Having already been an active songwriter and producer, “Laura” is my debut as a vocalist. This song is heavily inspired by Aishu, a sub-genre of eurobeat that was very popular during the 1990s but sadly faded away as time went along. Although I was initially drawn to eurobeat as a whole because of its brashness and speediness, I’ve grown fonder and fonder of Aishu in particular further down the road, and in fact my favorite eurobeat song of all time, “Story of My Life” by Christine, is of this specific style that I love. Unlike your stereotypical slice of eurobeat cheese, Aishu is not only slower, putting its average beats per minute on par with uptempo western club music, it’s generally also much more atmospheric, leaving room for a more wistful, introspective tone than its frenzied counterpart. While I love the innate qualities of eurobeat as a whole, Aishu in my opinion brings some truly welcome variety to the genre.

The song’s namesake is a woman I knew in high school. She works in the theatre industry for a living, and as an artist myself, I’ve been heavily influenced by her as a person. While I haven’t had the chance to talk to her in several years, I’ve always admired her ability to take creative initiative in her niche, and in fact I would at least partially credit her for ultimately inspiring me to run my own music label. Regardless of whether or not we ever happen to cross paths again, I hope that she is happy in life and achieving everything that she sets out to do.

~ Jacqueline