For Julie Campbell, aka LoneLady, following up 2015’s Hinterland involved both a change of scenery and approach. The Manchester-based songwriter took up residency at Somerset House Studios in central London, in an 18th-century naval shooting gallery. “I set up a new studio there from scratch,” she explains. “I’ve always loved old-school electronic hardware, so I started writing music with that equipment instead of picking up my guitar.”
The result is the brilliant, dance-savvy Former Things, built around two analogue synths and a sequencer. “My previous albums do touch on that kind of machine funk,” she says, “but I wanted to really lean into that world and go for it, using references like mid-period Cabaret Voltaire. I wanted to create those kinds of patterns and crunchy textures.”
Campbell wrote two-thirds of the album in the capital, before journeying back north. Lyrically, as suggested by the title, Former Things has its roots in another time: “Childhood wonder and magic is a big obsession for me. I felt like I was in flux, personally and practically, feeling a lot of anxiety about the future. So they’re probably my bleakest lyrics to date, but I like to do that classic thing of putting really sad words to really upbeat music.”