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| Photo by Nathan Russell |
Lauran Hibberd is a gifted songwriter and her debut EP Everything is Dogs is a fine collection of tracks that showcase her tongue-in-cheek lyrics and relatable observations. As you listen to the EP, you can't help but feel drawn to her enthralling words and the way she presents characters and tells stories inspired by the world around her. To celebrate the release of her EP, she takes us through the influences behind it.
Growing the hell up
This was the biggest inspiration behind this EP, all of the tracks come from firsts for me. My first debt ('Sugardaddy'), my first love ('Hoochie'), my first death ('Shark Week'), my first sex dream ('Frankie’s Girlfriend') – the lot. It feels funny, yet kind of sad to me, and I think that’s a pretty honest place for me to sit right now as a songwriter, artist and just a human being haha.
'Everything is Dogs'
‘Everything is Dogs’ is based on a song I wrote that isn’t on this EP, funnily enough. It came from a saying I made up, implying that ‘everything sucked’ originally. It kind of means a bit more how it sounds now, focusing on actually how amazing dogs are and wouldn’t it be even more amazing if everything actually was dogs. And how that is an epic distraction from everything else in life going wrong.
Musical inspirations
For this EP, and for me in general. I can’t shout Weezer enough. I think this relates to 'Sugardaddy' and 'Frankie’s Girlfriend' especially. I remember becoming so obsessed with the Blue album and following that Pinkerton. It really introduced me to that garage end of rock, and there’s a real sense of humour and character to it and I think that’s played heavily into what I’m creating. I would say Phoebe Bridgers is the main inspiration behind the track ‘Shark Week’ though, especially lyrically.
Playing live
Honestly, this whole joint makes more sense to anyone if they’ve seen and heard it live. I’m a bit of a weird one, and I think that comes across quite nicely in person. I think hearing a 30-minute set, over 3 songs on Spotify can really tell you a lot about an artist. I feel like from playing live so much, I have been able to track this EP the way I play it live. We start every live show with 'Sugardaddy' and finish every live set with 'Shark Week'. That was always the way I intended this EP to feel, I wanted it to give off the same dynamic, and say the same thing but on record. Show as much character, and as many sides as possible.
Coming of age
I think this EP feels oddly coming of age, I kind of feel like sometimes this could be a soundtrack to a modern-day ’10 Things I Hate About You’. I was a very soundtrack driven kid. I always say, there’s no moment that could happen in life that would not be made better by the perfect song. I like to think there’s a nice range of scenarios in this EP that could fit a few good tween movies.
Listen to Everything is Dogs below:
'Frankie's Girlfriend':
'Hoochie':
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