For someone who is a self-proclaimed ‘spotlight avoiderer’, Dylan Mathers is doing a wonderful job of handling the new attention being thrust his way.
‘I never wanted to be a frontman,’ he tells me over coffee at his local. ‘But I guess that’s just kind of how the pieces fell.’ Lead singer, guitarist, and main lyricist for newcomer A CROWN FOR LUCY, Mathers has had a lot on his schedule penning the band’s debut release and preparing for their first headlining tour. He’s gracious enough to remind me of the hard work his fellow band member put in when I mention this, and I’m once again reminded of how put together he seems. We last met hot off the heels of the band’s supersonic rise in popularity, and both times I’m struck at his modesty. It/s no wonder the band has positioned him to be the frontman - he has the marketable good looks and the talent, but he’s never willing to overshadow the other members.
‘Lucy has never been a one-man-show,’ he says. ‘Never has been. I’d be nothing without the guys.’ The guys are of course bassist Miriam Fasil, drummer Rupert Faulks, and rhythm guitarist Allison Ishikawa. A group of people who met whilst in detention, the comparisons to both The Breakfast Club, and the DCOM Lemonade Mouth are plentiful and unavoidable.
‘It’s not like we were fucking around cleaning and suddenly realized we were jamming,’ Mathers is quick to clarify. ‘It was more like a gradual realization and acknowledgement. I think Ali wore a shirt Miri and I commented on, and Rupe later mentioned something about a new kick drum he had to get. But we didn’t, like, put it all together for a while afterwards. It took us following each other on TikTok to see the potential.’
And TikTok is, indeed, what has helped their career. It was thanks to a series of videos in which they created short songs based on followers comments and suggestions that really propelled them into the stratosphere.
‘We got a comment that used the word bardolatry and it just kinda of ... stemmed from there. We posted it and the next day my sister called me saying it had blown up. She was like ‘Fuck, I should have got your signatures for eBay.’
Making songs from random words found in their comments does seem on-brand for the singer-songwrier - not only is his mother a high school English teacher; he shares his name with a famous poet. ‘Dylan Thomas, yeah,’ he nods. ‘The ‘do not go fearful into that good night’ guy. Mom was reading him when she went into labor with me, I’m pretty sure.’
It’s insights like this that make one think Mathers and the band are open and public about themselves - after all, they found fame through a social media app. But then I remember that the insights given are curated in such a way that, whilst they seem open, don’t divulge too much. We still don’t know the true origins of the band’s name, though many have asked - myself included. Is it a Narnia reference? A Beatles reference? A Xena: Warrior Princess reference somehow? They stay tight-lipped about it, smiling knowingly. As their audience, we can know the color of their bedroom walls, but not, who LUCY is.
Still, we will take any and all insights we can. I ask him how the debut is going, and if he’s excited for the upcoming tour. ‘Real nice,’ he replies, a fervent glint in his eyes. ‘I think it’s gonna be something people’ll really like. Or maybe not, you know. Music’s subjective an’ shit. You like what you like and you don’t what you don’t. If you like it, fuckin’ great. If you don’t - that’s cool too, and I hope you find something you vibe with.’ He takes a moment to talk about how so many people base their opinions using other people’s as a metric, which almost always skews their own in a certain direction. I ask again about the tour. Their first headlining tour, with their own opening act.
‘Absolutely nuts,’ Mathers says with a nod of his head. ‘If you’d asked me a year ago what I’d be doing, I would’ve said helping Dad with his floristry business. Miri was gonna go into Medicine. I still don’t think her parents have quite got over her telling them she’s not going to Med school and instead gonna see how this band thing’ll pan out.’ He grins. ‘And we’ve got an opening act! For me, that was like ‘oh, yeah, I think we might be something here.’ I’ve been a fan of their for a little bit so it took me by surprise when we found out. It’s gonna be great. I think people‘ll really enjoy it. I know we will.’
