New Music: girlhouse – cool guy

Though known for her role in WILD, an outfit that made a big impression on the US folk-pop scene, girlhouse’s Lauren Luiz states that she has always felt the pull to try and experience new things. Her subsequent solo career goes from strength to strength as you can hear of the reflective indie-pop folkishness of cool guy.

It’s not often that you hear a song namechecks The Great Gatsby, but its something that very much in fitting with the themes of the lyrics on cool guy. Luiz’ vocals retain their established folk-infused sound, though here they’re allied with an arrangement that draws in indie, pop, and electronic influences. That combination brings a somewhat unusual air to the song, for while it’s certainly not stark, there’s a subtle but engaging sense of bleakness to it.

Talking about cool guy, girlhouse reveals, “The term ‘cool guying’ means to acquire a slight amount of clout and become a complete weirdo. I wrote this with my friend Mark Campbell when I was feeling a lil zesty about some of the clouty people in my life.” Adds Luiz, “In all seriousness, no shade on them, I just had to figure out if that was of value to me. I had an ex that got mad at me for calling him ‘cool’ and that was really confusing to me until he ended up actually being very very ‘cool.’”

cool guy features on the third ep, which is out now and available to stream Apple Music and Spotify. Check out girlhouse on Instagram and Twitter for more listening details, plus news on their U.S. tour with The Wrecks this June and July.