Liz Lawrence

U.K. musician Liz Lawrence has moved away from lighthearted singer/songwriter pop toward sharper synth textures and art-pop frameworks while adopting a more direct autobiographical stance. Her first outing, the guitar- and piano-centered Bedroom Hero issued in 2012, preceded the wider-ranging Pity Party in 2019, an album that introduced atmospheric synths and synth bass. Electronics and artful, dance-oriented constructions became central to 2021's The Avalanche, a direction she pushed further on 2024's Peanuts.

Born in Birmingham, England, Lawrence spent her childhood outside the city once her family launched a B&B when she turned five. Church choirs formed her earliest singing outlet, and her parents maintained a steady stream of reggae at home. During adolescence she performed with assorted punk and ska groups. While enrolled at the experimental Dartington art school in Devon, a manager discovered her YouTube videos, prompting her to leave school, relocate to London, and sign with EMI. The label underwent restructuring, dropped her, and triggered a legal dispute with her management team.

Lawrence had not yet reached twenty when she cut her debut album, the ultimately self-released Bedroom Hero of 2012, a collection of singer/songwriter pop built around voice, guitar, and selective piano. She later stated that she had never felt satisfied with that record, which she followed with concise releases such as the 2013 EP Health & Safety as she began expanding her sonic range. A recurring backup role with Bombay Bicycle Club began in 2013 and continued through their 2015 tour. Soon afterward she formed the electro-pop duo Cash+David with Tim Ross, issuing two EPs that together constituted the 2016 album Side I and Side II.

After stepping away from music for a couple of years, she returned in 2018 with the solo singles "The Good Part" and "Woman," both produced by Bombay Bicycle Club's Jack Steadman. These tracks led to her second album, the stylistically broader Pity Party released in 2019 on Second Breakfast Records and containing "USP," a track addressing the commodification of young female musicians. To support the album she toured with Lucy Dacus, Faye Webster, Snail Mail, and Bloc Party.

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, Lawrence returned to her hometown and set up The Coffin, a home studio in her garden shed distinguished by its unusual shape. Inside that space she composed, recorded, and produced her third album, the more pronounced new-wave-oriented The Avalanche of 2021. During the same period she supplied remixes for Lucy Rose, Bess Atwell, and ARXX. The move toward artier, more angular sounds persisted through the 2023 single "Arcadia" and the 2024 singles "Big Machine" and "Strut." "Arcadia" appeared on her Chrysalis Records debut, the 2023 EP I Was There. Her following album, titled Peanuts after the playground game also known as Mercy, emerged from efforts to navigate a period of depression. Recorded in Bristol with producer Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, Yard Act, Aldous Harding), Peanuts was issued by Chrysalis in 2024.