Interview: Louise Aubrie talks latest album

Inspired entirely by the career of Hollywood’s Cary Grant, each song on the album is tied to a different film from throughout his career. Louise Aubrie continues to spark interest amongst fans and critics alike with her unique and thematic inspirations, as with her latest single On The Run which is inspired by the 1963 film Charade (starring Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn). With each track on the album linked to a film from Grant’s career, each song touches on issues of trust, love and relationships within the themes of the films – for a detailed synopsis on each track please see the press release).

All tracks on the album are written by Louise Aubrie, produced by Andy Woodard (who doubles as Adam Ant‘s drummer) and feature guitar & keys by Boz Boorer (who doubles as Morrissey’s MD). In recent years Aubrie’s music has enjoyed support from BBC 6MusicBBC Radio 2Louder Than WarRnRNew Noise and Vinyl District. She’s also performed at various venues including New York’s Bowery Electric and London’s Dublin Castle and holds the record for most requested release on LA station Indie104. Check out album When I Don’t Love You I’ll Let You Know below!

We caught up with Louise as she talked about her latest album and more!

So how has the release of When I Don’t Love You I’ll Let You Know gone down so far?

Really well. It’s such a unique record – being centred around the films of Cary Grant – so it’s been thrilling to know that people have responded so well. I’ve also been lucky enough to get support from people who love his movies and weren’t previously familiar with my career, but have now become fans so that is amazing.

Can you tell us something about the album that no one else knows?

I put the first demo in the can, which was the lead track “Beautiful Or Brave”, way back in August 2016 – it’s crazy how long things take to actually come together – it’s such a big part of my life!

What’s your favourite song from the album?

That’s always a tricky one – I think like most artists, it depends on my mood that day! But I will say that the song at the centre of the record, for me, is “In Your Heart” because it is inspired by the Hitchcock thriller “Notorious”, which is my favourite Cary Grant movie. The title of the album is also taken from a line in that movie, and it’s really special to me. We are working on a video for this song, which will be released very soon.

What’s next for you, will there be any more new music this year?

I’ve been writing and working on demos for the last few months and I hope to record some new material later this year with Andy Woodard who produced the current album. I’m not sure on release dates but I would hope to have some tracks ready late 2019/early 2020.

If you could work with any band or artist on a new song, who would it be and why?

Anyone foolish enough to have me! 

How did Cary Grant inspire you in the first place?

Cary Grant may not be the most obvious muse for an indie rock record, but he’s someone I admire greatly. He’s very well known for being a master of invention, or rather reinvention. He came from very humble beginnings in Bristol and ended up being a huge transatlantic movie star. I think every artist has a dream of who they want to be and Cary Grant famously said: “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until I finally became that person.” I found this deeply inspiring. 

Talking more specifically about his influence on the album, I came across a bunch of his movies and the more I watched, the more I wanted to watch. I found the stories so engaging and before I knew it, I found myself writing about various characters in the films, and then those stories actually morphed into my own life experiences. There are very clear themes running through the album: identity, suspicion, misunderstanding, regret, love and truth and although these stories are from the mid 20th century, they are still completely relevant today.

What do you get up to in your spare time when not working on music?

I do spend most of my time working on music in some shape or form. If not music directly, then video ideas, artwork etc etc. As you can probably tell from the album, I am a huge film fan and like to dig into as many movies as I can, both new and vintage. I love finding out about actors or directors that I didn’t know too much about and that leads to a whole other world.

Will you be touring at all this year?

Because I’ve gone straight back into writing, I likely won’t be touring this year but hope to get something together in the UK and the US next year.