Gig - Bliss

Most young musicians dream of being spotted by a major record company. Lead singer of Bliss, Lucinda Drayton, started off like any other. In a band from the age of fifteen, success first came in the shape of winning a national Battle of the Bands competition. Then a song co-written with fellow Bliss member Andrew Blissett was picked up and re-mixed by the dance artist Toni Di Bart. It became a Number One hit. But the deal they secured off the back of it was to last for only one album. The influences of Raja Yogi meditation which Drayton and Blissett had started to explore had made their music less commercially viable, said the record company. Drayton saw it as setting her free. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to sustain my spiritual life alongside the commercial pressures’, she tells me. ‘And I just wasn’t ready to handle all that.’

Not that it has stopped them producing and performing music and developing a committed fan base. ‘I see my role differently now’, says Drayton, ‘Rather than being an entertainer, I see myself as performing a service. I believe that music is an extremely powerful source of healing energy.’ Their music did reach a wider audience recently when ‘A Hundred Thousand Angels’ was covered by Sinead O’Connor. How does Drayton feel about other people interpreting her music? ‘I think its great as long as it’s the right person. I want more people to hear our music. I’m not precious about it.’ ER