Considering the huge 12 months Lorde has just had, you’d think the New Zealand sensation would be content to rest on her laurels for a spell.
But rather than put her feet up for the Christmas holidays, resting on the stack of accolades and history-making achievements she’s earned this year, the 17-year-old songwriter has indicated she’s already working on the follow-up to ARIA #1 debut Pure Heroine, the second fastest selling album of the year Down Under.
With just over two weeks left in the year, last Friday (13th December), Lorde squeezed in one last new single into her banner year, entitled ‘No Better’, and while it’s unlikely to make it into Triple J’s Hottest 100 at such short notice, the track shows off her knack for penning a smart pop tune.
Featuring Lorde’s distinctive vocals over stuttering synths and a bed of light, trap-inspired beats, ‘No Better’ could have easily fit amongst Pure Heroine; think of it more as a bonus track than a sharp change in direction.
In fact, Lorde revealed on twitter that ‘No Better’ was in fact a number that didn’t make the cut on her debut album, but that “all future stuff will be NEW!”
hope you're liking NO BETTER! it's an old track that didn't make the album that i wanted to do something wif. all future stuff will be NEW!
— Lorde (@lordemusic) December 14, 2013
The surprise release of ‘No Better’ may be the first of a swathe of new material in 2014 from Lorde, as the singer reveals in a new interview with Billboard, as she’s continued working on new material while riding her rollercoaster ride to critical and commercial notoriety.
“I’ve been writing but I haven’t really had time to hit the studio as of yet… That’ll be the end of this year, or next year,” Lorde revealed to Billboard on her way to Sydney to perform at this year’s ARIA Awards ceremony, in her debut Australian TV performance.
The singer will return to tour Australia as part of the Laneway 2014 festival lineup next February alongside a strong female-centric lineup of Haim, Savages, Adalita, CHVRCHES, Warpaint, The Jezabels, and more, and tells Billboard that she’s planning another headline tour of the Antipodes in “April-ish,” saying “we’ve got lots of stuff being planned… we’ll have to wait and see.”
The same day Lorde dropped her brand new single, the 17 year old musician took part in a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session, answering fan questions about her global storming year, including responding to criticisms over her live performance with good humour.
“I know when I’m onstage, I don’t think about how it look. I just concentrate on really felling what I hear,” she writes. “But I totally know I look like Gollum when I perform, so it’s cool.”
When asked if she regrets breaking into the music industry at such a young age – a topic she’s publicly tackled before – the girl born Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O’Connor replies: “Actually, No. I feel like I learnt early on how things worked and that gave me a good understanding of what could be fucked with/which rules were dumb and shouldn’t have to be followed. Plus, i can sit down with basically the most intimidating people in the industry and not flinch. And maybe even make them flinch. Or cry.”
Laneway 2014 Dates & Venues
Brisbane: Friday 31st January – RNA, Fortitude Valley
Melbourne: Saturday 1st February – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge
Sydney: Sunday 2nd February – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle
Adelaide: Friday 7th February – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide
Perth: Saturday 8th February – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle
Tickets and info at http://lanewayfestival.com/
