Lauran Hibberd

Hibberd started playing the guitar at 15,[1] later telling Music Week "I write two songs a week, I always have".[2]

She studied at Platform One College of Music in Newport, instead of going to sixth form,[3] graduating in 2015 with the equivalent of 3 A* grades at A level.[4] Her first single, The House I Built When I Was Small, was released in December of that year. It was played by Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6 Music, and featured on the in-store playlists for Harrods and Costa Coffee in January 2016.[5]

Her early work was influenced by indie-folk artists such as Laura Marling, Feist and Lucy Rose,[6] but when she started recording with producers Boe Weaver, she was encouraged to listen to the music of Weezer and "fell in love with the way stories are conveyed, like conversations[7]". From then on, her music began to move in a more indie-pop direction. In an Instagram Live broadcast on 22nd March 2020, Hibberd disowned her earlier work, jokingly comparing a reference to her Favourite Shade of Blue EP to the practice of deadnaming.

Her breakout hit was "Call Shotgun", which was playlisted on BBC Radio 1 in August 2018.[8] This led to her playing the BBC Introducing stage at the Glastonbury Music Festival in 2019. She has accompanied US bands Hippo Campus and The Regrettes on the European legs of their tours, in addition to her own headline national tours.

In February 2020, UK Music announced that Hibberd would be included in the British Music Embassy line up at the 2020 South by Southwest Festival,[9] though this was subsequently cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hibberd's music has often been described as "slacker pop".[10]