influences

Steve Lacy revealed a surprising list of his biggest influences during a new interview with The Guardian. The “Bad Habit” singer cited Paramore, the video game “Guitar Hero,” Prince, and much more.

“I’ve always loved doing that,” Lacy said when asked about genre-blending on his newest album, Gemini Rights. “If I have a rocky beat, putting a soulful melody on it. Like ‘Dark Red’ and all those types of songs. It’s a way to play and introduce new ideas into things that we know already.”

He continued: “Growing up playing [the video game] Guitar Hero put me on to a lot of rock and guitar music. As I got older, artists such as Paramore raised me. Mac DeMarco, Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend. Even Weezer’s ‘Undone’ is one of my favorite songs ever.”

From there, he credited Paramore’s Hayley Williams: “Hayley’s voice and melodies are crazy because she takes the rock thing and makes it soulful.”

He also gave a shout to Weezer’s “wit” and “humor,” as well as Faye Webster.

“When I make music, I take a small piece of everything that I love – I’ll take certain melodic approaches from Prince, but I’ll play it as if someone else was mimicking Prince, like if Jimi Hendrix tried to be Prince,” he said. “But I like to mix different approaches together. It happens naturally. I’m never doing it all purposely. It’s just inside of me.”

Lacy shared Gemini Rights back in July. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 with 34,000 first-week units, while “Bad Habit” topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Revisit Lacy’s “Bad Habit” below.

[Via]