Q&A: Rebekka Louise Channels Vulnerability and Healing in ‘Shame Is An Old Friend’
LONDON-BASED SINGER-SONGWRITER AND ARTIST — Rebekka Louise has released her debut album, Shame Is An Old Friend, a fearless and intimate exploration of mental health and its ripple effects on relationships. What began as a Master’s thesis project has evolved into a profound musical journey, blending raw vulnerability with innovative soundscapes.
Louise’s album offers listeners a poignant dive into the emotional complexities faced by individuals struggling with mental health issues and the challenges their loved ones experience. The artist has described the creative process as cathartic, providing her with a space to confront her own vulnerabilities while fostering a deeper empathy for others.
The album, composed of eight tracks, showcases Louise’s unfiltered lyrical honesty and draws inspiration from a range of artists, including Aurora, Maria Mena, The Neighbourhood, Billie Eilish, and Madison Beer. Each song merges introspective lyrics with a fusion of analogue and digital sounds, enriched by live string sections that add depth and texture to her compositions.
Louise’s musical journey took place in a mix of intimate settings, with sessions recorded in her living room and the renowned Tileyard Studios in London. This duality in recording environments mirrors the thematic duality in her music, balancing internal emotional landscapes with external realities.
Shame Is An Old Friend not only marks Louise’s entry into the music scene but also establishes her as a bold new voice in experimental pop. With her debut, Louise invites listeners to join her in a shared experience of healing and self-discovery, one that resonates long after the music fades.
Continue reading below to find out more about Rebekka Louise, her musical influences, her take on mental health, and its importance in her music.
LUNA: Your new album, Shame Is An Old Friend, is a deep exploration of mental health and emotional vulnerability. What inspired you to delve into these themes so openly in your music?
LOUISE: It really started from a place of knowing very little about the topic and being curious and wanting to learn more. After I moved away from home and was exposed to so many different people and cultures, I really started to understand how little I knew about mental health.
I desperately wanted to learn and maybe try to understand all the different perspectives and feelings involving mental health. I also felt myself faced with situations involving mental health, whether my own mental health or those close to me, and I had like no clue how to even begin to understand all the different feelings surfacing. So the album was very much an exploration of situations I knew very little about, and then slowly being able to also apply those feelings to my own life while learning about an extremely complex and difficult theme.
LUNA: The album features a blend of spoken word and song with intricate, dense lyrics. How do you approach writing such extensive verses, and what is your process for transitioning between spoken word and lyrical hooks?
LOUISE: Oh, that’s so hard to answer, ’cause it’s such a random process at times. Honestly, there isn’t much of a process (laughs), but something that just happens extremely naturally for me when writing. However, I would say most times I think it comes from me being a bit “bored” or “tired” of a section within a song and feeling it needs something to make it a bit more interesting… I find it very impactful to change the cadence of the wording. I also find it very fun to write lyrics where you cannot necessarily anticipate what comes next.
LUNA: You’ve described "Let Me Hold You" as moving from a stripped-back arrangement to a more chaotic and unsettling climax. How did you decide on the musical structure for this track to reflect the spiralling emotions it represents?
LOUISE: I was honestly so unsure about adding this song to the album. It uses a lot of repetition and I was afraid people might find it a bit boring. But this song was really the opportunity for me to write about how it feels to watch someone you love slowly wither, and the hopeless devastation you feel when nothing you do is enough. The structure of the song came about as a way of telling a story. So the song starts off very timid and is more about exploring a situation someone has been in a million times before, where they try their best to be there for a person struggling while knowing that it will happen again, silently praying that it won’t. It felt important to have the focus be on the lyrics here, to really illuminate the vulnerability and sadness they express.
Then the song slowly expands into this person seeing their loved one pulling away and becoming more and more consumed by their struggles until there’s no way of reaching them. And instead of hoping they become better, you’re desperately screaming for them to let you take some of their pain or just let you in. Personally, the lyrics aren’t that important here; I consider them more as just another instrument. I wanted the vocals to really blend in with the instrumentation and act as this repetitive background expressing that one thought going on replay, going bigger and bigger until it all just explodes in defeat and we’re back at the beginning again.
LUNA: In tracks like "SHUT UP," the rhythm and dance pace are notably sharp and energetic. How do you balance these high-energy elements with the more introspective and emotional parts of the album?
LOUISE: As the theme is so heavy, I found it so important to not make the album into one long sad song. I wanted to show that while mental health struggles are tough, there can still be some fun and upbeat stuff happening. So I find tracks such as “SHUT UP” to be extremely important in breaking up that cycle of depressing = slow, sad ballad. There are so many different ways to experience mental health struggles, and I wanted to explore and express some of those different perspectives.
LUNA: The production on the album combines quirky electro-pop with minimalistic elements. How did you approach creating this balance, and what role does production play in conveying the emotional weight of your songs?
LOUISE: For this album, production was so, so important. I think I actually created the production first with almost every song, except with “the mess that wanted love,” before I even wrote a single lyric. The production on each song is what really set the tone and intention of the lyrics, and [it] helped me tremendously with how I approached the writing. I would say the lyrics and the production really complement each other and work to support and elevate one another, rather than the production being created to fit the lyrics, or vice versa.
Again, I also find it so much fun to play with contrasts and I really let myself be creative with this album. With this album, I tried to be a bit experimental with what type of sounds I used, so it was a lot of trial and error, but most of the sounds were actually inspired by the xylophone, especially those kids' toy ones. I also loved playing around with harsh, almost ugly sounding elements that adds this nice unsettling texture to the production, especially found in “the mess that wanted love” with the metal-sounding hits.
LUNA: You’ve mentioned that the album is a journey of connecting with others who have experienced similar feelings of guilt and despair. Can you share a specific moment or track on the album that you feel particularly embodies this connection?
LOUISE: I believe the final track, “it was beautiful,” is probably the one that entices such a connection the most. It is one of my absolute favorite songs I have ever written, and I think the simple yet very honest lyrics are what makes it such a relatable song. As the final song of the album, it also has a kind of finality to it that enforces that bittersweet feeling of something wonderful coming to a sad end — a feeling I am sure a lot of us have encountered several times. It is also the song I have gotten the most private messages about, and I am so grateful for all the wonderful things people are writing to me.
LUNA: Your performances are described as captivating, balancing simplicity with intense emotion. How do you prepare for such dynamic performances, and what do you hope your audience takes away from them?
LOUISE: I honestly think it comes from years and years of practice, and not too much preparing! I like going into my performances not too overly prepared, actually. I feel it gives it that more personal and vulnerable touch that I really like. I want the audience to feel like they’re there with me, not some act or overly rehearsed persona. Of course you need to prepare all your material, but I think what gives them that dynamic feel is that it is very much just me performing my songs — just as if you were with me at home while I was practicing. I really do hope the audience walks away with that personal connection to my music and that it made them feel something, anything really!
LUNA: Shame Is An Old Friend has been described as both a cinematic and evocative experience. How do you envision the visual and emotional aspects of your music coming together in your live performances or music videos?
LOUISE: I always envision it as something very simplistic. Although the themes surrounding mental health can be very complex and difficult to understand, at the end of the day they are human feelings we all experience sometimes — so instead of making it out to be this complex and difficult thing to talk about I wanted to just say it as it is. I wanted to make a complex theme a bit less complex. I also feel a lot of the songs reflect that with a more stripped back approach to production, where I wanted that to be translated into the live performances and video material as well. I recently released a lyric video for “it was beautiful” that really captures that vision of it being simple yet impactful.
Personally, I also love the idea of letting the music speak for itself. It doesn’t need these fancy, well rehearsed performances with choreographed dances or very intricate, complicated and symbolic music videos. I feel this album is less about putting on a big show, and more about giving people the space and allowance to just feel.
LUNA: Mental health is a central theme in your album. Did you find that creating this music was a form of therapy or self-exploration for you? How has the process of writing and recording impacted your own mental health journey?
LOUISE: Oh, absolutely. Before this album, I was as clueless as they come regarding mental health. Exploring all these different perspectives and emotions really opened my eyes to all those feelings I had that I did not understand, at all. It is obviously a very emotional process to write such honest songs where you very openly express your deepest vulnerabilities. But I will definitely say it was both a form of therapy and self-exploration. On one hand, it made me realize, “Oh shit, am I really depressed?” but then at the same time putting those feelings into tangible music was a way of letting them go and accepting that sometimes life is hard and that is totally fine.
LUNA: Looking back at the creation of Shame Is An Old Friend, is there a particular song or moment that stands out to you as a significant turning point or revelation in the album’s development?
LOUISE: I have probably mentioned this song too many times now, but “it was beautiful” made this album into what it is. I don’t know what I did when I wrote this song, but it was the one song I cried while making. It just perfectly sums up all the sadness, the despair, the wonder and hope that this album discusses and puts it into this beautiful three-minute song that breaks my heart yet fills me with so much gratitude and hope at the same time. When I finished this song I think I really understood what I wanted this album to be and how I wanted it to be said.
