Photo credit: Liz Evans

“Sometimes it’s hard to walk away from a loved one, even though you know you should,” explains celebrated retropop artist LAU (a.k.a. Laura Fares) about her appropriately-titled new single “Drifting Away” which is released viaAztec Records. “Finding the courage to get up and leave a relationship that is not good for either side is tough, taking that first step for a better life, even though it may break your heart to do so.”

Set against a throbbing electropop beat, LAU captures all the soaring synth magic of the greats Giorgio Moroder and Ken Laszlo and transports it to a retro-modern environment. Collaborating with renowned Finnish synth artist AKRAS, who added his trademark spotless production to her energetic vocals, “Drifting Away” embeds a strong ‘80s neon glow on the soon-to-be synthwave classic.

“I discovered AKRAS through a compilation we released on Aztec Records and I immediately loved his production and sound. I contacted him to write a song for my new album and he agreed, but as he’s based in Helsinki and I’m in Barcelona, we had to do a remote writing session. I loved the process though. We both connected for about eight hours online. He sent me some ideas, we then wrote together for a bit, and then I took some time only to record vocals, while he was recording a guitar solo. Finally we did another video call that same day to put it all together. We wrote ‘Laser Eyes’ in a day. The result was so good and we connected so well that we decided to write another song together. So we repeated the process for ‘Drifting Away’. These two songs just flowed really quickly. I would love to do more songs with him in future, perhaps for my next album.”

“This new album Digital Dream is my third studio album, and it touches different subjects like technology, friendship, love and attraction. I’ve been working on this album for the last couple of years. I initially had a batch of demos that I ended up changing completely over time. Took me a while to settle on these nine songs, from the 25-30 tracks that I originally had in mind. It was a lot of writing, rewriting and revisiting ideas. On my second album Circumstance I went for a more pop/nu-disco/happier sound, so for this new album I wanted to go back to my synthwave/retrowave roots, always maintaining that 80’s flavour that I love so much. I got inspired by my friends, by my relationships (past and present) and by the fast technological advances we have to deal with, on a day to day basis. Progress is something we can’t escape, but we need to adapt quicker than ever to all the new changes, and try to find balance so we don’t lose ourselves in the process.”