Introducing Lottie McLeod: Inside Her Debut EP Bug and First Ever Tour
- Hope Morgan
- Jul 30
- 5 min read
By: Hope Morgan
Lottie McLeod is one of my favourite up and coming Brisbane artists, and it won’t be long before the whole world knows her name. Off the back of a huge year and an even bigger debut project, the 19-year-old artist is carving out space in the indie scene with her sharp songwriting and unfiltered honesty. Her debut EP Bug feels like flicking through the pages of a teenage diary: raw, reflective and comforting. I caught up with Lottie to talk about the EP’s emotional roots, her dream collaborators, and what it’s like gearing up for her very first headline tour.
Congratulations on your EP release, “Bug”. The aesthetics for this project feel really cohesive, what inspired these?
It was really last minute. I'm not gonna lie. My mum is a photographer and we went out and did a whole EP cover shoot, but we looked back on the photos after it happened and it just looked cringy and cliche and that’s not what we were going for. I had no idea what actually wanted it to look like. I had inspiration from Pinterest but I didn’t have a clear image in my head of what I wanted it to look like. I have this photographer who’s work I really admire, his name is Kyle Dobie. I hit him up the day before the shoot happened just to shoot my shot and sent him the inspo pics, and then the next day we did a shoot at the German club. We took about ten photos and one of those ended up being the cover of the EP!
The name of the EP is pretty important to you and you've shared a bit about that. So do you want to share why you chose to name it “Bug”?
Bug was a nickname I grew up with, ever since I was a baby. My mum and my dad called me that, especially my dad. And variations of that. “Bug,” “buggy” “Bugger lugs”. My dad taught me how to play guitar. The first song we learnt was “Don't Look Back In Anger” in quarantine. He passed away from brain cancer in 2021. None of the songs are actually about him on the EP. People get kind of confused about that because it's not actually about him. But, I thought since this is my first big project, and I wouldn't be doing it without him, that I would just dedicate it to him and name it after him.
You've been compared to Phoebe Bridgers amongst other amazing people. Who are your biggest musical inspirations?
I love Phoebe Bridgers and she definitely influenced the very start of my career and what kind of songwriting I like to do. She made me realise I love songwriting. Now, I love Charlie Hickey, he's my favourite songwriter ever. Christian Lee Hutson is amazing. I love him. Katie Gavin. Those are definitely my favourite songwriters at the moment.
Your songs feel so honest, is it ever weird to have those personal thoughts and feelings out for the world to hear?
Yeah, I mean, it definitely is. I love to put myself in other people's shoes when writing music. “Ruin a Good Thing” isn't about my own experience, it's about a friend of mine. So I think that kind of hides it sometimes and hides the fear of, you know, pouring my heart out online. It's also kind of exciting, showing everyone what you're experiencing and realising that it's not so scary and that it's a universal teenage experience, and that everyone else has also experienced it and it's not actually as, you know, earth shattering as it feels. I think that’s kinda sweet.
What's your favourite lyric you've ever written?
“I’ve been pouring my heart out lately, straight into your cup now baby. You know how to cross the line.” It's from “The Line,” I wrote it very quickly. Most of my favourite songs that I've written, I’ve written really fast.
What song changed the most from when you first wrote it to it being on the EP?
“How Disappointing” started off as a very synth-pop sounding track, very heavily inspired by the Japanese House. I was invited to a writing session and we wrote “How Disappointing" and we produced a demo in that session. It was very poppy, there's a song called “Dionne” by the Japanese house and we had a really clear vision for what it sounded like and it was similar to that. Then we kind of just forgot about the song for a while and then when I started recording the EP I really wanted “How Disappointing" in it. We started working on it as the pop song of the EP, but it wasn’t really working anymore. We realised it needed to be more of a band-y folky song
You're touring this month on a co-headline tour with “LoveLoveLove.” What are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to playing to Melbourne and Sydney crowds that listen to my music. I’m also excited to get the tour experience, since it’s my first ever tour, see the ropes of it and how everything works.
What can people expect from the Love, Bug tour?
You can expect maybe a Phoebe Bridgers cover from both Dennis (LoveLoveLove) and I perhaps. It's going to be very cute, very warm. It's going to be a lot of fun.
What's your favorite song to sing live?
A lot of the songs, a couple of the songs that are my favorite songs on the EP I haven't actually played live yet. I think I'm really going to love playing “How Disappointing" live. I just feel it. I just know I'm going to love playing it. So I'm going to say that even though I haven't actually done it yet.
Rapid fire:
If you could steal the songwriting brain of any artist for a day, who would it be?
Christian Lee Hutson. I've already mentioned him in this interview, but I wish I had his brain.
And what's on your playlist right now that people might be surprised by?
I don't know what's on my playlist. I have no idea. I'm pretty predictable. I'm not going to lie. I have been loving a lot of R&B kind of stuff lately. I've been loving “Skin” by Dijon lately.
Who are some Australian artists that you think are underrated?
Montgomery. She released an EP a few months ago and it's one of my favorite EP's to come out over the last like six months. She's really poppy. She produces it all herself. I discovered her on triple J.
I'm gonna say LoveLoveLove. His music is great. He was released an EP and obviously I'm touring with him. So I love his music.
For someone listening to your music for the first time, what song should they listen to first?
“Ruin a Good Thing”, that's the one I'm loving at the moment. I think everyone else is loving that too.
How can people best support you?
Buying tickets to my show. I just want to experience a full room when touring, I think that would just be awesome. Also buying merch. I have new merch for this tour and I have vinyls as well.
