Lau Noah: Speaking Guitar, Chasing Freedom

Spanish multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Lau Noah has taken the world by storm since the release of her 2024 debut album, A Dos. Ahead of her appearance at Adelaide Guitar Festival 2025, Noah spoke with The Note about living in a music commune in Spain, moving to New York and performing for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

Interview Tobias Handke // Image Alba Marine

First off, congratulations on your new EP, The Way Under, with Adam Neely. Tremendous stuff. Before diving into the release, I wanted to go back to the very beginning. You began writing music at a very young age. I read that you were influenced by Disney soundtracks. What films or songs do you remember having an impact and how did they inspire your creativity? 

The Disney movies around the late ‘90s [and] early 2000s had this severity; these complex, quite dark characters that were masterfully represented in the music. Hunchback of Notre Dame representing the outcasts, Tarzan depicting the cruelty of wild animal hunting or Pocahontas shining a light on Indigenous people’s persecution. All of that can be felt in the music, and the power to translate emotion into sound fascinated me from the start.

As a late teen, you moved to a musicians’ commune in the countryside near Barcelona. What prompted this move and how did you find that experience? 

I had grown up in a very sheltered, strict household. There was a lot of love, yet the life I envisioned for myself through books I had read was not quite the path my parents expected of me. The experience in the commune was profound, intense… disturbing as well. Very beautiful and life-changing. But also the kind of adventure that creates wounds one spends a whole lifetime trying to heal. 

While living in the commune, you were introduced to jazz music for the first time. What impact did the genre have on you and were there any jazz artists you listened to and connected with immediately? 

Growing up, I had listened to mostly pop [and] rock music. Avril Lavigne was a favourite. But I did miss a harmonic complexity that jazz provided. I grew up in a small city in the south of Barcelona and somehow had missed a hidden jazz club by the outskirts of the city. A friend took me there once and the mother and son who ran it gave me the courage to dream about a possible life in music. I would visit them often after school.

Bill Evans and Chet Baker were my favourites. Dark, sad, beautiful beings always between life and death…

Following your stay at the commune, you moved to New York at the age of 19. What were those early years like, trying to pursue a career in music while juggling day jobs and trying to keep a roof above your head? 

It was jarring, but it always felt like I could handle it because freedom was staring at me from an always closer distance than the day before. I would scoot through the snow in south Brooklyn from mansion to mansion teaching little rich kids for minimum wage, waitress my way around couples who seemed madly in love and then find the man’s phone number sneakily written under the tip on the bill; hide my restaurant tips in vinyl cases under my bed… I lived like my life was a poem, so it always made sense in my mind to figure out the next verse. 

How much did that experience help you discover who you are as a person and what you were capable of? 

New York City is the pickiest city in the world. If she likes you, she’ll reward you in exchange for what’s left of you. Feeling like I’ve found success in a place like this gives me such pride. It’s not easier now, but it is maybe more intentional and the community is there to support [me] much more than before. 

You also learned how to play the guitar during this period. What inspired you to take up the guitar?

The guitar coming into my life was an accident! I was stuck in a friend’s apartment in Montréal when I wrote my first song on guitar, only because there were no other instruments in the house. I was in love and the boy had told me he adored that one song. This was a powerful breeze under my wings. I dove into the guitar like a madwoman, figuring out my own way of playing complex melodies. There was no time to learn the basics or follow anyone’s instructions. I needed to “speak guitar” as well as he spoke guitar. Making love was not enough; I wanted to connect as much as possible.

What do you remember about that night writing your first song, ‘Pequitas’?

I don’t remember much of the process; they say it’s common when you’re in a deep creative state. Your consciousness diminishes. I just took it note by note… felt free, like Harry Potter when he finally picks up the right wand for him – a halo of light, all possibility. But I would have never expected to have the career I have now back then. 

You began posting videos online and started to get noticed, then suddenly, you’re performing for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. Were you surprised they asked you to perform and how did you enjoy the experience? 

I was so surprised! Especially because it was through a message on Facebook! Bob Boilen, the creator of the series, reached out through the platform. It’s not something you say no to, even if you don’t feel ready for it. I guess it’s often like that in life. I drove the five hours that separate NYC from Washington DC and performed the hardest show of my career. I cried my way back home. Only after I watched the video a few weeks later [did] I realise I had made up all these mistakes in my mind. It was a beautiful performance, especially after only three years of playing the guitar. I felt my brain expanding the limits of what I could do after that. 

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Your first LP, A Dos, arrived in 2024 to much fanfare. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful collection of songs and despite not understanding many of the lyrics, the music still moved me, which is what all great art does. How proud are you of the album? Is there any message you hope people take away from listening to A Dos? 

A Dos was a mad project! I had just come to terms with how broke I was, and while unable to sleep one night in Madrid on someone’s couch, I envisioned two chairs facing each other. The duet format is the most romantic and intimate of all, and I just literally “night-dreamed” about my perfect musical partners, then sent them the songs. I spent two years chasing them down to record. The priority was the connection, so we just recorded most songs in living rooms, home studios and bars in five different cities, three different countries and two different continents – wherever and whenever we could. My intention was to bring back simple, one-take, no edit type of recordings. It was my way to say, “If a song is sung truthfully, you need nothing else but a couple of voices and a guitar.”

A Dos features a cavalcade of incredible artists. From Grammy-winning Latin star Gaby Moreno to British singer-songwriter Jacob Collier. I wanted to ask about working with Jorge Drexter. I was first introduced to him through The Motorcycle Diaries, which features his song ‘Al Otro Lado del Rio’. What was he like to work with and how did you go about writing and recording ‘Libertad’?

Jorge’s voice is so legendary. All my friends from Latin America grew up listening to his music. You feel his comfort within the song. He loves to emphasise the story behind the lyrics and is very open to connecting musically. We recorded in his home studio in Madrid, one take, both singing at once. Eye contact, no fuss. It was exactly what the song needed. I had written it about a year before then, in my basement in Queens, and Jorge’s voice seemed so perfect for it. A mix between prayer, hymn and song. 

Another highlight is the album closer, ‘Ode to darkness (the lighthouse song)’. Explain the creation of the song and what made you decide to add the crowd-like harmonies at the end? 

I wrote the first verse of that song at home in NY right before a show when I had the need to play a more “folk-like” song on my set. I had a rehearsal with my friend Julia, who was going to sing with me, and on my way to her in the subway, I realised it needed another verse. I wrote it under the fluorescent lights in the moving car surrounded by strangers. A few months later, I was about to open for Chris Thile in Europe and the two harmony audience parts came to me in the green room. I tried it that same night on a Parisian audience and it was stunning. I kept on doing it at every show. The biggest audience who has sung this with me has been about 8.000 people! So magical. It was a must to include on the record. 

Since the release of A Dos, you’ve had a who’s who of fellow musos sing your praise, from Jamie Cullum and Phoebe Bridgers to Jackson Browne and Moses Sumney. It must be incredibly humbling to have artists of that ilk say positive things about your music. 

It is such fuel and it feels less lonely. I astoundingly could eventually belong to this group of dreamers, thinkers, who soften the thorns everywhere they go. It’s my favourite way to build my career, by holding the hands of other artists and their generosity instead of paying my way up with ads and massively expensive PR campaigns.

I also want to big up your EP with Adam Neely, The Way Under. How did the project come about and what is it about Neely’s sound that blends so well with yours?

Adam and I started playing together a few years back and always spoke about doing a project that would allow our instruments to switch responsibilities – bass could take the lead and guitar could play the root. We wrote some music in a cabin in the woods of Maine and recorded it in Boston. Sometimes words get in the way and instrumental music just hits right. Adam and I’s way of writing is very compatible, him being so well-versed in music theory and myself having none of it – our meeting place is very exciting. 

You’ve toured the globe and are finally making your way to Australia for the first time as part of the Adelaide Guitar Festival. How excited are you to visit and is there anything you want to do or see while here?

I’ve dreamed of visiting Australia since I was a young girl. I watched Blue Water High with my sister on the weekends – we were obsessed with surfing then – and Steve Irwin’s show. That was my first connection to Australian culture. But over the years, I’ve come to love amazing Australian artists. I’m a big fan of Matt Corby and might play a song of his on my set!. If he is playing anywhere, that’s where I’ll be! 

You’re performing alongside Aussie singer-songwriter Lior. Do you know much about him and can we expect from your live show? Any surprise duets?

I checked out Lior’s music and he’s got beautiful stuff! Excited to share such a beautiful theatre and if we have time to meet beforehand, I’d love to collaborate. 

Lastly, what’s next for Lau Noah? Can we expect a new album or another collaborative release in the near future?

I’m working on my next album right now. The aim here is clear: I’ll lean on ALL the things. A.I. has no chance at replacing human emotion, mortal virtuosity, flawed moral character [or] real-life experience. [I’m] excited to bring this new project on the road next year. 

Catch Lau Noah performing as part of Adelaide Guitar Festival at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Sunday 14 September. Tickets on sale now via adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au.

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