An Interview With… Lauren Aquilina!


My first ever interview: now in the bag…. phew. And what better interviewee to begin this whole media mumbojumbo with than with the lovely Lauren Aquilina!

The 16-year-old is a bombshell. With a voice to leave most listeners gaping in astonishment like a muggle witnessing dementors, it really is no wonder why this Berkshire-based girl is acquiring fame as rapidly as she is. Having started singing even before she could read, it seems Lauren has always had quite a musical life. She has been uploading her covers of songs to her youtube channel for about 2 years, which have since gained the attention of thousands of listeners, thus gathering a lovely sum of over 500k total upload views. Now there’s a start!

[Awkward introduction of “Hi Lauren!!! How’re you feeling!”, with an equally awkward reply of “Yeah I’m good thanks… how’re you?”…. *facepalm*]

Kaja: I’ve just seen that video of you in the recording studio; are you actually recording anything at the moment?

Lauren: I’m just doing some demos, because we’re still trying to find my “sound”, but yeah, it was a lot of fun as I’ve never really been in a real studio before… *laughs*… It was good, yeah.

K: That’s cool! Do you have any news about a debut album?

L: Erm… we are working, I’m writing at the moment for a debut release, but obviously, I’m just writing constantly. But the debut release probably won’t be until the end of next year because, you know, we’re just trying to build it up a bit and we don’t want to release anything unless it’s perfect and we’ve worked really hard on it.

K: Wow, that’s ages away!

L: Yeah.. It’s a long time! *laughs*

K: Wow, you should definitely include the STD song on it…

L: Oh no! *laughter* that’s the worst actual thing EVER! My form tutor saw that video….

K: Nooo!

L: It was just… awful. She liked it though! She loved it, she really liked it.

K: Oh that’s embarrassing… ! What is the first album you ever bought? [with your own money]

L: Ah…. *long pause* I think… I’m going way back here… It might’ve been Ellie Goulding’s album, “Lights”, I think that might’ve been the first one.

K: Really? That’s quite recent!

L: It was like.. last year, but I went through a horrible phase of err… not buying any of my music at all. Like… illegally download it. You know, everyone has those phases but I buy all of my music now, because obviously, being a musician… [something unfortunately drowned out by my unprofessional slurping of spicy tea D: ]

K: Sorry.. I’m just drinking tea at the moment…

L: Tea’s the best!

K: Yeah! You’ve also already got some famous names in your little “growing musicians” circle: there’s Kate McGill and Katie Sky… Cher Lloyd! How about that!

L: What are the actual chances of that happening! *laughter* I was at Bella Italia with my mum and was just about to see Noah and the Whale, and I got a tweet from my friend Sam and he was like, “Cher Lloyd’s just posted your video on Facebook“, and I was like, “Are you joking me!?”.

K: Must’ve been quite a surprise!

L: It was absolutely mental. And it definitely helps loads. So yeah.. I still can’t believe it’s really happened! It’s just like, “What!?”

K: Because you were saying before you released the cover, you were saying how it would be quite controversial and don’t know what people are going to think of it.

L: Yeah, I heard the song on the radio the morning I did the cover and was like, “D’you know what, I actually really like this song!” and it’s Cher Lloyd so it was like “Oh god, what are people gonna think! But controversial ones always tend to do well anyway. But I thought, why not? It was a bit of fun, a bit of a laugh!

K: Well, personally, I’m not a big fan of Cher myself…

L: I mean I’m not a huge fan or anything, I mean “Swagger Jagger” was just awful! *laughter* But I actually really like this song, I think it’s really good.

K: That’s cool. Err… If you could collaborate with any artist / band, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

L: Hmm.. I know I’ve said it already, but it would have to be Ellie Goulding; she’s just the one!

K: Ah, you know because one of your songs, “Never Change”, I remember my friend playing it to me and I thought, “Wow, this sounds like Ellie Goulding!”

L: Oh really? Wow, that’s a huge compliment,thanks! Yeah that wasn’t the intention or anything, but she has been a huge influence on my sound, just because I absolutely love her album. It’s one of those I haven’t got bored of, which is rare for me because normally I get really bored of music because I’ll overplay it for like a week.

K: That’s one of the worst things you can do, really!

L: Yeah, and then I’m like “Urgh, I hate this song now!” But her, I mean, I just love it.

K: Yeah! Also, random question, but how do you pronounce Bon Iver? Like, “Bon Eye-ver” or “Bon Ee-ver”?

L: You know what? I say.. both? Sometimes I’m like, “Bon Ee-VER”, and sometimes I’m like “Bon EYE-ver”, when I’m being really lazy *laughs* But I think the actual definition is “Bon Ee-VER”, because it’s something like “good winter”, there’s a whole inside story to it. But I won’t go into that!

K: Fair enough! So err… quickfire round! Bon Iver or Mumford And Sons?

L: Bon Iver.

K: Lady Gaga or Jessie J?

L: Lady Gaga.

K: Bottled water or tap water?

L: *pause*… Tap water.

K: YEAAAH..! Tea or coffee?

L: Tea.

K: Cool! I don’t really have any more questions, as this was kind of just put together just now… So yeah, thankyou, bye!

L: Okay no problem, bye!

Check out: the Youtube; the Facebook; the Twitter; the official page, and watch out for future gigs (:

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Category : Interviews, Introducing, News, Reviews
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