Lucian Rice

Aotearoa/New Zealand-born and based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Lucian Rice continues to showcase his ability to blend nu-gaze, dream pop, and alternative rock into a mesmerising sonic experience.

  • Working alongside talents such as Nick Ward, carwash, and Molly Payton, Lucian demonstrates his versatility and prowess as an artist, producer, and songwriter. Emerging onto the music scene with a fresh perspective, Lucian is just getting started.

    “Only today is forever,” explains the New Zealand singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Lucian Rice. “You can look back with rose-tinted lenses or look forward with hope, but you should appreciate what is in front of you right here.” In those twenty-eight words, he aptly sums up the central themes of his debut EP, Right Now, Forever.

    Equally informed by the melodic sensibilities of 1960s top 40 songwriting, the grit of 1990s college, and the brightly-rendered joy of 2010s pop, Right Now, Forever is a sonic diary of the memories and daydreams that have rattled around in Rice’s head as he battles to ground himself in the now and cherish the day. “Each of these songs was a life lesson,” Rice continues. “They all represent how I felt about something at a certain moment. In a sense, it’s all the same theme, but there was time between when I wrote them, so my feelings changed.” 

    Coming off the back of several singles, the six songs on Right Now, Forever render Rice’s pursuit of the present as a series of invigorating alternative rock anthems that aspire towards those golden moments in pop culture where the biggest act in the world is also the best. It’s also - if not quite a coming-of-age record, the first musical full-circle moment Rice has been through so far. “This isn’t the beginning of the end,” he says. “This is the end of the beginning.” 

    Opening with the slow-building guitar pop of ‘brand new day’ and a Midwest emo-slanted singalong on ‘can’t you see’, as ‘FFS’ explodes into ‘Ninezero’, the EP feels like a journey down an an open road, set against clear skies and an endless horizon. From there, he closes things out with the driving, fuzzy guitar figures throughout ‘Right Now, Forever’ and the breakbeat dream-pop of ‘spineback’ as he grapples with the paradox of the present moment being both fleeting and eternal.

    Recorded over the last few years with a cast of friends, including his long standing collaborator, the songwriter, guitarist and producer Tom Verberne, [insert other collaborators and their roles], Right Now, Forever, was mixed in London by Jonathan Gilmore, best known for his engineering work for Nothing But Thieves, The 1975, and Carly Rae Jepsen. Alongside the music, Rice also worked closely with American multidisciplinary artist Garrett Winston to craft the videos for the singles accompanying this EP. 

Selected Discography


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