Q&A: Lucette’s “Nice Girl From the Suburbs” EP Confronts the Beauty and Burden of Self-Awareness
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photography Credit: Sebestian Buzzalino
CAPTURING A LIMINAL STATE OF BEING — After a five-year hiatus since her 2019 album Deluxe Hotel Room, Canadian singer-songwriter Lucette returns with Nice Girl From the Suburbs, an intimately personal six-song EP that marks a compelling evolution in her artistry. Peeling back the metaphorical layers that have previously shrouded her songwriting, Lucette—born Lauren Gillis—delivers her most autobiographical work yet.
Whereas her past releases have often explored storytelling through character-driven narratives, Nice Girl From the Suburbs finds Lucette stepping into the spotlight as herself. She takes full creative control, forging a deeply personal and musically expansive collection that draws inspiration from ‘90s dream pop and alt-rock. Echoes of Fiona Apple’s introspection, Sheryl Crow’s effortless storytelling, and the atmospheric textures of Pixies, Portishead, and Mazzy Star all permeate the EP, creating a lush, anthemic soundscape.
“Everyone was down to try new things and really find the sound that I was looking for,” Lucette says, describing the collaborative spirit that allowed her to fully embrace her vision. This sonic shift accompanies a thematic one as well—Nice Girl From the Suburbs is a candid exploration of self-awareness, self-sabotage, and the liminal space between growth and stagnation.
“These songs are both recognizing that dark place and recognizing that I didn’t really help myself to get out of that dark place,” she says. It’s a sentiment that feels especially relevant in an era where overthinking, spiraling, and self-loathing are all but normalized in the digital sphere. The EP resists falling into the typical “sad girl” trope, instead weaving together self-pity with clever self-deprecation. Even the title itself serves as a wry acknowledgment of her reality—a self-aware nod to the contrast between perception and internal struggle.
“I’m being real with myself. I don’t feel like a victim of anyone else’s stuff. I’m a victim to my own brain,” Lucette says. “It’s recognizing that I am my own worst enemy, but also that I think it’s okay. It’s kind of human to be your own worst enemy.”
With Nice Girl From the Suburbs, Lucette not only reintroduces herself to the world but also offers a relatable, unfiltered look at the complexities of navigating one’s own mind. It’s an EP that dares to embrace uncertainty, wrapping it in dreamy melodies and candid lyricism—one that proves Lucette is ready to take the reins of her artistry with full force.
Photography Credit: Sebestian Buzzalino
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
LUCETTE: I feel like it's always been a blend of something modern with something really classic, so even my first album, I feel like we tried to bridge those gaps, but now I'm really leaning into more of a pop sound as well, but it's always going to be steeped in trying to write something that feels classic, but with a modern twist. I’m really inspired by mostly records from the 70s, that's usually what I listen to. I'm trying to be a little bit more modern with my ear as well, but it's always steeped in songwriting in a classic way, but using modern tools.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
LUCETTE: That's an interesting question. I feel like this EP, more than anything else I've ever put out, is really personal. I feel like I got into the trenches a little bit more, especially speaking to my mental health journey. So if anything, I think it's really trying to let people know that they're not the only ones that feel that way. Sometimes life is dark and it feels shitty and especially nowadays, it's really easy to catastrophize about everything that's going on in the world. I think it's just creating an emotional safe space to actually feel a lot of different spectrums of emotions.
LUNA: What is the ideal environment to experience your music? Is there a particular setting, mood, or time of day that enhances the listening experience?
LUCETTE: I think it depends on the song, but I've had a lot of people saying that they've been listening to “Heading For The End” in the tub, so I'll just, I'll just roll with that
LUNA: You have released your newest EP Nice Girl From The Suburbs marks your first release since Deluxe Hotel Room in 2019 and huge congratulations! How does this EP reflect where you are now as an artist and as a person?
LUCETTE: I feel like this EP is letting people know where I've been and what I've been going through, in sort of a roundabout way, for the last five years. I was like 27 when I put out my last record, and I think even just the years between 27 and 33, you grow so much. There was so much that happened in that time, including the pandemic. It felt like I went through so much emotionally in those years. It's a journey of ups and downs of the last five years and it feels really free, freeing to be so personal and let people know that there's a different side to Lucette, and it's not as mysterious as the last two albums.
LUNA: What is the inspiration behind Nice Girl From The Suburbs and what themes and emotions do you explore?
LUCETTE: The reason I called it Nice Girl From The Suburbs, I think there's this outward expectation of me growing up the way I did and then feeling stifled in some ways, and then going about life in my own way, and always feeling too big with my feelings or emotions to take up space in a room. Just being able to accept that, talk about it, and be honest about it, has been really great for me, because I think it's been an opportunity to feel like I'm not the only person going through these things. It's letting people know that there's a bigger story to my artistry and to my songwriting. It took feeling accepted in a studio environment as well, and being allowed to freely express lots of different things, and I think up until this EP, I hadn't been given that opportunity in a way that I felt really comfortable to be myself.
LUNA: Can you walk us through the creative process for “Nice Girl From The Suburbs?” How did the songs evolve from the initial idea to the final version?
LUCETTE: It's an interesting story, but I was writing for a full length album, and “Back In The Blue” was one of the first songs that I wrote for that album. In 2021 I broke my leg pretty severely, so I had to have surgery and I was in this place of really feeling sorry for myself. I had no independence, couldn't walk, couldn't drive for six months, and that's when I wrote that song. I was having this apathetic attitude to my life and to my health and I recorded that song thinking I was going to put out a full length album.
Then I met Soren, who produced the EP in November of 2023. We wrote “Heading For The End,” and then we just hit it off. It felt like we just got each other as writers. He reached out to me saying to keep writing and recording without any intention of releasing it. I was sitting on this full album and I made these songs with Soren and recorded them last year, and I was just like, ‘this is exactly what I want to be doing.’ I scrapped the full album and then put out this music instead, but I did include “Back In The Blue.” I really feel like it was a gut feeling with having all of these other songs recorded, but making this new stuff, it was like, this is exactly what I want to be putting out into the world as the next thing after not releasing music for five years.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from Nice Girl From The Suburbs and why do you love this song? Is there a certain element, lyric or message that you gravitate towards the most?
LUCETTE: I feel like it changes. But I really feel like “Rodeo Clown” sums a lot of things up. It's really saying, I'm trying so hard to make this career happen, to feel good about myself, to feel confident in my art, but also just in myself as a person. It feels like two steps forward, five steps back. I think quite often as a creative person, it can feel like you're misunderstood a lot of the time, and you are. It's a really tough world to exist in sometimes, and I think that song lets people in on those feelings of imposter syndrome and not feeling good enough to sort of take up space.
LUNA: After a five-year gap between releases, how does it feel to be putting out new music again? What do you hope listeners take away from Nice Girl From The Suburbs?
LUCETTE: It feels so good just to be back and to have music out there. I think seeing people's reactions is really awesome. I'm really proud of this, so that feels really good. As far as what people take away from it, I hope they get to know me a little bit more. It's a tongue-in-cheek EP, in many ways, there's lots of sarcasm embedded into the songwriting, but also just even in the title, sometimes I'm a piece of shit. I'm not this nice girl from the suburbs. I think it's just admitting that I have all of these faults too, and I'm not this cookie cutter model of what it is to be a songwriter, a female songwriter, or this version of a person that I think people sometimes expect women to show up as – subservient and without attitude. I hope people get that it's as much of a reflection of myself as it is making fun of myself.
LUNA: How are you planning on celebrating the EP release?
LUCETTE: I'm actually going to Thailand this week. I'm doing a songwriting retreat in Thailand with a bunch of people from all over the world, so it'll be really cool writing with people from Japan, Korea, Indonesia and the U.S. I'm going to Japan as well, so it'll be very cool. I'm celebrating by writing songs in a foreign country, which will be really, really fun.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
LUCETTE: I'm sitting on a lot of materials, so playing a few festivals this summer, and then hopefully hitting the road, touring and making a new album. I'm just trying to keep the train rolling, really just releasing more music and hopefully playing more shows.
