An interview with Lucky Bamba
by Stacey Zering
Lucas Noguera Wainer, also known by his stage name ‘Lucky Bamba,’ is no stranger to success on an international level. In 2016, he worked as a producer and performing musician for the album Las Mejores Canciones De Navidad, which was the best-selling Christmas album on iTunes Spain on December that year. His abilities as a multi-instrumentalist are showcased on that hit album, where he can be heard on the guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. As a trained multi-instrumentalist, Lucky Bamba has performed at prestigious events backed by big name sponsors, including Jazz en Ville, a French music festival sponsored by major companies such as BMW, Mini, Air France, France Bleu, Paris Premiere, Ouest France, Casino de Vannes and Espace Culturel.
Q: How would you describe your new single, and what was the songwriting process like?
A: Musically speaking, I would describe my new single “Let You Go” as a combination of a pop song, mainly regarding its structure and catchy chorus melody, with jazzy/bluesy guitar licks and an overall soul essence. I always tend to start my songwriting process with my guitar. In this case I was just playing around until I stumbled upon an interesting chord progression. Then this catchy melody came into my head and by adding the looping lyrics “but my heart won’t let you go,” the chorus of the song was born. That was kind of a kick-start for my inspiration, and the rest just grew easily from there. I completed the chords and structure for the whole song, and finally composed the melody and lyrics.
Q: What inspires your lyrics?
A: I usually tend to write about things that most of the people can relate to. I want to make music that can connect with as many souls as possible, and therefore I try to write about things that kind of happen to everyone. I believe that love and human relationships have a very important role on everyone’s life. It could be related with your couple, a friend, a sibling, your parents, etc., but love and relations are always there. Either as a successful story, or as a failure, no one can deny that these themes are extremely important and rule our emotional worlds. I, therefore, frequently search for my inspiration through these topics that can definitely awaken passions and sensations on everyone.
Q: What instruments do you play, and how did you learn?
A: At the age of six, I started learning how to play piano with a classical teacher. I learned how to read and write music, and started off by playing classical pieces from Bach, Chopin and Mozart. Some years went by, and by the age of 12 my parents bought me my first guitar, a wooden classical guitar. It was like love at first sight. I became completely obsessed with this instrument and since then, it became my favorite, my passion. Some years went by, and I was very tempted to learn the different roles inside a classical band lineup. By the age of 15, I started to play bass and drums. I formed different bands along my adolescence. In some I sang and played the guitar, in others I played the bass, and in others the drums. This was very important for my musical growth, as I gained a sense of entirety, being able of perceiving the music from different perspectives.
Q: How many tunes do you normally write?
A: Well, I don’t have a schedule or a very clear measurement for my songwriting. It really varies from time to time. The number of songs and compositions I make depend entirely on the moment I’m going through, my feelings at that moment, and the free and calm time I have for sitting down and opening my heart and inspiration.
Q: Did performing covers assist you in helping your own artistry evolve? In what way?
A: Definitely, yes. Performing works from other artists is certainly very enriching. You learn from the different approaches other artist take to create, regarding their songwriting, vocal-phrasing, guitar-playing, soloing, etc. If you aspire to become an artistic creator, I think that learning and performing other artist’s pieces is very inspirational training.
Q: What would you like to achieve ideally by this time next year?
A: I just released my debut single entitled “Let You Go,” and I’m planning on releasing more of my original music soon. By this time next year, ideally I expect to have shared my music with as many people as possible.
Q: What’s the source of your ambition?
A: My love for music is the main source for my ambition. I love it because of its definition, because of what it represents. I think that music is the closest thing to magic we have as human beings. Just by the combination of sounds we are able of awakening emotions, make us feel happy or sad, make us cry or jump of excitement. Isn’t that magical? Music is so powerful. Therefore, being a musician and being able of communicating all these emotions is my number one ambition.
Q: What albums have had the greatest impact on you?
A: Definitely the album Continuum by John Mayer had the greatest impact on me. The perfect combination of pop, soft rock, and blues. His extremely soulful and heartfelt guitar playing and songwriting on that album were very inspiring and awakened a lot of motivation on me to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. The album Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses was also an album that marked me. I remember I got that CD when I was 15-years-old. I was just starting to play electric guitar and got totally obsessed with Slash’s guitar playing. I wanted to learn every solo and riff, and I grew a lot as a guitar player listening and playing along to that album. ◼
