The Isle of Wight's Lauran Hibberd is bringing her debut album Garageband Superstar to Portsmouth's The Wedgewood Rooms | Big Interview

Lauran hails from Cowes on the Isle of Wight and has come to view her regular gigs on this side of The Solent as playing in a home-from-home.

But now, her name is starting to be recognised much further from home...

After several years of plugging away as an independent artist and releasing a string of acclaimed singles and EPs she signed with Virgin Records which has just released her long-awaited debut album Garageband Superstar.

Tongue firmly in cheek, Lauran has described the album as ‘dad rock for your daughters’ and that it includes ‘tracks about breaking your leg, falling off rollercoasters, taking off your pants, competing with Red Dead Redemption, boys in the supermarket, writing essays on Facebook walls, people who take leg days seriously, and the enigma of being a superstar. All pretty relatable stuff right?’

Speaking with The Guide on the eve via Zoom of its release, she admits: ‘It's very exciting/nerve-wracking.

‘I've been talking about it and making it for so long and seeing every process slowly start to form – it's weird that it's finally finished and is going to be released at last.’

And how has it been working with Virgin after being an independent artist for so long?

The album’s guest appearances

‘It's a total dream come true. I have been an artist since I was about 16 and I'm 25 now. I feel like I've earned my stripes and I've done some slogging and I'm very excited to be at this point and make the album I want to make. Working with Virgin and some great artists who inspired me when I was growing up, it's very exciting and equally odd and surreal – and very fun!’

Ah yes, the guests – there’s a couple of high profile names on the album. DJ Lethal of Jump Around hitmakers House of Pain and nu-metallers Limp Bizkit contributes scratching on the track Still Running.

‘It was a total shot in the dark,’ she says of getting the DJ on-board. ‘I initially just had some scratching sounds on there from a free sound sample. We were in the studio and said: “Wouldn't it be great if we could have someone come in do this?” We were thinking about local people, literally someone who DJed down the pub, stuff like that, then my producer said: “How cool would it be if we had DJ Lethal?” I messaged him on Instagram and did not expect anything back. I was amazed that he replied and loved the track and wanted to do it.’

And the title track features Brendan B Brown, frontman of Wheatus who are best known for their mega-hit Teenage Dirtbag. Isn’t it a bit on the nose to have the guy from Wheatus singing on a song about trying to avoid being a one-hit wonder?

‘It's cool isn't it?’ she laughs. ‘I still don't know how I pulled that one off. Again that was a just sending a one-off message. I love Wheatus and I think that first album is amazing. Teenage Dirtbag almost takes away from how good the rest of the album is, but you can't deny that Teenage Dirtbag was an anthem for the underdogs. To have him, that kind of legend in my field singing about that one hit which got away from you is a really fun moment and it feels like it's coming full circle. I love it.’

All Lauran’s ‘favourite ’90s sub genres’

She has also called the album ‘a nod to all of my favourite ’90s sub genres’ – a decade which finished before she started school.

‘I know!’ she giggles. ‘I wish I was (alive then). I feel like when I was growing up I was drawn to (‘90s) films like 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless, all of those films – they made you feel like if you were the last to be picked for PE, there was a group for you.

‘And even the pop-punk scene made me feel comfortable and like I had a place to go. For me that's always where I want to be. So the older I've got the more I've looked back, and the more bands you find and the more films you watch, and it starts to make sense.

‘I think when you weren't in a time you can romanticise it a bit more – that's probably what I have done. I decided I love the ’90s without really knowing what it means. There’s that naivety to the whole record and all my influences. I started wearing a Weezer T-shirt 10 years too late, but that's the fun of it all.’

The album has been winning rave reviews from the mainstream press as well as indie music mags like DIY and metal-bible Kerrang! She even featured in Rolling Stone, which dubbed her a ‘new grunge hero.’

She laughs when reminded of the latter: ‘I think I'm going to get that tattooed on my forehead or something.

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‘That's kind of the beauty of whatever this project is at the moment. I kind of compare it to the artists I've been on tour with – I can go on a Vamps tour which is a pop tour and go on a Stand Atlantic tour which is more pop-punk/emo. It's fun to tour with these different kinds of bands and still manage to slot in everywhere we go. I love that I can be in Kerrang! as well as in your Dorks and DIYs.’

The reviews for Garageband Superstar have been largely positive as well: ‘The reviews have been really good, which is all you can ask for. It's very relieving to know that people who have heard it like it too.’

Life on social media

A strong part of Lauran’s appeal has always been her social media output and persona – funny, likeable and often self-deprecating. But how much of that is the ‘real Lauran’?

‘I'm definitely not always wandering around the house in a mad-coloured outfit and always cracking jokes, but I can't stop my sense of humour pouring into what I do. That's how my entire family is and it's a big trait of mine. A lot of it is quite organic in so far as that's the only way I really know how to converse.

‘The biggest difference is probably that when I'm not being that "Lauran", I can sit with myself and pat the dog and not think about anything else – you've got to have that downtime as well.

‘It's the biggest form of promotion now and if you're not on there making videos and not promoting yourself, you don't exist to a degree. It's become a very big part of what I do which is why I wanted to make it so fun because I didn't want it to become a chore or something inauthentic to me. That's why I decided to take the funny route – that's where I have the most fun with it and I feel like other people will as well.

‘People know when it's not real. You may as well give them your personality as well, I feel like that's the least I can do if I'm going to put out songs full of funny anecdotes anyway.’

Lauran says the album’s songs are ‘entirely inspired by true stories’, either from her experiences or those close to her.

Mainland temptations

The aforementioned Still Running (5K) is surprisingly poignant for such a bouncy song. It’s about that sense of being left behind – in her case literally on the Isle of Wight as well as well as figuratively while her friends have built lives but she has felt like she’s still going over the same ground.

‘I feel somewhat disconnected from a lot of the people I grew up with. Even now I'm doing something like this job, which is so much fun, I'm still living on the Isle of Wight and coming back from doing loads of cool things elsewhere, and still going to the local shop. Everything falls back down and you go on your phone and see what everyone else is doing and where they're living. You can feel like you haven't made that jump and you are still running the same 5k. It's definitely from feelings I've had.’

Has she been tempted to move to the mainland? ‘I definitely have. Especially when things like the ferries make it so difficult! I'm more than tempted.’

And what’s her relationship like with Portsmouth?

‘I feel really comfortable in Portsmouth. As an artist on the Isle of Wight you think, where do I go next? And that was the next port of call. There's only one venue here,’ Strings – which opened in 2017, ‘and when I was growing up even that didn't exist – there was nowhere to play apart from pubs and that.

‘I remember going to The Wedgewood Rooms and being a massive fan of Jerry Williams, who I'm great friends with now – she is the Portsmouth queen and I love her to bits! Watching her and going to Victorious and things like that, it's been paramount to me slowly edging away from the Isle of Wight.’

But with acts like Lauran, the Mercury Prize-nominated Wet Leg topping the album charts, and neo-grungers Coach Party, who played at Victorious last month, there’s been more attention on the island’s music scene than in a long time, hasn’t there?

‘The Isle of Wight is a great place, and it is great to see it getting recognition. It's great to see bands like Wet Leg proving that it can be done and that being from the island isn't an obstacle, and it is a creative hub – it's very exciting. It makes you feel like anything's possible… Coach Party are absolutely awesome too.’

And you’re all female or female-led acts, right? ‘It seems like the girls on the Isle of Wight are taking over and I love it!’

Lauran is at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, supported by Daisy Brain and Viji, on Saturday, September 24. Tickets £11. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.