Roy Lucian Baza

00:45S1

This is Studio 1 on Vision Australia Radio.

01:03S2

Hi, I'm Sam...

01:04S3

And I'm Lizzy.

01:05S2

And this is Studio 1, your weekly look at life from a low vision and blind point of view here on Vision Australia Radio.

01:10S3

On this week's show...

01:12S2

Just say you are a successful musician at the start of your career, you're 19 and the world is at your feet. And then you wake up one morning and you can't see. This is exactly what happened to Roy Lucian Baza. Join us as Roy talks about his battle with glaucoma.

01:27S3

As we always say at this point, please do get in touch with the show. Whether you have experience of any of the issues covered in this week's episode of Studio 1, or if you feel there's something that we should be talking about, you never know. Your story and insight may help someone who's dealing with something similar.

01:43S2

Please contact us via email: studio1@visionaustralia.org - That's studio number one at Vision Australia dot org.

01:49S3

Or you can drop us a note on our Facebook page at facebook.com slash RVA Radio Network.

02:00S2

Hey Lizzie.

02:01S3

Hey, Sam. How are you going today?

02:03S2

I am okay, it is early in the morning, and, I'm freezing. For for a guy from Darwin, this is like being in the Antarctic. It's... not exactly what I'd call pleasant.

02:18S3

So I've lived in Adelaide all my life, and I can tell you, even I'm not finding it to be particularly pleasant this morning.

02:25S2

This is not the show again that I was planning for. And... sorry, Nova, I've given up on you. I know you're really, really busy, so good luck in what you're doing, and, we'll be tuning in. So who we've got today is Roy Lucian Baza, who is a singer from San Francisco who had a rather... interesting brush with eye con... well, with eye disease.

02:54S3

Yes. And I thought it was a really interesting chat that we had with him. And he brought up a lot of good points about regular eye testing and all sorts of other stuff.

03:03S2

Well, let's not tease you anymore. Over to Roy. So today we are joined by Roy Lucian Baza. That's a pronoun by correct pronunciation. Yes, yes, yes. Now, what gets me confused here is because in Australia we have this habit of taking a name, shortening and lengthening it. And so Baza is the Australian name for Barry or Basil or Basil? Yes. So if we start getting confused, that's it's not personal. It's cultural. No. No worries. So you've just released an album as we will be playing a part of the song later on. And of course, it will be on rotation at Vision Australia Radio. So what inspired you to release this?

03:57S4

Well, it's Loverboy Lucian, it's my second album, and I wanted a more joyful, uplifting project after my debut album, Roy, which was released in April 2022. With Loverboy, I just felt like Roy had a lot of darker subjects and a lot of my personal struggles, from my illness to my personal life, that honestly, I had to create that first album to get to Loverboy Lucian to find the joy after all of the. Complications that I had during the first album, but I wanted to release this body of work out into the world, hoping that it would bring people joy and make them feel happy. And we had a role making Loverboy Lucian, that we didn't want anyone to have any negative vibes, any sad songs. If they want that, they can go to like my first album. But this album, I wanted to just have a labour of love out into the world.

04:54S2

Art can be... a very personal thing, can't it?

04:57S4

Yes, yes, I was.

04:59S3

Going to say as well, like, as a musician myself, I am fully aware and can understand the fact that our music, our lyrics and our songwriting can often be an extension of our journaling or our selves. So it's almost like we're releasing our diary out into the world.

05:14S4

1,000%. Yes. You're so right, Lizzie. It's essentially my diary. Because, you know, even with the first album and this album, those are actual things that I've lived through and continue to live through, and it's very vulnerable to be able to put that out into the world, because you don't know how people are going to perceive your personal life and your personal thoughts, but it very much so is a diary that is put out, you know, to a public audience.

05:40S2

So let's hear a little bit more about you. So let's start out with you're coming to us from across the other side of the world. Whereabouts are you?

05:48S4

I'm in San Francisco, California, right now.

05:51S2

What's it like there at the moment? 

S4

It's middle of winter. Well, it's the start of winter here, and I've got the Ugg boots on, otherwise my feet would turn blue.

05:58S2

It's summer and it is hot. 

S4

Lucky you.

06:01S2

I've never been to San Francisco. Actually a lie. I've been to San Francisco airport. I'm told it is a lovely city.

06:08S4

It is. It's much more smaller than I think people think it is. Once you get to know it, it's a walking city. There's a lot of hills, but it's very vibrant, opening and accepting to to people and of course, to artists like myself. I live back and forth from San Francisco and Malibu, California, and the vibes are totally different because, you know, Malibu is a part of Los Angeles, but San Francisco has this more homey feel to it. And, right now, summer just started, so it's getting a little bit hotter, but it's usually cold here in the city, so usually feels like winter all the time, but today it is hotter.

06:46S2

So, we're talking, of course, to a celebrated artist, and I'm presuming you've been doing celebrated artist things today as it's, what is it, 4:30 your time? So what have you been getting up to do today?

06:57S4

I did another interview prior to this, actually, um, with a publication online. I don't think I'm allowed to say, but I did something else talking about the rhetoric prior to coming on here.

07:08S2

Oh, I was hoping for something a bit more boring or exciting anyway, so let's hear about, Roy Lucien Baza. What got you started in this?

07:18S4

I started my career when I was 12 years old. I always wanted to do music, and I've always been writing. I've been singing since I was three, and I've been writing since I was 11 years old. And... I wanted to find an outlet for me to do just that. So my mom would take me on these little North American or, sorry, Northern California tours, throughout nursing homes and rehab centers to sing for the elderly and for the sick and the people in need. It was just kind of an outlet to, like, help me train, in a way, to get to where I am now, but also to give back to people that I felt like they needed it more. 

I always say when I do my live shows, I hope to bring joy to the audience. I hope the audience feels something and they leave there feeling fulfilled in a way that they didn't prior to entering the room. And doing those shows as a essentially a pre-teen and a teenager with people that were sick really prepped me for the road ahead, especially with my own illness and what I had to go through. So I'm very grateful for my my early start then. And then I did a TV show when I was 15 called The X Factor. Do you guys have that over there?

08:31S3

Yes we do, yes.

08:32S4

We don't have it here anymore. But, I did season one in May. Top 200. Never met like Simon and them, but it was like producers and stuff. And after I got out of top 200, my mom and dad put me into music school to learn guitar, to learn music theory, to really strengthen myself as a musician, to be able to create projects like my debut album Roy, and of course, the new album Lover Boy Lucien. So I've been doing this for a while now. I just turned 29.

09:02S3

Whew! You're about the same age as myself. I'm a year older than you. But anyway... so yeah, the music industry is somewhat different nowadays to what I would associate. It really was back in... yes, I'm a man in his 50s, so I sort of still have CDs and things like that. It doesn't quite function that way anymore, does it? I mean, you still do release physical albums, but the main focus is what's streaming media and stuff like that.

09:26S4

With streaming. Yes, I love physical media, and I consumed that myself. But streaming is obviously the main like outlet for us musicians nowadays. I wish you know, they would pay us more for that streaming. You barely get anything on there for being completely honest. You make more from physical media, which is a great outlet to support your local artists and support artists that you get to see if they have physical media there. I would highly suggest purchasing a vinyl or CD, because it does go to all of us musicians as opposed to streaming, which is, you know, in today's world, it's very hard to make it in streaming just because it's you don't really get much back from, say, Spotify or Apple.

10:10S3

And it's such a saturated market as well.

10:13S4

Yes, absolutely.

10:14S3

Everyone's releasing things daily, like it's always getting swamped with new material.

10:19S4

It is. And you have to find a way to carve a little area out for you because you could, you know, if the work is not strong enough, it could be easily forgettable because like you said, there's things releasing daily. And that's like one of the blessings for streaming because you get to, you know, put your out your art out there quick, uh, quicker. But it also could be, you know, not so much of a blessing when your work gets buried underneath everything else, releasing on a daily basis.

10:47S2

How much help does having a record label help you out with that?

10:51S5

I'm actually unsigned. I would love a label. I haven't really pivoted in that direction just yet, just because I kind of like having ownership of my work. But I'm nowadays I'm more open to having those discussions with a label, with a label from what I know, from my personal experiences. Once you start working with them, you kind of lose ownership over your own creation. And I'm very big in owning my own art and my own because like Lizzie said, it's my diary, essentially. And... I'm not really like, huge fan of having somebody slap their name on my personal thoughts and saying that it's their personal thoughts, you know what I mean? But nowadays the labels are much more open thanks to artists like Taylor Swift, who's very prominent in like owning her masters and her work. So I am very much so more open to that now as opposed to I was earlier.

11:55S1

This is Studio 1 on Vision Australia Radio.

12:06S2

So the reason why you got in contact with us or we got in contact with you? I can't think of it. I'm looking through the stream of emails. Is when you were 19, your life turned upside down, and I'm quoting you directly.

12:20S4

Yes. Yes, I was diagnosed with glaucoma in February 2014. It's been ten years now. It was my 10th anniversary that came around. Actually, I had a cataract in my eye first. I went to a concert the night before and woke up, and I honestly, I could not see. I thought it was allergies. And I went in to see my primary care doctor who sent me to an optometrist who came in the room honestly, a little bit, you know, obviously freaked out, and looked at me and my mom and said, your son has a cataract of a 75 year old in his right eye, and I didn't even know what a cataract was. Then she referred me immediately to a specialist and went to my first ophthalmologist, and we were able to schedule the surgery fairly quickly because it was an emergency surgery. 

Obviously, I don't know why a 19 year old would have a cataract in his right eye. I never done anything with my eye in that aspect, and it just kind of popped up and the cataract surgery went well. We were stable for a little while until the glaucoma pressure started creeping in and it not necessarily did it creep in. It just came. I started getting pressures of like 65, 70, and it became very clear that this was a serious thing happening to me, and it was obviously affecting my life. I had to pause my career, I had to pause my actual life and shift gears. I was in the hospital essentially every day, being monitored up until the point where the glaucoma got worse, that I had to be referred to another ophthalmologist in the Bay area who is still my current doctor to this day, to get a tube surgery in my right eye. 

So there is a tube that is in my eye that's been in there for nine years now and helps me keep my pressure down and whatnot. And through that surgery I've had, obviously I've had the treatment, I go in and get the injections hundreds of days of that. Spent my entire half of my 20s in the hospital. Essentially. I was not out of there until 2019. Now I go in. I actually just went in for treatment last Wednesday, and I just got approved to come in every nine months as opposed to every six months now. So we're we're still doing, you know, we're still taking the meds, taking the prednisolone and the dorzolamide and...  chugging on forward in the best way that I can with what I've been given in this situation.

S2

So you got out of hospital just in time for the pandemic. That must have been exciting.

15:03S4

I did, you know, my doctor wanted me to go out and explore the world. Obviously, we did not know the pandemic was coming. And I moved to New York in 2019, and I lived there for a little bit up until the start of the pandemic. I got a phone call from my doctor actually saying, there's this illness going around, and, um, you're obviously immunocompromised. I don't know what you're up to, but if you could fly back to San Francisco and just for a few weeks, you'll only be there for a few weeks. But obviously we know what happened afterwards. Yeah. 

And in a way, it was a blessing in disguise. I'm glad I got to go have my time in New York. But, you know, being here and being safer with everything, um, especially I was going through all those treatments. I had all those surgeries, and I did not want to risk anything backtracking because of, you know, Covid and the pandemic. And I did not want to risk my doctor's hard work and my hard work to get me to the place that was, you know, my stability that I have now with this illness.

16:06S3

But you said before that your first album, Roy, was quite a lot darker than your current album and that you were exploring, you know, a little bit more sadder topics. And I'm guessing that your illness and your treatments and things is one of those topics that you explored. Did you? Yes. Do you feel like that helped you to process, what you were going through at the time and all the emotions that you were feeling?

16:31S4

Absolutely, absolutely. That album is a time capsule of that period of 2014. I didn't stop writing that album until 2021, so I started writing it about a year after I was diagnosed with glaucoma. If I'm being completely honest with you, I shut down. After all of that happened to me. I refused to write. I refuse to sing. I didn't feel like doing what I love anymore, just because it was very draining to have to go from being out there in the public eye to. Honestly, being in a hospital and having to learn how to use a walking stick, it was detrimental to me and it really brought me down. But obviously I found my way back to it. And I'm very grateful I did, because that became my outlet to pour my frustrations and and heartache that I had during that time period. 

But I always say, you know, some people can look at getting diagnosed with glaucoma in a negative way. I actually am able to see the positive in it if I didn't get diagnosed with glaucoma. Honestly, it gave me a little bit more of a grit, and it obviously added to my story and added to who I am as a person and my strength and my courage and conviction. And I'm grateful, you know, for everything. I wouldn't change a thing that's happened.

17:55S3

Oh yeah. And I feel like it gives you more material to write about as well. 

17:59S4

Yes. And even even after the fact, you know, loverboy, Lucy, and maybe, like, a happy record, but of course, it's, I can easily tap into that... part of myself if needed.

18:08S2

So how much can you see nowadays? Has it affected your eyesight, or are you back to on all thrusters, as it were?

18:16S4

I am. I do not have full eyesight in my right eye. My left my left eye is still, thank God, still, knock on wood, we're still good with that. My right eye, though, it's blurry, but it's been that way for a while, so I kind of get adjusted to it after all this time. Like we're not worse and we're not better, so we're just right there in a spot that as long as I'm comfortable, and as long as my doctor is comfortable with me doing what I continue to continue to do out in the world. But yeah, it's just kind of there, man.

18:51S2

Are there any things that you do have to change nowadays, because of the condition?

18:56S4

Yeah, I have to take a lot more precautions than most people. I don't want to, you know, affect it in any way. I use an iPad from time to time just because if you end up rubbing it, you might break the tube in your eye. Especially now that the tube is like nine years old. We've got to protect that at all times. I am still on prednisolone, which is prednisone, which is, you know, obviously with prednisone can be very draining taking that, but I'm at a good amount of a dosage that I can go out and do my daily activities and talk to you guys and go and do shows and shoot videos and all that good stuff. So there's a lot of precautions that I take now that I wouldn't have taken when I was 19 and earlier.

19:39S2

Surely an eye patch would be a rather cool fashion accessory?

19:42S4

You know what? I am surprised I haven't included it in my like, stage persona yet. It's pretty cool though, I'm not gonna lie. 

19:51S3

Yeah, I think it totally should, because some people have, like, I've got my guide dog and some people have other things, or seeing eye dog, I should say, like, we have this thing that's built into our personality. That's part of us. Couldn't imagine one without the other.

20:04S4

I know, yeah, yeah. And, you know, the eye patch, it should be, you know, a part of something that I do moving forward just because it represents. I try as much as possible to raise awareness about this illness because obviously it came out of left field for me. We still don't know how I got it up until this day. And it's such a huge part of my life and my story that there's just no way of going around it. It always has to be addressed because it is a part of me. And if you listen to Roy, it's very clear in that record what exactly I went through and what I was feeling. Up until, you know, the new record that just released.

20:46S2

Well, I mean, one of the things that we do know about glaucoma is, well, what we don't know really is there's still a lot to be known about the causes. And. Yeah, because it can it not necessarily genetic. It can skip generations and everything. So I suppose. Yes. Would there be anything you would want to say to people, really about, I don't know, preventing what happened to you? 

21:13S4

Wow, that's a good question. Honestly. Check your eyes as much as possible. That's something I did not do prior to getting diagnosed with glaucoma. Obviously, like I said, I had a cataract of a 75 year old first. Did not know what that was. So please consult with your doctors and continuously go in for your eye checks because you never know if something is just going to creep up on you like that. And honestly, when the 'coma first started, I didn't know what pain I was feeling in my face was. I always thought it was just a headache. But turns out it's your eye pressure and it really does cause you pain if you do not get treated soon enough. 

And I'm grateful for my doctors that they, you know, were able to get it on a course that we're on now that I can have this sense of stability. So I'm not always hurting and not always feeling like my head's about to explode with this glaucoma because everyone has their own different experiences with, you know, this illness and whatnot. But with me, it was it was very painful. And I'm glad that the medications can help, you know, bring it down and keep it at a level that is stable for me. So please, if you have this illness, continue to go in for your check ins, for your treatments, continue to take your medications because it's very important this you know, these surgeries are not meant to be a permanent fix. They're meant as a temporary fix. 

And I'm very aware that, you know, tomorrow everything can go backwards and we have to start all over again. It's not something that's, you know, lost on me. And that was explained to me from the get go that this is not a permanent fix. This there's no cure for this illness yet. This is a temporary fix.

22:54S2

And indeed, to someone like myself who is already legally blind, can actually still get it. So it is something that can pretty much affect almost anybody.

23:03S4

Yes, very much so. And you sometimes, like I said, you wouldn't even know it's affecting you until they actually check the pressure in your eye and explain to you that you're not going crazy. Because I thought I was, I thought the massive headaches that were feeling were just, you know, headaches. But no, they were something more. And they were coming from my eye. But, you know, from that experience. Just keep raising awareness on this and hopefully one day there will be a cure for all of us.

23:33S2

So back to your music. Where can we find you?

23:37S4

You can find me on Spotify, you can find me on YouTube under Roy Luisi and also on Instagram and, all the good social media sites.

23:47S3

And you have your music available on Apple Music. 

23:51S4

Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Apple Music as well. Shout out. Thank you, Lizzy, for the reminder.

23:55S2

And we were talking about the physical media. Do you have any discs out there?  Yes.

24:01S4

Yes. You can purchase, both Roy and Loverboy Lucian on CD right now on my website.  loverboylucian.com and, vinyl coming soon for the new album. Loverboy Lucian.

24:14S2

So look out for it, in all record stores.

24:18S3

And we'll have the links.

24:19S2

I definitely will. I definitely will. Thank you very much for joining us. And thank you for sharing your story. And we will... reiterate, get your eyes checked, get your pressure checked because it doesn't just because you might already have a pre-existing eye condition, it doesn't preclude you from getting glaucoma, which would not be, yeah, would not be pleasant for any of us.

24:45S4

Of course. Sam. Thank you. Thank you, Lizzy, as well. I appreciate you guys very much.

24:51S2

That's a wrap for this week. Next week our guest is Jeffrey Lim. Jeffrey was a street dancer for over 20 years and appeared on a number of shows, including Australia's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the stars. Unfortunately, he started losing his sight to Usher Syndrome and had to stop, but he has now founded Cipher Culture, an organisation that looks after unrepresented street dancers.

25:14S3

But between now and then, please do get in touch with the show. Whether you have experience dealing with any of the issues covered in this week's episode of Studio One, or if you feel there's something we should be talking about. You never know. Your story and insight may help someone who's dealing with something similar.

25:29S2

You can contact us via email: stgudio1@visionaustralia.org - That's studio number one at Vision Australia dot org.

25:35S3

Or you can drop us a note on our Facebook at facebook.com, slash RVA Radio Network, or the rather obsolete platform of x x comm slash VA Radio Network. Over to Roy...

25:47S4 (sings)

Why don't you aim for the heart should you ever ride? Who, me? Go ahead and tell. Me apart. Slip and slide between my hips. Whenever you do, make your move. Move. Come on baby. Aim for this. Why don't you aim for the heart? Shoot your error right through me. We've been playing it safe for so long. Labeling us as just friends. But when we're together, it's definitely more than that. My hands up in your blonde hair. You scooch a little closer to me. Baby smoky haze from Latin blue jeans. Days like this with you on repeat. 

Why don't you aim for the heart? Shoot you at. Go ahead and tell. Me apart. Slip and slide between my hips. Whenever you do, make your move. Come on, baby, ain't. Why don't you aim for the heart? Should you ever ride through me? I've been playing the long game for your love. Cause boys like you are hard to resist. He my zipper zip cause I want. Tamagotchi. That same time, I'm like, oh, my set. I'm all the like, thank you. Let me be in love again. Still blazing. All the big dreams. Never want this feeling to fade. To fade. There's no need. Where my soul. I'm close to crossing the line. Whoever. This girl. You will keep catching flies. Are the only one I want by my side. So whenever you do. Make your move. Come on baby...

28:35S1

Vision Australia Radio gratefully acknowledges the support of the Community Broadcasting Foundation for Studio 1.