Lucy Shelley
| Lucy Shelley | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 25 December 1950 Northern States |
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| Years active | 1970–present |
Lucy Shelley (Gylic transcription: Lusi Şeli; born 25 December 1950) is a Gylian record producer, audio engineer, and author. She is the adopted daughter of Susan Shelley, and was her mother's long-term studio assistant and engineer until her death. She also wrote a critically acclaimed autobiography, Music Runs in the Family.
Early life
She was born in 1950 in the Northern States. She spent the first four years of her life in an orphanage, and was subsequently adopted by Susan Shelley and Alan Shelley, who changed her name to "Lucy Shelley". She has three adoptive siblings: older brothers Alex and Paul, and younger brother George.
The family moved to the Free Territories when she was young. She attended primary school in Gylias, followed by secondary school and college.
Career
Like her siblings, Lucy was fascinated by her mother's musical career, and began working with her at Beat Studios and Palace of Sound. She was initially a tape operator and then an assistant engineer.
She became a full-time audio engineer after finishing college. She engineered numerous albums produced by Susan, as well as Susan's solo albums.
Susan encouraged her children to develop their own personalities through their audio engineering work, and they came to have humorous specialties in musical projects. Lucy wrote that she developed a "pleasantly staid" image in the studio, and joked that her musical specialty became "classy" projects, such as her mother's art music and jazz works.
Public image
Lucy and her brothers were imparted with the Shelley family's ideals by Susan and Alan in childhood. They grew up idolising their mother and followed her career path, as well as her example.
Lucy developed a "prim and proper" personality, and was known even within her family for being exceptionally well-behaved, polite, and formal. She wrote in her autobiography:
"My life's ambition is to be exactly like my mother. I learned to speak English like her. I dress exactly like her. I watched the way she behaves, and did the same. When I learned I needed glasses, I made sure I got the same model she wears."
Music Runs in the Family
Music Runs in the Family is Lucy's autobiography, published in 2018. She had deliberately delayed the publication until after her mother's death, but had shown it to Susan while she was alive and gotten her blessing to publish it. She had also shared the text in progress with several authors, including Raşa Edau, author of Gylias' First Family.
In the book, Lucy describes Susan and Alan's glamorous lives and Susan's prestigious reputation, and the way their parenting shaped their children's dynamics and personalities. Lucy describes her parents as warm and loving, and expresses astonishment that they managed to instill them with a very "proper", well-organised lifestyle without making it seem stifling, primarily by modeling responsibility and good behaviour, and making it seem fun and enticing.
Lucy writes that she was "incredibly lucky" to be adopted into the Shelley family, and frankly writes that without the family connection, "I don't know if anyone would've cared much for my mixing work." She describes how the glittering lives led by their parents drove them to teach their children the importance of honouring the family name, and to never settle for mediocrity and coast on the family name. She writes that this ironically led her to becoming "more of a perfectionist" than Susan in the studio, an aspect that prompted much laughter between them over the years.
Of her extremely close relationship with her mother throughout their lives, Lucy concludes: "Mother wasn't just my mother, she was my best friend."
The book's final chapter, written after Susan's death, details Lucy's involvement in planning her official funeral.
The book was praised for its craftsmanship, intimate portrayal of the Shelley family, and detailed discussion of Lucy and her brothers' engineering work. The Mişeyáke Metro Mail concluded: "Ultimately, what will stay with readers the most is Lucy's moving account of her parents, her relationship with them, and their relationship with each other."
Private life
Lucy is married and has adopted two children.
Her favourite sport is bowling. She comments in her autobiography on the amusing contrast between the sport and her public image:
"I became quite popular in my bowling league because people enjoyed the sight of a dainty lady like myself waltzing into the alley dressed to the nines, nails done and painted bright red, and then playing this very professional, impressive game. Just one of those amusing contrasts Gylias enjoys so much. I never tired of telling mother and father how I'd get complimented in the league for bringing a touch of class to matches."