Lauren Lakis releases her debut album Deadlights.
Now based between Austin and Berlin, Lakis was born in Baltimore and raised by a single mother. Her path has moved between music and visual storytelling, working as an actor and photographer while travelling through Prague, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. Lakis’ life took a sudden detour after a breakup, followed by her mother being involved in a car accident that left her paralyzed. Eventually, Lakis returned home to care for her.
As Lakis’ mother’s health deteriorated, Deadlights began to take shape, recorded during the final year of her life. The record captures a series of life-altering events and detours and eventual loss. The anxiousness of waiting for the bottom to fall out completely, waiting for the worse to happen. For Lakis, the worst did happen, with the passing of her mother.
“That loss, the experience of going through the absolute worst thing, there’s a freedom in that. There’s a liberation in that where I almost feel invincible.”
Lauren Lakis
Drawing from shoegaze, heavy psych, goth, and 90s alt-rock influences, the album is built on melodic guitars and ethereal vocals, where slivers of hope surface through distortion and darkness. Deadlights should not be defined as a “grief album”, but as one about survival and endurance, refusing to dwell in your worst fears when they take shape.
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