Almost A Dirty Dozen with BRITTANY LAUREN from LIMBERLOST – May 2025

According to a recent press release: “The wait is over—Limberlost is back with their powerful and highly anticipated new single, “Alien”, the lead track from their upcoming concept album, Beautiful Scars. Blending soul-stirring vocals, deep rock grooves, heavy guitars, and a touch of industrial metal, “Alien” takes listeners on an emotional and sonic journey like never before. This anthemic rock masterpiece blurs the lines between dysphoria, self-identity, and the mysteries of the universe. It speaks to those moments of isolation, questioning one’s place in the world, and the deep desire to understand who we are and why we are here. With haunting melodies and a relentless rhythm section, “Alien” delivers a gripping soundscape of raw emotion and intensity, setting the tone for the epic narrative of Beautiful Scars. Limberlost is known for their captivating female led vocals. Leads Brittany Lauren and Sammie Gorham both classically trained and accomplished opera singers that bring their beauty, power and precision to cut through rock’s sometimes predictable expectations. Adding to their momentum is the recent addition of Metal Hall of Fame bass player Steve Unger, known for his work with legendary bands Metal Church and Autograph. If that’s not enough the addition of Steve’s son Devon Unger on Lead Guitar. Wrap it up with Anthony Ciarochi on Keys and Mike Burt (Founder) on drums.” We get singer Brittany to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Omigosh, I could talk about the easter eggs in our album all day! For music theory nerds, you will hear us playing with the chords a LOT. We like to shift from the major and minor of the same key, for instance you’ll hear this in “Alien” — we shift between D major and D minor to make your ear feel like you can’t find your solid ground. Several songs do this: “Buried,” “Me I Am Afraid Of,” and “Let Me Go” you’ll hear this unusual use of tonality. “Buried” if you listen carefully is laid out to be a palindrome, the bridge is the same lyrics as the second verse and the ending is a twist to the words of the first verse, an homage to “as above, so below.” “Alone” is the shortest song, at under 3 minutes, to give you a sense of isolation. “Let Me Go” purposefully ends with a fadeout ending and is the only one that way on the whole album, in an attempt to evoke the feeling of slowing letting someone’s arm go from your reach, or watching someone fade out of your view. “Man on the Run” is the true story of the whistleblower for the Ruja Ignatova case. We had the incredible opportunity to cross paths at a hotel and his story and his stand for doing what’s right no matter the cost inspired this song. Every song weaves into a total piece of art, a complete transformation: the story of someone who is shattered, who faces themselves, and who rises from their own ashes stronger. Anyone who may relate to this story will relate to the lyrics of the album in their own unique way, and that’s what we want to hear more about.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

That moment happened for me when I was too young to remember it. To me it feels like I’ve always known I wanted to do music, and luckily I had the parents who encouraged my pursuits and passions.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

I’m not sure where to begin! I listen to a lot of music, from all over the world. I gotta say my first vocal inspiration other than my mother was Celine Dion. I’ve never felt like I was attempting to mimic any other songwriter in my own writing, it occurs more like discovery than songwriting. The songwriters that I looked up to throughout my childhood were Brian Wilson, Danny Elfman, Amy Lee, Linda Perry, all the Beatles boys, Joni Mitchell, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Mozart, Dan Fogelberg, Debussy and probably a thousand more I can’t think of. I think you’ll hear my influences, but the influences of the band as a whole include Led Zeppelin, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, and Deep Purple. Recently someone called us the love child of Evanescence and Blondie and I LOVE this!

4. Who would be your main five musical influences?

The band comes together under the influence of: Heart, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Evanescence and Fleetwood Mac.

5. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Alive or dead?!?! This matters! ‘Cause dead I gotta say if I couldda worked with Prince. Holy smokes. What a musician and songwriter! Still living today I think I would be floored and honored to work with Gene Simmons or Santana. Amy Lee, Lzzy Hale, or P!nk would also be some pretty bucket list collabs to work on. Oh shoot, was the question any ONE?? Ooof.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

Haha! I actually love to hear how people are impacted when they hear us. I’m certainly not married to any way it’s “supposed” to have landed on someone. Once someone said we sounded like “Idina Menzel in a rock band,” which I found very fascinating!

7. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Last tour I was grill master, haha. You know, we don’t break the instruments as often as you might think. After the rehearsals and shows and loud venues, our limited time in a tour bus together is spent joking and chatting, or napping, setting the music aside. When music is your profession, you have to have a hobby that isn’t music, ya feel me? And you gotta have your quiet time, it’s very important. But usually if a piano is around, you’ll probably find Tony on it, and then we go over and sing and it’s a whole thing. Hard to pass up a piano if it’s just sitting there!

8. When was the last time you were star struck and who was it?

Lol this is a great story. I had a wonderful lesson in when it is appropriate to be star struck and when it isn’t appropriate. I really was excited to meet Scott Stapp, having been a pretty die hard Creed fan. I can definitely say I was absolutely awkward the moment I finally did meet him. Someday I’ll meet him again and be like “you remember that weird girl by the gate with high heels who freaked out when she saw you? I’m sure you do. Yea that was me.” But it was a really good lesson for me on the tact of continuing to climb the music industry ladder. I’ll meet you again Scott! And it’ll be different haha.

9. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”, even if it didn’t change your current situation?

You know I couldn’t think of anything to answer for this one, so I asked Mike Burt and he said this: “I would have set my own goals earlier, versus chasing someone else’s. Once I figured out to chase exactly what I wanted, everything changed. I wouldn’t change anything, other than learning this earlier.”

10. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Hard choice between Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds. Both of these shaped my earliest years in music and in general I think one could write (and probably has) a music history term paper on the importance of these albums on modern music, especially Pet Sounds.

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Category: Interviews