasing their second album, 'Too Beautiful to Work,' this February, the Luyas have done some serious globetrotting. Fresh off a European tour, the Montreal band kicks off their North American trek tonight at NXNE before heading back across the pond for a second run. Clearly, their dreamy (and sometimes "weird") songs are making a big impression with fans. Frontwoman Jessie Stein spoke to Spinner about life on the road and why she decided to flip the script when it comes to lyrical approach.

How was the European tour you just came back from?

It was fabulous. It was a lot of work, but it felt really great. We played for tons of people and went to a ton of cities -- I think just under 30 cities in something like 32 days. So it was pretty intense, but really really good.

Was it all your travelling that created so much work?

Yeah, it's lots of driving and then lots of staying up late playing shows, and no days off. So you can imagine, just like with any job, what it would be like to do 25 days in a row without a day off. It's kind of like that when you're on tour; it's not just a job, because obviously it's your passion and you're excited about it and it's really fun, but it's still hours that you're not resting.


Where did the name for your latest album, 'Too Beautiful to Work,' come from?

It came into my head as a bit of a joke, and it ended up being the title of a song. It just felt right for the album because we had tribulations trying to make it come out, and a lot of the comments we got on the early versions of it were, "It sounds so weird and cool, but I don't know? Is it too weird?" But I don't really think that's true. So it kind of felt like a funny title for something that people didn't know how to respond to. Then, there's also the thought that it's a bit of a play on words.

You switched gears with the theme on this record. Why did you step away from the more personal subjects this time?

Because I wasn't going through personal things on the same level, and because it was a more collaborative effort. It became more about universals or the mystery of being a person with a mind and trying to understand the world. It became much less about me and my personal message of my life. It just seemed like a good time in my artistic practice to do something other than tell my own story. And there were people around me going through things that I kind of wanted to explore lyrically, to try to explain what I thought somebody else was going through.

And what kinds of things were those?

Things like mental illness and being lost in the universe, and kind of overhauling your life -- things like that. I'm not going to get into super personal details because I don't think that's important, but just witnessing people kind of grappling with their own existence in a sort of disorganized way.

The Luyas play the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern tonight (June 16) @ 9PM

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