Steve Lacy Lists His Influences Including Paramore, Faye Webster, Prince, & More

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LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 29: Steve Lacy of The Internet performs on the Camp Stage during day 2 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Steve Lacy has shared his biggest influences for "Gemini Rights."

Steve Lacy revealed a surprising list of his biggest influences during a new interview with The Guardian. The "Bad Habit" singer cited Paramore, the video game "Guitar Hero," Prince, and much more.

“I’ve always loved doing that," Lacy said when asked about genre-blending on his newest album, Gemini Rights. "If I have a rocky beat, putting a soulful melody on it. Like ‘Dark Red’ and all those types of songs. It’s a way to play and introduce new ideas into things that we know already.”

INDIO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 23: Singer Steve Lacy performs on the Mojave Stage during Weekend 2, Day 2 of the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 23, 2022 in Indio, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella)

He continued: “Growing up playing [the video game] Guitar Hero put me on to a lot of rock and guitar music. As I got older, artists such as Paramore raised me. Mac DeMarco, Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend. Even Weezer’s ‘Undone’ is one of my favorite songs ever.”

From there, he credited Paramore's Hayley Williams: “Hayley’s voice and melodies are crazy because she takes the rock thing and makes it soulful."

He also gave a shout to Weezer’s “wit” and “humor,” as well as Faye Webster.

“When I make music, I take a small piece of everything that I love – I’ll take certain melodic approaches from Prince, but I’ll play it as if someone else was mimicking Prince, like if Jimi Hendrix tried to be Prince,” he said. “But I like to mix different approaches together. It happens naturally. I’m never doing it all purposely. It’s just inside of me.”

Lacy shared Gemini Rights back in July. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 with 34,000 first-week units, while "Bad Habit" topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Revisit Lacy's "Bad Habit" below.

[Via]

About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.
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