1.
Ella Yelich-O’Connor is a sixteen year old girl who has never left New Zealand—but she's also a singer/songwriter that goes by Lorde, and is on the cusp of becoming one of the world's major pop stars. The strange, unsettling combination of these two extremes makes her daily life almost as compelling as the soaring music on an initial, brief EP that propelled world-wide interest in the young artist.
As Ella, she attends a school called Takapuna Grammar School in Belmont, Auckland and deals with her gossipy peers. As Lorde, she's been working with Universal for the past few years to develop her sound and artistic vision. A&R scout Scott Maclachlan saw a video of her from a talent show and immediately signed her to Universal at 12. Since then, the Ella/Lorde dichotomy has been developing, and it's apparent from even a phone conversation that the teenager feels the split within herself already.
At moments she's recounting the annoyances of high school, and then, without warning, she'll slip into a powerful monologue about the perils of worshiping wealth and the facade of fame—a topic that is addressed at length on “Royals,” her outstanding, chart-topping single. The reflections of a girl raised on Drake, Lana Del Rey, Kanye, and Burial settle alongside the influence of her literary mother’s muses—Raymond Carver, T.S. Eliot, Alan Ginsberg and Ezra Pound. The result is a gloriously self-aware, powerful and innocent voice—Lorde is a songwriter and a siren, and she does both incredibly well.
"The usual formula of pretty girl, gorgeous voice and label grooming didn’t work for Ella or for Lorde. Although Universal originally paired the teenager with a team of songwriters, it was only by insisting on independence that her initial EP The Love Club emerged."
"So I guess I was about 12 or 13 when I first started writing songs on my guitar,” she said over a crackling phone line, and deciphering her thick Kiwi accent through a haze of international static was a task in itself. “I just kept going and got better. I started writing more and I got the EP written—that was kind of when it started clicking for me and started making sense."
But the usual formula of pretty girl, gorgeous voice and label grooming didn’t work for Ella or for Lorde. Though universal originally teamed her with a host of song writers in an attempt to go the purely manufactured route, the singer's determined organic style developed from a more fluid collaboration. Once Ella teamed up with producer Joel Little, her initial EP The Love Club emerged, and these queenly, jubilant songs fully establish her songwriting voice.
“It’s completely collaborative. I have listened to a lot of electronic music, and developed a real taste of exactly what I wanted in terms of production. Joel is the official producer and often we don’t see eye-to-eye, but I always get what I want at the end of the day,” she laughed.
His expertise seems to be an important influence on the young singer though, who transitioned from writing songs on her guitar to these full-fledged, lacquered tracks. Little may be a key ingredient, but sonically and lyrically, the songs bear Ella’s fingerprints. This initial EP is stippled with existential questions, preternatural wisdom, and vocal swells that manifest both in fleets of harmonies and her unaccompanied voice, carrying the willowy melodies solo. Embedded in a foundation of synth loops and whorls, the decisions still feel fresh and imaginative—this sixteen-year-old is inventing her sound with an ease that’s fascinating.
3.
To call The Love Club a success is to almost undermine the jolt of electricity it sent through New Zealand, and the sparks from its release are quickly flickering across the world. Debut single “Royals” hit number one on the New Zealand charts and has stayed there for three weeks, still lingering in the top ten even months later. It was Ella’s decision to release the five-song sampler with no media fanfare and a simple drawing of her as the artwork—once again, her instincts are on point.
The EP had 60,000 free downloads through Internet buzz alone before Universal wised-up and put it on iTunes, where it still managed to sell enough copies to hit number one on the album sales chart as well. Despite these triumphs, Lorde already has her sights set on a full-length album, one that is interconnected and a faithful reflection of herself.
“The goal for me is to make a body of work that is cohesive, that feels like an album and is something that I going to be proud of,” Ella said. “I’m working on an album at the moment, and it seems a lot of albums lately don’t feel like a cohesive set of songs that complement each other and mean something as a group. If I can make something which does feel like that, and feels right and true and good, then I will have succeeded.”
Commercial success is already in swing for Lorde, but it’s the artistic realm that she’s more concerned with. Her first two shows earlier this month sold out in a matter of minutes and she’s even drawn interest from rumor-monger Perez Hilton and his spiritual opposite, electro-blogger/musician Grimes. That her music appeals to such diverse tastes, with such fortitude, is more evidence of Lorde’s escalating stardom.
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“The idea of putting people on pedestals seems really strange to me,” she said. “Every time someone comes up to me and is star struck I feel like I have to act super normal to get them on my level, to make them realize I am not that cool. Because half the time people stop me I am on the train or on the bus, or waiting for my dad to pick me up.”
It’s almost disconcerting to hear Ella speak in such a blasé manner about her fame, but startling in the best way. Her concerns reflect a generational shift perhaps, one that has seen through the glitter of excess to its eventual terror. A shift in values back toward music as a connection between souls—a spiritual bridge.
6.
“I do love it when people come up to me and say ‘I love your EP’ or ‘That song means a lot to me.” That it is a huge rush for me. But being famous isn’t the goal. I was listening to a lot of hip-hop and lots of Lana Del Rey—those kinds of people who are really into that super opulent, lavish living. I guess ‘Royals’ was my way of saying that’s all bullshit."
Not that there isn’t an element of historical wealth and royal tradition that appeals to the sixteen-year-old. Her press photo is striking: the curly-haired, fresh-faced brunette is seated in a straight-backed chair wearing a floor-length gown and thick gold bracelets… and she’s seated next to a huge, brown dog.
"Being famous isn’t the goal. I was listening to a lot of hip-hop and lots of Lana Del Rey—those kinds of people who are really into that super opulent, lavish living. I guess ‘Royals’ was my way of saying that’s all bullshit."
“It’s not my dog. My idea came from looking at men in the royal families, there’ll be a Duke from the 1500s and he’ll have a lap dog, or they’ll be holding something, but they’ll always have the animal there. There’s something nice about that, it’s kind of strong.”
Ella also drew the stage-name and persona she has adopted, Lorde, from the chronicles of monarchy, based on her recurring obsession with the lives of the aristocracy.
“I was going through names like the duke, and the duchess and thought one of those title would be cool for a stage name,” she explained. “I came across lord, just L-O-R-D and obviously that’s a masculine title. But I thought it looked great and sounded great, but it wasn’t feminine—so I just added the E on the end. It doesn’t mean anything I just think it’s a beautiful word, and it feels like my music.”
The stage name does feel like her music, especially as the storylines of Ella and Lorde became increasingly entwined. Plans are being laid for the sixteen-year-old to come to America, and a more extensive tour schedule is currently in the works. If you’re worried about such a young and naïve girl entering the cutthroat world of the music industry though, your concerns are misplaced. She’s points out that she’s already swimming in shark-infested water—the often-poisonous halls of high school.
“It’s funny to address the industry, because today a guy from school who I don’t know was talking about my video for ‘Royals’ and said something like ‘Haha, yeah, but have you seen her in real life?!’ It was totally nasty!” Ella said.
“But the thing is,” she continued, “I go to high school and I don’t think there is any environment that is more nasty, cynical, aggressive, or terrifying. I’ve had a great time in high school but there is always the downside and coming into the industry, everyone feels so nice compared to the people at high school.”
As the story of Ella/Lorde unfurls, her candor and grace-under-fire reveal a strong, confident girl who has the chops and the character to survive in a world that’s eager to turn teens into malicious divas. Lorde the popstar may be swimming with sharks, but she’s grounded by high-schooler Ella’s common sense and down-to-earth attitude toward it all.
“Sometimes, it’s about the mundane, nothing happening. It’s a waiting time in your life. You’re just waiting for something cool to happen, or to just get out of where you live,” Ella said.
But for Lorde, it looks like the wait is almost over.
