Lucia Fasano will be performing at Difficult to Name in Portland, OR this Wednesday, August 9. // Photo by Deira Bowie
You're a singer/songwriter and also a comedian. How do you find that those two interests inform each other?
I never feel limited by songwriting and comedy, and find they go hand in hand. I feel like both of those outlets allow me to have control over the situation and feeling, and reclaim power.
As a writer and entertainer, I've found that certain emotions or themes yield the most catharsis if they're being shared in a room full of laughing folks, while other stories are the most affecting when sung about in a room of reverent, relatable ears or listened to privately in your headphones. When I have a story to tell, it either comes to me as a song or joke or drawing-- and if nothing comes of it, I put it down, and often find that that story or feeling eventually gets expressed, somehow. Say, wanting to joke about grief but it just doesn't feel right, and months later writing a song that really captures that. And sometimes when performing standup comedy you just want to make weird noises with your mouth that really shock and delight people. It feels like a superpower.
Your debut album "Radio Silence" strikes this really nice balance between music that's beautiful and engaging and lyrics that are extremely thoughtful. What is the story behind the song "F"? That's my favorite track on the album.
Thank you so much -- I'm really glad it resonated with you! I wrote that song after hearing news that my last remaining grandma had uterine cancer. I was plunking around on my mandolin (Mando Calrissian) that I had received from my other grandma's house after she passed away on Christmas Day that previous year. It was my first instrument and I was trying to play the infamous F chord. It was difficult, it was painful, and I was aggrieved. I turned on my IPhone's recorder and stream-of-consciousnessly wrote the song. The version that came to me is the same version that I perform and recorded for the album, no lyrical/structural change. My dad struggled with illness my entire life and I've always lived with great fear of loss, constantly pre-meditating it (I would lose him a few years after I wrote the song). This song, and much of my debut album, is about that dark, foreboding cloud that eclipsed my adolescence.
What can people expect from your performance?
When performing, I try to tread the line between light and dark. I will try to make you laugh and I may sing a bit and I may get a little melancholy, but I'll hope it makes you feel less alone. Maybe I'll just make fun of Trump. Bing bing bing.