With a title like God is a Boy’s Name, you know from the get-go that Luca Chesney isn’t serving bubblegum pop that’ll inspire you to complete another ten minutes of cardio.  With a trio of singles already available via the site BandCamp.com – first “Sleepers” then “Prayers” and most recently, “We Made a Fire” – the music from her self-produced full-length release is ripe with recurring themes including redemption, wonder, and the constant need for escape; all as perceived through the glass of the artist, herself.  But while certainly tinged with melancholy, there is an irrefutable sense of hope, of self-discovery, and even the release from whatever shackles have prevented forward and upward movement.

“Loss and longing and pain are beautiful things,” says Chesney – (her first name is actually Rachel; Luca being a nickname from her early years) the eldest of three daughters of missionaries to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (i.e., the island in the Greater Antilles, shared by the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic).  And as if that doesn’t set her apart, her delicate features and virtually translucent skin (I’m convinced she keeps a bottle of SPF 150, in her bag) most certainly provide a countenance that was meant to be captured on black-and-white film.  I dare you – upon gazing at the cover-art for her singles – to disagree.  As for the Australian accent, it’s just another layer to the onion that is Luca Chesney.

While discussing her process, it would seem that she jots-down lyrics, while in the “throws of intensity.”  These take the form of particularly disjointed poetry that leads her – upon review – to invariably declare “I’m never showing these, to anyone,” due to the raw vulnerability they reveal.  Later, after adapting the verbiage into metaphors (“my listeners can draw their own conclusions”), she crafts them into songs.

I tell her of the impressions that come to my mind, while listening to her music.  To wit, Sir John Everett Millais’ painting, Ophelia; Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Victorian ballad, “The Lady of Shallot;” and the Michael Gondry-directed videos for “Bachelorette” and “Joga” by Bjork; which please her to no end, because I’ve seemingly uncovered her greatest source of inspiration - those foggy layers of her semiconscious – leading her to explain that “Half of what I write is capturing, in waking moments, what I’ve dreamed.”

There’s a musicality present in her songs that comes from a lifetime of playing instruments and having an ear for production and a fondness for layering her music.  At its simplest, the music of Luca Chesney can be described as ambient electronica with beautiful vocals.  Plunge a little deeper and the vocals are at once ethereal and haunting.  The influences of those who have come before her –  including such singer/songwriters as Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, the aforementioned Bjork, PJ Harvey, and Kate Bush – are apparent, and yet the music is undeniably fresh and utterly Chesney.  And that’s perhaps her greatest feat of all.

God is a Boy’s Name
Luca Chesney
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