On Thursday before All Points East officially opened to attendees, we went backstage at the media launch in Victoria Park to catch up with Liverpudlian electro-pop artist Lapsley. We discussed returning to a festival stage, getting to finally perform tracks from her incredible sophomore album ‘Through Water’, and who she’s looking forward to watching perform across the festival's four day weekend. 

Philip Giouras: Hi Lapsley! Thanks for chatting with us, You’ve never gotten the opportunity to perform your last album ‘Through Water’ live, so how does it feel to finally play the songs to an audience 18 months later?

Låpsley: It's been a battle to try to fit as much of that record into the limited live set that we have, whilst playing, you know, the favourite tunes from the past but I think it's going to be a nice balance.

PG: Is there any song specifically that you're looking forward to performing from the record?

Låpsley: Yeah, there's a track on the record called ‘Our Love Is A Garden’ which is very like 4AD, Cocteau Twins influenced. Which is the kind of music I listen to in my own time, and we're gonna open the show with it tomorrow to really set the palette.

PG: How do you feel in general about playing a festival show after so long?

Låpsley: I’m split between being super excited to connect with the fans again and have that experience, I'm such a performer and I really buzz off that. But then the flip side of it is nerves. It's just been so long. I spent so long in the studio, or just in my house that it's a completely different way of working but I think, like two songs in I should…

PG: …Get back into the groove.

Låpsley: Yeah, get back into the groove.

PG: Definitely and then you do your radio show The Å List. What songs or albums have you connected with over the past 18 months?

Låpsley: Oh God, yeah especially with my radio show. I really love Bullion, he had an EP called 'We Had A Good Time' and for me, that is the EP. I bought the vinyl as soon as it came out, I think that record really sums up my lockdown listening

PG: Very nice! Your last album ‘Through Water’ had a clear set of themes regarding the climate, emotions and blue being a very important colour in terms of the sound and feel. You’ve been working on music these past few months, does your new material have a theme at the moment or is that still taking shape?

Låpsley: Yeah, I mean the thing with this record it's been like Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’, in terms of it's going hard on human emotions. We've left my teenage years, we're now in the midst of my 20s. This record is real young people, hardcore relationships, big emotions... it's me being me, this is what it's all about. This is me and who I've got to live with for the rest of my life. And so, yes, it feels like a step up.

PG: It sounds intense!

Låpsley: Yeah, it's quite intense.

PG: Are there any sort of different sounds you've been experimenting with?

Låpsley: Yeah, I went to South Africa and did a lot of writing there, worked with some producers over there. Some of the songs have a bit of a lilt towards Afrobeat, but it's still quite Electronic-Pop

PG: I feel like that’s something you dabbled with on the last record, there was that afrobeat kind of lean as well

Låpsley: Yeah like in ‘First’. I play a lot of Afrobeats on my radio show so I guess it's natural that it would make its way into certain beats.

PG: Definitely. You recently collaborated with Sega Bodega on Make U Stay. Will you be incorporating any more collaborations or features on your new record?

Låpsley: There are features but in a very different way. Sega Bodega and all of his production style and just that world, I grew up in the rave scene but then in my early 20s, I didn't really go out as much and now I've got my head back into that like more hardcore scene. So I think that's definitely affected some of the production... There are going to be some pretty hard-hitting songs on there.

PG: You’ll be sticking around for the whole weekend of the festival. Is there anyone, in particular, you're looking forward to seeing?

Låpsley: Foals for sure. I’ve listened to Foals since I was like 14 years old. Spanish Sahara was such a big thing for me. I'm excited to see Jorja Smith. I really like her song Bussdown, I think she's really stepped up as an artist. She's my age as well. So that'd be really empowering to see another woman doing well. Obviously, there’s also Caribou, Daphni, Floating Points. I’m pretty hyped by it all, Bombay Bicycle Club was also a big thing for me as a teenager.

PG: It's certainly a very eclectic lineup that covers all genres. You've done a lot of spoken word recently and your lyrics have always been quite poetic. Do you think you would possibly move into what a lot of artists are now doing with written poetry collections?

Låpsley: Yeah, that's not like a new thing for me. I've always written poetry, personally from quite a young age before I wrote lyrics. I'm putting together hopefully a poetry book, but it’s still making its way, it's now moving from something that was in my private life to showing it in my public life.

PG: It's quite emotional. It's quite a big step to put that out there

Låpsley: Yeah, but I think because it's quite new on my social media people are like “Oh, this is something new for you” and I’m like “Oh no, this is the oldest thing”.

PG: This is one of your very few, if not only festival/gig appearances this year. Will you be planning to get to show some stuff over next year?

Låpsley: Yeah, I mean, the reason why we've not really gone hard with the festivals and stuff is that I've nearly finished new music. We have quite a big plan for next year with music coming out. So it's going to be moving on from Through Water… but this was like the most important thing... this show.

We spoke with Låpsley as part of our event coverage of All Points East 2021. We also reviewed her brilliant set on Friday which you can read here. Make sure to visit our content hub to read more interviews, live reviews and our reports on the weekend.

Låpsley will be hopefully returning to the stage next year. Visit her website to sign up to her mailing list and be the first to know when, in the meantime stream her incredible two albums ‘Long Way Home’, and ‘Through Water’ on Spotify and Apple Music.