Island teen debuts three-song LP, new single

By Luciano Marano • February 1, 2020 10:30 am
Image courtesy of Lucia Opalka | Lutzie, the stage name of Bainbridge Island teen singer-songwriter Lucia Opalka, released her third single, “Use You,” and a debut three-song LP, “To Disappear,” earlier this month.
Image courtesy of Lucia Opalka | Lutzie, the stage name of Bainbridge Island teen singer-songwriter Lucia Opalka, released her third single, “Use You,” and a debut three-song LP, “To Disappear,” earlier this month.

Lutzie, the stage name of Bainbridge Island teen singer-songwriter Lucia Opalka, released her third single, “Use You,” and a debut three-song LP, “To Disappear,” earlier this month.

It is available via YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, TikTok and Amazon, among others.

“‘Use You’ is inspired by relationships badly handled,” said Opalka, a junior at Bainbridge High School. “It’s fed-up and fun and it has a groove that sways and kind of builds momentum so by the end you’re yelling along in your car. It is the third of a three-song project that add up to a debut three-song EP created along with Seattle mentors and my heroes, Andrew Vait as producer, bassist Jessica Dobson, and percussionist Sean Lane.”

The EP was called “To Disappear,” Opalka said, because these three songs get their mood from “frustration and limitation and the feeling of wanting to escape or turn away.”

“Looking back,” she said, “it’s probably related to being a teenager growing up on an island.”

Opalka will perform from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31 at the Earth and Vine wine bar (4620 Lynwood Center Road NE).

There is no cost for admission and all ages are welcome.

Opalka has been composing and performing since she was 4, but began really accessing the larger world of musical mentors and peers through the Seattle Theatre Group’s Songwriters’ Lab in 2015.

In 2016 and 2017 she performed a set of originals for VIP theatre-goers to “Beautiful: the Carole King Story,” and was twice spotlighted as part of Up Next, the emerging artist performance series co-sponsored by Seattle Theatre Group and Starbucks.

In 2018, at a Seattle Cornish Institute performance workshop where he was an instructor, Vait, Seattle musician and producer (SISTERS, Little Wins), noticed her songwriting and performing skills. With his mentorship and partnership as producer, and collaborating with Dobson (Deep Sea Divers, Beck, The Shins) on bass and percussionist Lane (Pedro the Lion, Perfume Genius, Yppah), the first-ever Lutzie project took shape.

Visit www.lutzieofficial.com to learn more.