Lucy Spraggan

The Stockport-dwelling Songwriter and Career Contrarian Talks Story-telling, Stigmas and Sticking to Her Guns

For perhaps the first time ever, at least in her professional life, Lucy Spraggan is feeling some sense of contentment. After her appearance on X Factor in 2012 the Buxton-born songwriter found a reputation built playing five nights a week was quickly erased by the Cinderella-seeking publicity juggernaut surrounding the show. Now residing away from the majors, on Cooking Vinyl, her new record Today Was A Good Day is imbued with a palpable sense of celebration and liberation. The twist, however, is that having worked so hard to reestablish her authenticity, Lucy has chosen this point to make a record of hyper-infectious pop bangers – albeit guitar-centric ones.

“It’s funny,” she tells TG. “I could have gone down that ‘internal music’ rabbit hole and I really didn’t want to do that. So it’s kind of ironic that probably the biggest pop record I’ve made has come when I’ve escaped the rat race and I’m doing things I want to do. I’ve made the record, probably, that Sony wanted. ‘Fuck ’em,’ basically! I didn’t do it on purpose, but I might start telling people I did...”

That bold and amusingly contrarian nature has been key to Lucy’s path through the music industry. It’s an attitude we can imagine major label execs found infuriating, but it is – essentially and endearingly – key to her craft.