When gripping storytelling can bring people together: an interview with Lucy Kruger, Europavox Campus’ patron

Lucy Kruger, the frontwoman of the German band Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys, is Europavox Campus’ patron for this 2025 edition. The perfect occasion to have a chat with this talented Berlin-based, South Africa-born guitarist and singer-songwriter about her life as an artist, her music inspirations and her creative process.

Could you introduce your background and tell us how you came to the idea of becoming a musician?

When I was quite young, I was pretty obsessed with singing. My brother’s girlfriend started playing guitar when I was about 16, and I got the chance to see what it would mean to make your own music. It felt very moving. Since I grew up in South Africa, I didn’t have so many examples of women around me playing guitar. I immediately started lessons, and I learned just as much as I needed to be able to write songs.

Then, I studied journalism at university, but you could take drama as a subject, and I ended up really loving that. I did that for four years, then moved to Cape Town and slowly started to play shows. I ended up leaving drama and taking shows very seriously.

Seven years ago now I moved to Berlin because it was quite difficult to make a career in music in South Africa, especially in alternative music, which has a very niche audience. With a previous band of mine, we had already organized European tours. But it’s difficult to travel in Europe with a South African passport. Setting up those tours was a lot of work. After doing it twice, I realized that I had to move there, which I did.

In the beginning, I just did absolutely anything I could. I said yes to everything, sent out 1 million emails, went to shows, tried to connect with people, and slowly started to meet people that could help me.

One time, I was opening solo for a band, and a woman from a small label in Germany was there. We started working together. It was hugely helpful to have someone who understood the music industry’s structure of releasing music in Germany. She introduced me to the possibility of funding, which is not so much a thing in South Africa and has been an absolute lifesaver for me.

As a band, how do you manage to find a common ground for expressing each member’s identity and emotions?

The first album I ever made was with a producer. He brought together the musicians, and they were all amazing. But I took that record offline after about a year because it didn’t sound anything like me. I felt like the musicians didn’t have a real connection with me or the music, and that I had to start again.

I once went to a show by myself, and came to the musician afterwards to ask if he would want to play with me. He was very sweet and just said yes. After that, I slowly started to put together a band.

I just had a lot of trust, maybe even too much, but I think it is the way to go. At that point, I also realized that I had a lot to learn. They all knew more than me musically, so I wanted to give them enough. When I came with a song, we sat in a room, and everyone kind of improvised. I think that the first record we did together was probably nowhere near as good as my debut album in terms of production, but it sounded much more like me.

I don’t compose for my band members. I might give them ideas, but I trust them. It’s a bit of an abstract process. It’s why I called my band Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys: I realized that I couldn’t do everything by myself. The wonderful and frustrating thing about music is that you can’t really do it alone. I think it’s about understanding the kind of people you’re working with: of course everyone has to be on a similar wavelength in terms of music, but we should also be able to connect on a more personal level, on political views even. 

Are these political views also influencing your songwriting, even though your lyrics always feel deeply personal?

I come from a space that is quite politicized, and I want to be involved in that conversation. I don’t really know how to tell other people’s stories and I’m not quite sure it’s my place. The best for me is to write deeply personal lyrics. They might be political, but I can express them however I want because they are only impacting me. I have always just tried to tell my own story from differing perspectives.

You know that feeling when you are reading a poem or a book, and somehow the author frames an experience in such a clever way that it makes you feel less alone or more understood? – I guess that’s the kind of storytelling that I am interested in using in my music.

How do you manage the stress of performing live performances? Is it something that gets better with time?

I think I have had different relationships with this experience throughout my time doing this.

There was a phase when I suffered really badly from stage fright. Something about it made me feel very vulnerable. And somehow, I just kept showing up and trying. Having a band that I trusted made a huge difference.

I once did a cover with a new drummer who told me how he deals with nerves :he makes sure he can play a song 20 times in the rehearsal room without any mistakes. But I’m not sure I have ever played any of my songs even three times without making a mistake! I guess it also depends on what kind of music you play, sometimes it’s just okay to feel this stress.

I know, from watching some of the artists I love, that it’s not about giving a completely polished performance. Also, a musician being a bit nervous is okay, because it means that they care.

When singing them live, how do you want these stories to be perceived and understood by people?

To me, the process of writing a song is very different from the experience of performing it. Lately, I am sometimes not even sure whether lyrics matter in live shows, I think it’s much more about transmitting something energetically. Words are kind of a tool in a performance, they are not the most important thing. It’s all about how they’re delivered.

Everyone is from another place in the band, living in a country that nobody is originally from, touring in completely different places. I think this exchange about music, performing to different people and doing something that provokes feelings in a group context is what allows for a feeling of unity.

We played an incredible number of shows last year across Europe. It was amazing, I loved it. It’s extremely moving, interesting and humanizing. It is a privileged thing to travel with music.

Why did you accept to be this year’s Europavox Campus’ patron? And what are you looking forward to with this project?

When I moved to Berlin, I didn’t really know anyone. There was so much talk about networking, and I had such a negative perception about it, I felt like I had to impress somebody or perform a certain role. I have come to realize that it is not what it needs to be. It can be about making art and making music, and, in general, living a good life is about having a community that can be so many different things.

I really believe in music and in the importance of it. But in some ways, it gets harder to create space for it and to have the finances to do it.

I think that what Europavox is doing, trying to create that space for musicians to be able to develop their practice and making it something for our communities, is very precious.