Lucinda Chua was born in Hammersmith to an English mother and a Chinese-Malay father from
Kuching. They moved to
Milton Keynes when Chua was 10. Chua learned to play piano by ear at the age of three. At the age of ten, she was allowed to take up the cello, which was her wish ever since she heard a string quartet playing "
Pachelbel's Canon in D Major" on a family day out in
Covent Garden. She left Milton Keynes to study photography at
Nottingham Trent University. There, she also took an elective course on lo-fi music production, by the end of which she had a CD with seven songs. During her studies she played gigs with bands and she often played as a support act for visiting artists like
Bat for Lashes and
Martha Wainwright. She also became one half of chamber pop duo
Felix which issued two albums before disbanding. She toured with
Stars of the Lid and later became
FKA Twigs's cellist during the
Magdalene era. As a solo artist, Chua released the
Antidotes 1 EP (2019) and the
Antidotes 2 EP (2021). Only after the pandemic struck and all tours were canceled, she started to work on her debut album
Yian, named after her middle name in
Mandarin which translates to "swallow".
Yian was released in 2023. She also released a three-track EP,
Reclaiming the Rose, in that year. == Influences ==