The first time I heard Laurel, it was her cover of Jungle’s ‘Happy Man’ for Triple J’s Like A Version on the radio back in 2019.

I remember it clearly because she had one of those distinct voices that instantly make you want to know who the person behind it is. After a critically acclaimed debut album DOGVIOLET which explores the all too well-known bittersweet feeling of love and heartbreak, Laurel is back with a new single ‘Change,’ ahead of a full album release later in the year. She’s in town so we called her up to see what she’s been up to of late.

Hey Laurel, are you excited for Australia? It’s been what three years now?

Yeah like three years. It was overdue to come out.

What’s your favourite thing about Australia?

There’s just something about it. You feel like you’re going to the ends of the world. I know in Australia you don’t feel like that?

No we do.

It’s such an exciting trip. I really like the Australian way of life. Everyone is so chilled. I live in LA and I have so many Australian friends and we all get along great.

The same self-deprecating humour as the Brits. Anyway, I’ll get into this. Tell us about ‘Change?’

I wrote it on the week when I thought I wrote the worst music of my life. I was kind of about to delete everything. My boyfriend was away that week and he was like it can’t possibly the worst music you’ve ever written. I showed him and then he loved it. It’s funny because I nearly threw it all away. I write a lot about love and it’s definitely along those themes. But this one is about not just love, but kind of letting go of a lot of things that aren’t working for you. I guess there are a lot of things that you don’t officially move on from even if it’s out of your head.

Is it moving into a different kind of sound for you do you think?

I mean everything always evolves without you even meaning to. It’s kind of impossible not to. I stopped being as scared of the acoustic guitar. I’ve been terrified of being the whole singer song writer thing always adding lots of other instruments but this one feels like it has come full circle.

Is there a reason why you’re so scared of the singer-songwriter thing?

Yeah just for so many years I got pigeonholed as a blonde singer songwriter from England. Everyone wanted to take pictures of me running around in a field of flowers. The amount of treatments I would get from magazines with that concept. Like no there’s more than one concept for someone who plays the fucking guitar. And everywhere you come from you’re trying to run away from you know.

Is the next album a bedroom studio creation?

I wrote everything at home in my bedroom. But then Jeremy and I finished it in his studio. It still has that bedroom vibe to it though.

I didn’t know you were a published author until I did some digging. Can you tell me about your book The Mutterings of a Laurel?

Yeah I had written journals every day. I was going through a bit of a difficult time in life personally and had writer's block while I was trying to finish my first album. I was mixing it and producing it all on my own and was finding it really hard to focus on actually finishing it with all the pressure. I started writing in a new journal and found it was more articulated and poetic compared to my other usual brain dump journals. I thought why not try and get this published as a book and so I did. My fiancé illustrated all the art in it. We published it with Faber & Faber in Bloomsbury Square. It was weird I was more shocked going there than any music department building.

Yeah I mean as a writer that’s the ultimate goal right, to hold your own book in your hands.

Yeah and I’m not even a writer like I’m a singer. You just have to put it out there. So many people want to read and take in art. It’s easier than I thought it would be. I just wrote another one to accompany Change and my idea is to release one per album. Kooky diary entries.

On that what are you reading now?

I’m so boring I read so much non-fiction. I feel like every part of my time needs to be productive so I read to learn about every little thing I’m curious about. Which is usually just bullshit self help books. I’m reading Deep Work by Cal Newport which is so boring. Sorry Cal. But if I read non fiction before bed I read like two sentences and pass out so that’s what Cal’s book has turned into. I’ve carried this book around the world with me to help me sleep (laughs). I bought Alice in Wonderland and it’s such a good book. The way he writes is how I aspire to write. Very quirky.

I feel like when you read childhood books when you’re older it’s a completely different thing right?

Yeah I remember watching the films when I was younger and it was kinda terrifying. I read Breakfast at Tiffany’s just recently and it was so good.

I haven’t read that one yet I’m going to put that on my list.

Oh my god it’s so good. It’s only one hundred pages. I gave it to my boyfriend and he ate it up and you wouldn’t really expect it to be the kind of book a boyfriend likes.

I love a book recommendation. Finally, I just want to say ‘Sun King’ is my favourite song of yours. I know a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to actually say that to the musicians they like or learn about songs directly from the source, so I’d love to just learn about the meaning behind that song?

‘Sun King ‘is one of my favourites too that I ever wrote. It was the first song I wrote about my fiancé when we met five and a half years ago. I just got a new guitar, a black Gibson. I was so full of inspiration because it was at the start of falling madly in love. That song, in the exact way it’s recorded, is how I first played it when I sat down with my new guitar. The song is just about falling in love with someone but at the beginning wondering if they were still looking at other people. I remember going on dates and girls would come up and try and flirt with my boyfriend and I would be like hey I’m right here. And it was the same other way around. That stage in in the relationship where you’re committed but maybe your vibe hasn’t completely closed off yet as opposed to when you’ve been in a relationship for a while and you give off this absolute vibe that you’re not available?  You know like I’m getting married, back off (laughs). The lyric ‘all I have been dreaming of is you, what is life but a dream,’ is about finding everything I wanted in a partner in my person. I feel very lucky in the sense that I did know what I wanted in a partner. Like put it in lists under my pillow when I was a boy-obsessed teen. So when I met my partner I was like fuck you’ve got it all. And I’ve only been dreaming of being with someone like you and now being with you my life feels like I’m dreaming.

Awww.

It’s funny though it has this very bitter vibe. It’s a minor key.

It does!

But it’s the happiest song I’ve ever written.

It doesn’t sound very happy but then that’s sort of my favourite music. Kinda like The Strokes with how their music sounds so upbeat but when you listen to the lyrics it’s so depressing. Yours is just flipped the other way.

Exactly. I honestly just didn’t know any other chords at the time so I just had to roll with the E minor.

I love the honesty thank you so much.

Thanks so much. See you at the show.

Laurel is playing shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth kicking off tonight at the Sydney Metro Theatre. Buy tickets here.