Kicking against the pricks

Laura Pergolizzi moved from Long Island to New York City and promptly changed her name to LP in 2004.

At this point in her career she’d released two independent albums that had seen her work with Dave Lowery of the band Cracker and songwriting powerhouse Linda Perry, formerly of 4 Non Blondes. Though reasonably well received, success had eluded LP and she worked in a bar to make ends meet.

It was there that she met music industry veteran Marvis Howell, who offered her a publishing deal. She was soon mixing with major songwriters such as Billy Steinberg (Madonna, Cyndi Lauper), Desmond Child (KISS, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper) and Andreas Carlsson (NSYNC).

“I was the kid in the room in these sessions, sitting at the feet of the biggest songwriters in the world,” recalled LP – who went from writing about 20 songs a year to around 100 – to SPIN in 2021.

“It was a great day when I realised it was about volume. Because that means there’s no end. Even if you write a hit song, you just have to move on and write more songs.”

LP kept writing more songs and making a name for herself to the point a live performance at the 2006 South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, sparked a major label bidding war. LP ended up signing with The Island Def Jam Music Group, however for the first time – and certainly not the last – there were differences of opinion about her artistic direction and presentation. The contract was ended.

“That’s why there were so many false starts for me,” LP told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2020. “Because I’m just not that person. I’m a different animal to that. I don’t think they could understand the indie nature of what I do.”

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The songs that were intended for an album release instead found new homes with The Backstreet Boys, plus TV shows such as Out Of Nowhere and MTV’s The Hills and began to set in place LP’s status as a go-to songwriter for artists as well as movie soundtracks.

LP had her songs recorded by artists such as Heidi Montag and Erik Hassle but the real breakthrough came in 2010 when she co-wrote ‘Cheers (Drink To That)’ which was featured on Rihanna’s fifth album Loud. The song – which incorporates a sample of Avril Lavigne’s 2002 single ‘Let Go’ – was a Top 10 hit internationally.

“Getting a Rihanna song was nuts,” LP – who also went on to write for Christian Aguilera and Cher – told The Independent. “I was invited to a session by my friend, we wrote the song in a few hours. I feel like emotional content is the most important part of any song, for any artist.

“Every artist wants to connect with the listener, but it’s a daunting task to walk into a room full of strangers and write something from the heart.”

It wasn’t until April 2012 that LP released her first major label album Into The Wild: Live At East West Studios. She immediately launched a rigorous touring schedule that included appearances at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, SxSW and Sonic Boom. She recorded the follow-up, Forever For Now, however it was given a pop sheen by veteran producer and Warner Bros Chairman, Rob Cavallo.

When the time came in 2015 for LP’s third album, she played three tracks to the Warner Bros hierarchy. It didn’t go well.

“I literally could tell the second they looked at me,” LP told Forbes Magazine in 2020. “They just didn’t get it. I could just see the vacancy in their eyes. They were like, ‘yeah… um, that’s great but we’re going to move on’.”

LP was stunned but again persevered, signing with the Vagrant label. She released the fittingly titled Lost On You album in late 2016. The title track/single attained one billion streams and went to #1 in 17 countries, mostly around Europe. Forbes described the album as “the hit record the music business almost lost’ and the Warner Bros bosses were left eating crow.”

LP’s personal life took a blow in mid-2021 when she separated from her partner, acclaimed singer-songwriter Lauren Ruth Ward, after six years. The romantic pairing of these two artists had a struck a chord with both their fanbases, who clearly treasured the relationship, as the subsequent outpouring of heartache on social media would attest. From that heartbreak LP released a song called ‘Goodbye’ which was followed shortly afterwards by Ward’s ‘The Break Up Song’.

It was not the first time LP’s relationship woes had found their way into song. “Does that mean I have something to work on?” she said to SPIN in 2021. “I’m clearly a dangerous person to date. Even women I’ve dated have been like, ‘Do you just do this to have shit to write about?’”

Ever the artist, she pressed on and in late 2021 – after a year-long delay to write more material – LP unveiled her sixth album Churches. Released though the independent Canadian label, Dine Alone Records, the album saw LP relishing the freedom of being true to herself and to pursue the uniqueness of her art, without being told how to sound or act.

“Now I’m finally able to do my own things without the pressure of a major label trying to corral me into some other group of artists of a similar nature,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald. “That’s when things went right.”

In terms of being able to tour freely once more, LP was equally as enthusiastic, telling Glide Magazine recently that, “a lot of the trauma people have been through comes through in this record, especially my own feelings about it.

“Your fans like you for a number of reasons. They connect with you on a personality level. They want to hear what you’re feeling.”