Theresa Lucia

One can argue that a travelled life is essential to a good musician. Most of the music we love has been greatly influenced by bands hitting the road and seeing the world. It makes their perspective a portal into different experiences than those of our own little part of the world. What's more, changes in perspective breed wisdom. Now, without tours, it's going to be interesting to see how the music community reacts artistically. Living in multiple cities also gives one this larger perspective.

Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Theresa Lucia splits her time between her childhood stomping grounds of New England, her home base of Brooklyn, and the warmth of South West Florida where her family owns a beachside restaurant. On her latest EP Boxes, Lucia seeks to find an equilibrium amidst splitting her definition of home with three different places. Her gently grooving Americana folk takes a look at her life while trying to draw some life lessons out of the experiences along the way.

The eponymous lead track sums up her story with an examination of the different archetypes that the various people in our lives put us in and the cognitive dissonance involved in breaking these moulds as emergent characters with many edges and sides. Lucia takes an assertive but laid back approach, firmly keeping her sense of self but letting other's ideas of her pass like a light breeze. She sings with a calm assuredness over an easy Americana folk.

'Shake the Tree' picks up the movement with insistent shakers and a steady shuffle and curiously arresting lines like “I saw a man I've always known/His smile lines have yet to grow”. Lucia again alludes to her restless nature on this one. 'The Text' sums up modern romance exploring the conventions of love via touchscreen. She gets into the headspace of the patience and frustration involved in this new way of interaction. She treads into more surreal territory on 'Pacifier' singing over a stark synth intro that gives way to a throbbing bluesy lick. 'Roll With the Punches' rounds out the album reinforcing her adaptive nature with a slowly shuffling final ode.

Anyone who's left their hometown can identify with Boxes' story of finding different parts of yourself in different dwellings. The city gives you a fire and feeds your desires, the suburbs and the country let you relax and be yourself. Breaking out on your own gives you strength but so does being surrounded by family. Theresa Lucia does a good job of summing up all these experiences in to neat little.....boxes.