“If you could make me make sense, that would be great,” says LOLA, a 22-year-old singer from west London, existing only in a hyperreal world of her own creation, tinged with synthetic textures and pure nostalgia. An ethereal spirit in her own right, she’s the type of girl to give you her last cigarette in the smoking area, and also one to track down your Instagram at midnight to send you a Björk reference she couldn’t think of in the moment.
“Music’s been quite a constant thing in my life,” LOLA explains, “I think it’s one of the only constant things I’ve really had.” Her father is a producer and sometimes bongo player, who encouraged her to start writing songs by making beats out of her hand claps when she was eleven. With her mother also dabbling in singing, acting and photography, the pair have always been upfront with their daughter about the trials and tribulations of industry life, but that hasn’t stopped her yet.
(LEFT) Full look ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
(RIGHT) Bodysuit & bolero BOTTEGA VENATA, knickers ELLISS, boots RICHARD MALONE x MALONE SOULIERS, earrings MATTHEW DUFFY
Full look ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
Bodysuit & bolero BOTTEGA VENATA, knickers ELLISS, boots RICHARD MALONE x MALONE SOULIERS, earrings MATTHEW DUFFY
The road she’s embarked on is no doubt defined by the spiritual — specifically, a tarot reading given by her mum. “She told me that my life’s purpose was to define the wounded feminine,” LOLA says. And when she later cites musical powerhouses Kate Bush, Sade and Imogen Heap as just some of the forward-thinking women whose visions changed her life and impacted her divine sound, it all makes total sense.
LOLA lets us in on all of this in one of her latest transcendent singles “Care”, which is driven wholly by a soothing 808-instrumental, layered with twinkling synths and rich vocal harmonies, sort of what I imagine to play on loop in your mind on the path to enlightenment. The equally immersive video, co-directed by LOLA herself, builds on this heavenly experience with hazy visuals treating us to a trip inside the mind of the starry-eyed singer in all its mystic splendour.
(LEFT) Bodysuit & bolero BOTTEGA VENATA, knickers ELLISS, boots RICHARD MALONE x MALONE SOULIERS, earrings MATTHEW DUFFY
(RIGHT) Top & pantaloons PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE, earrings MATTHEW DUFFY
Bodysuit & bolero BOTTEGA VENATA, knickers ELLISS, boots RICHARD MALONE x MALONE SOULIERS, earrings MATTHEW DUFFY
Top & pantaloons PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE, earrings MATTHEW DUFFY
The underlining spirituality so present in her life has also reverberated through to her upcoming EP, and LOLA tells me she “became inspired by reincarnation and everything attached to that.” Whether it be prophecies or that in-your-gut-feeling of intuition, LOLA tackles it all with her incredible vocal chops and far-sighted truths. If you asked her to sum up the whole experience, she’d tell you she couldn’t imagine doing anything else: “Having moments of clarity, realising my artistic process and doing it with people I love… Those are the moments that are really magic.”