Q&A: Phoenix Laoutaris Finds Her Sound in the Texas Hills on New Single "About You"
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
THERE’S A PARTICULAR KING OF CLARITY THAT COMES FROM STARTING OVER SOMEWHERE NEW. For Phoenix Laoutaris, that place was Austin, Texas - a long way from the Devon countryside and London streets that shaped her, but somewhere that held a little of both: wide open landscapes and a relentless creative pulse. It was there, during a residency with MANTLE, that the British R&B and soul artist wrote the first chapter of her next era. The result is "About You," a silky, horn-and-saxophone-driven track that captures the delicate moment when a friendship begins to blur into something more: warm with nostalgia, alive with uncertainty, and shot through with the kind of emotional precision that has defined Phoenix's writing since she first picked up a pen at fourteen.
After years of being known as an unforgettable featured voice on other people's records, and the viral buzz that surrounded her 2021 debut "Flowers", which earned her praise from CLASH Magazine and support from BBC Radio 1, Phoenix is stepping fully into a world of her own making. "About You" is the clearest sign yet of who she is becoming: a songwriter unafraid to sit in tenderness and toughness at once, drawing on Motown-soaked childhood memories and a deep love of soul, jazz, and hip-hop to build something that feels both timeless and entirely her own. We sat down with Phoenix to talk about the residency, the rebirth, and what's coming next.
LUNA: "About You" captures that specific feeling of friendship tipping into something more. Where were you emotionally when you wrote it, and how quickly did the song come together?
LAOUTARIS: Writing "About You" meant looking back into a past version of myself, so there was this real sense of nostalgia running through it alongside the hope I felt when I was first falling for this person. Those two things sitting together, the warmth of the memory and the uncertainty of the feeling, I think that's what gives the song its energy. It came together in a way that felt almost unexpected, like the song knew what it wanted to be before I did. When I stop overthinking and just let things happen, that's when the real stuff comes out.
LUNA: You wrote this track during a residency with MANTLE in Austin, which is a long way from Totnes, Devon. What did it do for your writing to be completely removed from your usual environment, and why Texas specifically?
LAOUTARIS: The scenery alone was enough to shift something in me. Being in a completely new environment, I was filled with this sense of gratitude and a renewed sense of self that sparked so much of what I wrote during that time. It's not always easy to put into words exactly what that feeling was, but it felt like my path was being realigned after a long period of feeling lost with no real direction. New yet right, if that makes any sense. Austin specifically — I think there's something about the energy of that city and those wide open landscapes that just loosens something up in you. I grew up between the Devon countryside and London, so being somewhere that held a bit of both, that wildness and that creative pulse, suited me more than I expected.
LUNA: After years of figuring out who you are and what you want to say, what does it feel like to finally arrive at a sound that feels completely like you?
LAOUTARIS: Permission to fully commit to the music I have always loved, without trying to fit it into someone else's idea of what I should be doing. Being in Austin, in that environment, something just opened up. Everything I had absorbed over the years finally started coming out as something that felt completely like me. Miles Davis said it best: "Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself." I think I'm finally getting there.
LUNA: Your music has always sat at this intersection of R&B, soul, jazz, and hip-hop, but "About You" leans into a warmer, horn-and-saxophone-driven palette. How did that sonic direction emerge during the residency?
LAOUTARIS: I always come in with a reference, a feeling I want to bring to life, and something about being in Austin, in that space, just allowed that feeling to become real in a way that felt completely natural. Growing up my mum always had Motown playing around the house and my dad was a multi-instrumentalist, so I was exposed to so many different sounds from an early age. That warmth was always in me somewhere. The horns and the saxophone on "About You" felt like that part of me finally finding the right room to breathe in.
LUNA: What does this new era of music mean to you?
LAOUTARIS: It feels like a rebirth. I held onto a lot of old thoughts, old feelings, old music for a very long time because I was afraid to let go of them. Now I feel more fearless than I ever have, though I am aware there is still a lot of work to do. This era is about letting go of what I thought I had to be and leaning into what I actually am. It has not always been easy to get here but I would not change any of it.
LUNA: Who have you been listening to?
LAOUTARIS: I have been diving deep into music from the sixties and seventies, really immersing myself in that world. The S.O.S Band have been on constant rotation. And to keep it more modern, I am absolutely obsessed with Leon Thomas right now. His tone, the feeling in his music, I cannot get enough of it. He is doing something really special.
LUNA: "About You" is the first in a series of releases planned through 2026 and 2027. What can you tell us about the upcoming music?
LAOUTARIS: Maybe it is because I have been so immersed in "About You," but I genuinely feel like the best is yet to come. And that is not me downplaying this one because "About You" is a BANGER, I stand by that completely. There is a body of work behind it that I am really proud of and I think people are going to understand a lot more about who I am once they hear it all together.
LUNA: What intentions do you have for the rest of this summer?
LAOUTARIS: Keep working, keep building, keep adding to the world I am creating around this music. But honestly, more than anything, I just want to reach more people. I love receiving messages from people I have never met telling me how a song made them feel. That means everything to me. That is the whole point of all of it. World domination, obviously, but one honest song at a time.
