Writing “Complicated” | Lauren Christy on Hit songs, Reinvention & The Matrix

24 years later, “Complicated” is still one of the defining songs of a generation. The woman who helped write it shares the story behind the hit—and the setbacks, reinventions, and hard-won lessons that shaped her career.

In this episode of She Creates Noise, Sarah sits down with Lauren Christy, songwriter, producer, and co-creator of The Matrix, for a candid conversation about resilience, reinvention, and writing some of the defining pop hits of the 2000s.

From early artist struggles and label disappointments to building The Matrix with Graham Edwards and Scott Spock, Lauren shares how instinct, craft, and persistence led to songs like “Complicated” and “Sk8er Boi” for Avril Lavigne—and a new era of pop-rock success.

We also talk faith, family, women in production, and what it really takes to create a lasting life in music.

If you want to know more about:

•  writing hits like “Complicated” and “Sk8er Boi” 
•  how producer teams really work 
•  starting over after setbacks 
•  women in music production 
•  songwriting craft and melody building 
•  balancing career success with family life 
•  artist development in the 2000s music industry 
•  how to build longevity in music 

Lauren’s story is a masterclass in trusting your instincts, adapting when the business shifts, and creating success on your own terms.

 If stories of resilience, real-world tactics, and transparent mentorship fuel you, press play and join us. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s building their music career, and leave a review so more creators can find these conversations.

https://www.instagram.com/thelaurenchristy/?hl=en

lauren@laurenchristy.com

Transcript

Welcome To She Creates Noise

SPEAKER_01 0:03

She creates no voice. She creates eyes. She's a little eyes and powerful voice. She creates noise. She creates. She creates noise. She creates noise.

Sarah’s Background And Mission

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Hi, you're listening to Sarah Nagurney and welcome to She Creates Noise, a new podcast spotlighting women who power the music industry, coming to you from New York City. Now, if you don't know me yet, here's a little background. I'm a songwriter, producer, manager, educator, and mentor. I've written platinum-selling songs, had tracks on Grammy-nominated records, and released music on both major and independent labels. I've been a jazz singer, a jingle singer, toured with big bands, and became a pop artist, and I've performed at festivals across the US, Europe, and Asia. These days I focus on writing with and developing young talent. In the coming weeks, I'll be pulling back the curtain on the music industry's female change makers. Some are close friends, others I'm just getting to know, but all have reshaped the business in profound ways. My goal here is to help listeners better understand how the music business really works, and just how instrumental women behind the scenes have been. You'll hear from both sides of the desk artists, producers, managers, label executives, lawyers, women making things happen, often without the spotlight on them. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Now let's dive in.

Introducing Lauren Christy

SPEAKER_03 1:46

I'm so happy today to have Lauren Christie join us on the podcast. And I'd like to just kind of start at the beginning, Lauren. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Yeah. It's exciting for me that I've known your work for so long and it's so impactful. Let's kind of talk a little bit about your journey. Um, I I know you grew up in London and trained as a ballet dancer before turning to

Ballet Roots And Songwriting Spark

SPEAKER_03 2:09

music. What was that pivot like? And tell us just a bit about that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Sure. It was a very fast pivot. I mean, from like two years old, I was obsessed with being a dancer and being a ballet dancer. I auditioned to the Royal Ballet School and I didn't get in. But then I went to the sister school to the Royal Ballet School and I auditioned and I did get in. And that was called Bush Davies Ballet School, Theatre Art School. And on my first day at school, I met a friend, Michelle Hatch, and her father was Tony Hatch, the famous songwriter. And I was so fascinated by all the hits he'd written, like Downtown and Don't Sleep Under the Subway Baby. And I was like, this is a job that you know I could maybe do one day. Uh, because I could play a little bit of the piano. I'd had like piano lessons when I was a kid, but never really took to it very well. And it just lit something in me that that was something I'd like to do. And so at my ballet school, there was a piano in every dance studio, and I just started writing songs. I wrote the first one with Michelle, and it was called I'm Sick of Your Trick. That was what it was called. And from there, Michelle went into acting and had a great career as an actress. But I just that was it. I kind of pivoted at, I would say 12 years old, like my first year at ballet school. I'm like, I'm gonna do this songwriting thing.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

That's great. And you knew it right right then and there. Um and you and you became all we'll talk more about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

You came to America, but first of all, um, that happened pretty much right after that, or I mean not right after 12, but you know, after I started at 12 years old writing songs very seriously, and then my um wonderful brother Stephen, he had a friend who had a recording studio and was in the business, and he offered to do some

Early Demos And EMI Signing

SPEAKER_00 4:05

demos to me when I was 14. And of course, they sounded like so amazing to me. I'd never heard my songs recorded, and then my school was so supportive, they started using the recordings in all their school shows, and my friends got to dance to the songs, so it was almost like I felt like I had a hit record at 14. Uh in my echo chamber of my boarding school, there was like 400 girls there, and we had a theater, and so I suddenly saw my songs being played and amplified through the speakers, and it just really lit me up that this is what I wanted to do. And and then it was a long journey after that. I left school at 16 and was in the recording studios when I, you know, all around London trying to make it happen. And then in 19, I got signed to EMI by Alan Jacobs.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

And and I and I know Alan Jacobs actually, and he's a fixture, he was a fixture in the London music scene for sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah, he's amazing, and he changed my life, and I'm always grateful to him. And that was in London, yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:08

Yeah, and how did you wind up going to America?

Atlantic Deal Collapse And Debt

SPEAKER_00 5:11

So Alan actually introduced me to a manager called Andrew Tribe, and he had been involved in like the Pirates of the Penzance movie in LA and in the movie world, and he had also been co-manager of um Deep Purple, the rock band. So he met me and said, Have you ever considered coming to America? Because I really think that your music would take off there. And so I was like, Wow, that sounds incredible. I have an aunt who lives in Los Angeles. Yeah, I would love to do that. And so, pretty much, he started talking to labels and he met John Carter, who's behind Tina Turner, and John Carter signed me without ever meeting me. He just heard my demos and he sent a contract and I got signed to Atlantic Records. And that was incredible. I started making my album, and about four months into kind of writing the songs and making the album, they fired everybody at Atlantic. So I just like it's like this whole fairy tale just came crashing down. And uh my manager at the time was like, Let's finish the record. Probably very bad advice for a young artist. Like, you fund the rest of your album. Let's go and get a loan from the bank. Oh no, really?

Rescue To Mercury And Move To LA

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Stuff that I would never tell people to do. Oh my god. But um he had such belief in me that he thought, yeah, when Atlantic hears this record, they're gonna freak out and they're gonna be so blown away. Uh that's not what happened at all. I did fund the rest of my album, so I had like a $100,000 pounds worth of debt. That's a lot. At um at 20, right? Basically, it was crickets when we sent the album in. And so there was no one there to champion me, that everyone had been fired, it was just a bunch of lawyers there, and so I was like, big mistake, and now I have all this debt. I remember at that age being so depressed, Sarah.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Um I'm thinking uh it was yeah, 89.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

89. Yeah, I remember lying in bed at night thinking I've screwed my whole life up getting into $150,000 worth of debt at 20. You know, no one cares about me. And then like a series of events happened. My manager was desperately trying to figure out what to do, and he met John Carter, introduced him to this wonderful man, Tom Vickers, and Tom loved what he heard of my music, and he went to the head of Mercury Records, which was Ed Eckstein. Tom worked as AR there, right? And he said, This girl's kind of trapped on Atlantic Records, and no one will answer her. I couldn't get a message back from a lawyer, nothing. And so Ed Ekstein and Tom flew me out to New York. I sat at the piano, played a song, and they said, Okay, we're gonna help you get out of this deal. And then it took till 91

First Releases And Near-Breakthrough

SPEAKER_00 8:20

to get me off the the label. They sent the contract, the new contract for Mercury. It was so depressing. I I taught tap dancing. I went back to my, you know, the stuff I could do and ballet and jazz, but mainly tap. And I was just like, wow, I by now I'm 22 years old. And you know, I signed to EMI when I was 19. And I just felt like, wow, this business is maybe not for me. And I was a nightmare. Finally, what broke the straw that broke the camel's back was I managed to, I sent a letter to Doug Morris at Atlantic, and I said, I can't get anyone to reply to me to let me go. I have a new record deal. Here's the deal. You know, Mercury's trying to buy me off Atlantic, and please can you help me? And he FedEx me back and said, I'm giving you your release.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Oh my god, thank God. That was a good move. I wonder how you should learn how hard this road has been, this road to what it was a nightmare.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Just to get to the starting block was a nightmare. And so then it was like and I got on a plane and I came out to LA in September 1991, and it was like my career began. I felt like even though I had all I'd never had any success, but I've been signed to EMI and just really no hits or anything, just just couldn't get off the ground. And so I came out to LA, and then my album took a long time to make. Back then it was so different, it wasn't like now I make a record and release it the next day if we want.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

What were you doing in between? Did you go back to England or were you living in New York? No, I I never left LA since I came in '91. Wow. I I came here and I loved it. As soon as I got here, I loved the sunshine. So I just I was blown away by the place. And then I got to meet tons of different producers who were also nice and wanted to produce me. And I picked one, Tony Peluso, who was the lead guitarist from The Carpenters, which was one of my favorite bands. And we basically went to work. And my album, I don't know, it took

Industry Politics Derail A Hit

SPEAKER_00 10:32

forever. We, you know, it just was a different time. And it came out in so this wasn't the album that you'd spent all that money on. This was a new album? No, that was canned. That was over.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah, just all of that. Yeah. So by the way, my advance for Mercury Records, which they so kindly gave me, went to paying off all my debt and my lawyers' fees. So I showed up in LA with maybe like $500, and the label gave me, I think, a thousand dollars a month per diem. It was like amazing. I had no debt suddenly. It was like I was reborn. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

And only 22 to be reborn. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, I was 20, 23, and then I had my 24th birthday. So I would say from 19 to like 24. I was in 91, I was um 24 in November. That's a long time, right? 19, 20, 21, 22. So six years of just closed doors, closed doors, no, no, no. Really? I was still so driven because I didn't really have a backup plan apart from to teach dancing, which I I didn't even have my credentials. I got hired by Barbara Speak Stage School to teach tap and jazz and ballet, and that was Phil Collins' mother ran the whole school. And they just hired me, and it really saved me because I could make some money while I was in this waiting

Second Album, Film Placements, And Doubt

SPEAKER_00 12:00

process to try and come to America. So painful.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

It's good for young people to hear these stories too, to know some of the stuff. I know you had another horror story you were telling me. If you want to share that or we can use it or not about something that happened to you in London. Oh my gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

When I was when I was, you know, 17 and I hadn't signed to EMI. I went to meet, I'm not gonna say any names because I I don't want to get a lawsuit, but you know, a big guy who was the head of a big publishing company, and he said to me, you know, in England you can drink at 16. It's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 12:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Um, he said to me, I'd like to discuss this deal I'm gonna offer you. Let's go for a drink together. And so um he said, you know, where are you gonna be? And I was gonna be at a studio in London, I'll pick you up from there. And so he picked me up. And then when we he went and parked somewhere, locked the doors, and then started to tell me how it, you know, there was an artist called Twiggy, a model. And he said that her manager was her, was her boyfriend husband, and started to try and make out with me. And I remember very distinctly thinking, wow, this is dangerous. My mom and dad are gonna kill me for that putting myself in this situation. And so I just really calmly said to him, Listen, this isn't right what you're doing, and I can ruin your career. That took a lot of I said, I could really ruin your career. You need to let me out of this car right now, and uh, you know, in fact, drive me somewhere that's not an alleyway, and then let me out of this car right now. And he did. That's that's great. He was easy to get it.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

You scared him.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah,

Pivot To Production And Forming The Matrix

SPEAKER_00 13:35

it was really scary. But so I I'm just like, listen, the music business, there's a lot of stuff that happens after dinner, sessions being booked at night starting at 9 p.m. I'm like, don't do those sessions. Sessions should start at like 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. at the latest, and you know, and then if you become friends with people and you really trust them, then you can start doing sessions till two in the morning. But really, no good's happening after midnight.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

I I agree. And and there's drinking going on sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, yeah. All all of that stuff is scary, you know. Try and keep it professional with people you just really trust. And you know, take a buddy if it's like with a man you've never met before, even if it's at 12 noon, like take a buddy, let people know the address, you know.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

For sure. No, I I totally agree. Yeah. I I have colorful stories from back in the day, but we won't have them here right now. Now, I I know you did have releases ultimately as as a solo artist. Songs like The Color of the Night, which are deeply emotional and visual record. And how did you see that period when you finally had some releases and you were getting some attention for your records?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I mean, it was just amazing in that quite quickly I got on the Tonight Show. It was Jay Leno's first week, and I sung my first single, You Read Me Wrong. I was like, I felt like I was shot out of a rocket. It was amazing, even though I'd waited all this time, but I was ready. And then I got the The Color of Night, which got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song and Emotion Picture. And that was incredible. I was like, whoa, I'm off to the races. And then I got an American Music Award nomination. I think it was 1995. It's on my wiki. I it was just amazing. I was like, wow, I'm I'm it's really happening. And then I had a crazy thing happen where the label was really ready to put the money on that song, The Color of Night. They actually flew me to uh and my whole band to Florida to Disney World, and they hired Pleasure Island, they shut it down for the night, and they brought in 40 top 40 radio programmers with their wives and kids and put them up for a week at the yacht club in um in you know Disney World, Florida. And so I was like, wow, this is really happening. And so I was going to radio, it was going to be like the big moment. It was already number one on Hot AC, which

Avril Lavigne Sessions And Breakout

SPEAKER_00 16:05

is a very hard format to break on. It's where Avril broke, and it the song was number one. So I felt it. I was getting the red carpet treatment, and suddenly overnight, something happened. Um, and I'm not going to mention any names, but a huge band who was on the same label as me had a single coming out the same week, and they were up for renegotiation on their record finished. And so they did not want another artist competing the same week or the same month or even the same year at Top 40 Radio as them. And they told them, You gotta stop working that girl. And so, my big moment with the color of the night, my song scanned over, you know. And it's so funny. You look back on it and you say, I could have had a moment where I became the next Tina arena, like you know, people have those that big song, like that, gotta have black velvet. It was a big song for me, and it was it's big in Russia, the Philippines, Ukraine. It's it was a huge song over there, but it definitely the moment got taken away from me, and I'm like, there's a reason for everything. And I think God wanted me to be behind the scenes because he knew that my real passion was really to be a mom and be a wife, and I got to do everything by not being on planes, flying around the world, being a superstar, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

And you just kind of decided that made you decide this is I'm gonna change gears now.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah, I mean, I made another album um called Breed, and it was really about wanting to breed and have babies, and it was a really fun record, it was nothing like the one I did before, which also you know made a lot of people scratch their heads at the label. Like, well, why is she suddenly sounding like a Laris Morissette? And the truth is, is that I think maybe, you know, I am an artist, but I can do many different styles except country. And you know, I've I've sung all different styles, and really I think to be a great artist, you probably need to just buckle down and know who you are and do that one style. So my next album, I had the song Breed was in the Batman soundtrack. The the movie with George Clooney, you remember that one? Yeah, it wasn't that great, but anyway, the song was in there. I had another song, Could I Want What I Want, which was in the Wild Things movie. And so it did okay, but it wasn't as well received as I'd hoped. And that was the catalyst when that album finished for me going, hang on a second, what am I gonna do now? Um, am I gonna make another album? And then Mercury Records. Actually, my management, I had really great management. They were like, we think we should leave Mercury and go and get another deal. And maybe they were being nice to me and I I'd been dropped, I don't know, but that was their idea. And so they negotiated me off the label. And then I

Producer Of The Year Barrier Breaker

SPEAKER_00 19:01

was like, okay, what am I doing with my life? I'm here in Los Angeles, I've made two albums, I've not really made any money from them. Because you know, if you unless you're I think my first album sold 150,000 copies, right? That's nothing for what labels we're looking for. Back in the world. And so I was just like, why am I even living in LA? And then a series of events happened. I did some demos. A producer who's a friend of mine, Gavin McKillop, was very nice to do the demos. And I was like, now what? Now what do I do? I have no deal. He played them to his manager, his manager thought they were great, and he was like a deal maker. And he said, I think you need to go to London. This AR man wants to meet you. And I was like, Back to London, you know. But I'm like, okay, I'll do a deal in London. Why not? You know, I was kind of desperate to be honest. I went back to London. At this point, at this point, I was 28. Oh, okay. 29, maybe. So I was feeling that pressure. pressure of like if you don't make it, you know. I don't know if it's I don't know if it's the same kind of pressure today. Because look at Sia, she's like 42, I think, when she really broke. Yeah. She's very quirky. I think it's tough for still for women. They they they

Faith, Perspective, And Resilience

SPEAKER_00 20:14

really look at how old you are. It's just the way it is. They they want the young Anou that you know the 24 year old. And so I was 29 probably. And I remember sitting down with this AR man and he said Lauren, I love this song you have called Sugar Snow that I'd written with Gary Clark, my dear friend. And he said, Can I have that song for Natalie Ambouglia? Great artist. You know, she did that song porn. Yeah. She probably wouldn't have even cut the song but he asked me if he couldn't it was kind of like whoa it was like the first moment when someone had said I don't really see you as an artist. And then he said to me I don't know if I really see you as an artist translation I think you're a little too old. Wow. And so I was like ugh and I I was like uh yeah sure uh and then I had to fly back to LA the next day and I was like oh this is over for me as an artist and I was like I I can either like just crawl up into a ball and start crying or I can like pivot right now. And I remember sitting on the plane saying I will not let this wreck me. It was like this moment like in a movie I was like I will not let this wreck me. Let me think about this. Every record label that I'd walked into there was like this girl Britney Spears playing on every video screen. So I was like you know back in those days we didn't have the internet so I just had heard that there was this guy Max Martin and that he had this company called Sharon and it was a team of producer writers and they were the people behind Britney. So on the plane I was like that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna be Max Martin the female version and I'm going to I got when I got off the plane my ex-husband picked me up I said Graham let's do what Max Martin's doing with Sharon and Graham was in a band signed to RCA called Dollshead and there was a guy in the band called Scott Spock and he was a whiz with all the you know all the gear and he had degree in arrangements and he was a trumpet player actually and you know Graham was amazing with guitars and bass and production and writing and I said let's do a share on and let's the three of us make a a team and so that was that was it I called the management and I said hey I'm not going to be an artist anymore. I'm going behind the scenes going behind the curtain and I'm just gonna do what this guy Max Martin's doing. And they said to me what makes you think you can just do that and I said I don't know but that's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

You gotta have that kind of vision you know I mean it was shit or bust you know it was like I didn't know what else to do but you know just pivot and so defining sound of of that era and and you received seven Grammy nominations for that. Unbelievable the plan worked out you know yeah and I also wanted to have kids really badly so I got pregnant when we started the Matrix.

Mentoring Her Daughters’ Duo

SPEAKER_00 23:13

So it was 1999 and I got pregnant and we just the the manager who'd sent me over to London I called him and said don't don't try and get me a record deal. I'm not doing it um and he's I said I'm gonna go behind the scenes and create like a Sharon and and he said yeah you are and guess who's gonna manage you and I was like who and he goes me I believe in this let's do this and so I have to say Sandy Roberts that was his name it was world's end management and he he like took us on like a champion and said um like you know let me blanket bomb the music industry about your company you need a name and so we sat down uh the three of us Scott Graham and I and we looked up all these different names and we liked the name the Matrix because we found that it means the womb and we thought that's what people need is a place where they can go and incubate their songs and with no pressure. And we wanted people to feel that they could just come around and you know hang out on the couch and eat pizza with us and

Recent Projects And Health Priorities

SPEAKER_00 24:18

you know not really have um any pressure to finish a song that day. You know they could let's do let's work on the second half next week. And uh so yeah we picked the name The Matrix and then the movie came out a couple of months later I believe and blew up and I actually think that helped us you know because the name The Matrix was everywhere and so it was just you know by osmosis. Synchronicity synchronicity you know it was a it was a cool movie and so that was how that started and thus 10 years of work you know nonstop work six days a week we did. And you were a mom a new mom at that time I was like sleeping on the couch when I was nine months pregnant like it would be four in the morning and we'd have to finish mixes and and Sandy our manager was a real taskmaster so he just loaded us up with work. And at the beginning we hadn't had a hit. So back in those days you'd make a song deal if you were producers and I think we were maybe making like 7,000 a track but that we'd get booked to do six tracks on an artist's album and it's it's so different today. Now artists just write and write and write and gather like 60 songs and then right before the album comes out they go and make the deal with all the producers for the 10 songs.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

So nobody gets paid until you know then so back in the day you got paid up front so we were actually becoming quite successful without ever having a hit. We hadn't had that moment. So we worked from 1999 through 2001 just endless bands coming through artists coming through um getting B sides on Ronan Keesing who was a big star in the UK and that was a really big deal to us getting a B side yeah um those were the days and you got paid while you were doing it

Teaching, SONA, And Masterclasses

SPEAKER_00 26:10

yeah yeah so we could buy little houses um it was unbelievable how exciting it was the beginning of it and then one of the artists who walked in the door was this girl um Avril Levine who was only 16 in 2001 it was like probably July and we wrote a song called Falling Down and then she came back the second day and we wrote a song called Complicated and of course that song literally changed my life and then she went back to New York where she was living she'd been signed since she was 14 years old and just they haven't put a record out yet and played the two songs to Josh Sarabin her AR and LA Reed and I have to hand it to those guys they were just like you know what that's it that is the sound that song complicated and falling down go right back and we want you to spend 10 weeks with the Matrix and so she came back and we spent um August and September with Avril of 2001 and we just wrote all the songs on that album Skaterboy I remember playing Skaterboy to Josh Sarabin when he came around to the studio and and him just smiling and and such a great lyric so so creative and fun as Edward complicated really amazing thank you thank you so yeah that's that album changed our lives it came out in 2002 I remember like you know you always think something's gonna go wrong like the AR's gonna get fired you never you know we you become a little pessimistic in this business but she came out the video we watched it on MTV and we hadn't seen it and like all three of us started crying because it was so good like the video was just so amazing and she was so different to Brittany and to Christina Aguilera and all the other artists out there. She's just had a fresh vibe about her. Yeah yeah we

Practical Advice For Young Creators

SPEAKER_00 28:08

we were just like this is it and then it was this kind of crazy ride of being number one for a year and a half I would say like constantly we had the number one song at Top 40 radio and that changed our lives. I'd already had a little baby you know and I got pregnant I was pregnant while we were writing all that stuff with my second child Sophie.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Wow God bless that's that's terrific that you could do all that and all the music at the same time it's such a pivotal song and I'd like to play it right here because you recently done uh coverage record. So you also uh this what's amazing is that you broke through as one of the first women ever nominated producer of the year at the Grammys and I believe it's true that it was 14 years before another woman which was Linda Perry was nominated for that same award.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah isn't that crazy so few women in the you know producer role and I was nominated with my partners Graham Edwards and Scott Spock as the matrix. But still it was like a big deal and it's still a big deal to this day. So there's actually eight women I believe now who've ever been nominated but I'm the first who was ever nominated for producing other people. So everybody except Linda Perry and I, we're the only two who are nominated for producing other people. Aretha Franklin she produced herself Cheryl Crow produced herself so they all you know produced themselves the other ones so I am technically the first to ever be nominated and I'm really proud of that.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

It's amazing and so far ahead of your time really just you know and still today I was looking at the Annenberg study men outpace women 27 to one as producers of records on the top 100 song. And I I believe it's somewhat changing I feel like there's a lot I'm working with a lot more women producers than I ever was but they're not getting I think it's changing. Yeah it is changing but they're just not getting as many opportunities. It's getting better. It's definitely yes I know we talked a little bit about that your faith is a a kind of a quiet but steady through line in your life and work. How does your faith guide you not just creatively but staying grounded through all the highs and lows which obviously you've lived through so many.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

I would say I didn't become a born-again Christian until 2009. I was raised by lovely people who are atheists and uh but I always felt kind of spiritual because if you write songs you'll know that you know there's like a sort of interaction and you're pulling ideas from from above. And so I I kind of was open that way spiritually but in 2009 I had a couple of incredible things happen to me which probably would be I should put in a book and quite often I do share the things that happened to me but it was absolutely unequivocably Jesus that got in contact with me and it changed my life because I had always wondered you know and I had looked a little bit at Scientology Buddhism the Quran I'd studied I was definitely searching for something and so I met someone who said why don't you just say a prayer and ask God to reveal himself to you and it happened to me three different events um and it was really obviously it was Jesus. And so ever since then at 42 I have followed the Bible and prayed every day and I take counsel with God every day about things that are worrying me. I give it to God so I can let go of it. And I would say that you know I don't have to take antidepressants anymore because I kind of just trust that God's got my back and if it's a closed door in a situation with a friend or business or anything then that's okay. Rejection is protection. And I live my life that way just trusting that you know what's for me is for me and that God has his hand on my shoulder and it's just happy life. I feel joy and it's great. And I'm always available to talk to anyone who wants to talk about it. They they do say people who have faith are just happier people in general. Unbelievable. I think what's interesting about Christianity is from what I've looked at I don't you know I wouldn't say that I'm the arbiter on knowing all the details here but it's the one religion I think that you while you're alive can have an interactive exchange between your creator while you're here you can actually say should I do this and you will get an answer. I've had very specific answers from God about things or things where I was so livid about someone and I've gone into deep prayer and the Holy Spirit that surrounds anyone who's a Christian has explained to me whose fault it was, how it happened and I'm just like oh so I've been feeling so angry about this person when it was actually their lawyer who who screwed me over and it wasn't their fault at all. And it it was so intricate the explanation that I was like yeah that makes perfect sense. So I get to you know have an ongoing conversation with my creator while I'm alive and try to to do good. And and I guess the most important thing is you stop chasing money when you become a Christian because you can't it says in the Bible you can't worship God and worship money. So I worship God and God gives you the secret desires of your heart and he knows what they are kind of like him knowing that I really wanted to have kids and that I'm I'm not really a lover of being on on flights. You know I don't love flying. So he kind of catered this world to me where I get to live in Los Angeles and work on different records and I sort of have the glamour of it but I don't have to hop on planes all the time. Yeah which which you tasted and thought maybe that wasn't for me. It's not quite right for me and and God knew it. And so it's just wonderful. You know I just I can't I can't say enough about how wonderful it has been being a Christian. That's great.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

I I do meditate but it's a very different saying but I I do have spirituality. I think that sounds like a like you found something that really works for you. And obviously being a mom is super important and your two daughters actually have a band now.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Yes yeah they're called Sky Christie and it's spelled S-K Y-E-C H R I S T Y so I have two daughters one's Sophie Sky Edwards and the other one is Georgia Christie Edwards so they put their names together Sky Christie the band. You know you can find them on Instagram and TikTok under SkyChristy the band.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

And I saw you just did a cover a Christmas cover with them.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

I did I did they invited me to do that with them. We've never done anything like that before it's just it was a great day. Sound beautiful do you get involved in the songwriting with them or do you kind of let them do their thing or what I do a little bit but they're really good songwriters. And also they're like not as pop as I am. I'm quite pop driven. Even if you hear my songs with Corn they're quite commercial they are more like you know Phoebe Bridges maybe a little Billy Eilish vibes you know Jeff Buckley vibes. They they love that style of music and they kind of know who they are and they're sticking to it. But I've written a few songs with them. I did do a song called I'm not like Alice with them and it really blew up on TikTok. Oh well they've got like 20 million views of the song and it was great. And the last EP I did one song with them called Songs You Don't Listen to I love their voices. To me they have like the most beautiful voices and they just blend together and they don't really sound like anyone else.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

A little bit I heard sounded beautiful and they look exactly like you by the way. Amazing really many use. Oh yeah no as as a writer I mean you're continuing to write and get into different rooms and you really have had such a variety of cuts with Korn and Dualipa and Jason Marez. It's it's it's I guess it just keeps fulfilling you as a creative to just keep doing that and and finding new writers. I know you told me about a new project you were working on.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Yeah I just did Catherine Jenkins the beautiful opera singer I co-wrote a song with her we think it's called Christmas prayer right now it will come out next year. This year I co-produced with Midy Jones Hayden Henderson who signed to Republic Records and had a couple of songs one called Hell of a Good Time and another one called Sweat. And they were like you know 21 million streams these songs so it's so funny today you can be successful and still everything's very niche like people haven't quite heard of you but I I'm really proud of that work that I've done with them. You know I'm very proud of Jen Bostick I made a Christian album with the artist Jen Bostick a couple of years ago and just one of my favorite things I've ever done. And so I really I'm I'm picky now. I don't work all the time I like to you know I I've spent so much of my life chasing music and this this gift in me that I kind of ignored my health I hate going to the gym and I hate all exercise because of being a ballet dancer when I was younger it feels like like discipline. And so my new thing is stop working so much and take care of your health you have to at a certain point. So I'm playing pickleball I'm out walking for an hour a day I spend a lot more time with friends. It really hit me when I saw India Ari talking about how the the sacrifices that you make to be in the music business and that you don't really get to make really close friendships because you're always in the studio or you know like I missed a lot from from working so much. I even missed going to the Golden Globe Awards and going to the Ivanovellos when I won because I was with Ricky Martin working in Miami and my manager was like no no no no no you got to keep working and I tell people now no no no when things happen for you go and get your flowers you must do it because it may never happen again. Yes and so now I spend a lot of time with with friends lunches dinners just really nurturing my dear friends that I have because at the end of the day that's more important probably than a hit record.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

Yeah I I think I think if you're not chasing that hit record it sort of comes seems to just come to you anyway. Absolutely seems to it was someone called it a God wink on a previous episode or I love that yeah because it's I love that uh now you've also amongst your many talents have been a mentor to many people and you work with the songwriters of North America Sona and you've been doing some songwriting programs with young writers. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

I mean first of all Sona Songwriters of North America it's run by Michelle Lewis Kay Hanley and Dina Lepold they started it together and I'm just such a huge fan of these ladies they um are the nearest uh the closest thing we have as songwriters to a union you know we're not allowed to unionize but they're doing the hard work for us they're going to to Congress and trying to change the rates for songwriters and they're just amazing. So I I'm I'm very proud to be on the board of Sona and personally I teach private masterclasses and I do a biannual group masterclass which I give a 50% discount because really I'm just passionate to pass on the gift of how I write songs. I didn't go to Berkeley I didn't go to Juilliard I pretty much just learned from listening to hit records. I'm a big fan of of the big hits and so I think how I write is pretty simple and I Thought, let me try and write down in a lecture how I actually write. And it was interesting to me because my my husband said, I'd pay to hear how you write because you don't really do it like anyone else.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

I think I'd like to come to your uh your your program. Please do. Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

I love to see it. Yeah, it's it's just, you know, not that complicated, excuse the pun, how I write songs. And so I broke it down for everyone. There's three things that I use, my three tools, how I would go about it. How do you go about writing a song when you've got nothing to say or no drama going on in your life? And I just really try and prod people into and I give people song starters, like little little puzzles to do to start. And it's uh it's a lecture, it's one hour, and then another half-hour lecture on how to break into this crazy business and play the social media game and all of that. And then I have a guest speaker for 15 minutes, and then I do question and answer for 15 minutes. So the whole thing is two hours, and people can be on the class on Zoom and not turn their camera on if they're shy. Because I'm not going to say, you give me a line, you know, anything like that. I just I just talk and I I read my lecture and then I perform pretty much every hit song I've ever had, and I perform it just on bass notes because that's how I write songs. I like to find my earworm melodies off rubbing off the bass line.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

And I can fill in the rest of the chords, but I often find that if you're you know playing sexy chords, you know, I'm not really focusing on a great melody. And I think the most important thing in a song is an earworm melody that people can't fall asleep because it's just going around and around their head. So I teach all of that twice a year or privately, and I also do career consultations, which I love to do because I feel like I can kind of change someone's life in an hour by saving them time. They tell me we're gonna do this, and I'm spending this money on this expensive studio, and I'm you know, flying to Nashville to spend this amount of money. I'm like, no, don't do that. And I just give them solutions of how to do it themselves cheaper and just how to make a roadmap to success. Some people, they've written four songs in their life, and I'm like, you know, you're gonna have to write a hundred songs to get good, you know? Yep. And you might want to have a little day job, don't quit your day job, you know. I think that's so important that I learned because you you can't put yourself in a position where you're vulnerable and you've got no money, and then you end up signing a bad deal because you're desperate. So always have like a side hustle. Yeah, you know, and and how can people sign out about this? Is it in your website? Just go to my website, laurenchristie.com, and it will have a link to sign up. Or you also on my social media at the LaurenChristie on TikTok. There's a link at the top, and anyone can sign up 50% off through the next one's on April 11th, and so through March 14th, you can get it for 50% off. Hurry up, everyone sign up. Yeah, there's two scholarships through Sona.com. Uh, we are Sona.com. Yep, sounds great.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

I guess last thought is there's so many young songwriters, and I know you're you are mentoring them. Is there some piece of advice you could we could leave with today that thinking about young artists and writers that you can do part of?

SPEAKER_00 43:20

I think so. I think honestly, because the streaming payment is so bad for songwriters right now, which Sona's really working on, but I kind of feel like the toothpaste is out of the tube and it's not going back in. So I on my class, I recommend that everyone starts to try and become a record producer. And I give people a list of gear to buy that's under, it used to be under $100. Now it's gone to $150. Um, but it's the four pieces of gear that you really need to start producing. And then with my masterclass, we give you a whole video on how to set up these four pieces of gear and how to start producing your own songs. If you can learn one digital audio workspace like Logic, Ableton, Pro Tools, I do Pro Tools, and it will take you three days to learn it. And in one year, you could be really good at it. And it's very important today that you don't just be a songwriter. You're a songwriter slash producer. Yes. You know, you don't have to be amazing, but start it so that when you meet your team team member like I had in The Matrix, you can say, Yeah, I know how to do that. You take a break. Let me record these vocals. You know, it's the most important thing that happened to me was was learning to use some of the technology. And, you know, I'm not great at it, but I could record all of Avril's vocals and comp and tune them. You know, she didn't need tuning. It was my backing vocals that needed tuning. But you know, you should be able to at least do that in 2025. That's the bare minimum. I think if you want to be a songwriter, just learn one of these doors. They call them digital audio workspaces, and you will become a producer songwriter. It's don't just be a songwriter.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

Yeah, and there's a lot of instructions online. I I did a Berkeley class, but there's there are a lot of ways to learn these things for sure. And it is important. Yeah, it's important to learn on.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

You can do it on your laptop, you know, and show up at someone's house with a little mic, and you're like, let's capture all this stuff, you know, let's find the tempo. You you know, it's not that hard to do.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

Well, Lauren, it's it's we could talk for hours, and and I I there's so much interesting stuff to cover, but thank you so much for giving us your time and telling us a bit about your journey. It's such an interesting one, and and you know, we're all so lucky with uh the amazing legacy that you've left behind, and your songs are still so popular. It's it's an incredible thing.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Thank you. I feel so blessed to have had a career in music. I really do. And thank you so much for having me on your amazing podcast. Thank you so much.

Sponsor Thanks And Closing

SPEAKER_03 45:58

I'd like to thank today's sponsor, Herd City, the premier audio post-production company servicing the advertising, motion picture, and television industries right here in NYC. I'd also like to thank Antello, aka XON, for singing the She Creates Noise theme that I wrote. Thanks for listening to She Creates Noise. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, rate, and share. I want to thank the team here: Blair Rhinely, Yelena Stevanovich, Emily Wilson, and the Master of Engineering and Grammy Winnie Cooper Anderson. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

She creates noise. She creates noise. She creates noise. We have oils. She creates noise.