The Artist Ren is the musical project of Lauren Van Houten, who started creating music in 2020, during the early pandemic. With no label or management, she prides herself on working independently, and creating music that starts with a story. Lauren constantly makes notes on her phone — capturing thoughts, overheard conversations, things from media consumed, and imaginings.
Here on The Artist Ren’s latest single, Doin’ Fine!, sunny laid-back guitars meet a grungy swaggering bass line. The contrast at play in the instrumentation betrays the emotional through-current of the song itself, which centres on a relationship that is coasting in neutral.
Doin’ Fine!’s lyrics depict the small details that imply something isn’t quite right in your relationship — a forgotten birthday, misremembered preferences. At the same time the easy-breezy feel of the song’s instrumentation suggest that maybe it’s all okay. A break-up feels drastic and dramatic, doesn’t it?
Yet whilst the guitars retain their sunny, upbeat quality, The Artist Ren’s vocals become increasingly insistent. Just like those little signs in a relationship, the bass, and drums, become impossible to ignore… a thumping, visceral reminder that this isn’t the one.
Doin’ Time! represents Ren’s first song in over a year. That time is not happenstance — it comes off of the back of some time out from making her debut album. During the gap, she spent a semester studying in Seoul, in South Korea. Doin’ Fine! is what came out of that time, musically. Describing the song, Lauren says:
“I feel like being able to talk with people from different countries and backgrounds while being abroad allowed me to hear so many new stories. I love writing songs about stories I’ve heard or imagined and Doin’ Fine! is no exception to that.”
In addition to listening in the post, you can find almost all the music BlackPlastic covers on the music player of your choice. Add the dedicated playlist below: