Lara Buchanan Interview

Mitch: Your latest single, Only Once, just came out on July 29. Do you mind sharing a bit about it and what inspired the track?
Lara Buchanan: I wrote Only Once back in February with my best friend, and it came from a very silly story. I was dating this guy, and he broke up with me like 10 minutes before I went to see Ethel Cain.

I went to the concert and honestly didn’t think about him at all because Ethel Cain is my favourite artist of all time. Then my best friend Alicia picked me up, and we went back to my very, very shitty, not soundproof apartment. We made cocktails, got really drunk, and I started ranting to her, saying, “He only told me I was the love of his life one time. Only once.”

She looked at me, I looked at her, and we were like, “Okay, well, that’s going to be a song.”

We were sitting in my room, and I immediately jumped on my keyboard and started writing. She jumped in with lines here and there, and we wrote a song together about the whole thing.

I don’t remember writing a lot of it, but I do know I got a noise complaint the next day.

Mitch: What do you hope people feel while listening?
Lara Buchanan: I honestly hope people feel a little bit of the lightheartedness in the track. I’ve released a lot of genuinely heartbreaking, gut-wrenching songs before, but this one is a bit silly. It’s a bit funny. There’s a lot of irony in the fact that I’m writing a breakup song about somebody who told me I was the love of their life one time.

I hope people have a bit of fun while they listen to it, and I hope people don’t relate to it.

Mitch: If the song was playing in a movie scene, what would the scene look and feel like?
Lara Buchanan: I come from Canberra, which isn’t really a small town, but it kind of acts like one. I picture this song being the road trip on the way back to that small town.

I feel like a lot of my music has that sort of energy. I want Only Once to feel like driving down the freeway with the windows down, maybe crying, but also being with your best friends. It’s a good time.

Mitch: Without using any genres, how would you sell your music to new people?
Lara Buchanan: I’d tell people that if they’re tortured by their own reminiscence, they’d probably really like my music.

Anybody who’s deeply sentimental, deeply affected by nostalgia, their memories, and the concept of “what if”, I think they’d really like my music.

Mitch: You’ve got a couple of shows coming up, including BIGSOUND. Why should people come? What can they expect from a Lara Buchanan show?
Lara Buchanan: I think people should come because with my shows, I really just want to bring everybody together to feel anything.

We’ve got songs that feel like driving with the windows down, but we’ve also got songs you can cry to together. We’ve got songs that make you love the people around you. I want everybody to feel joined together by something, and I’d love to do that with my shows and my music.

My band is my best friends as well, so we love looking out into the crowd and seeing other people with their best friends, meeting people, connecting with people, and feeling something. That’s what music is at the end of the day. We created it from what we felt, and now other people get to feel something through it. It’s the most beautiful thing.

Mitch: What is the best way for people to support you?
Lara Buchanan: The best way for people to support any musician, especially smaller musicians like myself, is to buy the merch, stream the music, and spread the word.

That whole connection part of music really comes from sharing it with more people. That’s definitely the best way.

Mitch: What can fans expect from you next?
Lara: I know the cliché answer is to say “big things,” but definitely the biggest things that have happened so far.

People should expect the unexpected a little bit, and also a lot more music.

Mitch: Who are some emerging AUS/NZ musicians that people should get behind?
Lara Buchanan: There’s an artist I’m so obsessed with and so lucky to be friends with called Joely. I talk about her in every interview because I think she’s a phenomenon. She’s genuinely such an insane songwriter and I think she’s incredible.

I’ve also really been loving Sophia J Smith recently. I’ve seen her live once or twice, and she’s got such an energy about her in the way she performs and also in the way she writes.

Another one is my friend Aubany. I’ve always been so in awe of her music because she writes in a way I’ve never seen from any artist ever. It’s kind of a mix of jazz, alternative and pop, and she just has such a way of captivating people with her voice. She’s like a siren.

RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS!!

Mitch: Favourite lyric from Only Once?
Lara Buchanan: “You put me up on the bench in the kitchen.”

Mitch: If you could feature any artist on the track, who?
Lara Buchanan: Erin LeCount.

Mitch: Finish the sentence! Lara Buchanan is for fans of...
Lara Buchanan: Lorde, Erin LeCount and having a good time!