![]() ![]() We have 11 songs on this record together. But just from scanning the credits, it seems like Natalie Hemby was your go-to collaborator for writing this album. You’ve got Lori McKena, who comes to Nashville to write a lot, and James Ingram, who you worked with on your last record. You collaborated with some really talented writers. And that marriage, that collaborative spirit, was really profound and something that gave me new wings to fly with in the course of this record. But otherwise, he just let any idea that I had actually come to life. I remember being in the studio and saying, “Hey, Mike, can we do this vocal part on this song ‘Ego’?” The only time he ever turned down an idea was if the chords didn’t work based on the structure of the song or something like that. ![]() I don’t know how to explain it, but he just allowed for space to create and the freedom that comes with creating. So I went and took a meeting with him, and he’s just such a family guy, and he understands what it is to create from so much depth. I had this man by the name of Dan McCarroll who was working with me in kind of a liaison/A&R kind of position, and Dan asked three other writers that I was working with, “Hey, based on these songs that are coming out of Lauren, what producer would you say she should work with?” And all four of them, without knowing that we talked to each one of them, said Mike Elizondo. How did Mike Elizondo come into the picture to produce? But we do it better, so don’t let ’em tell you otherwise. Not being football-savvy, I was thinking of our California desert, and not quite squaring that. Just so we have it right, it sounded like you said you wanted your manager to express Death Valley… in Louisiana… I love celebrating life, and that was really important to show and express on this record. But I also want people to really be able to have something to celebrate with. I love connecting to the soul of a human in that very emotional way and giving language for people who may not necessarily know how to express themselves or what to feel in moments of chaos and things like that. So, I do love the human aspect of the ballad. And she was like, “Oh my gosh, I get it now. We’re on this 19-mile-long bridge and a wreck happened, so we’re sitting there for hours, and everybody gets out of their car, cranks the music, and we all start doing line dances on the bridge, at 2 o’clock in the morning. If you know anything about Louisiana, there’s swamps and lakes everywhere, so you sit on bridges for hours and hours and hours if there’s ever a wreck. One time we were heading back from an LSU game, and I had my manager with me, because I wanted her to experience Death Valley. I’m from Louisiana, and we dance all the time - like, the dancing literally never stops. But I also want to feel like I can run around on stage and have a party and be just really fun, because that’s just a large portion of who I actually am. And there was just this feeling that everybody comes to the shows and they get their good cry out, and I’m all about it. I’m probably a lot goofier than what people would ever know from my music. ![]() I don’t like taking myself too seriously, I would say, 80% of the time. The reality is that I am someone who actually loves life. Were you wanting to change the balance a little bit? This one has its dramatic moments throughout, to be sure, but there’s also some really vibey stuff that wasn’t as predominant on the last record. The last album felt fairly heavy, in a lot of ways, just in terms of being ballad-heavy and very dramatic. There seems to be a big difference between this album and the previous one. A fall arena tour will more befit her headliner status, with stops including Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Oct. Variety spoke with her shortly after the self-titled album came out as she celebrated its release with a series of intimate promo concerts. But, with producer Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Twenty One Pilots, 50 Cent) at the helm, she spends a good portion of the album loosening up, too, with some stylistic variations that go a long way toward establishing her as one of the best singers in contemporary pop. The current album has more of that, as heard in the initial single, “Thank God I Do,” a triumph-over-despair power ballad if ever there was one. On her previous album, “Look Up Child,” which established a high profile for her in mainstream pop (and made her a staple for guest appearances on shows like “The Voice” and “American Idol,” as well as seemingly every Recording Academy-related all-star event), the drama was heightened to the point that Daigle really did sound like a soaring but downcast Adele, even if the lyrics reflected spiritual angst rather than lost love. The new “Lauren Daigle” record goes the furthest toward any of her records to date in capturing that. ![]()
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