Empress Of

Imagine stepping into a studio where the walls echo with a fusion of alt-pop and club ready electronic innovation, colored with the vibrant heritage of Honduran American culture. That's the journey we embark upon with multi-hyphenate Lorely Rodriguez, better known as Empress Of. Lorely doesn't just talk about her music, she takes us through the raw and transformative process of her creative process.

The conversation takes us deeper, where the art of music production unfolds in its most genuine form. Stripping back the layers, Lorely muses on how the simplest of melodies can sometimes reveal the true strength of a composition. The chat turns to tales of stepping into the unknown, embracing the newness of a studio gadget, or the raw vulnerability of an acoustic performance.

For Your Consideration by Empress Of is available now here.

Presented and produced by Paul Hanford 

Paul Hanford on Instagram

Lost and Sound is proudly sponsored by Audio-Technica

Paul’s debut book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culture Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins

Transcript

Empress Of

Speaker 1 0:00

Lost in Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica, and right now I'm wearing a pair of their ATH-M50 headphones. I love them. They fit great and snug. They're for the studio or for out and about, like where I am on a bench in an actually quite sunny Berlin for once. Audio-technica are a global but family-run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, microphones quality yet affordable products, because they believe the high quality audio should be accessible to all. So, wherever you are in the world, head on over to AudioTechnicacom to check out all of their range of stuff. Thank you, hello, and welcome to episode 125 of Lost in Sound.

Speaker 1 1:36

I'm Paul Hamford, I'm your host, I'm an author, a broadcaster and a lecturer, and Lost in Sound is a weekly podcast where I chat with an artist who works outside the box, from global icons to trailblazing outsiders and emerging innovators. We talk music, creativity and perhaps that most daunting part of being an artist the praxis of life. Previous guests have included Peaches, suzanne Chiani, jim O'Rourke, chili Gonzalez, cozy, funny Tootie, jean-michel Jarre, mickey Blanco and Thurston Moore, and today you're about to hear a chat I had with producer, singer, songwriter Empress of Meanwhile. My book Coming to Berlin is still available in all good bookshops or via the publisher's website, velocity Press. If you've not read it, give it a go. Take it to the beach with you, you never know.

Speaker 1 2:24

Anyway, today on the show, laura Lee Lee Rodriguez, better known for a decade or so now as Empress Of, she has, as a producer, songwriter, singer and musician, just released her fourth album. Her first three albums, which were Me in 2015, us in 2018, and I'm your Empress Of in 2020, a club-ready collections that hit the sweet spot between alt-pop, energy and inventive electronic production, all delivered with a bravura that maybe, speculatorily, might come from her training as a sound engineer beforehand. The title of her new collection is For your Consideration, and that might be a cheeky nod to her current hometown of Los Angeles, and that she's also described the album as well as somewhat of a Hollywood record. Similar to her previous music, it's a mixture of heartbreak and hedonism that really gets to demonstrate both her production chops and her songwriting abilities, and in the album, she sings between spanish and english, the spanish echoing her honduran american upbringing.

Speaker 1 3:35

Perhaps she's traveled a long way as an artist and as a human since she first stepped into the identity of emper, and it was great to have this chat with her, which seemed to sort of circle into the general theme of finding inner confidence as an artist and as a human being. I think some of the stuff that she says about that is pretty inspiring. We had this chat about three weeks ago now or so, but yeah, this is what happened when me, paul Hanford, met Empress Of. How is it this morning in LA? Does it feel like summer's on its way?

Speaker 2 4:14

I mean, it's always summer in LA, kind of, so we don't really have, yeah, we don't really have like winter, but yeah, it feels great it's. You know, it's another beautiful sunny day in la and um, so your consideration is out next week.

Speaker 1 4:33

Yeah, this is the fourth album. Now how does your sort of feeling about albums is that changed now that you're now a veteran of doing quite a few albums? Do you still feel the same kind of excitement, or is there a different type of excitement now with this new album?

Speaker 2 4:51

um, I think the most exciting thing about making albums is making the album. At least for me, that's like the moment. That's like that's the best moment, you know. It's like kind of the process, um, and I think like putting out music today is so different from putting out music four years ago so it just it never really feels the same.

Speaker 2 5:17

Um, I think I don't really know, you know you like these things. They take so long and there's so much thought put into every aspect of making a record that when you're at this point it's kind of like it's not, it's like it's yours now. You know, and I think a lot of artists feel that way I was in the studio with another artist yesterday and she was like, yeah, you know, at this point, I know at this point I'm like it's not, it's not my record anymore yeah, I know, I know what you mean in terms of I put a book out a couple of years ago and I love the process of writing it.

Speaker 1 5:57

That to me, it was all about the journey of writing it. And then, once it was out there, I mean obviously I have a relationship with it, but it's, it's for other people when, when it comes out, isn't it and, um, do you so? Do you, do you feel quite a strong attachment to the journey of, of the kind of creative side of what you go through when you make the album?

Speaker 2 6:23

yeah, I mean that is so. It's such a like I don't know it's such an amazing part of the album process is the creation and and the idea that it can really be anything. You know, and it hasn't, doesn't have imagery, yet it just doesn't have imagery. Yet it just doesn't have like. You know no one's heard it. You know no one's tried to like define it.

Speaker 2 6:50

It's just, it is what it is. It's like for me, especially when I'm making records, I want to create an environment for the song, and so it's just it's really fun. It's really fun to just be like okay, cool, what. Who is Empress of this time? You know like you know I see it in other artists I love. I'm like who's weighs blood on this record? Or who is Mitski on this record? Or who is Ariana Grande on this record?

Speaker 1 7:17

like it's so fun that artists can can do that and is it quite surprising for you when the album is, when, when this identity of who you are at the moment forms in terms of the album, can it be quite surprising for you to see who you are?

Speaker 2 7:36

no, no, it's just like it's more surprising when you listen to the record, like two years later, and you're like, oh yeah, I was going through that. Like when I listen to I'm your empress of I, I just hear so much like angst and I'm like, oh yeah, I'm not feeling like that anymore so it's a bit like looking back at like a kind of a diary, in a way yeah, for sure, for sure, it's a time capsule.

Speaker 1 8:04

And I mean this is a big question, but would you say that there was in one particular way, or a couple of particular ways, that you feel that you've changed the most with this album compared to your first album as Empress of?

Speaker 2 8:19

Yes, I think this record is a lot more fun. I don't mean to dumb it down, but I think I do stuff on this record that I would have taken myself too seriously to do in the past. There are some lyrics I sing. There are some harmonic chord choices sing. There are some like, like harmonic chord chord choices, things that are just like. You know, I was writing songs with acoustic guitar and like with the campfire chords and um, I would have never done that. I would have been like no, this is so obvious, this is so like.

Speaker 2 9:01

This is this is this is not interesting and I think like now, 10 years in and four records in, I'm like it's funny to me to make like a song with an acoustic guitar um because you know, I'm, I'm a producer, I'm I like obsessing over sounds and moods and yeah, I just I feel like like that to me is, um, I don't know, it's like I'm, it's like I'm going backwards or something you know not not like like, it's like I'm working backwards, it's like you, when you, when you're first starting out, you're like I want to be.

Speaker 2 9:41

I want to make things as intricate as possible or as like, you know, as as as detailed as possible, and for this I was very much like. It was very much about songwriting and it was very much about like lyrics and making great songs, which is way harder than trying to make a cool beat.

Speaker 1 10:00

And do you think that has something to do with feeling more confident as an artist that has now established themselves? Do you feel like this fun comes with a sense of confidence?

Speaker 2 10:18

Definitely confident how you know being, you know 34 is kind of like liberating, and physically I'm just like I think I look amazing and also like sonically and musically, I have such a clear vision and definition of what I want to make, at least on this album, that I just, yeah, I feel like I know myself a lot, but also like I worked with songwriters that helped me like arrive at moments you know that I that I wouldn't have done otherwise yeah, I mean and that's a really interesting concept as well because when it comes to the music, you you're both a producer, a songwriter, a musician, a singer.

Speaker 1 11:13

You kind of combine all of these things. You collaborate with people, but you also do a lot of stuff yourself. Um, one of the things I always find quite interesting about your music and a lot of music, where it does combine really interesting production with, like a very clear sense of songwriting as well is it's quite hard to work out as a listener where the songwriting ends and where the production begins, if you know what I mean, because it sort of fuses together for you. Do you feel like it's quite a clear differentiation between the songwriting elements and the production elements, or do you find that they both bounce off each other?

Pushing Boundaries in Music Production

Speaker 2 11:54

um, I think earlier I probably would have said they bounce off each other. I feel like having a great song is is is so different than having a production that helps the song be great. You know, it's just like and that's just yeah. I don't know, it's just something I learned on this record, especially like, like. I don't know, some of these songs, like the demos, sound so like bad, but the song. I could tell that there was a song there. Also, I think it's music-specific, because if you're an electronic artist, there's a song that is like Alan Brax In love with you. It's like a I don't know. It just repeats that melody over and, over and over again and I think it's alan brax. Um, that song is an incredible song, but that works for dance music and that melody is so cathartic I, I think in storytelling with lyrics. You know, that's kind of what I was I'm trying to do for me. Like the song is it?

Speaker 1 13:14

it has to be good, yeah but there weren't elements of like from the songs, finding like production tricks that kind of took it somewhere else, or do you sort of very sort of go like, no, no, it's got to kind of go back to what the song is.

Speaker 2 13:33

Oh, yeah, it's got. I mean, it's just like it's. It's gotta go back to the song. Production stuff is like is is always great, and, yes, production helps a song and is like is is always great, and, yes, production helps a song. And you know there were, there was stuff like you know, kiss me, like I, I wanted it to sound very nostalgic, um, and you know we had, we had a version of the song that we were working with and and it just it just was missing. It was missing something. And you know, I I showed it to a friend who was I worked on another song with billboard and he was like, oh, I think I know what's missing and you know, like, added production to it that finished the song. Um, that's great, that's all great and all, but like, I think the song is great, you know and and I've never really I've never been that you know, I've never been the.

Speaker 2 14:34

It's all about the song so like aggressively, um, but I don't know. I just I really think like if you have a strong message, if you have, yeah, if you have a strong message or phrase or word or something that feels good, that it's, it's gonna feel good um you know, like my, my album is very electronic and during grammy week, like last month, two months ago, I got asked to sing uh at a gal gala award show.

Speaker 2 15:11

Yeah, um, in front of alanis morissette wow, okay yeah, like literally she was five feet away from me and so I got yeah, sang in front of Alanis Morissette Childhood me was screaming inside, but they were like, can you do Strip Down and I was like, well, I don't really do that, but I did it and I did two songs off the record what's Love and Lorelai, with acoustic guitar, and to me that's so.

Speaker 2 15:43

Whoa, I did a song with acoustic guitar and to me like that's so. Like you know, whoa, I did a song to acoustic guitar, like, but I was like I was like, oh my god, these songs are great. These songs are great and they sound great and they're very emotional and they, they pluck at that thing. It was a really, really amazing challenge for me, I know, besides, like singing in front of alana sporcette and I mean boy genius and caroline poljic were also there so I was just I was like, oh, wow, I'm.

Speaker 2 16:20

It was a real musical moment for me yeah, and do you feel like that?

Speaker 1 16:26

those that sounds like a real musical moment for me? Yeah, and do you feel like that sounds like a real moment as well, that really kind of challenges.

Speaker 2 16:31

You, oh my God.

Speaker 1 16:32

Yeah, and do you feel that because I feel like so much personal growth comes from when we're kind of challenged, perhaps a little bit out of our initial comfort zone Do you feel that that's something that echoes in your work as well? Are there times where you feel that you've you've been forced or you've decided to push yourself out of your comfort zone and you've found that it's given you results that you wouldn't have got otherwise?

Speaker 2 17:00

um, yeah, I mean, I think it's know it's such an exciting place to be in when you're, when you're doing something that you're afraid to do, and um yeah, I mean, you know, that night afterwards I it was like the biggest rush, which is so crazy to me, to just like sing to it with an acoustic guitar, like a song that I wrote. It's just like I don't know. It's like, like I said, it's like working backwards but like there were no backing tracks, there were no backing vocals, you know, there was no like, there was no glitz and glamour, it's just the music and that's to me that was like I don't know, it was a great challenge, um, but yeah, there's stuff on this record that felt like challenging, like always, and I think that's kind of like the fun of of evolving as an artist for records and it's how can you push yourself, you know, with I'm your Empress Of. I put myself in studios alone and tried to learn how to use like consoles and gear and microphones that I hadn't used before, and on this record it was very much like how do you like stewardship? You know I had so many, you know not so many.

Exploring Artistic Expression and Musical Influences

Speaker 2 18:24

I had various producers on this record, various songwriters from different you know genres, and it's like you know as like the artist, the entity, how do you make all these songs kind of like work together in a universe and also like how do you, how do you make yeah, how do you make like vulnerability and I don't know. Like, how do you make it sound good? I don't know, I don't know. Like, how do you make it sound good? I don't know I don't know, it's like.

Speaker 2 19:01

It's like, how do you say the things you want to say? Like, to me, this, a really big challenge on this record, was to to say the thing that I was like and I just never felt like I could say as an artist and but like in a song, you know, like what's love? That lyric, um, um, if a love can't make you break you, shape you, what's love? And I wrote that lyric and I was like no, I can't put this song out. This is so obvious, you know, it's so obvious. And then the next day I was like oh, this is like one of the best songs I've ever written. Um, you know, it's such a, it's such a cool thing to confront your own. I don't know like, you're like embarrassed side, I don't know is it like a kind of inner critic, isn't it maybe?

Speaker 2 20:01

yeah, it's just this idea of what you are, that you think that people think you are, and I think the that can change or you can, or you can hold yourself back from thinking that, and there are some lyrics on this record. There's a song called baby boy which is like a great pop song, and I was in the studio with casey mq and and he and we were like you're not my love for life, love for now.

Speaker 2 20:30

And then casey was like baby boy and I was like I was like, oh, yeah, baby boy. And I was like, yeah, you know what baby boy? I like it, baby boy it's like it's like I don't know. It's like I kind of like it, painted this picture of this, like this thing. That doesn't. It's like a love, that's like kind of it's like sugar. You know it's sugar, it's like it's. It just makes you feel good for a little bit.

Speaker 2 21:03

It's not great for you, you know like that that's what that was, was it's, that's what that that song relationship is like okay, cool, you're like, you know you're cool, you feel good right now you know, but it's not.

Speaker 1 21:16

It's not sustainable yeah, I mean, it's so, and again, it's that transfer and these feelings, uh, and finding ways to articulate them. That's musical, that resonates with you as well. It's, it's such a process, isn't it? Do you have like ideas that you have that just take a very, very long time as well, like though you go? I really want to do something that makes me feel like this or expresses this that that you have to just wait for the right time, or do you just kind of work at it until you get it?

Speaker 2 21:48

yeah, there's like there's a song on this record called what type of girl am I? And, um, I, I wrote this thing in my notes. It's like, what type of girl am I? And I've written this song like three times this idea. Um, I even like, on I'm your emperor self, I say, um, what type of girl to be? Um, I say something like that.

Speaker 2 22:14

It's on a song called hold me like water, and and I, it's like I've been trying to like write this song for years and the idea of you know, I talk about embers of, and everyone's always like embers of what and embers of what. Like what is she embers of? And it's fine, whatever, I decided to call myself that. But I, I just wanted to be like flavor, like the flavor of the day, flavor of the night, whatever, like, what type of girl am I? Like, I'm going to like, I wanted to write a cheeky song and I think the song is so great. I think the song is so great because it's like it plays with, you know, all the type of girls. Like, you know, I just I love, like I'm crazy, I'm like in love with you, I'm like I, you know, I don't care if you call me the next day I'm. It's like this idea of all the girls.

Speaker 1 23:16

And I think with the name as well. I heard somewhere that empress of came about during a tarot reading. I don't know if I'm right about that. Is that? Is that one of those right? Okay, what happened? The?

Speaker 2 23:27

the first um tarot, reading I ever had my friend pulled the empress card and I was I had written all this music and I was trying to figure out what to call myself tarot reading. I ever had my friend pulled the Empress card and I had written all this music and I was trying to figure out what to call myself and I just was like I can't call myself the Empress or Empress, it's like I don't know, I just feel like it's weird. So I was like, okay, I'll be Empress of something. And then I feel like Empress of just kind of I don't know, it's just weird. It's weird and I was. I always like kind of weird stuff, so I don't know, it just feels open-ended.

Speaker 2 24:13

I guess it allows people to have their own interpretation, maybe as well yeah, it's also like I just feel like it's confusing because it's like you say like oh, I guess it allows people to have their own interpretation, maybe as well. Yeah, it's also like I just feel like it's confusing Cause it's like you say like oh, I love Empress of, and they're like what?

Speaker 1 24:26

They're waiting for you to finish talking.

Speaker 2 24:28

Yeah, literally. So I don't know, we'll see. We'll see. We've got an Empress of tomorrow yeah, I mean see what I'm empress of.

Speaker 1 24:39

Yeah, I mean, I guess again, that goes in terms of the lyrics you're talking about as well. You could be the empress of anything yeah, yeah, yeah I mean empress of.

Speaker 2 24:51

You know it's so funny like people they talk about band names and they're like yeah, you know, I just saw, saw a sign that said that I thought it was cool yeah, and then they become a big part of your life, don't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Empress of, empress of.

Speaker 1 25:09

I've been empress of for 10 years yeah, and so I mean like talking about the history and stuff like that as well, I wanted to, if that's okay, ask you a few questions about growing up. Was there like a moment or something for you where you really felt music coming into your life when you were young?

Speaker 2 25:30

I always liked music and I always knew I could sing and we had like a little like handheld, like memo, like recorder thing and I just would. I would record my own voice and then I would hear it back and it would make me feel really good and yeah, that was just like the me being liking the sound of my own voice, um, and I don't know, like I, my dad is a musician, he's a pianist, and so there was always music, um, and I feel like it's in, it's like in my blood, it's like genetic and what kind of music were you, did you listen to when you were growing up, or that your family?

Speaker 1 26:18

And what kind of music were you?

Music Memories and Influences

Speaker 2 26:20

did you listen to when you were growing up or that your family played, that kind of had an impact with you? Yeah, well, we grew up listening to a lot of like salsa, merengue, cumbia, like lots of Latin music. I also listened to like a lot of pop music, like Divas, mariah Carey, celine Dion, britney Spears, like yeah, I was, like you know, a product of like VH1 and MTV in its heyday and so I, like you know, I loved music videos. I loved, like I remember seeing that Mase music video, like the Missyace music video, like the missy elliott music video, those like those you know, really incredible, like um tamira quai that was, that was a little earlier, but I still remember like seeing it but on, on on our enormous tv in the living room and um Enormous.

Speaker 2 27:16

TV in the living room and, yeah, just being like whoa, this is this, these, these guys look cool and I want to look cool. You know that's. I feel like. I feel like that was like the objective. It's like how cool, like how cool does Janet Jackson look in this music video? Don't you want to be Janet Jackson?

Speaker 1 27:35

You know yeah.

Speaker 2 27:35

Don't you want to be S club seven or whatever it was like?

Speaker 1 27:40

whatever was like playing on the tv yeah, I, I remember that era really really well and um so it's a beautiful era yeah, definitely, it was so colorful as well. Like you know you kind of like jenna jackson and s club seven and they had some.

Speaker 2 28:00

They had so much money to make music videos, so they, they looked.

Speaker 1 28:04

They looked amazing and did these people as well, and like the videos and the color of them and the budget the videos did. It did it feel like a kind of um and did you sort of find like because I think a lot of people get into music and it's sort of an escape from other aspects of life as well. With me when I was growing up I was a bit of a geeky kid, so music was an alternative to being just a standard geek. I could be a music geek, for example, like just a standard geek. I could be a music geek, for example. Was there anything for you like that? That you kind of that it drew you into as like a different way that you could live your life?

Speaker 2 28:45

I think I have an obsessive nature and I found music like and I obsessed over it. You know, I was really into jazz. Like once I got into jazz, that was weird and I think my family was like why are you so obsessed with jazz?

Speaker 2 29:04

you know, you were quite young when you got into jazz, like 13, 12, and I always say that it I was like what, like what? Why is this? Why does this have a big band? You know, I was like I was like trying to figure out what she was like referencing and um, and then I kind of like found more music that sounded like that you know um, and got really into like chad baker and john coltrane and l fitzgerald and like like I thought all that music was so beautiful sounding and um, yeah, I don't know, and it was also like it was something to obsess over, you know, and like you can just, you can just obsess over like the catalogs of like these artists, because they make so many records, you know them, because it's like live records, you know, it's like cool, we're, we're at you know some studio and now we have a live record of this, of us just playing.

Speaker 2 30:14

So there's just it's not, it's it's like different from pop, where it's like an artist will have like you know, I don't know, I was I, but my reference to that before is like so, like mariah carey or like britney spears, whatever where you have these like eras of of music, you know? Um where, like well, they're like okay, now and now she's in her, her this era, or this era, or, like you know, britney's like I'm not an adolescent, I'm a woman. Now you know, like and um, yeah, I just loved. I love the jazz. There was just so much stuff to consume, you know.

Speaker 1 30:52

Yeah, and then within that there's so much detail as well, isn't there like I could listen to, like, uh, I got, I got really into Miles Davis and John Coltrane and then, um, every time I'd like listen to something like ESP or Bitches Brew, like I'd hear it completely differently, you know, just because maybe I'd be in a different part of my room and I'd hear, like the electric piano louder or something like that yeah, it becomes a different journey each time.

Speaker 2 31:17

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I still, um, I listened to some of those records and like now older because I, when I was younger, I was listening to them and like transcribing solos and and you know cause I was studying them Now I listen to them as an adult and I'm like, wow, this is that was way different.

Speaker 1 31:45

Now it is quite young to get into jazz 12 or 13, particularly some of the hard stuff as well you know, it must be sort of really interesting going back and listening to it now.

Speaker 2 31:49

I listened to a love supreme recently and and I was like, wow, like this is spiritual music that I was did not get like when I was 13 years old. I don't know what I was doing listening to Love Supreme when I was 13 years old, but I love that.

Speaker 1 32:06

That was like such a academic entry point into music for me yeah, yeah, definitely, but like combining it with the Britney Spears as well, I feel like like I think, particularly in the last, since we've all kind of become more and more digital and people listen to music in a much different way, I feel now you know that we don't need to collect records and stuff. People are so much more eclectic in how they listen to music and I think that comes across in your music as well. Do you feel it feels a lot less separate now that you could be both into a love Supreme and Janet Jackson or Britney Spears? It all feels, do you know what I mean? It feels like everything's a lot more connected now.

Speaker 2 32:52

Oh yeah, definitely. I think it's just cause it's everything's so accessible. I don't think that there are as many like lions in the sands, um, especially with like tiktok and people doing like mashups and stuff. They put the, the. It's like the. You see the cross genre of like so many things and you're like oh, you can be a fan of this and also this you know, um, so I love. Yeah, I'm like I'm into it, I'm like let's have it all at the same time totally everything everywhere all at once.

Speaker 1 33:23

Yeah yes and and you took in the late noughties you, you went to berkeley college of music and you studied sound engineering did. Were you sort of set on being a sound engineer, or was this like to kind of give you more access to more power to make me eventually make music yourself?

Speaker 2 33:42

um, I was trying to figure out how to have a career and I was, I was like, I was like, oh, I'll, like I'll work in studios, you know, I thought that that was going to be like a career. Um, because I I didn't really like think I was going to be an artist, you know, and the songwriting hadn't evolved to the level of like, okay, like you have an identity as an artist, yeah. So once I started writing songs, the whole like engineer thing kind of went out the window and it was just like okay, cool, maybe I'll just be like a musician, like an artist.

Speaker 1 34:26

Yeah, it's like thanks, bye.

Navigating the Music Industry Journey

Speaker 2 34:29

Yeah, but it's cool. I mean, it definitely helped, like learning how to use Logic and Pro Tools and how to be in studios and not have this fear of. I think that when you get in a studio, there's a fear of like, oh, I don't know how to do any of this stuff and what I like. Even now it's like if I can't figure out how to get the sound out, you know, or like, why isn't this thing working like these? All this? It's just you just kind of poke around, you know, you try to poke around and find the answer and, um, I, I think that's it's so great, like not to be afraid of of of not knowing stuff you know, like, and that's something I learned from, like being in a studio from from from that age yeah, and I mean that's a really good thing.

Speaker 1 35:19

And I think I think as well, like a technology can be quite scary when we don't know how to use it. As well, like there's so much kind of um I don't know, um, there's so much put on technology as being like, oh, you have to be a skilled person, you have to be an engineer, you have to sort of know what you're talking about to do this and it, I think for you know, in terms of like being something that just enables artists to express themselves, it can be quite a long journey to um find their set, their head around that or feel confident around that. And I kind of wanted to ask you on that night line something you said just now, when you said you, when you started doing sound engineering, you weren't, hadn't really found your identity as an artist. Yet what kind of advice would you say to people that were the age you were then or younger, about that journey, about sticking through it in order to find your own identity?

Speaker 2 36:17

um, I think it's just hours, it's just experimenting and just being in the mode of of whatever feels good. You know, like, even as I'm older, like as as I find other things that aren't music to sort of give me, that, give me a feeling. Um, I think, yeah, just just explore. Explore it's so important to explore, and when I was writing songs, I just was writing so many songs to try to find my voice and and, yeah, find what feels good, what feels like like a release and I don't know. For me, music is like such it's, it's an express expressive outlet that I don't have with talking to friends, or talking to or journaling or painting or whatever. I don't have that feeling with that. I, with music, I feel like it, like I can express myself the most yeah, I love.

Speaker 2 37:21

I love music, it feels good. So just, whatever you do, just do it because it feels good right, brilliant.

Speaker 1 37:28

And then do you think it's also that sort of thing that, um, just do it because it feels good and don't worry about where it's going to go? Or do you think that there's a point where you have to start going? Okay, it feels good, but like am I gonna make a career out of this?

Speaker 2 37:45

um, I think you should just do. I don't know, I don't really know the answer to that. You know, like I was, I was with an artist yesterday who has a master's degree in like a very like science master's degree in something science related, yeah, but it's, but it's also an an artist, and we were talking about them becoming an artist and she was like, yeah, it was a hobby and then it just became a career. It just, you know, like the more and more and more I did it, the more I went out and people saw me and it kind of it stopped being a hobby. You know, and I think that's the case with a lot of people.

Speaker 2 38:35

For me it was, you know, it was a hobby. Like I had like three day jobs in New York and was making music whenever I could because it felt good and um, and then people, I don't know you just you just kind of you do you do the thing. You just, you know, if you want to share it, you can share it. I don't really have an answer for for whether you should do do music as a hobby or not. I think you should. You should absolutely just do it until it feels good that's a really good answer.

Speaker 1 39:10

Thank you, yeah, it's not something that perhaps is that answer for. It's more just about the, the feeling of it. I guess, with those kind of questions as well, and and like you mentioned about new york then, and you had free, free jobs as well you, you know, you, you were, you were making music with Sam Owens at the time and it sort of feels now that that era we're talking about the late noughties, early 2010s feels like, particularly in Brooklyn, like it's become kind of mythologized now as this sort of indie goldmine. Did it feel like that at the time and did you feel like you were part of a scene?

Speaker 2 39:46

um, yeah, absolutely. I mean I talk about that time as like so rare. I think we've just gotten far enough from it where you know like those stories feel impossible you know, like having all those people in one room who now they're, like you know, headlining festivals and stuff like that, you know, and it's just, it just feels impossible. Like it feels impossible, it's just like you know, like stories of New York in the 60s would feel impossible.

Creative Exploration and Growth in LA

Speaker 2 40:27

Yeah where you're like there's no way those people were hanging out. There's no way, like it just feels impossible. And I think that's why people want to talk about that era and they want to make music that sounds like that era, because because if we feel far enough from it, you know it'll happen with. It'll happen with this era too. I'm sure people will be like oh, I want to make like tiktok sounding music remember tiktok? And like I'm sure it'll be like, oh, let's like, let's make like a, like a tiktok track, like in like 2050 or whatever oh, yeah, definitely and it'll be like maybe even a decade away it'll be like sped up and like and like glitchy or whatever, and like it it'll just.

Speaker 2 41:14

You know, I'm sure we'll reference today, and today is referencing so many other things. I think that's just. That's just culture the cycle of, of, of popular culture yeah, now being in LA.

Speaker 1 41:31

Uh, in terms of the difference between, say, like New York and kind of being creative in New York and being creative in LA, what would you say with like the main differences, sort of just in terms of like the energy around you and stuff?

Speaker 2 41:44

I feel like my scene has extended a lot further than music now and it was very music centric when I in earlier on in my career. Like now, I feel like very inspired by my friends that are art, like visual artists and dancers and actors. And you know, I have a friend who's a landscape designer and I'm like tell me everything about your job. Um, because I'm I don't know, I just like I love my friends that are musicians and we, we push and support each other because we, we know like we're going through the same thing. Um, but I'm just, yeah, I don't know. I feel like my, my scene has extended more than like, say, when I was in new york in that era I would be like, you know, it was like. It was like, yeah, you know, like I got doing my job and then I'm going to practice and then I'm going to a show, and then it was. It was very much like just music, music, music.

Speaker 1 42:51

But again, does that sort of echo into what you're saying about kind of feeling more confident now to maybe like project fun, real feeling of fun, into your work. Fun, like real feeling of fun into your work. It's like sort of growing a bit older and realizing that, like maybe music is, is one strand of a life that there's also is also kind of connected with other art forms and things like science as well. It's like just different ways of expression and knowledge and sharing yeah, I think, I think I don't really.

Speaker 2 43:23

I don't know if it's location centric, like. I don't know if it's like because I live in LA, like, or what I'm interested in. I don't really know. I just know that, like, I've like wanted to be inspired by more things like other than music, even though you know music is like, I don't know, it's like the. It's so important and beautiful to me and I don't know what else.

Speaker 2 43:55

I would be doing right now. Yeah, but that's something I also bring to my friends who are not musicians. You know, like we come together and we sit and I can tell them about an amazing song that I just wrote that I'm excited about. They can tell me about, like you know, these, whatever is exciting them at that time. I don't know, it's fun, it's really, it's just like it's, it's just great. I don't know yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1 44:20

And just finally, what would you, um, what would you tell your younger self if you, if you could go back in time like uh, marty mcfly just for 10 years, with what would you sort of tell your younger self that you know now, that would be that you think your younger self would need to hear someone asked me that recently and I, I just feel like, I just feel like if I, if I went back and I saw Laura Lee, like you know, 2012, 2013 I would just I would shake her and I would just be like you already have it.

Speaker 2 44:54

You already have it, you like you don't need any other, like outer voices. It's weird, when you're like younger, you have a blind confidence, but you also have, like you're so susceptible to it, so like to every time, to everyone else, so I just, I don't know, I just like now, I'm just like I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this, and I would just tell my younger self, like, just do what you want to do, do what you want to do yeah, brilliant.

Speaker 1 45:28

I mean, I think definitely, echo, feel what you're saying about like when you're young, you know, but when I was in my early 20s I had a sort of blind confidence, but maybe underneath it it was like a kind of a form of armor or something like that, you know, and inside I was just quite mushy.

Speaker 1 45:45

Laura lee, thank you so much for talking with me thank you okay, so that was me, paul hamford, talking with empress of, and we had that conversation on march, the 14th, 2024. Thank you, laura lee, for, uh, your time and talking to me about your experiences, and, yeah, it's always really good to kind of hear about artists experience of finding, like, extra confidence and finding their inner voice and and all of that. Yeah, so the album for your consideration is out now and, yeah, lost and sound is sponsored by audio technica. Audio technica, a global but still family run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, microphones. They make studio quality yet affordable products because they believe that high quality audio should be accessible to all. So head on over to audio technicacom to check out all of their range of stuff.

Speaker 1 46:39

My book coming to berlin is available in bookshops or via velocity press, the publisher's website. And also thanks to tom giddens for doing the music you hear at the beginning, at the end of every episode of lost and sound, and a massive, huge thanks to you. I hope you're having a wonderful day, whatever you're doing, and I look forward to chatting to you soon. We'll be right back, thank you.