As Lutalo rode in the passenger seat of a minivan while giving a Zoom interview, the white sands of Arizona’s Texas Canyon desert visible beyond the windows, the singer-songwriter and producer rarely looked at the laptop camera. Instead, Lutalo’s eyes remained fixed on the road ahead — and yeah, that’s probably a metaphor. Humoring a Vermont journalist, the 25-year-old spoke in a soft voice about the ingredients that went into the making of their excellent and critically acclaimed 2024 debut LP, The Academy.
“Honestly, I’m just inspired by what it feels like to be alive at this moment in time,” Lutalo, who uses they/them pronouns, told me. “I’m trying to represent what it feels like to be a 21st-century person in America. Well, and Vermont now, as well.”
That last bit may come as a surprise to locals who count themselves among Lutalo’s growing legion of fans — a cadre that notably includes Fleet Foxes‘ Robin Pecknold.
Born in Minnesota, where Lutalo attended the prestigious St. Paul Academy, the famous alma mater of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, the artist moved to Addison County in 2021 and promptly built a home studio. A cousin by marriage to another mysterious, newish Vermont musician, Big Thief‘s Adrianne Lenker, Lutalo wasted little time releasing a series of singles and EPs. Those built toward The Academy, a full-length record that Lutalo refers to as the “first chapter in a longer story.”
The album has garnered rave reviews and shout-outs in the Guardian, Rolling Stone UK and Fader, buzz that’s fueled both Lutalo’s rise and ceaseless touring schedule. They’ve played breakout gigs at the Pitchfork Music Festival in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, touring from one end of America to the other. Which, ironically, explains why few in the Vermont scene might realize Lutalo is one of their own: The singer is rarely here long enough to say hello, let alone play a show. In fact, an appearance at the 2022 Waking Windows music festival in Winooski was their first and only public show on Vermont soil.
That all changes on Valentine’s Day — Friday, February 14, in case you forgot — as Lutalo makes their Burlington debut at Radio Bean, with support from local indie rocker Dari Bay.
“It’s pretty crazy that I’m just now playing my first solo show in Vermont,” Lutalo said. “I’ve literally been here for years, but I’ve just felt so detached and separated from the local music scene. But I’m 100 percent ready to interact with it now. I want to be part of that conversation.”
That’s interesting, given that the artist has little use for the conversations around The Academy. Lutalo is only slightly cognizant of the buzz surrounding their music — a sort of grandiose indie-rock mix that references Palehound and TV on the Radio, complete with introspective and often dreamlike lyrics.
“I don’t really read any press or watch interviews back,” Lutalo admitted. “I try to keep my brain as ‘clean’ as possible, as I can get influenced pretty easily by other people’s thoughts … It’s better for me to not engage with my music in that way.”
As for why Lutalo is only emerging locally now, the musician said they’ve felt isolated of late, owing in part to a heavy touring schedule over the past three years.
“I’m coming out of an era of my career where I did all the things people instructed me to do, based on the old model of this industry,” they said. “Some of it worked; some of it didn’t.”
Last month, they dropped a brand-new single and music video for “I Figured.” While much of The Academy deals with Lutalo’s memories of childhood and bigger concepts such as the mirage of the so-called American dream, the new single operates on a more intimate scope. A song of lust and pursuing a relationship that maybe they shouldn’t, “I Figured” has a sleepy, languid melody that comes across as downright sultry in Lutalo’s deep voice. Those vocals hang in a magical tonal area also occupied by the National‘s Matt Berninger, with equal parts regret and misanthropic whimsy.
It’s an exciting time for Lutalo, who says the album and the new single are “just the beginning.” The Academy is a recollection, a memory of early life and an introduction to social inequity. It serves as a prologue in its creator’s mind; Lutalo plans to continue telling the tale with future albums.
“I’m interested in what people make of it 10 years from now,” Lutalo said. “Once I’ve put other records out and the tale is out there, will they find all the Easter eggs and motifs and make connections? It’s about connecting these pieces of art that are really recordings of time. They mark moments and have cultural depth, and I just want to keep creating those kinds of connections.”
Now that Lutalo has come in from the cold and off the road, the local music scene can properly take in the indie-rock savant who’s been lurking in the Green Mountains for several years. It’s going to be fun getting to know this Vermont musician.
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2025.
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