From DMing DJ Lethal to dumping someone and buying a PS4, Lauran Hibberd tells the stories behind every song on her debut album, Garageband Superstar.
Earlier this month, we introduced you to the very awesome Lauran Hibberd and her personal brand of slacker pop. Well, now her debut album Garageband Superstar has finally landed – so Lauran has unveiled the meanings, studio stories and absolutely everything about the record…
“I think the perfect way to open any album is to fall off a rollercoaster then call your mum off a motorola. I really wanted to set a bizarre tone from the off. It has that opening credits feel to me, as if I’ve tried on a million outfits and now they are all just lying on the bedroom floor and I’m just rolling around in the mess sucking on a lollipop.
“It’s a track about the female pressure to look and act a certain way and how tiring that is. The way all women are pitted against each other, and how its always competitive. It’s the first song we recorded for the album, with Larry Hibbit in Brixton. It was a real pace-setter.”
“This will always be my favourite song on this album; it feels like I’m being the person I always wanted to be in this track. It’s ironically not at all about running – it’s sort of an ongoing metaphor for being stuck in the same place in your life, and going about an average routine again and again whilst it seems everyone you grew up with is moving mountains and making millions. Instagram vs. reality.
“DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit / House Of Pain features, scratching away. The original demo had a lot of scratching, which was just just pulled off of free sound. So I always wanted to get someone in to do that. We were all just sat there thinking, ‘Who is the best turntablist ever?’ and then it hit like a lightbulb. A cheeky slide into the DMs and the game was changed!”
“This was the last song that made it onto the record – it was written maybe a week before I was due to record the last half off the album. I felt like I was missing that real punchy punk lead track.
“I had the title for a while, and I liked the idea of this as a song topic. If you ever watched A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff growing up, you know who this song is about. It’s sort of mocking the stereotype of a step mum, and how they are villainised. I actually have a great step mum, and my own mum is also a great step mum. It’s sort of that jumping-up-and-down on your bed sort of teenage angst that I felt the album needed. It feels very coming of age to me.”
“It wouldn’t be a Lauran Hibberd album unless we were taking down the average bloke, right? This song was all of our favourites to record. We wanted to make it an anthem – and we put everything on there that was in the room.
“I love the imagery in this track; it paints this funny story of a gym-loving guy, taking pictures of his car, never really taking a step outside the box. And although it feels like I’m mocking him, I’m not! There’s a lot of light in that, and actually envying having a simpler life. My mind feels impossible at times, and actually average joe has it right? He’s not overthinking anything, he hates his job but he knows he’s gotta do it, he doesn’t overpack on holidays… he’s winning.”
“I never intended this song to get this far, let alone make it onto the album. It was a happy accident. I wanted to write a pop song, and kind of lean into the pop-punk curve and write something I would have loved when I was 14 and hearing I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry for the first time. I was so worried it wasn’t ‘credible’, but then I stopped caring.
“Hot Boys was a funny outcome. I spend so much time bashing male behaviour and to write a song almost objectifying them and having the female play that character that keeps moving on from guy to guy and having that celebrated and not frowned upon is probably a good thing.
“Viji’s vocal sits perfectly on this. It’s a fun track that isn’t taking itself too seriously. It definitely feels like a summer track, post-being dumped, on a flight to ibiza with the girls. That’s the opposite of what I know and love, but here we are.”
“This comes after Hot Boys to just outline the joke behaviour. It’s literally in writing. This track is my producer Larry’s fave – we went to town on backing vocals, percussion and I did have a breakdown singing the chorus. It’s the very top of my range.
“It’s a classic denial song, it’s so upbeat and bright but so sad lyrically. It’s the many stages of a break-up, and how small things affect you. It’s the guide on how to pretend you’re fine when you’re literally puking in your mouth just leaving the house.
“It’s unfortunately inevitable for most people – we’ll all get broke by someone. It’s how you look back and laugh at yourself afterwards that counts.”
“I love Get Some – I think it’s already underrated. This was a really fun song to record, we even added sitar which quote me ‘is the coolest thing ever’ and something quite unexpected on a Lauran Hibberd record.
“I was really into puns at the time, and those old wives’ tales. So I kind of made a parody version of that in the choruses, with the, ‘If the shoe fits maybe you should put it on, if your pants down maybe you should take them off.’ It’s a song about sex, basically. I don’t know why that feels weird but it does. But I think it’s important that girls sing about it too. It’s all about every thought and feeling you have before, during and after. It’s not always pretty and not always in the female’s favour. The reality is often, ‘Can your mum give you a lift or do I have to pick you up again?’”
“This is the oldest song on the record, and the one that started everything for me album-wise. I’m obsessed with the title and everything it represents; I felt like I made this weird world when I was writing this album. Like a superstar in my own right. Delusional, yet happy. Funny yet sad. It’s everything I’ve wanted to be in three-and-a-half minutes. And to have Wheatus – you know, Teenage Dirtbag Wheatus – on this song just seals the deal for me. This song is like Disneyland for shit adults. Brenden added even more character to the song, his high harmonies on the pre-chorus literally completed my life.
“It’s about waking up from a dream, and in the dream you were famous. It stings.”
“So… you know when you’re in a relationship with someone who’s in a relationship with their Xbox? Yeah, this song is for you. I felt like I was in a competition with a game. It’s a real-life story about being a musician and going on tour and trying to keep something alive with someone who only wants to be present on a Nintendo Switch. I wrote this after realising how stupid my situation was, so I dumped him and bought a PS4. Best decision ever.
“This really pushed me vocally, and was one of the first times I felt like a proper rock singer. That feels weird to say, but my larynx felt the burn, for sure.”
“One my of my favourite Weezer tracks is El Scorcho, and I wanted one of those for myself. A super baggy trousered, lazy track. It’s about my time in the music industry. I spend a lot of the time dancing around the point, I kind of make the industry this male character. And how the goal posts are always changing, and he always wants more and more and it’s so hard to keep up. I think most artists struggle with imposter syndrome and having to juggle the many roles of being an influencer, social media expert, model and comedian on top of everything else.
“Can we also mention the nu-metal guitars in the pre-chorus, because whoa!”
“This is a total change of pace: I wanted a quiet moment on the record, just sort of me and a guitar, back to how it all started. We recorded this live in one take in the studio, and it felt like kind of a spotlight moment.
“The song itself is about being totally eaten up by someone, and you sort of become an offset of them, and how when they leave you feel empty and lost. The odd humour in it sees the bonus in losing weight being the only perk of this whole experience. I think this is something that comes with being young, looking back at your childhood, falling in love for the first time. It’s an intimate moment nearing the end of the record.”
“I always wanted to finish the album with a manic outburst. A sort of crescendo effect. It’s kind of the final release, and all the built emotions throughout the album just pour out of me but this time with no filter or hidden humour.
“It’s a breakdown. It’s wanting to have a day in bed and skip school but I can’t because I’m an adult. It’s about being sick of hating how you look, and how you think life should be. It’s growing up and realising nothing is how I thought it would be. Everything is hard, everything is here to test me. But also nothing is the end of the world, and you may as well laugh at the stuff you can, celebrate the moments that make it worthwhile, tell the people who make you feel like shit to fuck off. And throw a big party just for yourself.”
Garageband Superstar is out now via Virgin Music
