Interview by Carol Wright
Singer/songwriter Patricia Lalor chatted with us about transitioning from posting covers to YouTube to releasing original music and her EP This Is How We Connect, While You Stand So Tall.
Has music always been therapeutic for you? Whether that’s through listening to it or creating your own.
Yeah definitely, listening 100% and writing. I think writing helps me more than I realise it does. I get all the stuff that’s on my mind out, which is definitely some type of therapy that I don’t even realise is happening which is really nice.
You gained popularity through uploading covers to YouTube. Did the support you received through online viewers help to boost your confidence when it came to releasing original music?
It was definitely helpful with all the support by my side, but I also felt like my originals sounded really different from my covers and that my music was almost for like a different audience if that makes sense. It was a really big doubt of mine, but everyone was super supportive so yeah I would say that boosted some area of my confidence which I’m super grateful for.
Tell us about This Is How We Connect, While You Stand So Tall. What story are you hoping to tell through the EP?
Telling a story isn’t really the intention for this EP, each song is about something completely different so there isn’t a direct message. I make music for me really, as selfish as that sounds. I love doing it a lot so I keep doing it. When I hear that other people are hoping to even hear it and ask what it’s about I blank out. It is something I’m working on really, keeping a direct topic and theme in my EPs and becoming less sparse with genre, but I’m still discovering my own “world” in music, what I want to sound like and what message I want to send so yeah! Still figuring my shit out.
Walk us through the creation of “To Cope.” What inspired the lyrics and the somber tone?
It was right after a traumatising awkward social event with someone I had never met and had to make conversation with, it was terrible. I’m just not good with small talk and I just forgot how to function for a while after it. It was over the top I would say on how I reacted but it was one of those situations where you want the other person to like you so bad and the future “friendship” just flops right before your eyes. So “To Cope” was made so I could cope with the gross feeling I was having weeks after it had happened.
Has quarantine given you more time to strengthen your songwriting?
I’d say so! I know time and effort helps anything you want to get better at so I’d say it helped, but I feel like I’m especially buckling down lately and focusing on songwriting now that I’m homeschooled and don’t have a proper schedule anymore. I hope that means I’m getting better who knows.
What advice do you have for aspiring singers?
I’d say just do it for the right reasons, it’s probably not the most original advice but it’s so true. If you’re doing it for the right reasons, as in you love it and you’re happy doing it, then you’ll always find some way to continue doing it in life. Credits to my mom for that, it’s literally not my advice, here’s advice from my mom but it’s too good and too true and I’ve taken that advice and it’s going great.
