We Speak Music
LLOREN drops live session from KONK studios
After years of making cinematic music for film & TV, British pop singer and former “The Voice” finalist LLOREN is limbering up to release her dream pop debut album “It’s Always Sunny in LA” very soon.
But first she is dropping a special version of her track ‘Beverly Hills Baby’ recorded in a live session at the legendary KONK Studios. Established in the early 1970s by The Kinks as their private studio and a few years later opened to outside acts like Bay City Rollers, Thin Lizzy, and the Bee Gees, KONK Studios has recently played host to The Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club and Wild Beasts.
The song is from the perspective a woman who seemingly has it all, but she’s lonely, so she seeks the love of a younger man in a desperate bid to cling onto something youthful and romantic, to feel something magical one last time, but she knows it’s not real, that a part time love, is fleeting but that’s what makes it so desperately romantic.
“I hung out at the Beverly Hills hotel once and met a fascinating woman who was staying in town to have her face done. We talked about lots of things, her daughter, her penchant for younger men and I liked her story”, explains LLOREN.
The new release is a break in LLOREN’s string of recent singles which tease her new album and feature huge stadium-pop atmospheres and 80’s style production. Like her previous 2024 releases, “Beverly Hills Baby” continues to reveal LLOREN’s love of nostalgia and the US, but strips things back to leave more space for reflection and intimacy. There’s a slight Americana ballad tinge to the track and the versatility of LLOREN’s voice becomes more of a warming comfort here than the soaring choruses of tracks like ‘The One’ and ‘California Daydream’.
The track follows airplay for LLOREN’s music from BBC Radio 2’s Angela Griffin and Radio X’s John Kennedy and press acclaim from prestigious music tastemakers The Line Of Best Fit. LLOREN’s video for her track “Like This” also won a Telly Award in the US, as well as also being nominated for a prestigious Leo Award in Canada.
Grey’s Anatomy, The L Word, 1923, Wish, The Company You Keep, Made In Chelsea, Love Island UK and Love Island USA are just some of the many sync credits LLOREN has amassed to date, which have steadily proved her rich, multi-faceted vocal and powerful contemporary inspired compositions to be a cut above the rest.
LLOREN was recently invited to join American artist Fleurie on her first European tour. During the tour, she also caught the eyes of promoters who invited her back to open for household names Johannes Oerding and Michael Patrick Kelly and an audience of 10000 people. In the UK, LLOREN is no stranger to the annual PRIDE celebrations having played both Manchester and London where she headlined the women’s stage and has entertained crowds over 10000. She has also toured with Canadian artist Mauvey with whom she collaborated with on the track ‘Pillow’, performing it at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend as well as the Isle Of Wight Festival 2023.

We Speak Music
Acclaimed US singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd to tour the UK for the first time this summer.

Shortly after releasing her sophomore album in 2007, US-based singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd walked away from music completely for more than 10 years, feeling burned out and unhappy with her career progression like so many other independent artists. After going through a divorce in 2019 and in the midst of a global pandemic, she found herself pulled back toward the siren call of songwriting and again making the leap to pursue it full time. Her latest album ‘Carnival’, released in 2024, is in many ways the culmination of those decisions, and the reintroduction of an artist who now has the wisdom of experience.
There’s an unmistakable urgency you can feel when a song is written and performed from a place of complete honesty. That feeling permeates ‘Carnival’. “I’ve always been envious of writers who say they write songs because they have to, because they had these things they just had to get out of themselves,” Juliet says. “I had never really felt that way until this album. I’ve become someone who writes because they have to.”
Stylistically, ‘Carnival’ draws on a range of influences from Laurel Canyon-era singer/songwriters, to Lilith Fair rockers, to confessional country/folk balladeers, to indie pop. The central theme of the record and that of its title track is not being too precious about any one experience or decision. Take them for what they are, live in the moment, and move on when they’re done. It acknowledges also that memory can be subjective, and ambiguous—was an experience ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? And whose memory can you rely on to determine the answer to that question?
‘Carnival’ doesn’t just deal with the complexities of ending relationships, it also deals with all the feelings that come with moving on. The album’snine songs feature evocative storytelling that reveals a simple truth: when the carnival inevitably leaves town, you’re left with an empty parking lot. And how you remember, it is a choice. As Juliet sings in the title track, “If only there was a way you could bottle up that feeling / and you’d drink it in / when the days are short and you long.”
Across her 20+ year career, Juliet has been admittedly stylistically non-monogamous. Her first full-length album, ‘All Dressed Up’, was released in 2005 and was heavily jazz-influenced- a label that she rejected at the time. “I am a piano player and a woman, so I was immediately compared to Norah Jones—and I bristled at that,” Juliet says. “Listening back now, I can totally see that it was true, and it of course wasn’t a bad thing.” Her follow-up release ‘Leave the Light On,’ came out two years later and featured a slick piano-pop production that led to five of its songs being placed on reality TV shows on MTV and VH1. Coming back after her 10-year break from writing and recording, Juliet released ‘High Road’, a collection of five Americana/soul-tinged songs produced by Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks, Shai) that earned her widespread recognition and songwriting awards both in her home region of DC as well as nationally.
Now with her first ever UK tour scheduled for July 2025, Juliet has also dropped a completely brand-new single ‘Wild Again’, which like ‘Carnival’, was written with and produced by Todd Wright (Lucy Woodward, Butch Walker, Toby Lightman). ‘Wild Again’, however, charts yet another new step in Juliet’s journey.
“Carnival’, is full of deeply personal songs that are drawn from my real-life experiences and relationships. Coming out of that album cycle, I was feeling a little exhausted by my own navel-gazing and I was craving inspiration elsewhere. So, a lot of the songs I’m writing now are an evolution of sorts – focused more on external stimuli and finding the personal stories and humanity in that. Wild Again is a perfect example of this,” she explains.
The idea for ‘Wild Again’ was born out of a NY Times podcast Juliet listened to about the real-life efforts to return the whale that played Willy in the iconic movie ‘Free Willy’ back into the wild.
“It’s an insane, heartbreaking story that asks all kinds of thorny questions about human responsibility and humility and what’s the “right” thing to do and is that the same as the “kind” thing to do. There was a line that one of the trainers said in the podcast, explaining that they were trying to “train him to be wild again.” The complete absurdity of that statement hit me in the moment, and I immediately started jotting down lyrical ideas”, Juliet says.
Catch Juliet Lloyd on her UK tour this July:
1st July: The Folklore Rooms / Brighton
2nd July: The Hyde Tavern / Winchester
3rd July: Hen and Chicken / Bristol (CRH Music promotions)
4th July: Artisan Tap Hartshill / Stoke-on-Trent
5th July: Waggon & Horses, Nottingham
6th July: Cafe#9 / Sheffield
7th July: Hyde Park Book Club / Leeds
10th July: FortyFive Vinyl Café / York
11th July: The Muddy Puddle / London
13th July: The Wrotham Arms / Broadstairs

-
We Speak AAU Basketball5 days ago
Future Floor General: Savage F.O.E.’s PG Kyan Mains Is Turning Heads On The AAU Circuit
-
We Speak Volleyball1 week ago
Serving Up Power and Positivity: Spotlight on Volleyball Standout Hannah Edgeworth
-
We Speak Coaches2 days ago
Lockdown Leadership: Inside The Mind Of Jonesboro High School’s Defensive Backs Coach Ced Brooks
-
We Speak Track And Field5 days ago
Every Step Earned, Every Sprint Fought For: How Parker Duskin Trains, Thinks, And Races Like An Elite Sprinter in the Making