The moody pop heard on Charleston singer-songwriter Laurlyn’s debut EP Modern Nocturnes is an ethos that captures her love of Chopin’s classical piano solos called “nocturnes.”
“I loved how they set the scene of ‘night music,’” Laurlyn told the Charleston City Paper. “I decided to play on the musical theme of night and dark for the EP and came up with the title of Modern Nocturnes to fit that.”
Her crisply styled pop is wistful and wandering on the 14-minute EP — good for staring through a window at a moonlit sky as your thoughts creep back to a complicated love. Her voice winds along the piano-driven, percussion-riddled song “Atone” before she ends with the line: “Will you atone for me / atone for me / and if you ask me now / that’ll be a no from me.”
Laurel Smith, the songwriter who goes by Laurlyn, is originally from Colorado Springs and moved to Charleston about six years ago. She grew up playing classical piano, majored in music in college and took up songwriting years previously, but she didn’t really dive into recording as a solo artist until late 2021 when she reached out to producer Matt Tuton of The Lab studio on Johns Island.
“‘Better Off,’ the first song on the EP, really was an incredible journey to go on, because I originally thought it was just going to be a simple piano ballad,” she said. “And then we started experimenting and trying a bunch of stuff. I referenced a song called ‘White Flag’ by the artist Clairo, which has this really cool 808 sub bass beat in it. I was like, ‘What if we took it in a nightclub direction?’ That was the launching point for us. And then Matt got super experimental with those glitch synth [sounds] … It took months to work together and collaborate and make it into what it is.”
Tuton added, “The song showed us its new nature, and it was a thread we had to follow, so we did.”
Laurlyn’s keys and synth shine on the new tracks that Tuton tied together instrumentally.
“My favorite song is ‘Whisper,’” Tuton said. “Most of the songs on this EP took me a good amount of time to create … ‘Whisper’ was the opposite. I put every instrument, besides piano and vocal, in ‘Whisper’ over the course of a day. I was able to clearly draw on elements I have worked with a lot in my past, like doom metal and ambient rock stuff by Braveyoung and Sigur Rós. I remember getting out my guitar and volume pedal for volume swells, going into The Lab’s live room, and playing the track from the top and just letting the way I naturally play come out.”
Next up on her list of priorities is performing, which means translating her recordings to a live show and assembling a band.
“There’s always a state of vulnerability when you put your music out there,” Laurlyn said. “But it’s also just been a joy to finally show everyone. This has been going on inside of me for a minute, and it’s just nice to be able to let my creative brain be seen on the outside.”
While Modern Nocturne gives a mercurial vibe, the catchiness provides a nice balance — what Laurlyn termed “sad bops.”
“Even in the darkness, there’s so much fun,” she said of the EP. “And there’s so much goodness. When I talk about ‘sad bops,’ I really love that juxtaposition of sad lyrics or sad concepts with something that’s more upbeat or dancey with a lot of cool instrumentation. Because I think that’s kind of how life is — it’s both at the same time.”
Outside of songwriting, Laurlyn said she enjoys having her creative life separate from her day job. It has helped her nurture her moments of inspiration and recognize that rest is important for productivity.
“You can’t just go go go and never allow yourself a moment to sit,” she said. “Sometimes those moments that you’re sitting are the times that you are most inspired, when the songs just drop in.”
She said she loves music because it is both inventive and analytical.
“You get to use it [as] a full expression of yourself when you’re creating it. As a music listener, it’s a place to escape. It’s a place to process … Even though there’s 12 notes in the Western scale, there’s so many infinite possibilities for how to create and make something new with the tools that you’re given.”
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