Louise Aubrie
“I would love them to be transported to the city, the hills, the streets — and feeling like they can also find joy in being on the edge of something new.”
Louise Aubrie has spent her career moving between cities — London to New York to Los Angeles — and her music has followed every mile of it. Sharp, guitar-driven, and built on the kind of songwriting that doesn’t waste a syllable, she’s the sort of artist who earns her transatlantic reputation the hard way: stage by stage, record by record. Her debut was made in a mountain studio in Portugal with Boz Boorer. Her sixth is tracked on Sunset Boulevard, at East West Studios, where Sinatra cut records and the Foo Fighters still show up.
Midnight Calls is the first single from LFA, her first album written and recorded entirely in Los Angeles. It is a song about time zones, sleeplessness, and the particular alertness of being permanently between two worlds. It is also one of the best things she’s made. We asked her ten questions. She answered all of them with the same directness she brings to her music.
“When I got to LA, it was a completely different vibe — suddenly there is space. That was the main thing for me.”
LFA is the first album you’ve written and recorded entirely in Los Angeles. How did the city change the way you write compared to London or New York?
I was really inspired by being in a new city. Having been in NYC for nearly a decade, I was used to that 24-hour bustling energy and being in a heightened state of everyone packed together, feeding off each others’ energy. But when I got to LA, it was a completely different vibe — suddenly there is space! That was the main thing for me — the outdoor life. Seeing the palm trees, the mountains, the beaches, and the crazy city itself was really invigorating. Having these different stimuli and the freedom to explore made the writing process more relaxed, more meandering and more creative for me.
Midnight Calls was inspired by being awake at all hours catching up with people across time zones. Has that in-between state — never fully on one side of the Atlantic — become a creative space you actively seek out?
Yes absolutely! In both NYC and LA there is quite a big time difference to friends and family in London, and I do find myself up at all hours. There is a definite shift in how your brain works in the small hours; whether that is due to tiredness or really just being out of a ‘natural’ rhythm — but that is what makes it so cool to explore. When I was writing in NY, quite often in the night I would be calling someone at 4AM (9AM in London) and there was this kind of backbeat I could hear from the streets!
That sleeplessness runs through the fabric of Midnight Calls — not as exhaustion but as a kind of expanded consciousness, a state where the brain untethers from routine and reaches for something it can’t quite name. It’s a condition many artists describe. Aubrie has built a song out of it.
The line “I’m on the edge and you’ve got the looks that kill” carries both personal emotion and the heightened drama of LA itself. How much of the city bleeds into your lyrics without you consciously putting it there?
With Midnight Calls, the city of LA is really at the heart of it. That line speaks to being on the edge of change, on the edge of a new city and on the edge of a new chapter. The looks that kill was inspired by driving around the city looking for somewhere to live, literally in the shadow of the Hollywood Hills and just thinking about the looks of all the Hollywood icons. It is so steeped in history that it’s a wonderful jumping-off point to create music.
You recorded at East West Studios on Sunset Boulevard — one of the most storied rooms in recorded music history. What does it feel like to work in a space with that kind of legacy behind it?
Oh it’s amazing; I am so lucky to have recorded there. As you say, you are very aware of the artists who have made legendary music there, from Sinatra and Elvis up to Lady Gaga and Foo Fighters for example, so it is such an inspiration. But what makes it really special is the staff that work there. Nothing is too much trouble, everything is set up wonderfully and you can just concentrate on the music. They were incredible.
There’s a telling detail in that answer — she skips past the mythology to land on the human part. The staff. The setup. The ability to concentrate. It’s the same instinct that runs through her songwriting: get to what’s real, cut the rest.
“Me and my band flew from New York to Faro and then travelled to his studio which is in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. It is the most beautiful place — you can make as much noise as you like.”
This is your sixth studio album. What does the process of making a record feel like now compared to when you made Fingers Crossed with Boz Boorer?
Wow, it’s crazy to think how much time has passed! Well my first album as you say was made with Boz Boorer at his studio in Portugal and it was a magical experience. Me and my band flew from New York to Faro and then travelled to his studio which is in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. It is the most beautiful place — you can make as much noise as you like — and is wonderfully cut off from the world. At that time, I didn’t have too much experience of being in a studio, so I learnt a lot from Boz more about the technical side of recording. So now, I really understand everything that goes into making a record.
You built your live reputation on the stages of downtown New York before moving to LA. What did New York teach you about performing that you carried with you?
It taught me to embrace chaos! I really love playing live, mainly because you just never know what is going to happen, and every audience is different. Things go wrong — a guitarist breaking his arm the day before a tour; mics and guitar strings breaking on stage — but you learn that nothing is perfect and the only thing to do is to carry on!
A guitarist’s broken arm the day before a tour. The matter-of-fact way she delivers that line says something about the kind of professional she is — someone for whom the show going on isn’t a philosophy but a reflex.
You’ve worked with Keith Scott, Roger Joseph Manning Jr, Solomon Walker — musicians with extraordinary CVs. How do those collaborations shape a record versus working alone?
Yes I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with such talented people. Well, my process has generally stayed the same right from the beginning. I write the music and lyric together and then put down a demo with all the parts I am hearing. So I will program the drums, put down the guitar, bass, keys, percussion parts, and add a guide vocal. I typically then send that to my producer / the band and then we’ll take it from there. The writing doesn’t change but I am also very happy to take these amazing musicians’ input on any new guitar/bass/keys parts they think would enhance the track — that’s why I love working with them — they are brilliant!
“I would love them to be transported to the city, the hills, the streets — and feeling like they can also find joy in being on the edge of something new.”
BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 Music, Kerrang, Billboard — you’ve built real critical and radio support on both sides of the Atlantic. Does that transatlantic recognition feel different depending on which side it comes from?
Thank you. I think it’s pretty similar — it is always nice to get recognized and I don’t think the source really matters, suffice to say it is really lovely to have acclaim from different places around the world.
LFA is described as a love letter from London to LA. At this point in your life, which city feels more like home — or is the answer somewhere in between?
Well London will always be my hometown, but I do feel very comfortable in LA and right now that is where I feel home is.
A clean, honest answer from someone who has spent years resisting the need to choose. The album title itself — LFA — holds both cities in its initials without resolving the tension between them. That might be the point.
What do you want someone to feel after listening to Midnight Calls for the first time?
I would love them to be transported to the city, the hills, the streets and feeling like they can also find joy in being on the edge of something new!
Midnight Calls does exactly what Aubrie asks of it. It places you somewhere — 3AM, a car moving through the Hollywood Hills, a phone call that shouldn’t be happening yet — and it makes that liminal moment feel like the only place worth being. Six albums in, she’s still writing like someone with something to prove. That’s the best possible sign for LFA.
The album is coming. In the meantime, the single is out now. Put it on late. It’ll make more sense that way.
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