Forbidden Fruit 2018: Hot Press meets Irish singer-songwriter Lilla Vargen

Most people would become disheartened when their partner claims to dislike their music. For Belfast’s Lilla Vargen, it ended up being the catalyst that kickstarted her career.

“He basically said that the songs were rubbish and it really upset me,” she recalls, adding that they’re no longer together. “Then he put them on Bandcamp and I was discovered by a guy on there who went on to become my first manager.”

Soft and soothing vocals are accompanied by semi-acoustic musical arrangements on Vargen’s spellbinding tunes. Even though she has only released a limited number of tracks, the growth in her material since her 2015 debut single, ‘This Is Love’, is evident.

“I could go down the route of making everything extremely acoustic,” she says, “which works really well for some people. But I think now is the time to take a chance and try to make something a bit special and different. That’s what I’ve been attempting to do.”

On the back of recent single ‘Believe Me’ earlier this year, Vargen has a busy summer schedule with festival appearances across the UK and Ireland. With only an EP and a string of singles, a debut album is on the cards for the near future, but she insists she isn’t in any rush.

“It’s something I’m working towards at the minute,” she says. “I’m not putting any pressure on myself. I’m not putting any deadlines down, because I feel like that doesn’t work. I just want to keep writing as much as possible, and the album will come out of it.”
• Lilla Vargen’s new single ‘Believe Me’ is out now.