Acclaimed American cellist, singer and composer Kelsey Lu on why she picked the biggest string instrument

Her unique playing and compositions has made Kelsey Lu the cellist everyone in pop music wants to work with. The musician shares why she loves playing the cello.

THE next time American cellist and songwriter Kelsey Lu plays in Australia, it may be the Naked Tour.

The composer of the score accompanying this year’s Lighting of the Sails, Lu has been thrilling audiences inside the Sydney Opera House over the weekend with her concerts in support of her acclaimed debut record BLOOD.

The musician, who has collaborated with a dizzying diversity of artists from Florence and the Machine to Mariah Carey, said it was the physicality of the cello which first drew her to the instrument as a young girl.

Kelsey Lu composed the score for the Lighting of the Sails projections. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“The physicality of it was what attracted me to the cello, the way you wrap your body around it to play it,” she said ahead of this week’s shows in Melbourne and Hobart.

“I remember going to this summer music school when I was about 14 and a guy there had a sticker on his roadcase which said the Nudist Cellist.

“I asked him about it and he told me he practised naked so I did try it after that and it was so cool, I was really into it.

“Maybe I could do the Naked Tour (here)? Everybody else has to be naked. Yes!”

Lu said she sometimes wishes she had picked a more compact instrument than the super-sized string music-maker.

Spare a thought for Lu every time she has to check-in her cello. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Yes, I do, every time I go to the check-in counter and I have to explain my case meets all the requirements and was specially made to travel with and to go under the cabin,” she said.

“Whatever airline anywhere in the world, it meets the requirements of weight and size.

Otherwise I would have to buy a whole other ticket for it.

“And every time I check-in, I have to argue; they see it and just go ‘oh no’. Everyone is afraid of dealing with it.”

Lu, however, is fearless. It is next to impossible to describe her singular style of contemporary music which she prefers to call “genre fluid”.

The fearless Kelsey Lu on the cover of her debut album Blood. Picture: Supplied.

When she released the single Due West late last year, she pricked the ears of the music industry with her stunning, dreamy pop experiment.

But she was thwarted in her attempts to “game” the industry gatekeepers who decide what is offered on one of the world’s most popular playlists.

“A lot of what (the industry) does is to try to package things to be what they can sell. At times they can attempt the limit of the mind of people to be more open to genre fluidity,” she said.

“When I first put out Due West, I wanted it to go on the New Music Friday playlist because I wanted to break the algorithm. The majority of things which are on NMF are s … and all sound the same.

“By putting something different on there, it would break the algorithm. But it didn’t happen.

“I want to break the mentality of ‘this isn’t how it’s usually done’.”

Kelsey Lu performs at Howler in Melbourne on Thursday, Dark Mofo, Hobart on June 8 and Odeon Theatre, Hobart on June 13.

Originally published as Acclaimed American cellist, singer and composer Kelsey Lu on why she picked the biggest string instrument