During a TEDxTeen lecture titled “The Bare Minimum,” Steve Lacy encouraged budding artists who believe expensive equipment stands between them and their goals. The vocalist, composer, beatmaker, and guitarist behind The Internet admits he spent several holiday seasons longing for a MacBook Pro, convinced it would finally level the creative playing field between him and the people around him.
“The reason why I wanted the MacBook was because all of my friends and everyone else doing artsy stuff had the MacBooks, you know? That was the best possible thing, so I really, really wanted this,” he says.
Eventually, Lacy managed to get his hands on an iPod Touch, and soon found himself matching — and then surpassing — what his peers were producing, all before he had even graduated from his teens. Throughout the segment, he walks viewers through his phone-driven workflow, his time crafting records with The Internet, and the gradual shift in how he viewed his so-called technological shortcomings.
Lacy and The Internet are presently pouring their energy into a follow-up album, one that Lacy has hinted will showcase a heavier vocal presence from him. His debut solo collection, Steve Lacy’s Demo, arrived in February, and during 2017 he also lent his talents to projects by Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator, and GoldLink. Lacy drew major praise for crafting Lamar’s track “PRIDE.” entirely on his mobile device, and he notes in the presentation that even inside a polished, professional studio he still defaults to the same familiar rig.
He says his objective with Steve Lacy’s Demo was to demonstrate that people should lean into whatever resources sit in front of them rather than fixating on what is missing.
“I just had this really big plan for it to inspire and give the message of like, ‘Just use what you have’, you know?” he explains. “I wanted to make the best possible project that I can with this little thing. Like, I recorded everything—like, I plugged the guitar in. I layered vocals, mad vocals, just on this phone. It’s a beautiful experience.”
Eventually, he describes arriving at a top-tier studio environment to craft the track “Dark Red” and continuing to lay down takes on his phone despite being surrounded by every piece of gear he once dreamed of owning.
”I remember working on the Demo, I get my manager to like, buy me this studio to only record using my iPhone,” Lacy says. “So I’m in like, this studio with all this equipment just to write a song on my phone.”
Catch Lacy’s full lecture in the clip above, and scroll down to watch our video spotlighting five rising teenage talents worth knowing — including Lacy and several other P&P standouts.
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