After returning these last few months to deliver their highly-praised offerings "worth it" and "you don't think about me", US indie bedroom-pop artist girlhouse (aka Lauren Luiz) now releases her eagerly-awaited new collection 'the fourth ep', showcased by the release's anthemic opener "gen x boyfriend!!".
While her earliest material honed in on a more reclusive artist at the helm, girlhouse has been blooming with a fresh and euphoric confidence these last few years, culminating in 'the fourth ep', her most explosive EP to date. Bringing in a harder and more raucous energy this time around, while still honouring her more lovelorn origins, her newest collection sees her break out of her timid shell to deliver a blistering array of cacophonous gems throughout.
'The fourth ep' is highlighted by the new lead single "gen x boyfriend!!", a frenzied cut that squeezes a flurry of shredded guitars and pounding drums into its 1:44m runtime. Marking her loudest effort to date, girlhouse is certainly looking to turn some heads throughout this raw and driven five-track outing.
Speaking about "gen x boyfriend!!", she said, "This song was super fun to write! Our friend Jon Bryant was in town working with Tyler on some music for his own project and we happened to find some time to write together and I'm so shocked this was the song that came out of us as a team! Jon's music is so ethereal and gorgeous and I think it's hilarious we made our most high energy girlhouse song with him. Basically we wanted to tell the story of someone who is in the very beginning 'they can do no wrong' phase of a relationship, where all the red flags are ignored and all the abuse is somehow super endearing and "real". I used to be super into older guys when I was in my early 20's and they were all obsessed with moulding me into the perfect partner and making me believe my friends were holding me back, it's always about control. This one in particular dumped me for a girl that was two years younger than me. Now, I'm not saying all partners with massive age gaps are like this but this was my experience. I was kicked out of my home and my heart was completely obliterated. Most abusive relationships start off with a ton of love bombs that keep you working towards the connection that was in the beginning. He made me feel so important and magical when we first started dating and I was addicted to getting back to a place that wasn’t real to begin with. The song is the survivalist dissociating and feeling like they've finally found 'the one'."
the fourth ep tracklist
making sh*t up
worth it
you don’t think about me
till i do
goner
Growing up in the city of Portland, a place of polar opposites with the very liberal on one side to those wielding confederate flags on the other, girlhouse's Lauren Luiz first began to make her mark as an actress in her early twenties. Appearing in shows like the NBC hit series Grimm. Driven by her first serious breakup, she migrated to LA in 2013 to pursue her acting career, where she got her first big break in a production of Spring Awakening. The show took her to Broadway, New York, saw her perform for President Barack Obama at The White House. And while her music had yet to come to the forefront of her creative spirit, it was this pursuit of an acting dream that led her to the places and people she would come to build her music career around. It was here in LA that she met her future band mate/producer Tyler Thompson. The two had an instant creative connection and stayed firmly in touch when Lauren had to uproot to New York for Spring Awakening. But once that show ended, she returned to LA and the pair formed their first musical venture WILD, together with another band mate.
WILD became a huge force on the US folk-pop scene. They went onto release a handful of singles and an album that garnered them more than 50 million streams, a slot at SXSW, and sync deals with the likes of Mazda, Switch, and Pixar and more. But while WILD was still going strong, Lauren had spent the entire time writing music for herself, something different to what the band had been producing so far and so began to explore a new aesthetic. This was the formation of girlhouse, a solo project that Lauren felt was more in keeping with how she was as an artist and gave her a creative outlet to drive her own passions.
Fast forward to today and girlhouse has released three exceptional and critically acclamined EPs - her debut 'the girlhouse ep' and the aptly titled follow up's 'the second ep', and 'the third ep' which spawned the singles "cool guy", "paul blart mall cop", "concussion", "pretty girl in LA", "the fatalist", "knuckle tattoo" and many more and has amassed over 15 Million streams. She's toured with Sabrina Carpenter, The Wrecks, and more, as well as opened for Halsey last summer.
girlhouse is a tastemaker favourite, having featured on Billboard's 10 Cool New Pop Songs, WONDERLAND, NOTION, DUMMY, EARMILK, ONES TO WATCH, DIY MAG, The Line of Best Fit, Under The Radar, The Independent, La Blogotheque, Coup de Main, Atwood Magazine, Record of The Day, Songwriting Magazine and landed on Spotify's New Music Friday US, All New Indie and Today’s Indie Rock, and Apple Music's New In Rock playlists to name a few, as well as hitting the #1 spot on HYPE MACHINE multiple times.
Inspired heavily by the works of fellow female singer-songwriters such as Phoebe Bridgers, Soccer Mommy, and Lucy Dacus and now living in Nashville, her personal life still continues to inspire and influence her music, offering us all a window into her soul and creating a bright and sweeping world for us all to enjoy.