Name: Ingrid Lucia
Age: "Let's say late 30s"
Location: New Orleans, LA
Why we care: One of the leaders of the '90s swing revival, Ingrid Lucia and her Flying Neutrinos recently returned to their roots in New Orleans. After a long history with traditional and independent record labels — the 2000 album Hotel Child hit No. 9 on the Billboard charts — Lucia, like other singer/songwriters, has started self-financing her albums with donations from fans.

From the time you were 11, you and your sister and cousins were required to play music on the streets of Mexico and New Orleans. How did that start?

My dad said we should pick an instrument we wanted to play — we were starting a family band. Most of the time it was my dad counting the money and figuring out what our bills were. We had a community cupboard of peanut butter, rice and beans and eggs. But there were times when the kids would get a little bit frustrated and say, "Why can't we have candy money?" He'd say, "Here, you be responsible for your own food now." We'd split that $20 eight ways and realize we couldn't eat on that and put it back in the group pot.

What's your first memory of having your own money, say, more than $20?

I was 14. I learned how to paint Christmas signs, and my dad said if you want material objects, you're going to have to work. So I did: I started making a lot of money and buying all these shoes and new clothes. My dad said I was becoming materialistic and I should get back down to earth.

By the time you were 20, the family band had split into two separate groups with the same name, and you moved to New York with only $1,000.

It was enough money to put down a deposit and pay first month's rent with my roommate, and we lived on pizza, slept on the floor, and scoured the streets for furniture. But I did learn to be more responsible with my own money, better than I'd been taught, where it was "if you have the money, you spend it, and if you don't, you don't."

Did you finance your first record yourself?

With a small loan from Chase Bank. We were working in Atlantic City and I took all the money that we made those first six weeks and applied it to our recording... about $5,000, just for the studio and the artwork. None of the players really got paid because we were a team and we were all working on it together.

Now you can't do that anymore because you have to pay everyone.

That's exactly right. This [new album] is our 8th CD. We borrowed $5,400 to pay the studio, the engineer, and the band, and we still need to raise funding for the printing, graphics and photos. Dwight [my husband] came up with the idea to have people, the fans, pre-purchase their CDs for $10 instead of the usual $15 or $17, and get a thanks in the credits. They're paying for production of the product, and you own the masters and the publishing.

What's better, to have a label release the CD or you to put up the money from fans?

Well, it's tricky. You still need distribution and marketing. There's gotta be a third option between being so independent and not having the tools you need versus being locked in and being on someone's else time.

Do you make more on a label-led CD?

If the marketing is there and the CD is a hit, yes. But if it doesn't, you're in the record company's debt and it takes a long time to get out of it.

You're living in New Orleans again.

It's less expensive but you don't make as much money, although you get more space. Having a family [of my own], the space is important — with the number of people and animals we have we can't really live in NY anymore. Now it's best to go out on the road and play weddings and gigs in New York and come back with three times as much.

You had a childhood that was completely different than most. And now you're raising a child in a more normal situation. Is there anything you've learned from your dad that you applied to your own child?

[Ava, her daughter, singing: "Money makes the world go 'round/world go 'round."]

What I've learned from my family is that, more importantly that money, you have to have generosity to go around to people that need it, when they ask for it. And I think she's good about that.

[Ava: Yes, I am.]

Related Links:

Selling her clothes and giving to charity: Media blogger Rachel Sklar

Saving for retirement and learning the value of a dollar: CollegeHumor founder Ricky Van Veen

How he and his family live on less than $15,000 a year: Art-game designer Jason Rohrer