Lucy Spraggan on how going sober has improved her music
The former X Factor singer and qualified PT will be holding exercise sessions on her next tour. By Alex Green and Katie Wright.
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
She might have first appeared on The X Factor in 2012, but a decade later Lucy Spraggan’s career is still going from strength to strength.
The singer-songwriter had her highest charting album last year with Choices, following a difficult period where Spraggan divorced Georgina Gordon, her wife of three years, and decided to go sober.
Heading back into the studio, the 31-year-old recorded another album, Balance, out in April, wrote a memoir, Process – without the aid of a ghostwriter – due to be published in July, and signed to Simon Cowell’s publishing company.
Now, the Canterbury-born singer – who is also a trained PT and is based in Manchester – is raring to get back on the road and perform the new album live, as well as running a series of fitness sessions for fans.
Spraggan tells us how she’s planning to combine exercise and touring, and how going sober has improved her music…
Why have you decided to host fitness sessions before gigs on your upcoming tour?
“I love people – I see going on tour and playing to tens of thousands of as a really great experience to meet other people.
“We are not sure how we’re doing it. We might say, ’11 o’clock, meet me at my tour bus, we are going to do a 5k’. Or they can come into the venue in the daytime after we have done soundcheck and we can do some fitness.
“I want to also tell people that fitness doesn’t have to be s**t. People think it’s boring. It doesn’t have to be like that. If you start doing it for fun, like I did – I want to spread the idea that it can be really fun.”
Why is it important to connect with fans on tour?
“I have always gone out onto the floor after shows. As the venue’s got bigger it has become more and more exhausting. I just think it’s a nice way to do it. It’s nice to have a conversation with somebody and feel normal with people.”
Could pubs and bars improve their offering to sober people?
“Companies that aren’t doing that are stupid, because the fastest growing market in the UK is that alcohol-free market.
“Our world is really changing, and views on alcohol are changing. Saying that, a lot of people I hang around with drink, but we like going to places that serve everyone with inclusivity.”
What are your tactics for navigating drinking spaces?
“It’s not easy, but having a really strong sense of self is a good way. Being able to be honest.
“If one of your friends said, ‘You’ll never be able to be sober’, or ‘Why don’t you just have one?’ It’s important to be able to say, ‘Actually that response was really negative for me, and I’d really prefer it if you could be supportive because this is something I really want to do for myself’.”
Has your sobriety affected your music?
“I think so. I think it’s deeper lyrically. It’s just better all around.
“I’m more productive and I’m more passionate, and I actually feel I am more intelligent than I was when I drank a lot, because I was probably destroying parts of my brain. I do think it changes a lot about the art that people create.”
Was it important to write your autobiography without a ghostwriter?
“When I first started writing it my agent was like, ‘We will look at ghostwriters,’ and I was like, ‘Hmm’.
“They inquired. They sent some of my work to ghostwriters and all the ghostwriters said, ‘She doesn’t need a f**king ghostwriter, she is doing this herself,’ which is a huge compliment.”
Why did you call the book Process?
“Everything is a process. People say ‘trust the process’. What is the process? Process is living, breathing, experiencing. And also processing things that happen to you. The book is me processing stuff. It’s all of that.”
The single Balance by Lucy Spraggan is out now. Her album of the same name will follow on April 28 2023. Her memoir, Process, will be published in July 2023.