On a sunny morning in Santa Barbara, that time of day when most people are already at work, the children are at school, and the only sound one hears is the erratic hum of a gardener’s leaf blower in the distance, I readied myself, pen in hand, for an important phone call. I knew I was about to speak with an accomplished singer and songwriter, but I couldn’t have guessed just how special that conversation would turn out to be.
When the time came and the call didn’t, I paced the floor a few minutes longer before dialing her number, prepared to leave a voicemail.
The phone rings a few times, and a smooth voice with a hint of a British accent says, “Hello.”
“Hello. Lauren?”
“Yes.”
“This is Alisa.”
“Oh, you’re just the person I was about to call. I’m so sorry, I had an unexpected visitor.”
And with that, all of my anxiety evaporates. Lauren Christy has the kind of a voice that is both reassuring and alluring. It tells you right away that she’s in control but in a sweet way, so that you don’t mind. We talk for half an hour as planned, and cover lots of ground. Her honesty is not only refreshing, but also insightful.
We start at the beginning, with her childhood. Christy grew up wanting to be a ballet dancer, but at the age of ten was not accepted to the Royal ballet school. However, because she was a talented jazz dancer and also a singer, she was encouraged to audition for the Performance Art School, where she was accepted. It meant that at the age of eleven she lived in a boarding school, and spent two days every six weeks at home with her family. “It was kind of brutal,” she says reflecting back on those days. While there, she became best friends with a girl whose father was a famous songwriter, and a new dream was born. Lauren Christy always wanted to be a star, but dancing was very difficult on the body, and by the age of fifteen she had gone through puberty and a growth spurt, and was no longer an ideal body shape for ballet. Luckily, by then, Christy fell in love with music and singing. She became fixated on writing her own songs, which were so good that they were used in school plays. She had, at such a young age, the rare drive and confidence to pursue her passion. Her parents always encouraged her and her brother to “go for it”. Her father gave up his dream of being a comedian after his first marriage failed, and so Lauren didn’t have the traditional parents with “sensible” expectations. Her parents were very encouraging and told her she could do anything she dreamed of doing.
Now, as a mother of two beautiful and talented daughters in their own right, she’s more cautious. “I know this is a very dangerous business to be in. I want them to follow their dreams, of course, but they should also have an education. I was very blessed, and I’m grateful for that every single day. I left school at sixteen to do this.” Her oldest daughter, Georgia, 13, is a talented singer, is currently in serious training with voice lessons, and her youngest girl, Sophie, 11, has a real talent for the piano. “She is an amazing piano player already! She finished her first piano textbook in two weeks!” says Christy, and the palpable essence of motherly pride lingers in the air.
When asked about how she balances her work with busy life, Lauren Christy quotes Jackie Kennedy, “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.” Christy firmly believes in making her daughters her priority, especially during such formative years, but she also loves to work, and continues to be prolific. This year alone she has written more than 150 songs, is in the process of writing a book about being called to God, which she describes as an unexpected and beautiful experience, a screenplay – a coming of age story, and a Christian Album. She works three to four days a week when the girls are with her ex-husband. Sometimes the writing sessions take place in the studio, or, some of the best sessions have happened with friends talking about life over coffee letting their ideas flow.
“Do you know when you’re writing a song, that it’s going to be a hit?” I ask.
“So much energy goes into a song when you’re working, so you really believe what you’re doing is very good. When I’m not feeling it that day, I just say I don’t have the juice. The problem is, to get a song to be a hit, so much has to align, so many political things in the music business, so it doesn’t matter if I think it’s the best song I’ve ever written, I have lots of them still sitting in my drawer. Every day I come to work and try to give it all I’ve got, and I always try and write a hit, you know, I’m not interested in writing a song that could be just a nice album track, and, at the end of the day, I let it go. And then, sometimes it just surprises me, everything aligns, it’s the right record label, when the artist is diligent enough to do what it takes to make it happen, and boom, it’s a hit. Like the Enrique Iglesias hit, ‘Tonight I’m loving you.’
Christy waits patiently for me to gather my thoughts between questions. I experience, first hand, how easily she builds rapport with a stranger. It is this warmth to her personality that allows one to be one’s best self around her. On working with younger artists, she says she learns a lot from them: “I don’t go in there as an expert. I am very aware of not overstepping. I know I’m not the artist, and I may come in with an idea, but I always ask, what do you think? What do you want the song to be?”
On working with Avril Lavigne: “She was so young when we worked with her, she was sixteen years old, and she was brilliant. So talented.”
“I felt that when I wrote, ‘I’m with you,’ back when I was with the Matrix, it was as if I channeled the lyrics, they just rolled through me, and I didn’t know what happened. I kept thinking, what is that?” Since becoming a Born Again Christian, Christy realized that although she has a gift, it wasn’t her writing the lyrics, and that realization has taken away the anxiety she used to carry into high-pressure sessions. She threw away her anti anxiety and anti depression medication right away when she understood that it wasn’t really coming from her and that she just had to ask God for it to show up. Now, no longer burdened by anxiety, she is free to write without worry, and armed with years of experience, she can work with artists across genres, from Brittany Spears, to Korn, Shakira, Ricky Martin, Rihanna and Justin Bieber.
“Use it or lose it,” she says, explaining the reason for working on so many different projects at once. Ever since the techno/club version of ‘Tonight I’m loving you’ came out, she has devoted herself to writing songs with positive messages and uplifting music.
When not working, she spends time with her friends, family, two dogs and a cat. She is very much in love with a new man in her life, Lawrence Lejohn, whom she calls her life partner. Christy’s parents live close by in Southern California. Her father, 85, is suffering from Dementia (fourth stage) and her mother, 72, is his caretaker. Lauren says she’s grateful that her children have a chance to have this time with their grandparents. With so much on her plate, Christy made time for the photo shoot with Miroir Magazine over the summer. “It was like a beautiful dream I thought one day might happen for me and the girls. We got to walk around all glammed up, it was wonderful. I’m so grateful to the photographer and Ericco and I’m very proud of my girls, of how poised they are. I look forward to doing more stuff like that with them.”