Inside Songwriting and Storytelling with Laura Pieri on the Release of her Latest Single, Just A Little

Capping off a month of themed releases, rising pop sensation Laura Pieri is back with the release of her latest single, Just A Little. Exploring different archetypes of feminine power, Laura Pieri has spent the month of October releasing a series of reimagined covers of iconic pop songs as different characters, including Lady Gaga’s “Marry the Night” (The Vampire), Charli xcx’s “party 4 u” (The Siren) and Rihanna’s “Disturbia” (The Werewolf). Ending the month with an original single, Pieri explores the line between temptation and control, flirting with danger without fully giving into it. With playful melodies and dancing lyrics, Just A Little is undeniably catchy, solidifying her as a rising force to watch out for in pop music. Laura Pieri sat down with Off The Record to talk a little more about her latest release. 

The release of "Just a Little" marks the end of your month-long Halloween reimagining of iconic songs as different cinematic archetypes of feminine power, what initially inspired the project? 

A mixture of both my love for Halloween and my love for monsters. I read Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s Monster Theory in college and it’s something I’ve continuously returned to. If monsters are, as he says, cultural mirrors into our own anxieties, what was there to uncover about my favorite monsters. The song is about how sometimes the parts of us that we try to hide from are still pieces that complete us, so what could I find by looking at the vampiric, the siren, and the werewolf pieces? 

Alongside the release of the covers, you also released short stories on Substack that go with each character, do you approach song writing and storytelling differently?

Absolutely. Writing songs, for me, is like baking. Writing stories is like cooking. One is precise, scientific, the proportions, the rhythm, the emotional balance all have to click just right. The other is instinctual and so much messier. When I write songs, I’m usually not alone, and everyone in the room is very aware of structure and timing. It’s about capturing one truth cleanly, in usually three and a half minutes. But when I’m writing stories, I go into this sort of feverish state, and I usually need to be alone. I just try to keep up.

Ending the month of covers with an original single, is there anything about releasing "Just a Little" you’re particularly excited about?

I hope people take the song as an opportunity to dig deeper. 

Working with a variety of mediums alongside music such as writing stories and designing visuals, what inspires your artistic process the most? 

Oh, God…everything! I know it’s cliche to say, but life itself is so rich when you actually take the time to live it. To observe, to feel, to be curious. But lately literature has been my closest companion. And look, I get it, nonfiction is important, it’s valued, it teaches us a lot. But if you really want to practice empathy, read fiction. There’s nothing like stepping into someone else’s mind and heart, seeing the world through their eyes. Oh and artist Hilma af Klint. Her mysticism, the way she and her group of friends used art as a kind of séance, a bridge to something beyond themselves, and how she had the balls to seal her work away for years. Whether it’s a song, a story, or a visual world, I’m chasing the invisible thread between what’s seen and what’s felt.

For fans new to your music, what three songs of yours would you want them to hear and why? 

I’d start with “Sea of Tragedy.” It’s the opening to the Frankie EP, and the opening of Frankie’s story and in a lot of ways really emblematic of where I was at a point in time. It’s also a little inspired by myth. It's two fold really, because “Sea of Tragedy (ON THE DANCEFLOOR)” is the same song but transformed. It takes the opening and disillusioned moment of “Frankie” and turns it into movement. It’s about release, it’s a lot of fun and something you can dance through. 

Then I’d say “Sail Away.” It’s a track more inspired by my roots and one of my favorite songs still that I’ve done. It’s a fun one! 

And finally, “Dante.” That one lives in a different register, and means so much to me. It’s darker and was inspired by the Inferno poem. It takes on the perspective of a demon who works there and she’s talking to a guy she was assigned to torture. Those three together, “Sea of Tragedy,” “Sail Away,” and “Dante,” feel like the full arc of who I am as an artist. 

Anything upcoming you’d like to tease? What can listeners expect in the future?

Follow me everywhere @thelaurapieri, and you’ll be the first to know! I’m currently in the kitchen cooking and baking some stuff up… good things take time!

Stream Just A Little, out now.