Steve Lacy: Paramore & Weezer-Loving Guitar Hero GOAT

Steve Lacy is into emo and rock music like a lot of us, he revealed in a recent interview with The Guardian.

Speaking about his breakout year that came about following his sensation, Bad Habit, getting to #1. While the hitmaker has discussed his R&B and soul influences quite often, he also shared that he's into rock and indie music.

"Growing up playing Guitar Hero put me on to a lot of rock and guitar music," he began. "As I got older, artists such as Paramore raised me. Mac DeMarco, Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend. Even Weezer – Undone is one of my favourite songs ever."

The singer added, "Hayley [Williams]’s voice and melodies are crazy, because she takes the rock thing and makes it soulful. 

"With Weezer, I love the wit and humour. The dissonance of the chord progression of Undone is truly just weird. For something like that to exist was super important for me in my musical journey, to be, like: 'Oh, wow, you can make this sound fun and dope.'"

Watching Lacy perform at Melbourne's John Cain Arena, The Music reviewer Guido Farnell noted, "In a display of pop star growing pains, he admits that the John Cain Arena is the biggest venue he has ever played. He is surprised, delighted, overjoyed and overwhelmed, all at the same time. 

"It feels as though Lacy isn’t chasing this kind of success, but rather it seems his music has attracted broad mainstream appeal around the world. The seductive slow R&B is Lacy at his idiosyncratic best as he manages to get the crowd swaying and singing along to a smooth-as-silk groove."

He continued, "Demonstrating his versatility and ample talent, Lacy plugs his guitar into what sounds like a distorted synthesiser to shred some pretty wild riffs on Lay Me Down. Slipping to into his falsetto on tunes like Amber and Give You The World, Lacy brings to mind the likes of D’Angelo and Prince spaced out on the dreamiest vibes. Lacy sits at the very agreeable intersection of R&B, pop, hip-hop and funk to produce a sound that’s now finding broad appeal."