Audrey Hobert isn’t clowning herself anymore. She was meant to be a pop star.
“I had been sitting on all of this music long enough that there was like a tiny man in my soul beating down the door of my soul,” Hobert, 26, mentioned on a current wet morning at Swingers Diner in Hollywood.
This week, the L.A. native units out on her Staircase to Stardom tour throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Intimate venues will see her carry out from her debut album, “Who’s the Clown?,” launched by way of RCA Data in August. She stops on the El Rey Theatre within the coronary heart of Miracle Mile on Thursday, earlier than performing the following day at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome for Jingle Ball.
Although the “Bowling alley” singer has “so immensely” loved her whirlwind 12 months, music wasn’t at all times within the playing cards. After graduating from New York College with a BFA in screenwriting in 2021, she fell into place behind the scenes, working in a Nickelodeon writers’ room for the since-canceled “The Really Loud House.”
The whole lot modified when she began penning tracks with childhood pal Gracie Abrams for the 2024 album “The Secret of Us.” Hobert signed a publishing cope with Common Music Group quickly after and participated in songwriter classes for a couple of months earlier than setting her sights on one thing extra private. Initially writing for herself, it turned clear her confessional lyrics couldn’t be confined to her bed room partitions.
She teamed up with producer Ricky Gourmand to pin down the right stage of bubblegum pop and decide when a music was in want of an excellent saxophone solo. Regardless of by no means being forged in a lead function throughout her “theater kid” tenure, Hobert’s music exudes most important character power. The primary single she put out, “Sue me,” a high-voltage pop anthem about hooking up with an ex if solely to really feel needed for a glimmer in time, reached No. 26 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay Chart. The music video accompanying the discharge — directed by Hobert, as all her movies are — launched listeners to an artist not afraid to bop like no one’s watching.
Though she’s carried out solely a handful of reveals, she already has a devoted fan base on the able to belt her most self-aware lyrics at her high-profile stay reveals — whether or not that be an expletive-laced refrain in “Sue me” or a line a few forgotten pizza pocket in “Sex and the city.”
Over French toast and black espresso, Hobert mused concerning the profession she by no means noticed coming.
This dialog has been evenly edited for size and readability.
Audrey Hobert fell for songwriting when she collaborated with Gracie Abrams on the latter’s “The Secret of Us.”
(Annie Noelker / For The Occasions)
As somebody who likes to be at house in her lotions and nightgown, how have you ever tailored to the lifetime of an up-and-coming pop star?I simply nonetheless really feel like a woman who likes to be in her lotions and nightgown, and I additionally, along with that, actually benefit from the feeling of working and form of operating on fumes. I believe in the event you like that feeling an excessive amount of, it dips into harmful territory somewhat bit, nevertheless it doesn’t … really feel very similar to partying. As an example, I’ve been taking pictures a music video for the previous 4 days, and final night time I used to be up till 3 within the morning with what we have been referring to because the skeleton crew. It looks like I’m not even nearly solely there but, and I’ll innately know, “Oh my God, I’ve arrived.” However you may form of defend your self from it if that’s what you need.
How are you feeling about performing in L.A.?I believe I’m gonna be extremely nervous as a result of it’s gonna be nearly all of my family and friends there, and I’ve made the choice to maintain all particulars of what the tour is gonna be a secret from all of my family and friends, simply in order that they will see it. I simply really feel like I’m going to get one of the best suggestions from them if I’m not tipping them or giving them a touch as to what it’s going to be and in the event that they’re simply witnessing it for the primary time. And that’s type of what I’m [in] with this primary tour, as a result of it’s so brief and it’s nearly an underplay, and I simply am wanting constructive criticism and what labored, what didn’t.
Do you get extra nervous performing in entrance of family and friends?Nervousness and pleasure are the identical. It’s a really comparable feeling. I believe it’s extra pleasure than nervousness. In my expertise over the summer time, going to locations around the globe and performing, I at all times was extra excited for the reveals that I knew I had folks that I personally knew at. Performing in Australia and Amsterdam and Berlin, it was form of a strain’s off feeling.
How have been the opposite reveals?It was such an important first crack at singing my songs to a crowd of individuals. I by no means actually pictured myself as “girl with guitar on stage alone,” however it’s how I wrote loads of the songs. So it didn’t really feel like I used to be cosplaying, essentially, however I’m additionally a theater child, and my deep intuition is to be on my toes sans devices for sure songs, and so I do not know the way it’s gonna really feel. I did “Jimmy Fallon,” and that was form of a style, nevertheless it’s not what performing to a crowd full of people that like my music is gonna really feel like. Nevertheless it was actually, actually enjoyable, and it did get me excited.
How does it really feel to listen to folks singing your lyrics again already?Fairly wild. I can assume again to the writing of those songs, and bear in mind so properly how exhausting I labored on each single line, as a result of I cared and since I knew that there was a greatest model of each line of each music. It was yesterday, somebody requested me if I have been nervous to carry out my authentic writing, and I’ve been keen because the second I wrote it, as a result of I simply labored exhausting. So when folks sing my lyrics again to me, I’m like, “Damn right, yeah. Took me a while to figure out how to say that thing, and it was all in the hope that you’d be either alone gobsmacked or in this room with me wanting to scream it back at me.”
Audrey Hobert compares songwriting to getting into “a third dimension.”
(Annie Noelker / For The Occasions)
In your music “Phoebe,” you open with, “I went to New York / ’Cause a man in a suit told me / You’re gonna be a star.” From a listener standpoint, it felt like “Sue me” dropped and every part took off. Are you able to inform me extra concerning the means of writing and pitching? I had simply found that I like to jot down songs. It was merely that, and it was like a pastime. I had written all these songs with Gracie and signed a publishing deal in consequence, and was form of on this limbo of … I used to be a baby who knew precisely what she needed to do, and now I’m an grownup and am technically a signed songwriter, however I’ve not spent any of my life eager to be a songwriter, so I can’t think about that that is the way in which my life goes to abruptly go, that I’m going to launch myself right into a profession that I haven’t needed my entire life in the identical manner I needed to be a tv author.
However on the identical time, the way in which that all of it unfolded felt so cosmic and I knew that songwriting felt very attention-grabbing. In order all of it unfolded, I simply by no means, for a second, questioned it or let myself really feel even a sew of imposter syndrome as a result of I knew higher. I knew that to carry myself again from no matter this journey was going to be can be me doing myself an enormous disservice.
Gracie and I have been dwelling collectively on the time, and that was type of within the thick of her intense touring. So she was gone. I used to be dwelling on the Westside of L.A., which isn’t a really younger space, and located myself form of feeling like I used to be this Rapunzel kind, dwelling on this cement townhouse and really remoted. And I simply began writing songs, and I discovered that it was like a 3rd dimension, form of “Twilight Zone”-style, that I may go to and exit my physique solely. Overlook that I used to be possibly feeling somewhat bit lonely, neglect that I missed my greatest pal, neglect that I needed a boyfriend and didn’t have one, and simply write.
There’s nothing as mystical as songwriting to me, as a result of it’s two sorts of writing — melodic writing that’s fully unexplainable, after which lyrics, that’s form of one of the best puzzle. It’s like math, which I’m truly very dangerous at, however I can see a sentiment come collectively in my head earlier than it truly does. It was simply eight months principally of manic writing. And through that point is after I … informed Common Music Publishing, “I think I want to try an artist project.” It was form of a method to get out of doing songwriting classes, after which [I] met Ricky and knew that I didn’t need to spend all day, each day, making one thing with anyone else. It was simply the purest, most biggest enjoyable of my younger life.
You mentioned you awakened someday with the title of the album and the duvet artwork, and also you thought it was unusual at first. Have you ever gained any extra readability on what which means? I do know that the duvet particularly was born out of me form of assuming that I might put this venture collectively on my own. I simply by no means thought-about {that a} label may become involved. And I assumed, as a brand new artist, I’m going to should intrigue folks with the duvet of this venture, no matter it’s. And I simply felt like a white lady making pop music hasn’t achieved horrifying imagery. I simply [wanted] to scare somebody and to make somebody go, “What kind of music is this?” And then you definitely discover out it’s simply pop. That was the intention.
Take me to the discharge of “Sue me.” What was that second like? The date of the discharge obtained pushed again a couple of occasions, and each time it obtained pushed again, my coronary heart broke somewhat bit. I simply couldn’t wait. I used to be extra keen than I’d ever been to do something … and the second I put one music out, I felt simply far more free.
When it comes to the response to it, you simply by no means know. You may have an important music and do every part proper, and it simply doesn’t work. It’s not like “Sue me” is a “Million Dollar Baby,” Tommy Richman-style viral hit, nevertheless it did catch hearth and that felt nice. Additionally, I had most likely, by the point that “Sue me” got here out, listened to it upwards of 800 occasions. So I wasn’t like, “People like the song.” I used to be like, “I love this song.”
How was the transition to writing songs about your personal life? It simply didn’t really feel prefer it was an energetic swap. Writing with Gracie was the identical type of bliss because it feels to jot down on my own, nevertheless it’s sweeter otherwise. It feels good otherwise as a result of it’s completely shared. And one in all my biggest joys in life is sharing in one thing along with her. It at all times has been since I’ve recognized her, since we have been children. We by no means deliberate or thought we’d collaborate in a higher manner, as a result of it felt like hanging out was a inventive collaboration; I can’t actually describe it. After I began writing on my own, it’s a bit extra grueling, however then it’s the identical form of drug-like rush that you simply get if you really feel such as you’ve written an excellent line.
Your sound feels very nostalgic to me, however then there are lyrics like these in “Thirst Trap” that would solely be from this digital period. You’ve mentioned you didn’t have any direct references for this venture, however are there any artists who’ve influenced your strategy to songwriting?I believe that would develop into true for my subsequent album, however I felt like I didn’t know the principles of songwriting. I at all times would take heed to pop music and … was at all times asking myself, “Why is this the best song ever? Oh, it’s because this, this, this.” However after I wrote these songs, I bear in mind having the energetic thought early on of, “There are no rules.” I’ve far an excessive amount of of a slant, and it was so recent and new that I’ve artists who I look as much as when it comes to songwriting, nevertheless it got here all simply from deep inside me. I bear in mind actually having the considered, “I don’t know if this is classic, typical structure, I just know that this is what is keeping me interested. So I’m gonna just go with it.”
Your music movies are superb. Is there a dream director you’d prefer to work with or do you need to direct each Audrey Hobert music video? Should you had requested me after I was going out to labels and pitching myself as an artist, I might have mentioned I’d by no means work with a director. However the extra I do them, clearly, the extra I like to direct, but in addition the extra that I might really feel keen on being directed. I actually, actually like this man Dan Streit, and we truly are utilizing his digicam for the music video that we simply completed taking pictures. I simply assume he’s tremendous cool, and he’s the one man that I’ve ever been like, “Huh, I wonder if he’d ever direct one of my videos.”
Your video for “Thirst Trap” was impressed by the Japanese horror movie “House.” You additionally reference “High School Musical 2.” What’s your style in films like? Do you’ve any consolation watches? I’m simply actually into seeing films on a regular basis. I’ve been training holding the social media apps off my telephone and simply tuning in to one thing. I had by no means seen a Robert Altman film, and I simply watched “The Player,” and I actually loved that. And luxury watches … “Frances Ha,” “Mistress America.” I simply named two Greta Gerwigs, however I simply love her as an actress. I imply, I like her as a director, however I actually love her as an actress. And “House” was one thing that I simply stumbled upon after which watched twice in a row. I find it irresistible. I really feel like my style is fairly eclectic.
Is vogue an essential a part of your creative imaginative and prescient? Should you had requested me in fourth grade what I needed to be after I grew up, I might most likely say “fashion designer.” I at all times felt impressed by the garments on the Disney Channel. I’m , I do prefer it, however to ensure that me to really feel comfy going concerning the beginnings of this pop-star life, I must be wearing my very own garments or else I freak out. I simply did a shoot for Vevo and I wore my very own garments, didn’t actually spend a lot time on my look. I bear in mind seeing the images and being like, “Sometimes it’s worth it to just put in a little bit more of an effort, girl.” However that being mentioned, I must really feel like myself.
Who was your Disney Channel vogue inspiration?Selena Gomez. All the way in which.
Have you ever been writing extra or are you taking a breather now that the album is out?I’ve been pondering so much about author’s block and the idea of it, and I don’t know if it’s actual, however the conclusion I’ve come to is I don’t have to fret about if I’m a author or not, as a result of I’ve felt like a author my complete life. Some folks swear by writing a music each day and ending it, even when it’s dangerous. Some folks take 4 years off from writing in any respect. How I really feel this morning is when I’ve a music to jot down, I do know I’m gonna write it. I attempt to not waste my time worrying about why I’m not writing on a regular basis in the way in which I used to be after I wrote the album. And so I assume to reply the query, not likely.
What’s been essentially the most rewarding a part of this expertise? Does all of it return to [opening track] “I like to touch people”?That’s very astute. Yeah, it’s essentially the most thrilling a part of all of this. It’s extra thrilling than the flashing lights of the L.A. Occasions photographer at Swingers Diner and it’s extra thrilling than somebody who I respect following me on Instagram, and it jogs my memory why I’m doing all of it. It’s the best factor of all time.
