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June 26, 2025 14 mins
We talk about Lola Young’s embrace of 2010s indie music in her unique brand of soul-pop, and how it confirms a change in alt music, who alt music reaches and who can credibly create it.
 
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
We're recording.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome to at First Listen, the music podcast for people
who don't always get the hype but want to.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm Andrew, I'm Dominique, and we're trying to get the
hype about Lola Young.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm starting to get it. I think I thought she
was one of those artists that was like just about
the aesthetic, because I think she has a strong aesthetic. Sure,
but I like her songs.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
The aesthetic being like a not conventional pop star just
sort of like a regular person who is writing some
good songs. From the one and a half songs of
hers that I've heard, yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I like her lyrics. The reason I wanted to talk
about this song is because.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
The song not like that anymore, Not.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Like that Anymore, is because I was like, oh, this
is indie music from the twenty ten, and I was like, oh, this.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Is contemporary pop music.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
How is it? How is it? How is it slipping
my mind? Vampire Weekend? Oh yeah, this is Vampire Weekend exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
So let's just play the most Vampire Weekend deep part,
which is the beginning. Yeah, this's that's that's a Vampire
Weekend rip. Sure sounds like shit.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I heard it here First Folks also.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Another British singer songwriter who pushes the accent.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, actually away.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So this song came out like four days ago. As
we're recording this.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hot off the press, I I would think it's such
a mish mash of so many trends from the twenty
tens that I would have eaten up. I love things
that sound bad. I love like my my first EP
from my band Missus Doubtfire folk punk. We recorded it

(02:14):
in my like in my bathroom, on a cassette like recorder.
Not necessary. This was, you know, twenty twenty ten. Yeah,
we had way better quality stuff. But I wanted to.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Garage actually has a bathroom plug in.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
It probably does, but I like that. So it has
it has all those those things. But I I wanted
to talk about, like what we think about things coming
back around now, indie Slei's indie music like the mishmash

(02:51):
as you know, millennials. I'm listening to the original stuff.
If I want to hear Vampire Weekend, I'm gonna listen
to it, Empire Weekend. I'm not really looking for a
new version of it, but.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
This is kind of a fresh It seems like a
different thing. Like that riff is very much a Vampire
Weekend riff, Like you hit it perfectly with that description
of it. But also like the record sounds good, you
know it, and it doesn't it. It doesn't feel like
it's produced like a Vampire Weekend track. It seems like

(03:26):
it's produced a bit more with a pop sensibility to it.
You know. There's there's that guitar part that the song
is built around, which is probably just like a direct
guitar sound. There's a little bit of distortion on it
that is intentional, but not intentional like say the Deftones
would distort right, and then there's a little bit of

(03:49):
like a crackle on the high end of her vocals
when she's really singing loud, like maybe you might hear
in an Ammy Winehouse right right.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's totally bring It's like bringing in Amy wine House vibes.
It also Beach House. Also the band Girls, which I like,
I love, Like this is speaking to me at that age,
and I think that the lyrics also are doing that.
It's like an updated version of how to talk about
how we talk about relationships and dating these days. Kate Nash,

(04:18):
that's a huge thing, Like it's very much giving Kate Nash,
but I think there is a So I'm first of all,
I'm curious about her, Like, did she just like dive
into the twenty tens because she's much younger.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
You know, Yeah, she's only twenty four.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Exactly, so like she twenty four, so she was born
in two thousand, after two thousand and I I really
like so it says R and B pop, neo soul,
pop rock, indie pop, alternative rock. That fits.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Of the parts of this song that really impressed me
was I'm gonna call this the last line of the
first verse. You know when rappers especially like to talk
about flow, and that's exactly what I thought when I
heard this line.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
He's got a magic.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Space. That's really a clever rhythmic idea.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
It is, she has some flow.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah, my next man, he's got to be magic. Abracadabra
and I'm in space, Like, that's very clever. I appreciate
that a lot.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I I I really wait, what does this mean? Abracadaba
and I'm in space?

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, Abercadabra is referring back to magic I'm in space.
I'm not sure that really is in line with the
magic part of the Magic.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
I'm thinking about magic. I'm making me thinking about spacesh.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Genre, make me think it goes from fantasy to sci fi?

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Wait? Was was? Was? Was Michael Jordan.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
On he was in space Jam? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (06:15):
But he was he in the mat Isn't there like
a magic.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Team, the Orlando Magic? No, Michael Jordan, Michael Okay, Well
Kill O'Neill was on the Orlando Magic.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Okay, she's probably not referencing that.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
No, I don't think I don't think it an English
twenty four year old singer songwriters referring to the Orlando Magic,
which would also qualify for flow if she was. It
was in the lyrics. Magic isn't capitalized, Okay, gotcha. So
when I write lyrics, I always capitalized properly, even if
it's like a little a little signal to myself. If

(06:48):
I'm making a reference.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
To something, remember what you're talking because.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
I don't think anyone else will pick up on it.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
But well, yeah, you're a reference king. Yeah, I think
what's something that goes I want to mention that back
in the days of this, it was like you literally
had to be white to do indie music, and now

(07:15):
she's like apparently she's like half Jamaican Chinese, and like
you had to be white, preferably a white guy. Definitely
you want at least at least half your band to
be a white guy. There just wasn't like space. It
seems like.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
For black people can't play the drums like this, you
don't get that.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's true, that's true. But like also just like the
the kind of like loose general like the chill vibes
of like chill vibe rock music, indie rock. There it
was just a lot more segregated. And I do feel

(08:02):
like this this new like indie Slei's comeback or the
new pop punk music, like a lot of it is.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Bringing in different people.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, that's a good point. That's one of the successes
of the music streaming era is because music is so accessible,
regardless of where you're from or your background, you can
still be exposed to genres that wouldn't in the past
be associated with someone of your culture. I want to

(08:39):
play the chorus here because it is a really good
scene setting type of lyric data. So I think most

(09:04):
people who are in college and poor can relate to
losing their phone and not having any money happening to
you at the same time.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Hey, even even older even people in their thirties might
identify with it, even people with podcasts.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
You know, I mean, not us because of all the
money we may.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, well obviously not us, but some people might, Yeah,
people who aren't raking in the big bucks like we are. Yeah.
I love also like the I love references to technology.
I love when it comes when you get to listen
to it later and it's dated. Like there's no way
that everything becomes dated at some point if you're referencing technology,

(09:47):
declining your call, Uh, it's dated even in the fact
of like it's dated in a certain period, so you
know it's not earlier either. Like there I love. There's
like email my Heart Britney Spears song and it's so cordy,
but I love it. I love it email my heart
kiss me through the phone. It's like for some reason,

(10:09):
you know what time period is even if it's yeah,
we still use email, we still use phones. But like
declining the call, you know, is it's about a certain
person in a certain time, but it has it has
the same meaning.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Right right, There's like two tickets to Paradise, not to
e tickets to.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Paradise exactly, which doesn't roll off the tongue as well.
No two things in your Apple wallet. Yeah, I I
hope everyone listens to this song and checks out Lila Young.
She's definitely a rising star that has something to say
and I like that. I like the cute cute see.

(11:00):
Like there's another part is, like, you know, the whole
conversation of just that, like basically men's style. I think
kind of since the twenty tens, like increasingly basically there
was this era of like men dressing really boring, kind

(11:21):
of like in any setting it was like hard for men.
It still is like this, there's always gonna be outliers,
but just that like there's not as many options for guys.
And so then when you like put that on the
music and like the aesthetics of the music, it also
continues to be that. Like I'm just saying, like the
aesthetic of the aesthetic of indie bands like The Strokes

(11:45):
or Vampire Weekend, it was like greasy, flippy hair in
the face T shirt.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Either you're wearing T shirts or you're wearing suits.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes, that's like a gimmick if you are, and like
that's fine. I also think there should be more room
for women to like not have to dress up and
look super great to be famous. But I think the
like grungy, I don't care about anything. I'm too cool
to care about stuff. Vibe that we grew up in

(12:14):
in the twenty tens. I like that that. I like that.
That era isn't popular anymore.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
If you look up the visualizer for this, not like
that anymore. Song Lola's wearing a tank top and like
big baggy jeans that are like too long for her.
So like her feet are like just like poking out
of the you know, the the ham or whatever. So

(12:42):
she also has like six facial piercings that I can see.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
That's awesome. Yeah, we I love all of those things.
Are things like I'm glad. That's why I wanted to
talk about it on this podcast because this is so something.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
That we're seeing it more often.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, we're seeing it more often, and it doesn't mean
the same things as it used to. Like it still
is a conversation that we all have to have with
our parents about, like that person with tattoos is probably
playing dungeons and Dragons on the weekend, like people with
piercings and tattoos are not like pirates. We are We're

(13:24):
people just like you, but like we are sensitive, Whe're
like not dangerous people. And I think that this is
music that I probably I would have had. I had
a hard time getting my dad to listen to these
types of bands when I was this age. And it's
like now they're retro. Now they're coming back around and

(13:45):
it's in a different package. And I wonder if people
are more ready for it, or if they or what,
like what is bringing it back? Is it, you know,
war in the Middle East to yeah, we get political,
but like you know, there is you know, is this

(14:05):
a recession indicator?

Speaker 1 (14:08):
What do drone strikes have to do with the economy?

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Exactly?

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Well, I'm definitely intrigued. Lowly Young. I listened to half
of her song Messy before we started. I liked what
I heard. She's also famous for throwing up at Coachella
because it was too hot, and for potentially being a
NEPO baby. So there's a lot here to dive into.
And her album, which is called I'm Only Fucking Myself,

(14:37):
is out in September.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
That was our first Listen tell.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Us about yours at First Listen podcast on Instagram. We'll
be back next week with another summer episode of the podcast.
Thank you everyone for listening. We'll be back soon.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Bye. Thanks
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