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Lucky Daye on Love, Music, and Breaking Boundaries ❤️🎤 | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
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May 30, 2025
Join Sway In The Morning for an inspiring and exclusive interview with Grammy-winning artist Lucky Daye as he shares his incredible journey from homelessness to stardom. Known for his unique songwriting and soulful voice, Lucky Daye opens up about his creative process, the making of his groundbreaking album "Algorithm," and the personal experiences that shaped his music. From late-night studio sessions to life-changing bus rides, hear how determination and talent propelled him to the top. Discover the stories behind hits like "Paralyzed" and "Soft," and learn how Lucky Daye pushes boundaries in love, music, and engineering. Don’t miss this heartfelt conversation, filled with wisdom, laughter, and a celebration of resilience. Tap into the world of Sway’s Universe for more exclusive interviews, insights, and iconic moments in music and culture. Be sure to subscribe for more incredible content! #motivationalspeech #homelessnessincanada #believeinyourself #nevergiveup #invisiblepeople CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Lucky Daye 01:57 - Grammy Experience 03:35 - Going Against The Grain 06:09 - Dream Fulfillment 07:16 - Dealing with Paranoia 08:53 - Soft Sound Exploration 09:58 - Songwriting Process 12:25 - Album Creation Algorithm Subscribe Here! http://bit.ly/SubscribeSU Watch the Best of Sway In The Morning! http://bit.ly/BestOfSITM Check out More From Sway’s Universe
View Video Transcript
0:00
one of the people I wanted to have here
0:02
today and and not necessarily sing but
0:06
to chop it up with him i met this man
0:07
years ago before people really even knew
0:10
his name you know and we stayed in
0:13
contact and every time he dropped a
0:14
project um I wanted to make sure he came
0:17
to our platform absolutely he's a very
0:19
unique vocalist the way he writes his
0:21
songs he writes in triple antandras um
0:24
and most recently he for his last
0:26
project I believe got him a Grammy he
0:29
got him a Grammy he went from being
0:30
homeless to a Grammy award winner and
0:34
he's going to come and chop it up with
0:35
y'all today and play some music from his
0:37
project algorithm please welcome to the
0:39
stage the iconic one Lucky Day come on
0:47
let's go let's go let's go come on man
0:51
and the style is always crazy
0:54
[Music]
0:59
you see this you see this
1:01
this a rock star this a star power right
1:03
here brother that's right you got them
1:07
nice
1:10
yo how you doing lucky you doing y'all
1:14
can y'all hear me yes we can hear you
1:16
all right bet the last time we hung out
1:19
yeah it was great it was spiritual you
1:20
remember that that's a great answer even
1:22
if you don't remember right spiritual
1:25
spiritual
1:27
where were we man where were we man you
1:29
remember in a spiritual place
1:32
yes sir i'm for sure using that
1:37
we were at a trap poetry event here in
1:40
LA and you and I were hanging out one of
1:42
your friends i got a picture bro if you
1:44
don't believe me I got a picture but I
1:46
got to hang out with you you probably
1:47
wasn't tripping on me but I got to hang
1:49
out and observe how your [ __ ] was
1:50
tripping on you oh come on Lucky Day
1:53
come on man we could compliment each
1:54
other for hours roance is here come on
1:56
man uh congratulations on the Grammy
1:59
we'll give that man a round of applause
2:00
thank you thank you thank you
2:04
you know I always wanted to win a Grammy
2:06
right um
2:11
we got we got we got Adriana Padilla
2:13
right here king Tech we working with her
2:16
king Tech producing her i'm hoping she
2:18
get a Grammy so I could go on stage with
2:20
her already told her we producing her
2:22
what when when you receive an award
2:24
that's so prestigious
2:26
um you know after working so hard and I
2:29
know your your journey your story what
2:31
did you do with the award that night
2:35
that that was a turnaround question I
2:37
didn't expect that
2:38
[Music]
2:40
um just kind of put it up on the table
2:43
you know like I ain't pray to it or
2:44
nothing okay you n I'm just like I'm
2:48
grateful and I'm just like I'm looking
2:51
at it and I'm I'm like thinking about
2:52
the hard work all the time I spent with
2:54
my friends with like the people that the
2:56
producers everybody and you just I'm
2:58
just grateful and just think about the
3:01
next thing i'm like that guy i'm always
3:02
thinking about the next thing do Do you
3:04
ever live in a like Heather says I don't
3:06
celebrate my accomplishments i'm like
3:08
that too yeah my plaques on the floor i
3:11
ain't unpacked them yet you haven't even
3:12
unpacked them no wow why not cuz I got
3:16
more work to do
3:18
huh hm i'mma suggest something that
3:21
somebody suggests to me cuz you gonna do
3:24
the work anyway yeah you're right right
3:26
go ahead and celebrate that brother as
3:28
we celebrate you celebrate that if you
3:31
give it a shot i will i will i will uh
3:33
I'll find a spot on the wall okay good
3:36
one of the things I appreciate about you
3:38
especially with the algorithm project it
3:40
it it it went beyond the boundaries and
3:42
the perimeters of how people structure
3:44
songs yeah how people write about love
3:47
you know even the time code on your
3:49
songs it was five and a half minute
3:51
songs six minute songs how long have you
3:54
heard when is the last time you heard
3:55
songs that long probably his group
3:58
switch switch
4:02
that's true though right and I I thought
4:05
I would I I didn't know if I would like
4:07
that cuz we've been programmed for these
4:09
quick fixes right now but you went
4:11
against the grain why
4:13
um I just wanted to continue being
4:14
myself um I It's like when you when you
4:18
I don't want to say I'm a master but
4:19
when you work working on mastering a art
4:22
form you do the hard stuff like first so
4:25
I wanted to make sure I I put my the the
4:28
most difficult melodies the most
4:30
challenging like bars that I could find
4:34
um push myself to the edge and just like
4:36
skip over the okay let me just get a
4:37
quick radio thing find a feature blah
4:39
blah blah i didn't want to do that i
4:40
wanted to like do the hard work first
4:43
but you know I mean not but fortunately
4:46
it worked out and you know I'm just
4:47
grateful i'm just I'm grateful that I
4:49
was able to do it like no co-sign just
4:51
got that co come on man hard work pays
4:55
off i have to say as well Lucky like
4:57
algorithm is exceptional from front to
5:00
finish thank you like my all my bets are
5:03
on you bro thank you and there's
5:06
something I don't know like your voice
5:09
is both like soulful and futuristic you
5:13
know it really really does not live in
5:16
any time in any era and also I'm so
5:20
impressed of how you've leaned into
5:22
engineering because we don't often hear
5:24
that you know obviously we hear of the
5:27
great gift of vocals of songwriting but
5:30
we don't often hear at least myself of a
5:33
artist really taking the time to
5:35
engineer and get like really nerdy with
5:37
it yeah now I'm sorry what brought you
5:39
to that um just being in the studio and
5:42
not having um engineers there or
5:44
producers there or whoever there at the
5:46
time just use what I had so you pull up
5:48
stuff that's free froot Loops is free
5:50
like Logic's free like all these other
5:52
things it's like free so you you want to
5:54
take advantage of them and when you
5:56
hungry you just going to do everything
5:57
that you Well I'm going to do everything
5:58
that I could do get that out of the way
6:00
and just just go for it and I mean I
6:02
know theory so it's kind of like if I
6:04
could just get the computer on I can
6:06
make the beat if I didn't have a
6:07
producer but God sent me a producer so I
6:08
was good yeah all right sway mentioned
6:11
at the top and thank you again for being
6:13
here as well well Sway mentioned at the
6:15
top the experience that you had um not
6:18
having a so-called home and possibly
6:20
during that time I'm wondering if you
6:22
were dreaming about being in the spaces
6:25
dreaming about receiving a Grammy
6:28
dreaming about being in the
6:29
studio does the feeling actually feel
6:32
like what you dreamt of definitely i was
6:36
genuine i was genuine when I I used to
6:38
pray for it um I was praying just to
6:40
feel heard not not necessarily to be
6:42
heard but to feel heard and I guess you
6:44
know um every day and just like
6:46
repeating it and trying to manifest it
6:48
as much as I can and just through and
6:51
not thinking about what I didn't have
6:52
just focusing on what I did have and
6:54
just pushing like I was I was taking the
6:56
bus like 3 hours every session like
6:57
skateboarding to studios or the train
7:00
cuz the train go from San Pedro to North
7:02
Hollywood so I would take it and that
7:05
just like it gave me a lot of time to
7:07
like on the bus I would like read a lot
7:09
and like on the way there it's a two and
7:11
a half three hours so I had a lot of
7:13
time lucky day is here thank you for
7:15
sharing that bad so I want to get into
7:17
this song paralyzed right and uh the way
7:21
I interpret it okay cuz I interpret
7:24
slightly different from Heather
7:27
um paralyze deals in my interpretation
7:30
with people who feel defeated by love
7:33
right and because of that it hinders
7:36
them from when they do find an
7:38
attraction towards someone else or they
7:40
have an opportunity to find new love
7:43
right um what do you commun what would
7:46
you communicate to a person about them
7:49
being paralyzed from moving forward to
7:51
find love and experience the glory of
7:53
that um well that's that's good you got
7:56
that out of it it was so I tried to
7:57
write in antra doubles triples whatever
7:59
was I accurate you was accurate yeah i
8:02
mean that's what it's about i'm not dumb
8:05
oh my god you're not dumb you're not
8:07
dumb sir you got all the answers to me
8:12
beautiful lucky day look at that come on
8:16
it was almost like y'all just wrote a
8:17
song right there but yeah no it's
8:20
definitely about being stuck in a
8:21
situation where it's like you make me
8:23
feel like I can't do anything else i
8:25
can't date nobody else and in the song
8:27
and every in the verses I'm naming just
8:28
different things that have opposites you
8:30
know what I'm saying like sun has the
8:31
moon um the water has the air blah blah
8:34
blah and it's like why I don't have you
8:36
you feel me like I need I need to have
8:38
something too everything is a pair and
8:39
I'm not and you're not man the way you
8:42
think is the way I think man oh boy all
8:45
right if I was to write a song I would
8:47
write a just like this let's take a
8:49
listen to Paralyze y'all okay with that
8:51
i want to play some more music can we do
8:53
that that song soft which one you want
8:56
to go soft
8:57
soft is confusing
9:00
i know why you said that yeah right what
9:02
was your intent that was your intent to
9:05
Well wait is this kid show um like do
9:08
you see any kids in here
9:10
they about to grow up like of course we
9:12
be like you're making me soft right but
9:14
basically for me it was kind of like um
9:16
you just making me sensitive and that's
9:19
making me like getting on my nerves so
9:21
much that it's making me soft like like
9:23
but it's like so many antandras in it
9:25
it's just it's just me saying like I I
9:28
like you i like you and I want you and I
9:29
need you like it's so many ways to say
9:31
it we talked about love for millions and
9:33
millions of years it just never get old
9:35
so
9:36
who taught you how to write i don't know
9:39
my mama used to make me write to her
9:40
when when she didn't want me to talk to
9:42
her
9:46
oh my god that's why he's soft that's
9:48
why he's soft just run into that song
9:51
man yeah come on man give that a round
9:54
of applause ain't nothing like that i
9:57
have a question about the writing as
9:58
well
9:59
um for writers that's out there maybe
10:03
some in here now in the room would you
10:05
suggest blocking off a certain amount of
10:07
time every day to write no matter if
10:09
you're feeling it or not i know um when
10:12
I was a full-time recording artist I
10:14
would just some days it wasn't there you
10:17
know and I would just write down
10:19
something on a piece of paper put it
10:21
away then maybe go back two months three
10:23
months sometimes maybe a year later and
10:25
find something it's like oh [ __ ] what
10:28
was I on you know let me finish that up
10:30
or follow it up what is the writing
10:32
process for you and how would you um
10:34
give some advice to other writers out
10:36
there the fact that you say you're
10:38
writing on paper is crazy because well
10:41
y'all remember the paper so my theory is
10:44
I have this theory Lucky that our
10:46
handwriting and our paper and our
10:48
notebooks are art yes and they're one of
10:51
one so can you imagine what you know a
10:54
Chuck D public enemy notebook looks like
10:58
and what it's worth so I think it's when
11:00
it's like it's like when you're working
11:01
out you know you might not feel like
11:03
going in the gym but just those reps it
11:05
just help you get in shape you feel me
11:07
so you got to get in shape in in the gym
11:09
you got to get in shape in the studio
11:10
and sometimes you don't feel like it but
11:12
maybe just write like a line you know
11:14
like So you say put something in every
11:17
day yeah I do like right now I'm I'm I'm
11:20
working on new stuff but I work with
11:22
like all my friends from like 3 to like
11:24
2 a.m and I wake up at 8:00 a.m by
11:26
myself and I write oh wow okay you know
11:29
what I'm curious about um when you're
11:32
pulling from different experiences right
11:35
past present maybe what you desire from
11:37
the future and you're kind of going
11:38
through your museum of memories if
11:41
you're thinking about someone who is no
11:43
longer in your life but they are your
11:45
muse for this song how do you detach so
11:48
that you don't send them like an
11:50
inappropriate text message or something
11:53
yeah nah that's a real thing um you got
11:56
to just make it fun i feel like making
11:58
it fun and making it in a clever way it
12:00
could it can make it lighter you know
12:02
what I'm saying like like I'm saying too
12:04
much too TMI you don't want have too tmi
12:07
in a verse you don't want people to know
12:09
all of your business you want to take a
12:10
little bit of it and just make it
12:11
creativity like that way it's like it's
12:14
now it's not about you it's just fire
12:16
like it's about anybody i love this man
12:19
give it up man look and then he got a
12:20
full leather outfit on that's how you
12:22
know you look at it one of the best
12:24
dress oh man um the the album algorithm
12:27
has nothing to do with analytics and
12:29
metrics to me it has everything to do
12:31
with the human connection so I want to
12:34
say congratulations to you Lucky Day and
12:36
thank you for doing our first garage i
12:39
appreciate you brother
12:44
that's my word okay that's
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