14 November 2022 |
Låpsley is a sonic shapeshifter. A musical chameleon, if you will. The Merseyside-hailing musician – born Holly Fletcher – first found an audience uploading her nuanced, self-produced tracks to SoundCloud before the 2016 release of her debut album, Long Way Home, propelled her to an instant level of success and critical acclaim. By blending electronica and RnB with the spellbinding sounds of city-set warehouse raves, she creates an eclectic sound palette that’s both tender and fuelled by heightened emotion.
On Friday, Låpsley dropped a fluid new single called “Hotel Corridors”, ripped right from her upcoming third studio album, Cautionary Tales of Youth. Chaotically inclined, “Hotel Corridors” holds a mirror to the sense of disorientation and pure possibility that runs along the underbelly of adolescence, epitomising the wider spirit of the parent album. Accompanied by a haunting fever dream of a music video, wherein Låpsley chases an uncanny spectre through a desolate hotel, winding around corners, darting across corridors and scaling spiral staircases, it feels like a modern reinterpretation of Alice In Wonderland – sans the white rabbits and rampant beheadings – if it were a nightmare rather than a dream.
Cautionary Tales of Youth is set to be released on January 20, 2023. It’d be remiss not to mention as well, that many of the bedroom tracks were produced out of Cape Town, South Africa, where Låpsley was locked down at the start of the pandemic; others were recorded in Clapton, East London, her home base.
Produced in collaboration with Jessy Lanza, Paul White, Greg Abrahams and regular collaborator Joe Brown, the album charts Låpsley’s early twenties. An emotionally tumultuous relationship comes into the fold, converging and collapsing as she traces its obsessive beginnings, emotional torment and eventual disintegration. It’s a gripping romantic psychodrama that also plots Låpsley’s long-standing love of pop music as well as her downtempo beginnings through to her own sudden and explosive rise to stardom as a teenager. Rife with coming-of-age themes, it’s a queer homage to spontaneity, partying and the confidence that can bloom within a group of strangers too, as eclectic as it is unguarded.
The album marks a rich period of evolution for Låpsley, her transmutation from adolescence into maturity and a sharp emotional shift from not-just-another bedroom producer to a confident, solo artist. The Låpsley of 2022 is a testament to her growth and her songs, hauntingly beautiful confessions of personal experiences. She lays all her cards out on the table and allows the music to offer her a cathartic release, like a talking cure for living. Here, we sit down with the singer to chat all things Cautionary Tales of Youth, and love, life and coming of age in London.
1. If you could only perform one song from your upcoming album Cautionary Tales Of Youth for the rest of your life, who would it be?
“I’d say “Say I’m What You Need.” It’s the last track on the record and a song that revealed to me a lot about myself through the process of writing. I often have no idea what I’m going to write about when I enter the studio and somehow still leave with a poetic psychoanalysis of my feelings towards a subject. The verses [in “Say I’m What You Need”] talk about an imaginary future where I sacrifice my career to support a high profile partner, wanting only to be needed and loved in return, singing, “Say I’m what you need, I’m what you always needed”. It’s romantic, obsessional, unrealistic, and unsustainable. But, for a song to carry all of these nuanced intense emotions distilled from the madness of love makes it my top contender if I could only perform one.”
2. With an album titled Cautionary Tales Of Youth you must have some tales of your own. What cautionary tales can you/are you trying to tell?
“For me, writing a song is telling a story. The stories I tell always have an element of “caution” attached – like a fable. There’s something to be learned from them and I feel, in a way, that I’ve gone through these things so that you don’t have to. I often learn the hard way, loving intensely, self sabotaging and making big mistakes that then result ultimately in positive experiences and lasting changes. Documenting my twenties through the format of songwriting is the biggest reveal of how much of a chaotic, but incredible time I’ve had! In short however, the central tale is this: “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”.”
3. Tell us a bit about your new single “Hotel Corridors”, how were you feeling when making the tune and the video that goes with it?
“The song has UK garage vibes. Joe brought the beats into the studio session mid-lockdown in our Tottenham studio that we share. It was written so quickly, the same week as “Smoke and Fire”, mid lockdown, and like a lot of my music it’s relatively minimal production-wise but hits heavy on the narrative. It was definitely a transitional time in my life, shortly after releasing “Through Water” in lockdown. A big relationship in my life wasn’t working out; I had started a risky parallel career as a writer for other artists and I had no idea if I would ever play live or release through a label again. Some of the doors in front of me led to new opportunities, others took me back to the start. To sum it up, it’s a feeling of running through endless hotel corridors, fuelled by gritty optimism, with no idea which keys would open the rooms that I needed them to.”
4. Traversing afrobeats and latin, electronica and RnB genres, your work is a peerless melting pot. What drew you to these particular genres and why do they inform your music still?
“The music that I make and the music that I listen to are quite different. I think my taste began to form in early high school though, when I helped run the school’s samba band. Naturally, I discovered a preference for afrobeats, afro-house, UK funk and Nigerian pop. That’s the music that made me want to dance. When I became an adult I ended up going to South African Gqom parties and latin-centred nights. London had its doors open to so many types of music from around the world so I jumped in. I also have a monthly radio show, The Å List. I’ve had it for a few years and it’s been my opportunity to showcase the music I’m interested in with less of a western focus.”
5. Describe your sound in just three words.
“All. The. Feels.”
6. What’s your fondest memory from recording your third album, which debuts in January?
“Writing “Nightingale” in Cape Town, South Africa. We set up the drums in the room and it was the first time I had introduced live drums into my music. The snap of the live snare just changed everything. This definitely gave me the confidence to push into a more indie and live-sounding space, as well as the use of guitars, something I hadn’t put in my record before.”
7. If you had a guide for survival while on tour, what would it say?
- “It’s easier to do sober.”
- “Sleep is the most important tool in the game.”
- “Meet the fans after and sign records.”
- “You can leave your own afterparty.”
- “Be kind to your body and mind. Give it as much help as possible and prioritise time to stay healthy.”
- “Get up early and check out the new city.”
- “Find the best brunch spot.”
8. Which three musicians would be your dream to get in the studio with? Dead or alive.
“Dolly Parton, Paul Simon and Ella Fitzgerald.”
9. What’s your go-to studio look?
“Colourful trousers (for the vibes), some falling apart New Balance trainers, an oversized t-shirt, my favourite perfume, glasses (not contact lenses), and definitely no makeup or brushed hair.”
10. Any exciting teasers you can let us in on?
“I’m not sure whether the singles sonically represent the record because of how diverse the tracks are! They were so difficult to choose because it feels like it makes more sense as a body of work, so I’m interested in fans hearing how the record works listening from start to finish. There’s a track I co-produced with Jessy Lanza on it, and I’m such a big fan, so that makes me giddy with excitement.”
Photography courtesy of Låpsley. “Hotel Corridors” is out now, available for streaming on all major platforms. ‘Cautionary Tales Of Youth’ is out January 20, 2023.
