Australian musician Amaya Laucirica has been releasing music since 2008 and today returns with her transformative new album, The Blue Hour. It is arguably her most intimate work (written over several years) on which she explores themes of love, change and personal evolution. It is the sort of album you can take comfort in her wistful melodies, sung throughout with real conviction and authenticity. Sonically, the new album is an exciting blend of orchestral arrangements, electronic textures and pop delights. In short, The Blue Hour reveals a level of sophistication that often goes underappreciated. It is one of 2025’s must-listen-to albums.
I recently caught up with Amaya to talk about her new album. Here is some of what we talked about.
The Blue Hour has been heralded as a departure in style, featuring orchestral arrangements, electronic beats, and hi-fi pop production. What was the inspiration behind this dreamy stylised sound?
When I started demoing the songs for the album, it became apparent they were going to need a different approach to how I had worked previously. I had written some songs with a band in mind to play them, but I also wrote a lot of the album solo at the piano. And these songs were quite intimate. So when it came to recording the more intimate songs with the band it just didn’t sound right. It was obvious this record was going to require a totally different approach and it took a few good years to figure out how I was going to record it.
I really wanted this album to be a real collaborative effort. I worked with Laura Jean on finalising the songs and getting them ready to record. During this process we discussed having the vocals up front and intimate on the record. And then I found James Cecil who was just the perfect producer to take this project on. So in the end it was pretty much just me and him working on the songs, building them up and creating a world for each of them to live. During the recording, we realised that each song had its own style and James was great at bringing it all together to make it sound cohesive. So the songs themselves were the inspiration for the new sound, but also a new approach and being open to change. Growing older and experiencing transition, I really wanted to encapsulate what that meant to me in a fun and meaningful way.
Time It Takes offers a great point of entry to the newer elements Blue Hour explores sonically. Lyrically, I also understand you recently said it’s a song about “embracing the moment, taking chances and having fun.” Can you elaborate a little bit about this exciting change? It sounds like the perfect song to choose to spread your wings (so to speak)?
When I wrote Time It Takes, it had a playfulness about it and we really tried to capture that attitude while recording the song. At first the demo was sounding more kraut rock and slow, and then it became more dance and disco. The song itself is about taking risks and being bold, and I felt stylistically I was really taking risks going in the style that it became. It was uncomfortable at the start because I have never really been a risk taker stylistically with my music. I’ve always played it safe. But after a while of feeling uncomfortable and nervous I thought maybe we’re onto something. If this song is about putting yourself out there and being bold, then it should sound like that too!
For this album I was really inspired by a quote from David Bowie about creativity. And his quote was
“If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting”.
Your songwriting on both Now or Never and Road To Us touches on personal stories and themes like love and resilience. Can you share a little bit about your experience(s) here?
I think I’m drawn to writing songs about love and relationships because not only are they massive themes in my life but they’re such universal topics that affect our day-to-day life. Everybody is either in or out of love, in a relationship or out of a relationship. Or they’re not in a relationship at all and are alone. And because I wrote a lot of the songs on this album based on a feeling or observation, then with songwriting I like to explore how that narrative is going to turn out. Yes some of the lyrics are personal and about my life, but often they’re tapping into a feeling and about somebody that I know or somebody I’ve made up who is parts of numerous people I know and then I create a character for the person in the song.
In Road To Us and Now or Never, they are quite similar in that they are about relationships that have stood the test of time and they are trying to navigate their midlife point. It’s different to writing a song about getting together with someone for the first time, or lusting after somebody in your twenties. These songs are about people who have been in relationships for a long time, and they’re reflecting. They’re both about looking back but also about looking forward and navigating that midlife terrain. We’ve made it thus far, but where to next?
Please, tell me about the song Tumbling Light. And why it’s important to you?
A few years back there were some people I knew who were around my age who had passed away. And they were both people that I knew in the music circle. And it left quite a mark on me. I won’t go into too much detail about it, but I just sat down at the piano one day to write Tumbling Light, and those lyrics just came to me. I felt like they had disappeared into the night like a tumbling light. Sometimes writing a song can be part of the grieving process and that’s why this song was important to me.
With influences like Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, how do these cultural touchstones contribute to the atmosphere and energy on When I’m With You?
I started writing “When I’m With You” after seeing the movie Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda. I was so inspired by the worlds he was creating with his sounds which inspired the main piano/keyboard line. And with “When I’m With You” the piano line helped to create a world for that song. At the start I lyrically wasn’t sure where to take the song, I had the melody but the words took a long time to come. I felt the song had a sorrow but a strength about it at the same time. So I created a character that could fit into that world. And the song is about somebody who is trapped in a relationship, but can’t seem to find a way to escape it.
Your sound and vocals on Time It Takes is all at once familiar, recalling the sounds of Kylie Minogue, but also refreshingly for an audience who crave these urban sounds. Tell us something surprising about how this wall-of-sound bliss came about?
The song started out more slow and kraut rock driven. But my producer James had the idea that it could be a dance track. And I remember he played me “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” by Kylie Minogue as a reference. And I was surprised. It wasn’t where I was expecting the track to go. But the more I listened to the ideas, the more I liked the idea. At one point it was sounding super Kylie, but I wasn’t comfortable with how dance it was sounding, it still needed to sound like I was going to sing it! That was important to me. So we dialled back the Kylie factor to the point where it was just right. Somebody told me it sounds like indie Kylie.
On the Edge just might be the album’s most emotive track. How and if at all, has motherhood shaped and impacted your music? Do you try to seperate the two or allow them to co-exist?
It’s been a massive change, and it took me a long time to adjust. I’m still adjusting to be honest. But I love being a mum, and if anything it made me want to do music more because music is my outlet and it’s a big part of my identity as an artist. It’s the language I feel most comfortable speaking. And I know it’s hard but I love it. My daughter is super young but she knows that I’m happiest when I’m making music. And I want to show her that you should do the thing that you need to do in life that makes you happy. Do the thing you love.
What is still your biggest challenge(s) as a musician?
There are so many challenges and hurdles being a musician. There is a lot of unpaid hours of endless administration. And with a release you’re just constantly creating content to promote yourself. But my biggest challenge is finding the time. It requires a lot of hours to do what we do. There is so much music, so getting through to an audience is the biggest challenge. And that landscape is constantly changing. Whether you’re on a large label or independent, you are going to face similar challenges. There are so many preconceptions about musicians who haven’t got a major label recording contract that they’re a failure. But I think the fact that you’re releasing anything, that’s the success story. Being able to make music and release it is my success. But you need a community of supporters around you. And you need your local governments to be funding the arts and investing into future artists. You can’t do it alone. And I’ve come to realise that more than anything over the years, how important community is. And as a musician you need to nurture and embrace that. The people playing music with you and the people you play music to are a part of your story as well and they’re there to support you.
As a musician, I guess you have to reflect on where you are in your life and where you want to go. Was it an intentional shift to close the album with Fallen Night? It’s a wonderfully reflective song, which at the same time embraces life’s joys.
Fallen Night was written to be like a lullaby. It’s about letting go of the past, and having somebody to look after giving your life a new responsibility. It’s a promise to look after someone and to love them, but also know that they are going to leave you one day and become their own person.
Finally, looking ahead, what’s the plan? Do you have any Aussie dates lined up?
We have a bunch of shows in Victoria in October to celebrate the album launching in September. If you’re in Victoria, come to one of these shows!
Saturday October 4th – Tanswells, Beechworth VIC
Saturday October 11th – Major Tom’s, Kyneton
Saturday October 25th – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
I am also working on a music meets poetry collaboration with author/poet/writer Maxine Beneba Clarke and we will be performing some shows again soon.
Apart from that just look forward to working on writing for the new album, so hoping to get started on some songwriting sessions this Summer.
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