Welcome to The Drop, Refinery29's home for exclusive music video premieres. We want to shine the spotlight on women artists whose music inspires, excites, and (literally) moves us. This is where we'll champion their voices.
Singer/songwriter Lucie Silvas isn’t sure where the track “Change My Mind” off her 2018 album E.G.O. orginiated.
“There have been times in my life where I look back on it in retrospect, maybe even half a year later and realized where I was when I was writing that and that I was a lot more aware of the situation I was in than I realized,” Silvas tells Refinery29 over the phone. “I would write about something poignantly and insightfully but didn't realize [what it was actually about] until later.”
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Silvas has an impressive body of work she can look back on and analyze. The musician released her debut single “It’s Too Late” in 2000. In 2004 came her first album, Breathe In, with The Same Side (2006) and Letters To A Ghost (2015) following behind. In between recording for herself, Silvas wrote for several artists, including Miranda Lambert and Katharine McPhee. She’s also one of the writers behind the season 2 music for McPhee’s canceled (and much beloved) Broadway-set NBC series Smash.
With so much experience in the industry behind her, Silvas has learned how to keep an open mind — which, she tells me, is the real meaning behind her song.
“Every time I go to sing ‘Change My Mind,’ I realize more of what it really means to me,” she explains. “It's that idea of having an open mind to be altered by something or someone. I’ve always been really independent, and afraid of losing my independence. I've never wanted to be conventional. I never saw myself getting married. I never saw myself settling in one place. And, when you’re young, you just think you know [everything.] As I get older, I'm realizing that nothing I felt it the same. I now am able to look forward and find joy in something that completely changes my point of view.”
Things that change her worldview include other musical artists, like pop star Billie Eilish and A Star Is Born actress Lady Gaga.
“I just can't believe that someone that young could be so eloquent,” she tells Refinery29 of Eilish. “She's making a statement with the way she dresses and the way she is and being able to express herself. Lady Gaga is like that, too. I don't love every single thing that she does, but her expression and being confident with it has always had a big effect on me. I grew up in a family that were very supportive of my music, but were a little reserved. It has an effect on you, until you can stop caring what people think.”
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An anthem for keeping an open mind is always welcome.
Check out Refinery29’s exclusive video for “Change My Mind” below.