girlhouse returns with upfront new single 'paul blart mall cop', out March 11th through Secret Road Records

LISTEN TO ‘PAUL BLART MALL COP’ HERE

Fresh off the back of releasing two standout collections in the last eighteen months, ‘the girlhouse ep’ and ‘the second ep’, which have since gone onto garner more than seven million streams, fast-rising indie bedroom-pop artist girlhouse (aka Lauren Luiz) is back to her vibrant best as she delivers her soaring and upfront new single ‘paul blart mall cop’.

Between her first two EPs, Luiz found herself branching out from the smooth and breezy dream-pop of her infancy in pursuit of a more uplifting and euphoric sound, and ‘paul blart mall cop’ adds yet another elevated layer to her progressive direction. Channeling her personal struggles with depression, this new offering is an intimate yet strangely visceral return, brimming with a glowing self-confidence as she evolves as an artist.

Speaking about the new track, she said, “The story is of me facing the ultimate dilemma as a person that has dealt with depression for a majority of their life, not wanting to live but not wanting to die." 

Her critically acclaimed debut ‘the girlhouse ep’ and its follow up ‘the second ep’ found support from the likes of BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music, DUMMY, Under The Radar, WONDERLAND, The Independent, NOTION, The Independent, EARMILK, La Blogotheque, 1883 Magazine, ATWOOD MAGAZINE, and Record Of The Day. Blending a mix of alt-pop and lo-fi indie-rock textures throughout, her music to date has been a bold and captivating example of her ever forward-thinking approach to songwriting.

Ever since she was a teenager, girlhouse’s Lauren Luiz has always felt the pull to try and experience new things. 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, she first began to make her mark as an actress in her early twenties. Appearing in shows like the NBC hit series Grimm, she felt like her career wasn’t really going to fully begin unless she moved to the heart of the action, Los Angeles.

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 production was all through sign language and half of the cast was deaf, so it gave her a truly unique experience and taught her to sign. The show took her to Broadway, New York, saw her perform for President Barack Obama at The White House, as well as appearing on The Seth Meyers Show. 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.

She first moved in with a friend she had met while attending the Old Vic School in Bristol, and began to work at the Diesel Jean store at the city’s Beverly Centre mall. It was here that she met her future band mate/producer Tyler Thompson, who was working at the Sony Store at the time. The two had an instant creative connection and stayed firmly in touch when Lauren had to uproot to New York for her production. But once that show ended, she returned to LA and the pair formed their first musical venture WILD together with another band mate.

Together, 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, it felt like they have found a special connection that they could build something truly special around. 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. 

Inspired heavily by the works of fellow female singer-songwriters such as Phoebe Bridgers, Soccer Mommy, and Lucy Dacus, girlhouse now feels like the most confident and fulfilling direction she has taken so far. 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.

DISCOVER GIRLHOUSE

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