Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the band Lucius have been singing together long enough that they are of the same mind when performing. "We're singing together as one," Wolfe says. "We're so used to singing with each other, sometimes it's hard to sing alone."

It's indicative of the feeling of solidarity the Brooklyn-based five piece have forged, especially since the release of their debut album, Wildewoman. "I think all the touring we did on the first record has brought us together as a unit and made us really tight," Laessig says. "The five of us as a band are much more unified."

Now, Lucius have released a second album, Good Grief, and are launching a tour in support of it. The tour actually begins right here in the Twin Cities, with a sold-out show at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Before the gig, Lucius stopped in to The Current's studio for a session hosted by Mary Lucia.

Making their third in-studio performance at the station — and let's not forget their memorable Rock the Garden 2015 set — Lucius have become good friends of The Current; Mary says Minnesotans have even adopted Lucius as one of their own. "It feels like home for us, for sure," Wolfe acknowledges.

After all the time spent writing, arranging, rehearsing and recording the tracks on the new record, Lucius are excited to bring the songs of Good Grief to the world. "There's only so much you can do in rehearsal; you practice and it feels good, but until you have an audience in front of you that's responding to something, you don't know if it really works for you or for them," Wolfe says. "We're still working out our kinks, so we're excited to actually be just trying it out now."

Here are additional highlights from Lucius's interview with Mary Lucia:

On what's changed in the visual presentation of the band:

Holly Laessig: "The hair is different! That was sort of out of necessity because we bleached our hair so intensely, and so now it's red and getting healthy again."

On the band's approach to songwriting and arranging:

Jess Wolfe: "The two of us wrote the melody and lyrics and made some little demos, and then we'd sent it off the guys and they'd put their powers in there. And then they would send it back to us and we would pick and choose the best elements of those arrangements and bring them to the studio. Sometimes that meant starting from scratch, as far as arrangements are concerned, but the actual song was mostly ready."

On the band's long-term vision for their trajectory:

Andrew Burri: "I think just sustainability. Being able to sustain this, making music, that's the ultimate goal, I think."

Jess Wolfe: "Keep growing it the way that we have, where it feels natural and organic, and not like we're taking five steps ahead when we're not ready to. I think that was our plan all along; Holly and I sang together for like, six, seven years before we even started touring at all, just because we knew we weren't ready, we couldn't financially afford to do it. Why lose our butts on something when probably nobody would be showing up anyway at the time? I think we're just taking it a day at a time because things keep surprising us, and we surprise ourselves, and sometimes there's setbacks, but for the most part, there seems to be a momentum building and it hasn't stopped and luckily we have such an amazing audience and fan base that's so dearly supportive."

Listen to the complete in-studio session by clicking the audio player above.

Songs Performed

"Dusty Trails"
"Almost Makes Me Wish for Rain"
"Born Again Teen"
All songs from Lucius's 2016 album, Good Grief, available on Mom + Pop Music.

Hosted by Mary Lucia
Produced by Anna Reed
Engineered by Michael DeMark
Visuals by Nate Ryan
Web feature by Luke Taylor

Gallery

Fullscreen SlidePrevious Slide

12 of 12

1 of 12

2 of 12

Next Slide