Lucy Tun | |
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| Genres | Alt pop |
| Occupation | Musician |
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Lucy Tun is an English musician. Born in North West London, she released her first long-play,Good Nights Bad Stories, as LCYTN in 2018, after which she took a break from making music. After being recognised on a family trip toMyanmar, she released the beat tapeBad Weather, Vol. 1 in 2019 and the three-track EPEvery Thursday Night / Spotlight in 2020, both under the name LCYTN. She began releasing music under her own name in 2021, reserving LCYTN for DJ sets, and released the EPUnreal in 2023. She joinedLoud LDN in 2022 and is also a member of ESEA Music, with whom she released a single in 2023.
Tun grew up in North West London,[1] and has an older brother, Daniel;[2] their parents are ofMyanma descent.[3] As a child, she listened toclassical music;[4] when she was a teenager, she became interested in video games, and would listen toJ-pop andK-pop.[5] When she was sixteen, she became interested in pop music, and became obsessed withAdele.[3] She studied economics withBurmese atSOAS University of London;[6] in 2018, during her first year, she released her first long-play,Good Nights Bad Stories, as LCYTN,[2] adisemvoweled form of her own name.[5] She then promised her parents that she would quit music; on a family trip to Myanmar, they discovered that she had not done so after fans of hers approached her in the street after recognising her from billboards.[7] In 2019, she released "Ride",[8] which featured Daniel on guitar,[9] andBad Weather, Vol. 1, a beat tape.[2] In July 2020, she released "Every Thursday Night",[10] from her three-track EPEvery Thursday Night / Spotlight;[5] "Spotlight" featured Osquello and Yiigaa.[11]
She then began releasing music under her own name,[12] reserving LCYTN for DJ sets.[13] In July 2021, she released "Monarchy",[12] a kawaii drill song written in August 2020 about people who adopt personas on dates;[14] she wrote the song withJakwob, and in the last twenty minutes of a recording session, having spent the rest of it working on another song.[15] The following month, she and Ric Wilson featured on "Let Me Ride", aUK garage song by Bone Slim[16] of the Nine8 Collective;[17] she then appeared on a remix of Yiigaa's "Up", which also featured Eliza Legzdina.[18] In March 2022, she released "314", which she wrote the day after moving out of the house she and strangers spentlockdown living in, and about saying goodbye to her former housemates.[19] The following May, she released "Another Week",[20] which she wrote while depressed following a breakup in lockdown; the song was produced by Usher Lavelle,[5] and featured double handclaps.[21]
Tun joined Loud LDN, a collective of women and genderqueer musicians set up in May 2022, that year.[22] In January 2023, she released "Kulture Klub", a song about feeling like an outsider,[23] which she wrote with producer J. Ar J,[2] and after attendingParis Fashion Week; the song referencedBella Hadid, prompting her toshout out the single onTikTok,[23] on which the song later went viral.[2] In June 2023, she released "ADHD",[24] a song named afterthe neurodevelopmental disorder she suffered from[6] and which mentionedNorwegian Wood and flying toNorway.[25] That August, she released "Rabbit Hole",[26] on which Daniel played guitar,[2] and announced that she would release the EPUnreal in October 2023.[26]
In September 2023, for East and South East Asian Heritage Month, Tun and Kityiu Grace organised a series of writing camps for ESEA Music, a collective of UK-based East and Southeast Asian music industry professionals and artists includingRina Sawayama,Yunè Pinku,Andrew Hung,Matt Tong, andSarah Bonito.[27] One of these camps produced "I Luv My Life", which was produced by Congee, featured him, Tun, Congee, Iamkyami, Jason Kwan, Josie Man, Tascha Jerawan, and Vishal Chopra, and was released in October 2023.[28] Later that month, she instead released "Airport Smoking Room", a song inspired byThe Terminal[29] and about unspoken bonds.[30] In November 2023, she released the single "Diary"[31] and thenUnreal,[30] which featured "Kulture Klub", "ADHD",[32] "Rabbit Hole",[25] and "Diary".[31] In December 2023,[33] she and fellow Loud LDNersCharlotte Plank,Caity Baser, andVenbee[4] appeared onDork's 2024 Hype List.[33] In July 2024, she released "Come To My House", a nod to the similarly namedQueen Latifah song "Come Into My House".[34] The track was later remixed byPiri & Tommy.[35]
Tun's music videos regularly feature the fictitious drug "Inphanta-C" to signal the transition between fantasy and reality, which she uses as a metaphor for thefaçade people put up while online.[13] In December 2023, Martyn Young ofDork described LCYTN's works as alternative electronic music and Tun's works asalt-pop.[4] While reviewing a March 2024 set at The Old Blue Last in London, Mark Kelly ofBrighton & Hove News described her set as "broadly" a mix ofR&B andK-pop.[36] "Come To My House" was ahouse music song, expressly produced as something fun and lighthearted.[37]
Tun was first inspired to make music by the internet, having found it asafe space to upload music without judgement.[38] She later used a June 2023 interview withGauchoworld to cite inspiration fromSZA, finding the autobiographical songwriting style in her 2017 albumCtrl inspirational for her own music, as well asRuPaul's Drag Race, having been introduced to it at university and having found it an "eye-opener", having grown up inhabiting conservative spaces, and found its message to "be yourself" helpful.[13] ForUnreal, she citedBjörk'sPost as an influence.[25] Other influences include anime anddeath metal;[39] she toldClash in January 2021 that she had got into the genre after watching videos fromHellfest, and that she had been fascinated by its aggressive amelodic energy.[5]