"It’s my job to advocate for my body as if it were my small child": Lauren Dillen announces debut EP Blue Star, shares new single “Deepest Part of Love”

The announcement arrives alongside a statement from Dillen, who describes the EP as emerging from a “very passionate and difficult” period. “My early twenties were all about working hard and striving for perfection despite what my body wanted, acting on obligation rather than joy,” she says. “I’m learning that it’s my job to advocate for my body as if it were my small child.” The result, she adds, is a newfound clarity: “My channels are clear, and I can be honest.”

“Deepest Part of Love”, written back in 2020, unpacks the mechanics of long-term commitment. “A close person once shared with me some relationship advice: for a relationship to succeed, the love must multiply via the participants,” Dillen explains. “I think this song is one about long-time love and forgiveness.”

Recorded partly at the National Music Centre in Calgary – a studio that houses Elton John’s songwriting piano and one of Neil Young’s microphones – Blue Star was shaped with engineer Graham Lessard (The Barr Brothers, Timber Timbre). Drawn to the centre’s pipe organ, Dillen recalls thinking, “that’s an insane instrument, I must use it!”, lending the EP a reedy, atmospheric quality that nods to her involvement in Toronto’s ambient scene.

The record’s focus track, “Chains/Rings”, tackles the knotty process of detaching self-worth from romantic validation, while the title track uses a freeze-pedal vocal effect to create a suspended, reflective pause. “These songs aren’t necessarily the truth, but I write them out to explore the truth, to explore what something actually looks like,” Dillen says. The closer, “Wildflowers of North America”, takes its name from a botanical textbook inherited from her grandmother – a volume marked with a sticky note on the page for the blue star flower.

With a history of opening for artists such as Charlotte Cornfield, Bahamas, and Great Lake Swimmers, Dillen’s solo work marks a deliberate step into quieter, more intentional territory. “I don’t have to push towards the things that I want,” she reflects, “I can just allow them to unfold.”