Lou Hayter preps 2nd solo album: hear “3AM”

Former New Young Pony Club keyboardist Lou Hayter will release Unfamiliar Skin, her second solo album, on October 4 via Greco Roman (the label co-founded by Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard). It follows 2021’s Private Sunshine.

“It’s a very personal album to me because I produced, performed and wrote it myself,” Lou says. “It felt important for me to do this as only a small percentage of producers are women so I set myself the challenge. The title reflects the new feeling of this role but also has a dual meaning about why the enticing pull of the unfamiliar in relationships can lead to affairs, that’s what the title track is about. I stepped away from my first album a little bit sonically and took inspiration from space-age r&b in the early 2000’s, the sound of Compass Point studios and electronic soul were also a huge influence for me. I have a magpie approach to music in that I’m always looking for something I haven’t heard before that is shiny and exciting to my ears: if it doesn’t have magic in it I won’t use it. I made my own world in this record, I’m proud of it and I think it sounds quite unique.”

The new single off the album is the sleek, clubby “3AM” which Lou says “is exactly what it says in the lyrics.” She adds: “I was wide awake at 3am and sang this into my phone, which happens to me a lot in the night. Then when I made it the next day I felt inspired by things like ‘Too Blind to See It’, produced by Steve Silk Hurley, which was a big tune when I was a kid. These crossover house records have a very special place in my heart as a place and time in my life. I collected house records all through my teens from Masters at Work, Mood 2 Swing etc., so I was thinking of those when I made it.”

Listen to “3AM” and three other songs off the album below.

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Unfamiliar Skin:
1. Scorpio
2. Frequency
3. Unfamiliar Skin
4. In My Heart
5. Stop the Rain
6. Ok Ok
7. 3AM 03:36
8. 808 Beat
9. Life