Style speaks
to the Loca l Pop Rock A rtist Lauran Hibberd During lockdown, you wrote three EPs and two albums. Do you always find it so easy to write new tracks? Not always! I think having nothing else to focus on made me weirdly creative. I found the lockdown mostly cathartic, and it was strange to analyse life in that headspace. Sounds stressful, but it was GREAT for writing songs.
This issue, we chat to prolific Island-born singer-songwriter — and queen of nostalgic noughties pop — Lauran Hibberd to talk gigs, fossil cleaning, and the highs and lows of a career in music. You were born on the Isle of Wight in 1997, studied music at Platform One, and once worked at the Dinosaur Farm Museum, cleaning old fossils with a toothbrush. How do you think your unique Island upbringing has influenced your style of music? I think there’s a creativity that comes with growing up in a small place, especially on an island like this where you feel somewhat detached from the rest of the country. I definitely feel like this has impacted the music I make and it may be one of the reasons I started doing it anyway. It’s a cool place to grow up and that’s definitely fed into my coming-of-age style first record ‘GarageBand Superstar’. Apparently, your very first gig was at the Isle of Wight Festival after your stepdad did some last-minute fencing for festival founder John Giddings. Did it help turbo-charge your music career after that? Yeah, I love that story, ultimate stepdad points! It definitely didn’t turbocharge my career though; I’ve learned the industry is much harder than that to crack, but it was a very cool experience and was fun to impress my family with.
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We’ve heard you’ll be touring the US and Australia later this year with American rock band All Time Low. But up until now, what has been your favourite gig so far? Yes, I’m so excited — it’s going to be so much fun. My favourite gig so far was for sure playing Wembley Arena earlier this year; that was a true bucket list gig. It was so good to support All Time Low there, so to be going round the world with them this year is a dream. In July you released your new break-upthemed single ‘Honda Civic’, described by the Evening Standard as having ‘an instant replay factor’. Tell us more about it… and why taekwondo features so much in the music video. Honda Civic was funnily never supposed to come out, I started playing it live on tour earlier this year and I’ve never had so many messages asking where a song is before, so that was really cool. The music video was awesome to shoot, I had this vision of me and two younger girls scaring my ex-boyfriend. It worked really well to involve taekwondo and theme the video around that. I’m so happy with how it turned out. It took me a few weeks to nail the moves, especially next to two black belts who were half my age. You’ve described your music career as ‘like constantly drowning, and then just before you quit you get this massive breath that fills up your lungs and it’s the best feeling in the world’. What’s kept you going through the tougher times? Wow, I must have been in a good mood that day! Good analogy though, and it is true I guess. It’s hard, but I think anything worthwhile is. I just know that I am in love
with it, and making music and doing this as my job is the most fulfilling thing I could do. I can’t see my life without it. Studying at Platform One and performing on the Island you must have crossed paths with other local talent such as Wet Leg, Plastic Mermaids and Coach Party many a time. Why do you think Isle of Wight musicians are having such a successful time right now? I think there’s always been an awesome music scene here — for as long as I can remember, having festivals on your doorstep influences that. Having a music college here makes doing this feel like an option too. There’s a lot of talented people here and it’s sick to be a part of this wave right now. You still call the Island home today. What are the things you love most about it? And how do you like to spend your time here? Having travelled quite a lot now, I honestly just think it’s a beautiful place. And I love coming back here after touring. I guess I spend my downtime here mostly, so I write a lot, walk a lot, and hang out with my dog.
Lauran’s music is available to stream from YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and more.