by Steve Patrick
– Sr. Columnist —
Hardrock Haven caught up with former Flyleaf vocalist Lacey Sturm at Rock on the Range after she opened up the day of music on Saturday. The author and mother of 2 chatted with us about her recently released debut solo album Life Screams, her next book, and covering The Police.
HRH: How are you doing today?
LS: Good! How are you guys doing?
HRH: Love the Life Screams record. Can you talk a bit about how your solo band came to be? Obviously, your husband is in the band…
LS: Yeah, well he does play guitar, so we’ve been writing music since I met him. (laughs) But it’s never been to release to the public. Some songs you write for your bedroom wall and that’s it, you know? But then I wrote a book called The Reason and I talk about my struggle with depression, suicide and hating God or people who talked about God … I didn’t believe in God … and then having this encounter with God that saved my life on the day I planned to commit suicide. I talk about that in my book The Reason and then I got an opportunity to go on a little tour after I had my second son … he was 2 months old … to go out and talk about the book. We thought, “Okay, it’s 20 minutes a night. We’ll try it and see how it goes.” It was really short. It was actually a 2-month tour, but it was spaced out. It felt really reasonable. So we went on this tour and I didn’t have to clean house and I didn’t have to make dinner … and I got so much time with my kids and I looked at my husband and I was like, “Maybe we can do this if we just do it right.” And so we said, “Well maybe we should put a record out.”
HRH: Are you having fun?
LS: I’m having so much fun! And my kids … you know, they cry when we have to go home. They’re like, “I wanna sleep in the bunk!”
HRH: Well you mentioned that you’re an author. Any plans on writing another book?
LS: Yeah, actually I just finished my second book and it’s supposed to come out in October. It’s very personal stuff. I’m like, “Why am I doing this?” (laughs) It’s like … it’s very painful things that I’ve struggled through and if it would help somebody either not have to have that pain or know that they can get through it or feel understood … then that would be worth it. So hopefully it’ll help someone.
HRH: What about the future plans for Lacey Sturm the band? Will there be a follow-up to Life Screams?
LS: Oh gosh! We have so many songs!
HRH: Well like you said, you’ve been writing for a long time.
LS: Yeah, we can keep writing every night. If we’ve got a good sound system, then we’re writing songs. I have the greatest musicians. They’re just friends of ours from down the street. We have this like artist community in Pittsburgh where you have artists come over and you feed them dinner and then we talk about what their band’s doing … like they’re a local band or whatever. The band down the street … the bassist and the drummer actually just kept coming over more than anybody. We became family with them. We were like, “Let’s rock out sometimes!” So they’re great writers and we write songs all the time together, so it’ll be great.
HRH: Life Screams has a great live cover of The Police’s “Roxanne”. How did you decide to tackle that song?
LS: Well there’s a lot of reasons, but one of the themes in the record is being able to identify a counterfeit version of love with a genuine version of love. And love honors your freedom. That’s something I didn’t understand when I was younger and “Roxanne” is this man trying to tell this woman, who doesn’t feel free, to live any other kind of life except the one she’s always known … that she doesn’t have to live that way. He’s trying to tell her that he loves her and that when all you’ve ever known is this controlling love like that, it’s hard to believe in anything else. So that’s kind of a theme throughout the book I wrote and through this whole record.
HRH: Lacey, I appreciate taking the time to sit down with us.
LS: Thank you!
For more information on Lacey Sturm, please visit www.laceysturm.com
[Photos appear courtesy of Chris A. Photogarphy]
