We were like, “Yeah! We have lots of stuff that we can do together.” And we wanted to help each other’s careers move along in a parallel path. We’d actually just started dating as well, so really the joining of us together romantically was the joining of us together creatively as well, and that was quite exciting. This sort of whimsical, childlike thing I have going on is partly developed by his style as well. And from the very beginning, when I started to do solo music, he was really there for the visual side of building up my identity as a singer/songwriter. He’s an illustrator and a visual artist…if you’re a New Yorker, you’ve probably seen his work on the subway. Can you talk about being a creative team? You and your husband, visual artist James Gulliver Hancock, have worked quite a bit together. I’d be touring and be 23, which would be more fun I think because now I’m like married and I have a kid and my life doesn’t feel that “Rock ‘n’ Roll.” So I’m like, “Shit, if I started at 15, I would have had so much more time to do all that experimenting and everything. I know, and sometimes I regret a little bit that I didn’t know earlier because I was actually 30 by the time that my first album came out, because I was in the band for a few years and then I started doing solo stuff, and then it takes a few years to sort of get people to believe in you and give you the money to make an album. It’s funny how you end up falling into the things that wind up being your strongest passions. And then I joined a band so it kind of quickly became my life. People kept saying to me, “You should do more music.” So that was when I sort of shifted focus and spent my time brushing up my music theory and writing songs. But I was singing in a play when I was about 22, 23, you know, like an Off-Broadway, fringe theater thing, and my director sang a song, and that was the moment where I totally flopped over and I realized that I was enjoying singing more and I was getting more out of it, and it felt like the audience was getting more out of it. I just wanted to rebel against the whole notion of doing the same thing.
I went to art school and studied sculpture, performance art and video, and that didn’t feel like the quite right fit.Īnd this whole time, you know, I liked music and I could do a little bit of music, and my dad’s a musician, but I never was thinking that it would be a career, probably because of my dad. She’s like, 150% an actor–she just lives and breathes it, and I knew I wasn’t like that. Like my teacher at acting school was Cate Blanchett. I don’t know, I just knew that I wasn’t going to be 100% committed to the life of an actor, as my mentors were. I think maybe I was a little bit burnt out from that career choice already by about the age of nineteen (laughs).
So I was like a professional teen actress, which was really fun, being in high school and getting to leave school and go for acting and stuff.Īnd how did the shift to singing come about? I decided I wanted to be an actor and my mom helped me out getting an agent, and I started acting quite early at about twelve, thirteen. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a dancer, and then that changed when I was a teenager. You’ve been both an actress and a singer.
Lenka wears Coach x Gary Baseman Emmanuel Hare Ray t-shirt, Coach fluff jacket and Coach leather mod skirt designed by Stuart Vevers We talked to the multifaceted artist about her musical evolution, working with husband James Gulliver Hancock, and the wonders of exploring fashion via social media while she happily tried on pieces from Stuart Vevers’s sunny spring collection for Coach, including a t-shirt designed in collaboration with artist Gary Baseman, to whom Lenka just happens to have a personal connection.
The Australian sensation’s whimsical, cup-half-full attitude fueled the international hit “The Show” from her eponymous debut album, with her music continuing to gain traction with tracks like “Everything at Once.” The irresistibly catchy optimism of her sound is an advertiser’s dream, helping her land music in giant commercials for the likes of Coca Cola, Windows, and Old Navy-not to mention TV features on prevalent shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty.”Īfter taking time to focus on her growing family, Lenka is back to spread the jubilant vibes with her fourth studio album, The Bright Side. Whether you know it or not, singer/songwriter Lenka’s music has likely graced your ears numerous times.
Lenka wears Coach fluff jacket and Coach leather mod skirt designed by Stuart Vevers Decked out in Stuart Vevers-designed Coach for this exclusive interview and photo shoot, singer/songwriter Lenka talks about her cheerful new album.