Lou Mclean

LOU MCLEAN is in her feminist killjoy era. A singer/songwriter who sprang from the GRS Edinburgh collective, Lou took her place as the riot grrrl scene’s token pop princess. Her work is at turns vulnerable and confrontational, Killjoy is a record for fans of wordplay and storytelling.
The project spans ‘zine culture, digital collage, photography, and music. She blends her genre-spanning influences, activism and love of camp into a delicious multi-media soup. Lyrically it explores the drama, delight and despair of being a woman in the music industry via 7 tracks which span genre, from riot grrrl banger ‘prove me right’ to the folk tinged, devastating narrative of ‘Good Girls’.

"I struggle to find a genre description that fits, so I call it riot grrrl pop. The songs on the EP are influenced by my eclectic tastes: punk, j-pop, 70s rock, synth. With Killjoy I wanted to lyrically examine the emotional impact of misogyny: topics like self-doubt, isolation, objectification, violence against women. For me the personal is political and I feel that deeply. But sometimes I just want to have fun and dance with my pals. So it was fun to find a compromise between the two.”

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Lou is a graduate of MA Songwriting at the University of West Scotland. She was a finalist for Creative Edinburgh’s Student Award 2024 and a recipient of the Paolo Nutini songwriting prize. She is playing live with the Killjoys and writing for her first studio album, to be recorded in 2025 x