ifitbeyourwill S06E05 • Bec Lauder & The Noise

Guitars loud, heart louder. Bec Lauder joins us to open the hood on her latest The Vessel—an anthemic, grunge‑meets‑classic‑rock debut built on three‑piece chemistry, fearless writing, and a visual world that turns sidewalks into stage lights. From the first sketchbooks and living‑room dances to songs written in five‑minute bursts, she maps how creativity followed her long before the band was born, and why levity matters as much as catharsis when you’re carrying heavy stories on a hook.

We dig into the city as muse and foil, where Tease Me pokes fun at the gallery of urban swagger, while tracks like Without You let the guard drop. Bec explains how fashion and choreography don’t decorate the music—they extend it. Give It starts in unwashed street clothes and explodes into a fantasy of costume changes and strut, proving rock can stay raw and still dream big. She shares the long road to the record: early sessions at Clive, shifting lineups, rebuilding with an all‑woman trio, and the gutsy call to turn down a life‑changing deal to keep control. That choice shaped the sound and spirit you hear now: tight, urgent, and fully owned.

There’s momentum humming under every moment—release‑party afterglow, a new booking agent, and dates with Cage the Elephant, including a hometown Philly hit. Bec also teases what’s next: daily writing, new rock fire, an experimental hip‑hop/R&B collaboration with Chris Murphy, a pulled‑back feel‑good set, and a Paris shoot with a dancer from the Paris Opera. If you love independent rock, performance‑driven visuals, and artists who build their own worlds, this one’s for you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome, record context, vibe check
• 1:52 Beck’s creative roots and first songs
• 4:17 Songwriting now: speed, range, and “silly” tracks
• 6:37 Themes: city satire, trust, love, and loss
• 9:03 Sassy vs vulnerable: shaping the album
• 10:25 Live energy, visuals, and aesthetic
• 11:39 Fashion x rock: building a fantasy world
• 14:03 How The Vessel took shape and team
• 16:29 Independence, pride, and hard choices
• 18:14 What’s next: clarity, new projects, tours
• 22:16 Closing gratitude and future plans

Transcript

Chris: 0:31

Hey listeners, welcome, welcome, welcome. Um season six here, if we were a podcast. Chris? No? And I am just diving down to the states, going down for a visit to New York City to have a chat with Beck Lauder and The Noise. Um record out uh called The Vessel, um, which came out just a month or so ago on Killphonic. Um really cool anthemy rock. Wow. It's just you want to get yourself going, throw this record on because it will prime you for just about anything coming down your lane. Like this interview. I listen to it often and I'm like so excited to talk about it. So, Beck, thanks so much for joining me today.

Bec: 1:25

Um of course, thank you so much.

Chris: 1:28

Well, real pleasure. Um, again, thanks for putting this record out. Um, I think it's something that we all really needed right now, this kind of like in your face, but not really. But think about it. Um attitude and it's it's raw, it's gutsy, it's um, you know, oftentimes humorous. Uh the lyrical play is awesome, and the the raw energy is just out of this world. Somebody uh I I I read somewhere where somebody said that it was like this 90s grunge with this 70s classic rock fusion, and I mean I think that really kind of nails it. So, Beck, as we start, I know that you're um a woman of many talents. You do lots of different things in art, you're a very creative person. Um, have you always been a creative person? Like from your early recollections of growing up and like has creativity always been something that you were wanting to push forward and develop and and explore more?

Bec: 2:30

Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's it's always been just building anything, you know, from like the second I could draw, I would just go through pads and pads of paper every single day. And like I would draw all sorts of things that I wanted to wear, and I would sing songs and I would dance around the house, and like it it was always music for me, has always been like a gateway into an entire fantasy world where I get there's so many other aspects of it besides obviously like the music is my favorite thing in the entire world, but like there there really are so many other fun aspects of like the the kind of full spectrum like fantasy vibes, you know.

Chris: 3:21

That's interesting. And do you remember some of the first songs that you started to write that were your own? Um and maybe walk us through a little bit of that process. Like what was your process like when you first started like writing tunes?

Bec: 3:37

So I was in high school and I mean when I was little I would just sing random things, but when I was in high school, I learned a couple couple chords on guitar, and every once in a while I would just write a song because I was like going through something needed to get it out, you know what I mean? But I never showed anybody I didn't show anybody any of my music until about three years ago and uh that it really just changed my life. Like I three years ago I had never played a show and now like we were playing like left and right, like every it feels like every week sometimes. And it feels like the music really just like crept up. Like it was always I mean, I was a dancer my entire life. The music is always like the part that can take you away from life, you know what I mean? It's it's like transformative, it's transportive, it's like it's it's this like insane like vessel that is just applicable in so many different situations, you know? And so I don't know. I've just found myself here and I've found myself addicted to playing and addicted to writing, and I found myself with like the best band in the entire world that I could ever ask for. It's just three of us, and like I feel like I like crack the code to rock and roll. Like it's it's just been so easy with them. I mean, like we we don't need much more than five minutes to write a song nowadays. It's like and and when and when they're good, like it really feels good. Of course, you gotta write your silly songs. Sure. You always gotta write silly songs.

Chris: 5:22

Absolutely. But it's hard to always be intense and like trying to vacate you know bad thoughts or memories or struggles that you're working through. I mean, it's exhausting, right? Because it's like it's journalistic and like you gotta have a few that are just fun, you know?

Bec: 5:39

And um yeah, I mean I feel like a lot of yeah, it's true. In a lot of the songs, I mean I have a notebook I keep on me 24-7, and I write like everything down. And I feel like the songs are almost like anecdotal for like kind of these like general situations that I'd been that anybody could be in, you know what I mean? And and the songs tend to be like have a like more like various sources of inspiration, you know, and I kind of like whip it all up into like this kind of more like you know, you know, yeah.

Chris: 6:17

Do you see like do you have common themes or common situations or experiences that spark that kind of like ooh, I got a I got an idea here? Or is it just your everyday just kind of you know, going to the store, seeing something happen, like reflection?

Bec: 6:34

I mean, like it's it's really both. Like, for example, my song Tease Me, it's it's about it's kind of making fun of the city a little bit. Like the city is a gallery of all these people they're they're strutting around, you know, and it's like there's like there's some like kind of more lighthearted stuff, whatever. And that whole song, like the chorus is just kind of like a ah, whatever, we're we're here, let's just enjoy it, you know, and that's that's a more simple song that's like that's honestly. I was surprised at how much people liked that one because to me I felt like it was more simple, and I tend to be like a bit contrarian and like like the other stuff, you know? Um but then there's also there's songs that are like there's a lot of songs about like trusting yourself and life lessons I've experienced and love and lost love and I mean all sorts of things, but I think the cool thing about our music is that like there and there's so much that is unreleased as well, where like we really we can do Beck Louder anyway. You know, we can we can do sweet feel good, we can do like angsty, like screaming, crying songs, like there's really there's really all of it in there because like I don't I don't think that we are just one way, you know? And I think that's something that's really cool about the album, like give it, for example, is like so sassy, because like sometimes I'm sassy, like uh, but like and then some of them are really sentimental, like without you is like a very, very like vulnerable, like kind of just like raw song, and like give it, give it's not like open and like vulnerable, give it like give me what I want, meh meh, you know, and it's fun and it like it makes other people feel sassy and bob your head and like man, that one's so fun to sing. That like and like I I almost just want to like speed it up for like shits and giggles to see how fast I can sing it, you know what I mean? But I think we're getting to a point where it's no longer like you can't hear what I'm saying, and like if we were to speed it up anyway, it's it's in a fine place. It's in a fine place. But yeah, yeah, the music's not everything.

Chris: 9:15

You guys have such fun together, it just looks like I I watched a couple of live performances in some of your videos. Um the aesthetic that you guys have developed for your first record is just I love it. I think that it it suits your style of you know sassy, but also serious, you know, like in a way that there are some times we have to like you know, strip it down and just I gotta get to the brass tacks of life. But other times it's like just celebration and fun and feeling good and loving where you're at, as you said, um in life and with life. Yeah. Um which I always thought. Now I know the aesthetic of I mean you you reference you you danced in your past and you you also dabble in fashion as well. Um is that an accurate statement?

Bec: 10:03

Dabble or work in the field of yeah, I mean I've I've been involved in the fashion industry for the past like six years for longer than I've been in music, actually. And I mean it's something that's really fun to incorporate in a creative way with the music, you know? And but the like like all things like I I mean the the music's my baby, you know, the music's where my heart's at. The fashion stuff is really cool, and I think that it compounds in a really awesome way with the music and has given me so many awesome opportunities, but but I'm I'm here for the tunes.

Chris: 10:48

Yeah, I was gonna ask you where that where they um collide together, your music and and this aesthetic fashion that you this I mean I love the style that you that you bring forth. Is there an intersection where these two meet one another? And I'll give you an example that I'm thinking of. One of your videos, you're walking down the streets in New York, and there must be about a hundred uh costume changes throughout your surrounded by other women behind you as you're walking in. Um the name of it evades me, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Bec: 11:24

Yeah, that was that's given, yeah.

Chris: 11:26

I mean, just an amazing, beautiful, like it's it's out there and it's a great song too. It's just fun and given it. Um where do they intersect those two? Your your your or your aesthetic for fashion with this this um love of creating music.

Bec: 11:43

So this is something that I I actually have been thinking about a lot recently, and I I think the best way that I could explain it is we're a rock band, we're a three-piece rock band, and traditionally rock bands kind of stay in this like raw aesthetic lane where pop acts are typically defined by more immersive fantasy, you could call it. And so I as an artist am really trying to like pave a way for myself where I can make my entire band, like the three of us, part of this fantasy world. And so the fashion for me is like I mean, I'm trying to put you in this world. I'm trying to like I'm trying, and also like with Give It, like I start out in my street clothes, and actually the clothes, like the outfit that I'd worn that entire week and like not washed, that is what I wore in the video. And then like I kind of slip into this fantasy world where like I'm this like invincible, awesome, cool, like rock star, and like and then I end up by myself again at the end, and I think that like I use fashion to to tell stories and reinforce the stories and all of the different like aspects of this that I'm trying to build, you know, because there you can add so much depth that way, and also like I'm trying to tell a story and any other aspect that I can add to like I also I worked with the choreographer, Sophie Olzak, in that who's fantastic. I mean, Mary Giggler did the styling who was absolutely incredible. She did all of the custom costumes for nobody cares. Like, I mean, I just get to like collaborate with the most awesome people, and like we're about to go do this video. So I have some shows coming up in Paris September 25th and 26th, and we're doing uh a music video out there with a ballet dancer from the Paris Opera, and like it's just like why not? Why not? And there's not a lot of rock bands that have done that, and I'm like, I think that I can maintain my integrity as a musician and rock artist while still being fantastical. Like, why can't I do that?

Chris: 14:02

You know, yeah, yeah. I like that you have such a bravery and um a confidence spec that I just it's um it's it's wonderful to to chat with you about this because I feel it through you know the X's and O's and the Zoom that we're in.

Bec: 14:17

Um Thank you.

Chris: 14:19

How did the vessel come together? What how were these songs built? And are they older songs? Because where I read um that a lot of the songs you guys before you recorded, you toured and just played these songs for a while before you put them down on tape. Is that is that accurate?

Bec: 14:39

So this there's there's been like there's many, so I moved to New York and all of my friends that I made immediately when I moved here in music were just like, we'll help you, we'll be your band. And so a lot of these songs I wrote with those like those friends, those people that I first met. Timothy Youngman uh produced and was a multi-instrumentalist on a lot of the songs in early stages with Chris Murphy. And like it was just like it was an awesome time. We wrote we wrote an entire record. We recorded it at the studios at Clive for free. It was awesome. And then we I like we kind of like went through some like different like renditions of the band, you know. And I ended up like asking the guys if I if I could try the all-girl thing with my the two girls who were in the band. And then we had to take on a lot of responsibility, but it ended up being the best thing I ever did because through a three-piece special, you know, you really have to connect with like you really connect with them, and it's just it's fucking it's perfect, it's really perfect. No, no, it's you have to do your part, you have to walk in, yeah. Um but yeah, we did 12 songs with Tim, and then we ended up keeping six of them. We wrote another six, and uh mostly just with the band produced by the band. I mean, so far guitar player, it was like definitely spearheading that process. Maggie was helping us with the engineer Kale Bonderman and Brian Duke made it all possible in the studios. Um I mean yeah, this this record's been in the making for two years. I completely started over after the first CP. I mean, the first CP was pop, I didn't want to do pop, I I did I didn't want to do it, and so I completely started over, and now we're here, and it's out, and I did it my way, and I'm so happy. Yeah. I mean I that's that like looking back on it, like what a journey. First off, you know, and records take a long time. Like the the common person that has no idea about the recording process or you know, writing songs just doesn't know the blood, sweat, and tears that are put into every single one of the seconds in these songs. You look back on it. How do you how do you feel about it? How are you how do you look at the vessel now that you're kind of removed and you see that two-year journey kind of on tape? What's I mean it's it's so beautiful. It is so beautiful. I'm so proud of it. I like I mean it's it's really just an example of like I I turned down I turned down a deal that would have changed my life. And I turned down that deal for the freedom to do this my way, and also so that I could be like, I did this myself. And every single day during like the past two years, I've woken up and been like, all right, I need to give this a hundred percent so that if I fail, I can know that I at least tried my very hardest. And I really, I really like I killed myself over this album. And and I'm so so happy and I'm so so proud of it. And we had the release party last night, and it was it was just incredible. And we're we have these dates with Cage the Elephant. That's gonna be incredible. I cannot wait to play those songs, especially in my hometown, Philly. Like, that's gonna be incredible. That's gonna be such a special moment. It's gonna be amazing. Yeah, we just got a booking agent, like it's it's the beginning, and it's really beautiful and it's really exciting, and I'm so happy that I made it to the beginning. Yeah, you know, and I want to just repeat that you did it your way. Um, oftentimes that can get forgotten, and you just want success at whatever cost, and even sometimes at the cost of your art, which I've heard many sad stories where that's the case, and they just don't have the rights anymore to their songs, um, which can be problematic. Um but doing it your way so that you can look back and say, Yeah, it was a struggle, yeah, it wasn't all happy, no, it wasn't all smiles and laughs, it was freaking tough. But you have this artifact that will exist until the end of time, right? Like it's something that nobody can ever take away from you now. It's it's it's out there in the ether, no matter what, if it's on a vinyl or a CD or a cassette, um, it it will be out there. Um and kind of thinking ahead, Beck, where like you you you were talking about too, like I've read that you wanted to kind of see where you can go next. Do you are you starting to get a clear idea of what that next might be? I have all of the clarity in the world, except part of my clarity and pieces with the fact that I don't know what's gonna happen in three months. But I'm ready for whatever. And I'm here for the journey, and I know that I'm set up. I have a great team, I write songs every single day, and every single day I try to write a song the next best song I've ever written, you know? And I feel like I'm in a damn good place and I'm just here for the ride. And if I know if I just continue to try as hard as I can every single day, I'll I'll I'll be alright. Also, I'm happy now, you know? Like it's it's I think it's only up from here. Like well, I mean, I think too, like, as you're saying, like feeling happy about where you're at and what you've done, but not knowing three months down the road. I mean, that's you're it really feels like a good place that you're in. Um and just just out of curiosity, are you finding the songs that you're writing like nowadays? Do they have a different feel or do they have a different like are you trying to push it in a different direction or pushing what you've already done to another level? I'm pushing what we've already done to a new level. I mean, I I'll say that there's like three projects that I have, and I'm not sure what's gonna come out first. I like but the thing is I just keep writing new music. And so, like I have this uh like one of my best friends in the world, his name is Wetch, also known as Chris Murphy, who worked on the album with me. And Wet Chris and I have this crazy hip-hop RB pop like record. It's like insane, like super experimental, super funky, super fun. I have like another album that's almost done that's like kind of more like feel good, kind of like like pulled back, just like pulled back feel good, kind of like stuff, and then I've got I've got all these new rock songs I keep writing. So who knows? It's like I'm like I have all the stuff. Who knows? Maybe I'll just drop it all at once and be like here. I don't know.

Chris: 22:14

So that thanks so much. I as we come to a close here. It's been really fun talking with you, and um, you're such a positive person. I just you you it it it feeds on whoever's talking with you. So thank you for making this end of Friday joyful for amazing. Well, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. Thank you. My last question to you is what what can we expect in the rest of this year? You said you were going on tour, the writing continues.

Bec: 22:43

Is there anything else that you could share with the listeners as to where they might catch you live or I mean so we have we have these shows with Cage the Elephant in at the end of October. We just got a booking agent. And so yeah, I hopefully we'll be playing some festivals this year. And we'll we're gonna we're definitely gonna be getting on the road more. Uh definitely more music coming. Um, I mean, I gotta, you know, I gotta do the thing, I gotta promote this album and give it due time to do what's like supposed to do, but just know that I have I I have so much that I am like so excited to put out, and it's like I'm so thrilled about this record. There's so much more music. We're gonna be, and I think over the next couple years, you're just gonna be seeing more and more and more of us. So good for all of us, good for all of us. Well, good luck on the tour, all the best. Rock it out. I know that these shows are gonna be amazing. I can just feel it. Uh looking at your videos that I I looked at, and I can't wait for the next record. I'm loving this one, but I'm writing um good luck with it. I hope that it gets the attention it deserves. And I'd love to chat again the next time you have something that drops. Uh let's do it. Oh, thank you, Chris. Thank you so much. You have yourself a great question.