girlhouse's "paul blart mall cop" is a portrait of an artist growing in confidence, skill and voice

In the interim of her first two EPs, girlhouse (aka Lauren Luiz) channeled her breezy dream-pop inspirations from her early career into a more mature, rapturous and smooth sound. "paul blart mall cop" stands as evidence of this transformation. A dreamy jam, sounding as if it was recorded on a (beautifully) broken answering machine, it’s a constellation of Luiz’s personal struggles with depression.

Speaking about the incredibly intimate narrative of the track, she said, “The story is of me facing the ultimate dilemma as a person that has dealt with depression for a majority of their life, not wanting to live but not wanting to die."

Flourishing from her creative process as a teenager, Luiz is open to new experiences and learning. Perhaps inspired by her polarising home city of Portland - a place of both liberal culture and Republican and Confederate history, her work is one of balance, of pull and push. The now Nashville-based artist's music is captivating, forward-thinking and inventive, with a nostalgic twist of classic guitar lines.

Luiz began her career as an actress in her early twenties, moving to LA after her first serious breakup in 2013 and living with a friend she met while attending the Old Vic School in Bristol. She then formed the folk-pop trio WILD, before seeking out space to flourish creatively as an independent artist. And "paul blart mall cop" is but a small, beautiful terrain of what girlhouse is yet to show.