Erin LeCount on Essex, art-pop ambitions, and her new EP 'PAREIDOLIA' • Neu • DIY Magazine

“It was my birthday yesterday,” begins Erin LeCount, as we start our conversation today. “I feel a little bit frazzled, there’s so much to think about at the moment that I genuinely forgot it was my birthday!” Such is her rise over the past year, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the Essex native is finding it hard to keep up. 2025 saw her go from sub-100 capacity London venue Rae’s to the heady heights of selling out KOKO up the road.

While this supersonic rise has clearly been something of a whirlwind, in many ways Erin is more prepared than most to handle it. “In some ways it feels quick, but I’ve also been singing live since I was nine or ten - it’s my first love,” she notes. “I’ve been playing live for so long so it feels really natural, and in many ways it’s felt easier and easier the more people there are, to have people actually show up for you instead of deciding whether they’ll take it or leave it.”

That same ease and confidence is clear in her music too. Last year saw Erin release her debut EP, ‘I Am Digital, I Am Divine’, a stunning introduction full of intricately crafted maximalist art-pop; a masterclass in songwriting and production, all done from the shed in her garden. But where some would aim for a big name studio or producer, Erin instead enjoys the control that solo work (and her shed) brings.

“Even subconsciously, going into a room and trying to explain what you want to someone can let external opinions in. I need to make things really privately to know that they are genuinely mine. I need to feel like I’ve been inside the song and back out again before I feel okay to share it with anyone else.” That feeling of diving headfirst into her music will be familiar to anyone who’s listened to ‘I Am Digital…’, and is only furthered on its forthcoming follow-up.

On new EP, ‘PAREIDOLIA’, the production takes another step forward, marrying her innate sense for a pop hook with her love for a left-field choice, and adding a layer of polish to it all. It also marks a change in direction; where previously she had “all the time in the world”, with such a newly busy schedule, this new project was formed in pockets of time in-between the madness of everything else around her. Not that there was much choice in the matter. “I have to write and I have to make things. It is a genuine need,” she nods. “It was never a pressure of, ‘when am I going to get the time?’ It’s a non-negotiable, this is something I have to do and so I’ll make time.”

“I need to feel like I’ve been inside the song and back out again before I feel okay to share it with anyone else.”

Erin’s not shy about her influences either, with Lorde, Kate Bush and Charli XCX being not just previously cited, but clear touchstones throughout her work. “Art pop is alive and well,” she enthuses. “From artists like Kate Bush or Björk, the torch gets passed down, and that’s not me saying that I’m trying to hold the torch but I’m very inspired by the light.” The more the conversation continues the more her quiet ambition emanates; neither the rich vein of the current pop landscape, nor the legendary predecessors she mentions, seem to faze Erin in the slightest.

Instead, any reputation she may be gaining seems to be a challenge to rise to. “It gives me hope and faith in what I’d like to do and the trajectory that I’d like to have. I think there’s a sentiment that the general population have bad taste in music, but it’s what we give them. I think labels and artists sometimes really underestimate people’s tastes and what they’re willing to open their mind to - I want to give people a chance to like something they wouldn’t expect to like.”

Having grown up in Essex, it admittedly took some time for LeCount to fully embrace her roots. “I used to tell people I was from London,” she admits, but she now sees the influence her home county has had on her and her art. Whether that’s fashion (“the most glam thing to me is a tacky fur coat”) or the ability to learn her craft, Essex has left its mark. “Growing up I found it embarrassing; I wanted to be in London where I felt there was more history and culture but there’s history and culture in abundance here. Essex isn’t particularly known for having a great music scene, but I wouldn’t be making music if a local venue hadn’t let me use it free of charge every weekend. And Fakemink is from Basildon, so Essex is getting some rep!”

From Brentwood to the stars, then. If 2025 set the bar, 2026 looks set to raise it even further with a sold out US tour just round the corner, and then some “dream venues” teased for later in the calendar. Nothing is slowing down this inevitable rise and you can be sure Erin is going to be making the most of it. As for what’s next? “I really just want to test the waters.”

‘PAREIDOLIA’ is out now via Good As Gold Records.

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