Last month saw the release of the debut album from London-born singer/songwriter Lottie Lindstrom.
Although only 15 years old, Lottie spent two years writing a superb collection of songs, and she came to me in January and February of this year to record them.
I was astonished at the quality of the songs, but also at how self-assured she was with her singing and songwriting. She came prepared, with lots of ideas and nailed most takes.
In actual fact, Lottie’s part of the album was done in only three recording sessions!
In January, she came over for a day to put piano and guide vocals down for each song. I then worked on the songs, adding drums, guitars, bass and percussion, before she spent a weekend here in February laying down vocals and backing vocals.
All the songs started with piano demos that Lottie had recorded on her phone in her bedroom, as well as a handful that had been fleshed out with a friend in London.
Lottie’s influences include Taylor Swift (especially the Red album, which I love) and Gracie Abrams, so they were in mind going in to the production of the songs.
You can hear their influence running through songs like Setting Me Free and Declutter.
Probably the most fun song to work on was Yes, I Could. The demo was, frankly, bonkers, and contained about seven different sections, all with different timings and genres. Rather than try to shoehorn them all into one simple song, we decided to embrace the changes – in the end, it was like producing seven mini songs, but it worked!
The final album is nine tracks of quality songwriting, the melodies are catchy and the lyrics give an honest and frank version of what it’s like being a teenager.
In a world where she could easily be distracted by social media, or quickly create music by putting dance loops onto a grid, Lottie has taken the time to write lyrics and create amazing melodies, so that what comes from her is personal.
That is more important than ever.
I find it really encouraging that young people learning instruments and writing actual songs – it just shows that people still need to be creative and people still need to hear the work of humans.
In Lottie’s case, she’s exceptionally good at it, and I’m looking forward to hearing what she does next.