Lauran Hibberd

Born in 1997, Lauran Hibberd picked up guitar at age 14 and first wrote introspective folk material that bore little resemblance to her later style. Her initial live slot at the Isle of Wight Festival came about after her father supplied fencing to the organizers. Exposure to Weezer through a nearby producer ignited an intense admiration for the band’s concise, hook-driven guitar-pop sensibility. Completing her coursework at the Isle of Wight’s Platform One music college in 2015, she earned a contest victory that placed her on the main stage of that year’s Bestival on the mainland.

Her debut single, “Hunny is this What Adults Do?,” appeared independently in November 2017, yet the 2018 release “Fun Like This” on Norway’s Diamond Club imprint most clearly reflected her Weezer affinity. The punk-edged follow-up “Call Shotgun” entered BBC Radio 1’s playlist in August 2018. Although that track came out on Brilliance, Diamond Club’s parent company, Hibberd elected to issue subsequent material herself for the next two years in order to retain tighter oversight. By 2019 her vocal approach on songs such as “Hoochie” increasingly mirrored the American artists she favored, prompting some listeners to assume she was Stateside; the same year she issued her first EP, Everything Is Dogs, and appeared at Glastonbury.

October 2020 marked her first eOne Music release, “Boy Bye,” while early the following year she joined Lydia Night of Los Angeles band the Regrettes for “How Am I Still Alive?,” which surfaced on the Suzy Shinn-produced Goober EP in mid-2021. Late that year she signed with Virgin Records, making “Charlie’s Car” her inaugural single for the label in October. Early 2022 brought a U.K. tour alongside Stand Atlantic and the Snuts, plus several singles that collected on her debut album Garageband Superstar, issued that August. Crafted entirely during the preceding COVID-19 lockdowns, the record was co-produced by Larry Hibbitt at his Brixton studio and featured guest spots from Wheatus’ Brendan B. Brown and turntablist DJ Lethal of House of Pain and Limp Bizkit.