Name: Lou Hayter
Nationality: British
Occupation: Songwriter, vocalist, producer, DJ
Current release: Lou Hayter's new single, “Unfamiliar Skin” is out via Greco-Roman. It is the title track of her new full-length album, slated for release November 8th 2024.
Recommendations: Space 1.8 by Nala Sinephro; The Square by Ruben Östlund

If you enjoyed this Lou Hayter interview and would like to know more about her and her music, visit her on Instagram, Soundcloud, twitter, Facebook, and bandcamp.

For a deeper dive, read our earlier Lou Hayter interview about her creative process.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Ah, you have synesthesia. I don’t have that but I feel things like goosebumps, euphoria, sadness, happiness, many emotions, which I imagine most people do.

I always find people who don’t like music very confusing because it affects me so deeply. I don’t meet them very often but they do exist.
 
Entering/creating new worlds through music has always exerted a strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

I think it’s a world of infinite possibilities that you can get lost in and get a high from when you make a piece of music that you like.

So it never gets boring and you can always push yourself further and open up new portals.
 
According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I think even younger for me, my formative influences when I was 5 I stand by as well and I feel the same about them as I did as a child. Things like Uncertain Smile by The The, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Satie’s Gymnopedie, Level 42 and Madonna - I was listening to them around age 5 and I’m still completely obsessed with them.

At 13-16 I was definitely more discerning in my understanding of them I suppose and records like Portishead's Dummy, Tricky's Maxinquaye, Goldie's Timeless etc were coming out which really shaped me. I was buying records every week and soaking everything up.



I've grown a lot since then but I feel like I had a similar understanding of it then as I do now.
 
Tell me about one or two of your early pieces that you're still proud of (or satisfied with) – and why you're content with them.

I’m proud of all my music. I suppose my first song “It Doesn’t Work Like That” by The New Sins was a game changer for me because I never thought I could sing. I probably couldn’t then to be honest, but I did anyway and by putting that out I became a recording artist.



I still really like the song and I’m proud of writing it even though the vocal could be a lot better. It has a charm to it.

“Private Sunshine” on my first album too I'm really proud of as it's the first song I produced by myself. I love it.
 


What is your current studio or workspace like? What instruments, tools, equipment, and space do you need to make music?

I don’t have much at home, just my laptop, a midi keyboard, a condenser mic and Logic really.

That’s why I sample a lot because it allows me to have sounds I can’t create myself at home and it sounds kinda finished already. I’m an ideas person rather than a gear person - no gear. all the ideas. The opposite of the saying, haha.

Sometimes gear slows you down and complicates things I find. Then I take the demos to the studio to work on with my engineer.
 
From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, tell me about the creative process for your current release, please.

Sketches could be samples, snippets of lyrics or whole songs that I sing into my phone (often in the middle of the night).

Then, when I have time, I flesh out the demo on Logic on my dining room table. When it sounds good enough I take it to my engineer Greg Flemings and we work on it in the big studio, re-recording all the vocals etc until it sounds finished.
 
What role and importance do rituals have for you, both as an artist and a listener?

I’m not too strict with things like that. I do follow instinct a lot and I like things I’ve learned along the way, like  'trust your mistakes' etc. I listen to what Brian Eno says a lot and it opens up my eyes, but also just being in a studio for years does that.

[Read our Brian Eno interview about climate action]

But again, anything I’ve learnt I will flip it as there are literally no rules and I don’t like being told that rules exist. Maybe that’s why I’m working alone at the moment.

My rituals are like; don't start work too early, take breaks, eat snacks, drink coffee ... haha.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these?

Occasionally. But I also think I’m very me. For instance if I try to write for other people it often doesn’t work or I end up keeping the song for me because it sounds like it was for me.

Lyrically I make stuff up, I guess. It’s not autobiographical but then some is. None of my lyrics are that far fetched.


Lou Hayter Interview Image (c) the artist

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility [...] to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that?

I love that you’ve referenced Sophie because I truly think she was one of the most important producers on the planet in terms of moving things forward sonically. For that exact reason I’d say that she doesn’t need to limit herself sonically because she had the capability of creating entire new palettes and worlds that most mere mortals aren’t capable of.

I don’t limit myself at all and let myself be free but I don’t have the technical ability that she had. She was making sounds that I wouldn’t know how to make. She was a sonic wizard.
 
Do you feel that your music or your work as an artist needs to have a societal purpose or a responsibility to anyone but yourself?

I am true to myself politically and I am vocal on social media about where I stand. I have always stood up for what I believe in and for the oppressed, since I was kid I would go to marches.

But my music itself doesn’t have a political slant. I guess being a female producer in such a male dominated industry is political in itself though.
 
Once a piece is done and released, do you find it important that listeners understand it in a specific way? How do you deal with “misunderstandings?”

That’s interesting. I think you can’t control how people receive things. You can present it in a certain way and I think visuals help a great deal with positioning.

But once it’s out in the world it has a life of it’s own.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I love the sound of my cats purring. It’s proven to heal us in lots of ways.

The other day I stayed in Girona at my nephew’s house and there was a frog chorus every night when I went to bed which I found really relaxing. I also absolutely love going to sleep when it’s raining outside, those are three of my favourite sounds.

I hear sounds as music all the time, like car siren noises always sound so good over a record playing for some reason. So do trains.
 
We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Yeah I like silence as I like peace and quiet. But silence for me as someone who has grown up in a city isn’t the same as for someone else. I will always hear a car, or clock or a train in the background and that’s silence for me.

When it’s actually completely quiet in the countryside I don’t always like it as I’m not used to it. It’s easier for me to sleep with a slight background noise than nothing at all.
 
Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Yes there’s an alchemy in making music or performing it for me. For other people they might find that in something like cooking. But for me music is the highest form of art I think. The most expressive and directly emotional thing. The type of art that moves you straight away.

It’s magic, you can’t touch it, it’s just sound waves and vibrations - so it’s also the most abstract form of art.