Bio

With her ethereal vocals and intimate lyrics, Fleurie makes music that’s both
otherworldly and rooted in raw emotion. On her new single “Constellate,” the Nashville-
based singer/songwriter builds off that dynamic to deliver her most pop-minded offering
to date: a lushly textured, string-laced track that shines with bright melody. Centered on
the magnetic vocal presence she’s shown in songs like “Hurts Like Hell”—a 2016
release that’s amassed over 11 million streams on Spotify—“Constellate” gracefully
captures the promise of new beginnings, and the possibility of transformation.
“I wrote ‘Constellate’ at the beginning of 2017, and I wanted it to be a message of hope
after a year that was so stormy,” explains Lauren Strahm, who made her debut as
Fleurie in 2013. “It’s my way of telling people, ‘We’ve all survived this very dark and
heavy time, so now let’s take that next step and try to really soar.’”
Co-produced by Strahm and her keyboardist Justin Amundrud, “Constellate” arrives as
the first single from Fleurie’s forthcoming full-length debut, Portals. In bringing the album
to life, Strahm shaped her hook-driven yet atmospheric sound from a delicate fusion of
organic and electronic instrumentation, mining everything from electro-indie to Britpop to
the experimental alt-rock. And at the heart of the album are Strahm’s nuanced and
evocative lyrics, an element informed by her longtime exploration of poetry. “Every once
in a while I’ll write a poem and it’ll come out like a song,” notes Strahm, who lists E.E.
Cummings and Edgar Allan Poe among her favorite poets.
Growing up near Detroit, Strahm first discovered her love of music by singing in church
and studying classical piano. By the time she was 12 she’d started writing her own
songs, and several years later began recording those songs in a friend’s basement. But
despite her undeniable passion for music, Strahm initially made plans to study interior
design once she’d finished high school. “I remember my dad telling me, ‘I’ll pay for you
to go to design school, and then we can laugh about it someday when you’re in the
music industry,’” Strahm recalls. “I had this fear that I was maybe just a big fish in a
small pond—that I wasn’t talented enough to really go anywhere with music. But when I
told my dad that he said to me, ‘I think you really do have what it takes, and I just know
that music is going to keep finding you no matter what you do.’”
Following that change of heart, Strahm ended up majoring in music and—while studying
at Hillsong College in Sydney, Australia—found an unofficial mentor in Brooke Fraser (a
New Zealand singer/songwriter she’d long admired). After graduating she moved to
Nashville, and a year later released the seven-track Fear & Fable EP under the name
Fleurie (a moniker selected for its suggestion of blossoming flowers). Along with landing
a publishing deal in 2014—and quickly finding her intensely cinematic brand of pop
featured in a number of movies and TV shows—she released the Arrows EP in 2015
and Love and War the following year.
In the making of Portals, Strahm pushed herself to sculpt more melody-driven
arrangements while carving out lyrics with a quietly powerful impact. Before she began
the writing process, Strahm jotted down a series of words meant to encapsulate her
vision for the album, including melty and magical and celestial and dreamy—the phrase

she considers most essential to her sensibilities as a musician and artist. “More than
anything, I want my music to take people into a dreamlike state,” says Strahm. “At first
that might feel like escapism, but over time it can pull you deeper into your emotions. I
want my songs to help people