The Regrettes’ Lydia Night: The 10 songs that changed my life

Tracking the songs that have accompanied The Regrettes’ Lydia Night on her journey towards rising rock stardom…

“It’s weird when you watch videos of yourself as a child and you’re like, ‘Oh, I remember that,’ but it’s hard to know what you actually remember. I used to run around singing Beat On The Brat all the time when I was really little – like, under-two-years-old little. Both my parents were huge music nerds; they don’t play any instruments, but they’re big music lovers, so there was always music playing in our house and brainwashing me (laughs).”

“When my first boyfriend and I started dating this was the song that I was totally obsessed with, and I loved The Frights. I would play it for him all the time and he really liked it, too. So it was this funny thing that we probably made out to. Do I still have happy memories attached to it? Oh, totally. It’s sweet. It’s funny and more like, ‘Aww, that was silly!’”

“There are a lot of videos from when I was, like, three or four years old [of me] putting on concerts for my parents. We’d play a Joan Jett show in the background and I knew all the words. I was obsessed with her voice, and Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) was a song that I loved, which is really funny because I was so little. Later, when I was five, my dad took me to see The Donnas, and I’m not sure which song it was [that hooked me in], but I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I have to do that.’”

“My first time crowd-surfing was at a Kate Nash concert. It was great because everyone was so friendly and lovely. You would be surprised at Kate Nash – her music has gone in a more punk direction in recent years, so people were going crazy. It was at The Fonda [in Los Angeles] in 2012 or 2013. Crowd-surfing can be scary, and I have been dropped before, but most of the time it’s fine. And it’s really exhilarating. You feel so proud afterwards, especially as a female, like, ‘Fuck yeah, I just did that!’ You’ve got to have a friend with you to hold all your belongings, though, and then you can be like, ‘I’ll be right back!’”

“This has always been my go-to good mood song. I just love older, classic pop – it’s so empowering and fun to dance to.”

“When I’m angry I’ll listen to anything off of Live Through This by Hole. It doesn’t pull me out of the anger, because I don’t like that. I like to stew in my feelings and really feel them (laughs). I’ll listen to it, think about why I’m angry, sing along and do whatever I need to do, and then I’ll calm down and then I’m fine. I definitely need to get it all out first.”

“I listened to it a lot when I was in middle school and everything felt like it was the end of the world, so it brings me back to that headspace. It’s not necessarily a happy or a sad cry when I listen to it now, though. It’s just an overall emotional outburst, like, ‘Argh, I’m overwhelmed!’ It’s an all-around therapeutic cry, which I think is the best kind of cry.”

“I wish I’d written literally any Beatles or Prince song. But I have to go with Purple Rain by Prince because it’s so inspired. It’s a song that has lived on and endured so much. It’s one of the best songs ever written.”

“It’s my favourite love song of all time, and I feel like it would be a positive and beautiful way to go out. I don’t know, though – that’s my answer now, but I might change my mind. I’ve got some time to decide, I would hope (laughs).”

This interview originally appeared in issue K!1778

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