North Londoner Laurel Smith has already accomplished a lot at age 20. She’s modeled for iconic brands like Stitch and RMDY Clothing, and she’s becoming one of the most distinctive voices in moody pop and hip-hop.
Sonically, Smith’s latest single “Everybody Bleeds” is at the crossroads of sultry and savage. The most obvious comparison is to Ms. Eilish – and in the song’s video, Smith turns into Billie with a baseball bat.
“It’s basically a revenge song,” says Smith about “Everybody Bleeds”. “I had a lot of anger at the time it was written. I was going through a phase where I felt I was letting other people influence my actions too much and I wasn’t standing up for myself. I felt like I’d been done wrong by a lot of these people. The song really helped me find my power and confidence again, the message really being: everybody bleeds the same, so if you hurt me or take advantage of me, expect it to come back around.”
If you don’t fixate on the weaponry in the video, the song itself is quite hypnotic. “Everybody Bleeds” was produced by Julian Flew, who has done standout studio work with L Devine and others. And Smith’s hip-hop flow is first-rate.
Smith’s only regret about the video is that she actually didn’t get to destroy anything. “I was really looking forward to smashing the mirror with the baseball bat at the end of the video (to let some anger out) so I was a bit disappointed to find out the producers had decided to do this in VFX,” she laughs.
Watch Laurel Smith seek retribution below, or find “Everybody Bleeds” on streaming services.
