News

Lauren Jauregui tells us all about her new music off her EP ‘In Between’, exploring her sexuality through her music, Fifth Harmony’s 10th anniversary, and more!

Lauren Jauregui 0:00
You should listen to my music. That’s what I would say. Go check it out. Check me out, like it’s good sh–. It’s good sh–. Can I say sh–? You can. Hey, what’s up? I’m Lauren Jauregui and this is Billboard News

Tetris Kelly 0:22
It’s Tetris with Billboard News and I’m so happy to be hanging out with my friend Lauren. Hey, beautiful. How are you?

Lauren Jauregui 0:27
Hello, I’m good. How are you?

Tetris Kelly 0:29
I’m amazing. Thanks for hanging out with us. We got to talk about this music. You’re not new to the solo game. I mean, from ‘Expectations’ and all the success you had with that and so many releases. Tell me what about this EP, that’s going to be so different.

Lauren Jauregui 0:39
I think there’s, there’s more movement to this EP. This is a continuation of ‘Prelude’ which is my first EP that I dropped

Lauren Jauregui 0:53
Kind of the sound and vibe that I was, I’ve been cultivating from that point. I’ve been writing since like, 2018. And these songs are from that era, I haven’t really locked in to start writing new stuff yet. So it’s kind of a continuation of a story that would have been told maybe in the past,

Tetris Kelly 1:07
Let’s talk about your lead single. Now ‘Wolves’, you got two amazingly talented people on it: Ty Dolla $ign and Russ. Why were those two guys the perfect people?

Lauren Jaureugi 1:15
This song was written back in like 2019. So Russ and I have always been friends, you know, he’s an independent artist as well. And I learned a lot from him and all of the wisdom he puts out into the world as an artist and I felt very connected to him and we like grew a friendship, just like kind of knowing each other, and then Ty heard the track and loved it and wanted to hop on it. So he did.

Tetris Kelly 1:37
But as we break down this EP, tell me a little bit more about some of the other tracks and what they mean.

Lauren Jaureugi 1:41
I love all of these songs, there are six of them, two of them are already out in the world, which are ‘Always Love’ and ‘Trust Issues,’ which I feel give a very vulnerable kind of take on my songwriting, they’re very just like my vocals and some strings and a guitar, for the most part. But I opened the project with a spoken word piece that’s overseeing music that my friend Powers produced, which is really beautiful and kind of goes even more in depth into the meaning of ‘In Between.’ For me, it’s a poem specifically about that. It’s called ‘Meet Me In the In Between’.

Tetris Kelly 2:24
And something that I also have felt I’ve watched you do is kind of like grow and bloom into your sexuality as well. I’ve been very proud of you. Because like you were unfairly outed in 2016. But now you’ve kind of just owned your stuff. Yeah. And you’re out and proud and living your life. I loved your Valentine’s Day post. So how was that?

Lauren Jaureugi 2:43
I mean, it’s life. I’m older now. I was 16 when I started in this industry, and I’m now 26. So I feel like you blossom into yourself over the course of those years, you discover yourself, you meet people, you fall in love, you fall out of love, and you learn yourself. And I think even when it comes to expression and identity and sexuality, I’m very fluid. So I feel like I’ll continue to discover and engage with different parts of myself because I grow.

Tetris Kelly 3:13
Talking about growth, obviously growing as a solo artist, you know, you obviously were a part of a massive group. And one of your members recently, Dinah, she said that she quit doing solo music in 2020 because of depression and pressure. So is that something you have ever connected with? Or do you feel like there’s a pressure as being a solo artist?

Lauren Jauregui 3:31
Yeah, I think all of us could connect with that. I feel like we’ve all spoken about our stories and in respect to like that experience overall. And I think each of us needed our individual time to grow and discover our personal stories within the story of it all, you know, so I’m proud of her for getting through it and taking the time that she needed. And I hope she’s feeling beautiful because I love you.

Tetris Kelly 3:55
It feels like it was just yesterday that it was July, you guys are celebrating 10 years

Tetris Kelly 4:05
And now, it’s about to be July, again, 11 years.

Lauren Jauregui 4:09
I’m part of anything for 11 years, it’s just like a lot.

Tetris Kelly 4:12
And I feel like every every other week you guys are going viral for some moment or performance. What’s one that sticks out to you that you haven’t spoken on? I need to know like when you see this on the internet, you’re like, oh, man, I can’t.

Lauren Jaureugi 4:26
Oh man. Well, with Fifth Harmony, there is an endless supply of that. There’s so much, there’s so much stuff, definitely our carpet photos. I laughed so hard at y’all’s comments about the carpet photos because I’m, I feel you.

Tetris Kelly 4:41
For people that are checking in and tuning in now. They don’t know Lauren, they don’t know Fifth Harmony. What do you feel like you want to say?

Lauren Jauregui 4:48
Hi, I’m Lauren. I’m a singer songwriter. You should listen to my music, that’s what I would say. Go check me out, like hit me up. It’s good sh–.

Tetris Kelly 4:59
Thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us, I really appreciate it.