Lucky Daye on His New Album ‘Algorithm,’ Working With Bruno Mars and Saving a Woman’s Life With Raye

For Lucky Daye, the risk is in the reward. It’s been two years since he released his sophomore album “Candydrip,” and for its follow-up “Algorithm,” which released last Friday, the 38-year-old wanted to dig even deeper. “I want to be vulnerable when I’m making music,” he tells Variety from Los Angeles. “I can make something straight up whatever, but I want to show myself. I’m a work in progress and God be working on me, so I want to share that stuff. It’s an exciting feeling.”

The New Orleans native began working on “Algorithm” last June, following his standard creative strategy: blocking the outside world and, this time, corralling a team of musicians including Bruno Mars, D’Mile and J. Kercy to shape his vision. What resulted is an album with outsized ambition, fated to be performed in a live setting, traipsing between genres with ease. Lead single “HERicane,” for one, pops with a sprightly bounce, while tracks like “Breakin’ the Bank” and “Never Leavin’ U Lonely” patter across fuzzy funk instrumentation.

“Algorithm” feels like a culmination, or at least a hefty milestone, for Daye. Debuting with 2018’s “I” EP, Daye has become a consistent presence in R&B and beyond, earning 11 Grammy nominations as both a solo artist and songwriter for Beyoncé and Mary J. Blige. (His sole win came in 2022 for his “Table for Two” EP in the best progressive R&B album category.) His artistry has pushed forward bit by bit with each release, and “Algorithm” is at his most realized, a tale tattered by heartache and buoyed with all-consuming romance.

Amid preparing for his upcoming Algorithm tour, kicking off on July 11, Daye discusses how he approached recording his latest, and how sharing this much of himself is worth putting it all on the line.

“Algorithm” marries a bunch of different styles of music which is nothing new for you, but there’s the funk, the rock, the R&B.

A little psychedelic in there.

What inspired you musically on this album, just to make it a confluence of all these different types of genres?

I was really inspired by big sounds. Like all of these guys, Bee Gees… I feel like all of these songs in the moment, they were R&B. No matter who’s singing it, no matter what chart it went on, it was all R&B. And you feel the soul in these songs. I wanted to highlight the R&B in every single song that I loved, that I got into my own personal algorithm in life.

How did you approach this project through the lens of making it a whole musical concept rather than disparate songs cobbled together?

Well for me, I just block out the moment and try to hold onto that initial idea of where am I right now in my life. And I just put it all together and try to hold on to that overall feeling, and in between holding onto that feeling, I’m pinpointing different angles within that feeling. Because with every feeling, there are a lot of sides to it. So that feeling with all the sides of that, that’s literally what the album is. It’s just science, it’s electric, it’s happy, it’s celebratory.

On a lot of the songs, you sound spellbound, you literally mention being under a spell on “Soft.” Is there a particular relationship or experience you went through that inspired these songs?

That’s crazy. Probably man. I think it’s a combination of feelings. Some people believe in spells, some people don’t believe in spells, some people just don’t know what it is. It could be light, it could be heavy. Everything you can think of probably exists. And maybe I’ve been under some spell, but I think music is the release for all of it. Everything that I’ve ever been through or felt that felt maybe imbalanced or wrong or unsure, or even right, just put it on wax.

You also sing about loss and regret in relationships. It’s hard for some people to admit regret or longing after losing someone, so was that hard for you to express that on a record and share those feelings?

Yeah definitely. While making it, I was going through this stuff. Fortunately, for my creativity, I was literally trying to figure out who was supposed to be around me. What’s going on, what were my mistakes, what is my mistakes? Just moving people and arranging things in my life. It was the epitome of “HERicane” and all of the turmoil inside of me that was going on.

“Mary” is a standout, it recalls DMX’s “What These Bitches Want.”

Yes. I wanted to do that… I had the idea in my notes. I wrote literally DMX, DMX and Sisqo song, and I love concepts. I like to create a world around each song, and that was the world around that song. And also in my mind, sometimes I get to a point where like, I’m human but I’m a little god. Sometimes you get in that little phase, and I was in that phase, it was like, what would God say? I don’t know if he loved Mary, but he tells Mary. So it was a triple entendre in my mind. Like, what would God say? Mary is the one. And also the concept of the DMX thing was on my mind. And, I had to talk about a little marijuana because I smoke a little bit, and that brought it all together since my first single “Roll Some Mo.” That’s what they know me by. I’m like the R&B Snoop Dogg.

“That’s You” is co-written with Bruno Mars. How did that come together?

Bruno’s a genius, first of all. I always looked up to Bruno, from the song with B.o.B [“Nothin’ on You”] since way back. I always cherish the way he write. He’s the reason I started studying Motown, the way Motown music was written. Because I know it’s all his bars and stuff. So for me, being able to work with him was like a dream because I always imagined it. Him coming with the idea trying to mimic my voice was very endearing, and I didn’t want to let him down. So I recorded his melody in the phone and we threw that in ProTools, I took it home and threw some words on it and my goal was to make Bruno proud.

What was the process of linking with Raye for “Paralyzed?”

We got in the studio, I guess I had the first verse already. I kind of recorded it at home, the hook, came back, put an idea down, she heard it. We started out doing it in the studio, and I could tell she wanted to go deeper. We played her two songs, she chose that. And that was that. She took it home, she went deeper than we went in the studio. Just meeting her was amazing. We actually saved somebody’s life.

What do you mean?

At the beach, we saved somebody’s life. It’s weird. After the studio, I was like I gotta take you home. I brought her home and she was like what you about to do? I was like I’m going to take my ass to the beach. It’s like 2:30 am, I’m going to the beach. I’m not sleeping. She’s like, well I guess the night ain’t over. So we went to the beach and we were talking about the session, talking about songs, talking about the future, talking about careers. We got to know each other as creative people and I look over to the right, and it’s this guy and this girl on a pier on the tower or whatever. Initially, I thought it was a dog and I was like, yo why you dragging a dog like that? It was kind of far, we walked close.

We got a little weirded. I was like if I talk to him, I could go to jail because if it’s bad for him, it’s bad for me. So, I’m just going to sit in the car and just watch him and make sure she straight. Then another car came up and four people grab her and they started bringing her to the car, she was all tore up or whatever. I called the cops on them. I didn’t have no time for the cops. I was like, yo, what’s up man? I’m just letting y’all know there’s somebody here that really needs your help. This is not a game. Gave them my name, all this information, and was like I just want to make y’all know so it’s not on my conscience. And then they took it seriously, I was about to hang up. They sent some cops and they just locked everybody up ‘cause obviously that was just some bullshit.

Taking a step back and looking at “Algorithm,” how do you think it portrays you as an artist at this point in your career?

As you know, I took a little time to fix a lot of screws that were loose that I definitely didn’t want to take any time, I didn’t need rest. But this album to me is a new beginning. I know I’m solidified as far as in the industry and Grammy nominations, my peers love me and I have diehard fans who I love dearly. So now, I think this is a guy saying you can go crazy, you can travel through the world of creativity and you don’t need to feel like you’re in a box no more. And if it win, it win. And if it don’t, I’m still in my purpose. I’m comfortable with that. This is something that people don’t know they’re not ready for.