VICE Spotlight: Lottie World

Like most music I find these days, Lottie World’s track “Keep Running” came to me through the internet. 

For months, I had been journeying through the world of Australian R&B and hip hop, quenching an obsession with the genres that had first started in 2021, and had slowly been making my way through the ever-evolving hyperpop and pop scene, too. I had been craving a new take on music that didn’t mimic the sounds of American and UK music trends. I wanted something different. Something new.

As soon as “Keep Running,” off her debut EP My Pop Album, began to play I knew I’d stumbled across something highly underrated and truly innovative. Her music was some of the best left-of-field pop I’d heard in a while, both nationally and internationally.

It has vague resemblance to artists like Coco & Clair Clair, with chipmunked vocal pitches, airy instrumentals and unorthodox song structure. Her tracks are cutesy, honest and unpredictable – much like the artist herself – and brings new meaning to the upcoming class of innovative, internet-savvy pop producers who pull inspiration from anywhere and everything. 

“If I were to put it down to two top influences it would be Timbaland on one side and Vashti Bunyan on the other,” she told VICE. “Although the genres and sound of their work is vastly different I feel that they conjure up the same feeling in my heart.”

“Through my teen years it was always a mixture of folk music, Fleet Foxes, Josh Pyke, Joni Mitchell mixed with Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Drake (dangerously huge Drake fan).  Other notable influences are traditional church hymns, as well as traditional Melenesian music because I grew up on it. However, if i was to listen to one song for the rest of my life it would be “Tower of Silence” by Roberto Musci. He's an Italian composer who blends many different cultures of world music with classical European music.”

Like many artists, Lottie says music allows her most inner thoughts to be funnelled to the listeners of the world.

“I make music because I need an outlet to store all my dark secrets so that my head doesn’t explode,” she says.

“I feel lucky to have a good knack for music, because I have a way to convert everything I’m confused about in my life into a nice sounding song that makes sense. I feel like I’ve been labelled as a strange person, an outsider and an oddball my whole life. I just want people to hear me embracing that side of myself that I have tried to push down for so long and hopefully it will inspire them to do the same.”

Her focus particularly lies with the young POC women of Sydney, a demographic that has been leading the underground musical worlds of Australia. “Don’t be afraid to go crazy and experiment outside the boxes that we can sometimes feel forced into,” she advises.

As for the future, Lottie says she just wants to make as much music as possible.

“I want my music to be heard in every country and I will rest only when I collaborate with Drake. And even then I will rest for like one day and then it will be onto the next thing because I will never stop.”

Follow VICE Spotlight on Spotify for a weekly rotation of some of Australia’s best upcoming artists. This week: Lottie World, Kavi, HANDSOME, Jewel Owusu, Maina Doe, Collarbones, Meghna, Big Words + more.

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