Fans of 16-year-old alt-pop sensation Lorde couldn’t have asked for a better time when the New Zealand native played New York’s Le Poisson Rouge on Aug. 6, leading the tiny club in a boisterous singalong of selections from her debut EP, “The Love Club.” But a smaller group of fans was also in attendance, as senior reps from virtually every major publisher filled the room, in hopes of making a deal before Lorde’s full-length, Pure Heroine, arrives Sept. 30 on Lava/Republic.
SONGS founder Matt Pincus, Universal Music Publishing Group senior VP Jessica Rivera, Sony/ATV co-president Danny Strick, Liberal Arts’ Clio Massey and Spirit Music Group founder Mark Fried were among the executives in attendance, with an abundance of other industry execs among the packed standing-room crowd. Several made the trip to her second show, at Los Angeles’ Echoplex, later that week to plant an extra kiss on the ring. “Her performances in New York and L.A. were as powerful and self-assured as on her EPs — remarkable considering these were her first shows away from home to rooms filled with biz, radio and trade press folks,” Fried says.
While a final decision on publishers is expected in a few weeks, according to Fried, Lorde’s star continues to rise. Born Ella Yelich O’Connor, she has quickly become the breakout artist of the summer, as “Royals” built a fervent following on YouTube and Spotify with little promotion, and rises 39-24 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. The multiformat hit has already marked a milestone on Billboard’s Nielsen BDS-based Alternative chart, where she became the first lead solo female to top the tally since Tracy Bonham’s “Mother Mother” in 1996.
Lorde’s DIY attitude has kept intrigue and interest from potential collaborators at a high. Even her label partners are keeping their involvement at arm’s length, letting the fans do the work.
“When you have an artist that has a really true vision and a body of work that represents her vision,” Republic executive VP Charlie Walk says, “we want to follow that and do the right thing by protecting what she started.”