By: Erica Raley
While starting to familiarize myself with the local music scene, I had heard many people, musicians and audience members alike, talking about the band Out By Lucy. When I first saw them live, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect- but based on the murmurs drummed up around Ottawa, I knew I was in for a good show.
The first song I heard them play was Prestone and Coca-Cola, and its cynical lyricism entranced me immediately. There was something about everything about it- the syntax, the consonance, the underlying poetic structure, the obscure, relatable familial narrative- I was beyond pleasantly surprised, I was extremely impressed.
Out By Lucy’s song, Prestone and Coca-Cola, seems on the surface to be about a family dynamic in disarray. While specific enough to draw on the listener’s own experience with family, but vague enough that interpretation varies from person to person, Prestone and Coca-Cola is a beautiful ode to family disfunction with its aberrant inspiration drawn from a corrupt true crime story.
That is the beauty of lead singer Harrison’s writing style. He draws on certain aspects of life; with his lyrics, he gestures to a specific thing in the universe and explores it in a way that provides the listener with only the tools to interpret its meaning. Prestone and Coca Cola paints a narrative about a family, and without explicitly stating it, the audience can feel there is something not right within it.
The second verse delivers the lyrics:
“And you were just a bit more than a bother
You were a tad too much just like your father
Nobody in this house ever listened to me
Sorry Shawn you know it’s just how it’s gotta be”
Expertly applied, these lyrics can be interpreted in numerous ways. In my first listen, I was reminded even of my childhood. There’s something timeless about them, Out by Lucy isn’t just writing a song for you to relate to.
In an interview with the band, Harrison explained that Prestone and Coca-cola came to fruition at the age of 14 when he was both terrified and inspired by a true crime story covered by NBC’s show Forensic Files. The story was about a family who was indoctrinated into a religious cult. The mother brutally murdered her children and then took her own life.
Quite the traumatic story for 14-year-old Harrison to be internalizing. He wrote it all out into a song, likely, not anticipating it would be one he’d frequently play live almost 6 years later.
This is a common theme in Out By Lucy’s writing; they create a piece that is seemingly quite broad, relatable, catchy, and whimsical. It draws you in, you interpret it according to your life, and it means something to you. Every song, even ones that come off as silly or a bit juvenile, are poetically structured, played with a talented musical precision, and written with a deeper meaning.
Their audience-loved song, Mothman, whose focal narrative is about the fictional character Mothman, is really a metaphor for what it is like to be in a relationship with low self-esteem. Another song, Shoes in your House, is a witty back and forth between a guest who wants to remove their shoes to be polite, and a host who insists it’s fine if they leave them on. This is more deeply about fundamental differences in character, and when to know it’s time to step away from a relationship where you are too different.
“What I write about pulls you into specific times and places to my life- Mothman is about relationships, shoes in your house is about relationships,” Harrison said about the poetic underbelly of his work- “except Snorkelling. Our song snorkelling is just about snorkelling.”
This composition of surface-level whim and underlying profundity comes together to create playful music that makes you contemplate. Their sound iconically captures the essence of the band, who are close friends that have been playing together since they were kids. Now, as adults, they live together and pursue music.
After seeing them perform on a few separate occasions, their dynamic in our interview was fitting- childhood friends, reminiscing on their lives together through silly quips and inside jokes, while at the same time, coming together to create art that transcends them each individually and as a group.
Their long-term interpersonal connections add a touch of nostalgia to everything they do, and Harrison described their song Prestone and Coca-cola as “representing the edge of childhood”. Such a transformative stage of life, universal to all people young and old, Out By Lucy tiptoes around the heartstrings in a lighthearted but skillful way. Coined by some in the local music scene as the ‘Beatles of Ottawa’, I would not be surprised if Out By Lucy’s poetic lyricism and musical precision made for well-known classic hits in the near future.
When asked about Prestone and Coca-cola’s lyrics, the band credited Harrison for his work. Unanimously, they seemed to agree he was an excellent writer who fully encompassed the heartfelt complexities of life in a way that skirts around discomfort.
“We needed someone to facilitate meaning,” Harrison said, a sentiment that I think is a beautiful representation of what music is all about.
Wow! Great Writing!