LP defies the odds: ‘My whole life was leading up to being prepared for shit like this’
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22.10.2021

LP defies the odds: ‘My whole life was leading up to being prepared for shit like this’

LP
Words by LP

LP turned a song rejected by Warner into a billion streams. Setbacks? She can handle them.

16 March 2020, Australian music lovers woke up to the news that Byron Bay’s favourite spawn Bluesfest, was cancelled. The statement from Bluesfest Executive Chairman, Peter Noble read:

“We are heartbroken as we believe we were presenting one of the best ever bills of talent for you.”

Keep up with the latest music news, festivals, interviews and reviews here.

In that talent pool was New York singer songwriter, Laura Pergolizzi Ruffo, better known professionally as LP. It was to be LP’s debut live performance Down Under and a chance to extend her over 1 million person fan base into Australia who are still lagging behind the LP bandwagon.

“I was really sad about that. It was just like ‘Jesus Christ, finally get to go there and whaaaat?’. Couldn’t believe it,” LP says.

Unfortunately this is all too familiar for LP. The now 40 year old’s career has never been smooth sailing. From her second album, Suburban Sprawl & Alcohol, failing to receive the promised widespread recognition to label bidding wars that resulted in contract termination due to artistic differences, Covid cancellations came in LP’s stride.

“To be honest it helped my record,” LP says candidly. 

“I’m kind of used to, in my life and career especially, the things that I can’t control. There were so many times where I was waiting for a deal to happen, waiting to go on tour, waiting for them to release my stuff or sign my or get me out of a deal.

“Just so many examples, that I feel this is like, if nothing else, my whole life was leading up to being prepared for shit like this. I was lucky I was in a record cycle before I released the record so I was working on the record and got to put all of my frustration into this and channel what was going on.

“I think it was a very inspiring time to be an artist in a way, barring all the sad stuff, but still all the connection on a human level was pretty powerful.”

That album in question is Churches, the sixth studio album on the LP shelf.

Originally intended for 2020 release and following the 2020 Live In Moscow release, the 2018 gold record, Heart to Mouth, and the defining 2016, Lost On You, LP refers to Churches as a “friend who took me through one of the most trying times in human history and a fairly trying time in my own personal history”.

She says, “I feel like I was going through some shit on the way in and kind of avoiding it by being on tour and on stage.

“I had to deal with some stuff in my life during this chapter and I did. I don’t know if I did it well but I did and I had some shit to say about it I guess.

“When shit like this goes down…I guess nothing like this has gone down, but difficulties…I channel that into songs to make me feel better. I carry concepts and songs inside of me like grudges and regret. It’s just about getting them out.”   

LP lets this out through 15 tracks including already released latin-fused ‘The One That You Love’, ‘How Low Can You Go’, ‘One Last Time’, ‘Goodbye’ and the latest heavenly, ‘Angels’.

Notably, the genre-fluid artist maintains a two decade consistency with the thread of relationships being the focal point of Churches.

“I’m back to my old ways of my romantic shit,” LP explains.

“I have a couple of songs that aren’t completely about my romantic relationships but for the most part they are. I feel like my significant-other relationships usually affect me a lot.

“I just bring up shit that I want to talk about.”

Following a few date push backs, Churches will be dropping on Friday 3 December via PIAS. It will be worth the wait.