An Interview With Lauren Spencer-Smith
Written by Kole Kemple
Behind her laptop, seventeen year old singer/songwriter, Lauren Spencer-Smith, sat in front of her guitar which leaned on a wall decorated with vinyls. Even through the restricted view of her room Lauren was able to show through her camera on Zoom, I was immediately able to recognize her love for music, just from all the trinkets she had acquired behind her. “I’ve always loved music,” Lauren shared, “There’s videos of my singing in the car from when I was three, videos of me singing at home for my family - I’ve just always sang.” Music for Lauren, however, first started getting serious when she received her Hannah Montana karaoke machine at the age of eight. “I would always sing Hannah Montana songs, and that was actually the age when I first entered some local singing competitions,” Lauren remembered, ‘That was kind of the point where I started to be like, I want to be a singer.”
Fast forward to 2020, Lauren went from participating in local singing competitions to auditioning for season 18 of American Idol. Lauren auditioned with the songs “What About Us,” by P!nk, and “Always Remember Us This Way,” by Lady Gaga, which received praise from all three judges, who all voted yes to her being on the show.
“My experience being on American Idol was great, I literally have nothing bad to say about anyone who was on the show, it was such a positive, fun place,” Lauren said while reflecting back on her journey, “The one word I would use to describe my season is just ‘fun’.” When talking to me more about her experience on the show, Lauren also shared that a lot of what she enjoyed from the show was actually what they did outside of just singing. “I feel like really everyone who was on the show knows each other, so I definitely was able to get some best friends out of the experience,” Lauren said. “It definitely can be nerve racking, and it’s sometimes stressful because you have so much pressure on you to please America and the judges, but when I was on the show I would just remember that I made it so far and that’s honestly what made the experience so fun for me.”
Having made it all the way to the top twenty, Lauren had the opportunity to perform a variety of songs for the judges, some including “The Joke” by Brandi Carlile during “Hollywood Week,” and “Mama Knows Best,” by Jessie J during her performance for the top twenty. “From a performer’s standpoint, I loved my Hawaii week performance of ‘Respect’ [Aretha Franklin],” Lauren shared, “I just had so much fun performing it, and it didn’t feel as stressful because I wasn’t performing just directly to the judges, I was able to perform to a crowd which made me feel like I was performing at my own show.” Despite it being her favorite performance of her’s from the show, Lauren had lost her voice leading up to her performance. “I literally had no voice, and right before I went on stage I couldn’t hit the notes I needed to, but I just walked out with a smile on voice and told myself, Okay, here we go, and it ended up going well.”
Before talking with Lauren more about her music outside of Idol, I asked her if she had received any particular advice from a judge on the show that had really helped her. In response to this question, Lauren recalled a specific moment she had with world-famous pop star, Katy Perry, a moment not many have the privilege of recalling, by sharing “During Hollywood week Katy Perry gave us all a speech telling us about how important it is to work out and eat good, and she wasn’t talking in the sense of having a perfect body, but more of like just being mentally ready for our vocal futures.” Lauren continued by explaining that since hearing Perry’s speech, she really “took Katy’s words to heart” and began making her health a priority. During the period between “Hollywood week” and “Hawaii week” Lauren was able to lose over thirty pounds and quit the habits she had determined weren’t in her best interest. “Her advice really just spoke to me in such a profounding way, and ever since then I’ve been able to avoid going back to my old habits.”
Following her experience on American Idol, Lauren has accumulated almost 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and has received bundles of attention from fans on her cover of “All I Want” by Olivia Rodrigo, which she released as a part of her “Mixed Emotions” EP that was released in the Spring of 2020. Since its release, Lauren’s cover of “All I Want” has received over 6.8 million streams on Spotify alone, and is also popular on other streaming platforms such as Apple Music. “I think that, for me, releasing cover songs kind of started after my “Always Remember Us This Way” [Sam Smith] cover video went viral, and I noticed that millions of people wanted to hear my version of all of these songs,” Lauren shared, “Because of that experience I went into the studio and just started recording.”
Talking more about her debut EP, Lauren explains that she was excited to release “Mixed Emotions” because her fans wanted more music and she wasn’t ready to release some of her original music at the time, so an EP of covers was perfect for her situation. “I have a very personal relationship with my fans, and when they told me they wanted music I was so excited to share my EP with them,” Lauren shared.
Looking more at Lauren’s relationship with her fans, Lauren shares that her relationship with her fans is a “personal” and “amazing” one, she even shares that she tries answering as many fan messages as she can. Lauren takes it a step further with some, and even becomes friends with them on Instagram and Snapchat, “I sometimes just snap a couple fans, reminding them to drink water and stay healthy,” Lauren shared, “I’m kind of like a life coach to some and I love it.”
It’s not normal to hear that a singer with over 200,000 followers on Instagram casually reaches out and checks on her fans, but that’s just the type of person Lauren is: a genuine, humble, seventeen year old who not only wants to use her platform to promote her music, but to spread kindness as well. “I love social media because it gives you that connection with your fans that help them know more about you than just your music,” Lauren shared, “I just want people to know how I really am, even though I may appear as a different version of myself in some of my music, I think that’s important.”
Excited to continue her music journey with her fans’ support, Lauren talked with me about plans she has to release the original music she wrote herself. “No one really knows about the style of my original music yet because I haven’t released anything original, but it's a very ‘love song, happy, Taylor Swift energy’ type of music, and I’m just so excited to be able to share it.” Lauren explained to me that she’s writing mainly happy, positive, acoustic pop songs right now because she’s in a good mental space at the moment, but is definitely open to exploring some “Adele, soul type influences,” when she experiences more gloom feelings in the future.
Lauren cites Julia Michaels as one of her biggest songwriting inspirations, “I love her and JP Saxe, and the storytelling they do - it’s really a mesh between them that influences how I write.” Vocally, on the other hand, Lauren credits Adele as the one main artist who inspires her vocals. “I literally grew up listening to Adele’s albums over and over again,” Lauren shared, “She’s basically my inspiration for life.”
When I asked Lauren to share three songs of her’s that she would have someone who had never listened to her before listen to to get a feel of the music she has released right now she listed her covers of: “All I Want” [Olivia Rodrigo], “Always Remember Us This Way” [Sam Smith], and “Elastic Heart” [Sia]. However, Lauren does have some plans she was able to share about the original music she’s going to release later this year.
“Pretty soon here, I’m going to the states to just produce, write, and record some original music,” Lauren shared. “I’m definitely planning on having some music out before the summer, but I’m not sure whether that’s going to involve more singles or maybe another EP.” Lauren also teased some collaborations she has in the works with some big names from the industry, “I’m going to be collaborating with some really cool people for my original music, so just make sure to stay tuned on my social media [@laurenspencersmith], because I’m so excited to announce what I’ve got in store.”