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May 14, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Alex Justice

Girlhouse is the rising bedroom pop moniker of musician and actress Lauren Luiz. After cutting her teeth as an actress in LA and as vocalist for LA trio WILD, Luiz quickly established herself in a new lane last year with a stellar run of singles. This year, Luiz has returned with a debut EP, simply titled the girlhouse ep. As Luiz explains, “This EP follows my story of landing in LA and finding out exactly how ignorant I was to the real world; whether that be relationships, men in general, career, sex, friendships, or battling mental illness and dealing with trauma, it all felt new to me.”

Along with the new EP Luiz has also shared a new visualizer for one of the EP’s highlights “pretty girl in la,” premiering with Under the Radar.

If the whole EP acts like somewhat of a breakup letter to LA, “pretty girl in la” is undoubtedly the centerpiece. Where she pulls more directly from current indie heavyweights like Soccer Mommy, Phoebe Bridgers, and Snail Mail on other tracks, “pretty girl in la” instead leans towards sweet shimmering indie pop. The lush synth tones, soaring vocals, and indelible hook make for pure pop brilliance, contrasted with the lyrics reflecting on the anxiety and isolation the city fostered. The accompanying video is delightfully unguarded and equally sweet, with Luiz simply playing with various goofy filters in her apartment.

As Luiz explains, “‘pretty girl in la’ is more direct than the others on the ep. This one is very nostalgic of my West Hollywood days, wanting to be an actress and letting people destroy my confidence daily for the sake of the ‘craft’. I have so many memories of being out at bars/clubs in LA having a lovely time, when out of the blue some stranger would come up to me and tell me that I’m ‘kind of pretty, but not LA pretty.’ Drilling deeper saying that ‘in my hometown I might be a 7 or 8 but in LA I’m merely a 4.’ This happened so many times that I really started to take it to heart, I was 23 and it kind of destroyed me! I would hold my breath going through tunnels just wishing that I could be an LA 8, thinking that would fix all my problems.”

Check out the song, video, and full EP below, out now.