Premiere: Lauren Rocket, ‘Diamond Nights’

Kevin Bronson on October 3rd, 2018

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Lauren Rocket covered a lot of miles to get here, the infancy of her solo career. And despite first impressions, the singer-songwriter’s bright new single “Diamond Nights” is inspired not by the disco life but by long drives in a tour van.

Lauren Rocket is the nom de tune of Lauren Willow White, who once fronted the young L.A. power-pop outfit Rocket (the group that had a moment on national TV, not the band currently appropriating the name). She’s been a keyboardist/vocalist for artists such as The Child, Junkie XL and Night Terrors of 1927.

Her new single was made with Josiah Mazzaschi (Light FM, Bizou) and Chelsea Davis (The Start, Rocket). It’s for staring out the window and getting lost in thought — an airy and wistful synth-pop number “influenced by Blondie, and memories of driving across the country,” White says. “Also what it feels like to be in love in your youth, when everything feels so intense and so permanent.

“I’m always mesmerized by all the lights and architecture of these bridge and tunnel cities you drive through, especially in the Midwest and East Coast, like Cincinnati. They sparkle and look like giant runways interspersed with bridges, but if you drive through after 10 o’clock, they look empty and abandoned, sort of post-apocalyptic. It’s always stuck with me visually.”

“Diamond Nights,” the second in a series of singles the L.A. native will release in the coming months, is out on Friday.

||| Stream: “Diamond Nights”