Artist
Lorde
New Zealand singer‐songwriter
Auckland, New Zealand • b. 1996
Lorde is a musician from Auckland, New Zealand, active since 1996. Their discography on Gatefold includes 9 records.
9
Albums tracked
176
In collections
1996
Since
Biography
Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, known professionally as Lorde (born 7 November 1996 in Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand), is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. Taking inspiration from aristocracy for her stage name, she is known for her unconventional musical styles and introspective songwriting. Lorde expressed interest in performing at local venues in her early teens. She signed with Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2009 and collaborated with producer Joel Little in 2011 to start recording music.
The Arc of Lorde
The pivots — what forced Lorde to reinvent.
The Bedroom Minimalist
She and producer Joel Little rejected the loud, maxed-out production of the early 2010s by stripping everything down to the bone. They used a bare-minimum setup of vocal harmonies, deep sub-bass, and simple drum-machine clicks to let the lyrics carry the weight. You hear this clearly on the Love Club EP and Pure Heroine, where the silence between the beats does all the heavy lifting. It was a bedroom-pop blueprint disguised as a major-label debut.
The New York Melodrama
Moving to New York and partnering with Jack Antonoff changed the scale of the music entirely. She traded the sterile, digital space of Auckland for grand pianos, analog synths, and brass arrangements. The narrative shifted from suburban teenage boredom to late-night urban heartbreak. The record was built on dynamic shifts, where quiet verses suddenly explode into massive, theatrical choruses that feel like a panic attack.
The Acoustic Comedown
She completely abandoned the dancefloor on her third record, recruiting Antonoff again but banning synthesizers in favor of acoustic guitars, flutes, and organic percussion. Influenced by early 70s folk-rock, the recordings were warm, dry, and distinctly uncommercial. The industry wanted another synth-pop triumph, but she delivered a sun-drenched, divisive record about environmental anxiety and fame burnout. It sounded like a completely different artist, which was entirely the point.
Influences
- David Bowie — Bowie publicly praised her early performances and called her the future of music. You hear his influence in her dramatic, character-driven vocal deliveries and her willingness to completely torch her established sound between albums. She later paid tribute to him with a performance of Life on Mars at the Brit Awards with his touring band.
- Kate Bush — She has repeatedly cited Bush as a major vocal and production influence, specifically referencing the way Bush used the Fairlight CMI sampler to create strange vocal textures. You hear this on tracks like Writer in the Dark, where her vocal delivery goes into an unhinged, theatrical register. It is a direct descendant of the dramatic vocal shifts on The Dreaming.
- Robyn — The blueprint for her sad-banger style comes directly from Robyn, whom she famously covered on Saturday Night Live. The juxtaposition of heartbreaking lyrics over driving, electronic dance beats on tracks like Green Light is a direct nod to Body Talk. It is the art of crying on the dancefloor.
- Leonard Cohen — She has noted that Cohen's lyricism taught her how to write about domestic details with gravity. You hear this in her dry, conversational lyric delivery and the way she structures her songs around hyper-specific vignettes. It is pop music built on the foundation of folk-poetry.
- James Blake — His self-titled debut album was the direct inspiration for the heavy use of negative space and sub-bass on Pure Heroine. She wanted to capture his stark, British post-dubstep atmosphere but apply it to Top 40 pop structures. The sub-bass frequencies on Royals are a direct lift from his production aesthetic.
Discography
Their records — most-collected first.
Around the web
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