LOU-The new kid of synth pop scene
‘I don’t know how to play chess and I have always been good at Maths’. With this phrase Lou encloses how she feels about relationships nowadays, a theme that deeply influences her work as a songwriter. Because even if relationships are a series of strategical moves and well-thought steps, she prefers to think of them as an honest form of expression.
As the music scene in Athens is shifting, Lou, belonging to a new generation of artists, believes that a wind of change and refreshment has already started to become evident in the Greek music industry. Her studies in Jazz and her staying in Helsinki for a few months were meant to shape her music in a unique way, as she combines the Scandinavian Synth Pop sound with her studies in Jazz and introduces to the Greek audience a new fresh sound, full of melancholic and emotional elements.
Lou, also known as Eleni, talks about Athens and envisions the Greek capital as a moody teenage girl carrying the craziness of her youth while she is always searching for something new. If there is something that makes her hate Athens, is the lack of all night pastry shops because as she points out, Athens is ambivalent, on the one hand beautiful and on the other ugly. She recognizes the difficulty of living as an 18-year-old in a country challenged by the financial crisis and having lived in Helsinki, she says that “there are many opportunities for young musicians abroad. In Helsinki, there were many subsidised programmes that helped musicians earn their living through their art. Greece doesn’t offer anything like that and I find it kind of unfair”.
When she has bad days, she listens to Grimes that serve as her antidepressant. Inspiration finds her usually after a break up, as falling in love has great importance in her life and she deeply enjoys that feeling. As far as growing up goes, she says “I’m not at the point of being a serious young adult yet, but I believe I’m close. I don’t know if I want to be, to tell you the truth, as for me adulthood is summed up in the phrase ‘I can’t talk right now, I’m busy. Can I call you later?”.
Living in an era that forces us to be apathetic she gives great attention to feeling everything to the fullest. “For me, music is butterflies in my stomach, a sunset coloured pink and pistachio ice-cream. I would like to live abroad but there is something holding me here. I am in love and this is very powerful to me”. She is almost ready for the release of her first album by Klik Records, while she is also experimenting musically with the artist, King Elephant. Recently, she wrote the music for the play “Brandon Teena” and released her song “Do you want it?”. If you ask her what she really wants, she will answer “I want to be able to sleep peacefully at night without having the need to ask the other person: Do you want it?”.
Check out our video with LOU and American Eagle
