Posted on April 9, 2021
The fourth in the Sunburst Sessions videos, ‘Back To Life,’ is now up on YouTube!
While it would’ve been interesting to mess around with this song on piano, I love the vibe of this song when I perform it live and I perform it live on acoustic guitar; I love the warmth and the energy. And stripping it back to just a vocal and acoustic guitar arrangement really allows the lyric to take centre stage. Lyrics – and the stories they tell – are so important to me so I always enjoy the opportunity to put them at the forefront of the performance.
Thank you to Richard Marc for accompanying me and for his part in the filming (Sunburst Sessions), Olivia (Olivia B-S Photography) for her work as the primary videographer of this video, and Nicky Trill for engineering.
Category: emotions, mental health, music, video Tagged: acoustic ep, acoustic session, acoustic sessions, back to life, back to life (sunburst sessions), honest ep, honest ep (sunburst sessions), lauren alex hooper, laurenalexhooper, new music, new music friday, new music release, new music uk, new music video, olivia b-s photography, richard marc, richard marc music, richard sanderson photography, sunburst sessions
Posted on April 2, 2021
And here we have the third in the Sunburst Sessions videos, the acoustic version of ‘Sounds Like Hope’!
The arrangement of this song is already pretty minimal so stripping it back didn’t involve much; we just had to figure out how we wanted to do that. In the end, we decided to go with just a vocal and electric guitar, reflective of how we first wrote the song. The atmospheric sound of the guitar Richard was messing around with during the session just sounded like how I felt at the time and so it was very nostalgic to revisit that first version of the song when it felt so new and tentative and fragile.
Thank you to Richard Marc for accompanying me and for his part in the filming (Sunburst Sessions), Olivia (Olivia B-S Photography) for her work as the primary videographer of this video, and Nicky Trill for engineering.
Category: depression, emotions, mental health, music, video Tagged: acoustic ep, acoustic session, acoustic sessions, honest ep, honest ep (sunburst sessions), lauren alex hooper, laurenalexhooper, new music, new music friday, new music uk, new music video, olivia b-s photography, richard marc, richard marc music, richard sanderson photography, sounds like hope, sounds like hope (sunburst sessions), sunburst sessions
Posted on March 26, 2021
So here is the second in the Sunburst Sessions videos, the acoustic version of ‘Clarity’!
Again, piano felt like a really good choice for this alternate version of ‘Clarity.’ I feel like the original really leaned into the feeling of desperation (inspired by the idea of chasing something you know is potentially bad for you but doing it anyway because it makes you feel better) and the claustrophobia that that feeling can create. But, to me at least, I think the piano and vocal version brings out some of the pain that can result in a person finding themselves in that place. There’s something about the sound of the piano that feels so desolate.
Again, thank you to Zefan Susanto for accompanying me, Richard Sanderson (Sunburst Sessions) and Olivia (Olivia B-S Photography) for filming, and Nicky Trill for engineering.
Category: anxiety, depression, emotions, mental health, music, self harm, video Tagged: acoustic ep, acoustic session, acoustic sessions, clarity, clarity (sunburst sessions), honest ep, honest ep (sunburst sessions), lauren alex hooper, laurenalexhooper, new music, new music friday, new music release, new music uk, new music video, olivia b-s photography, richard sanderson photography, sunburst sessions, zefan susanto
Hi! I’m Lauren Alex Hooper. Welcome to my little blog! I write about living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD (Inattentive Type), and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), as well as several mental health issues.
I’m a singer-songwriter (it’s my biggest special interest and I have both a BA and MA in songwriting) so I’ll probably write a bit about that too.
My first single, ‘Invisible,’ is on all platforms, with all proceeds going to Young Minds.
My debut EP, Honest, is available on all platforms, with a limited physical run at Resident Music in Brighton.
I’m currently working on an album about my experiences as an autistic woman.