And the Hello and joining us for

episode 218 is an American singer and songwriter who in a hugely impressive

career so far has notched up over 2 billion streams worldwide and has written for the likes of Cher,

Riana, Backstreet Boys, Saline Dion, Spoon, Joe Walsh and Christina Aguilera

to name a few. A seasoned recording artist in their own right,

they've just released their six studio album churches and we had a

rollicking good time chatting about it a few months back. We're delighted to welcome the excellent

LP to the show. Our guest was born Laura Pergillitzi in New York in 1981 and raised on Long Island.

Dad was a lawyer and mom was a former opera singer and L.P's first musical memories are of the

latter singing them show tunes and playing the music of opera singers like Maria Callas some Pavarotti around the house.

They soon took to singing themselves and would later take opera lessons to control her voice.

Not unlike our former guest Don Mcain. That's right, yeah. It wasn't all about

opera though. L.P. was also greatly influenced by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin,

Nirvana and Jeff Buckley.

Though their parents had designs on them being a doctor or lawyer,

following their mothers passing, they moved to New York City

in the late 90s to pursue a music career,

adopting the stage name LP and fronting the band Lionfish.

While gigging in New York in 1998 they were spotted by David Lowry of the band Cracker

who went on to produce LP's debut solo album Heart-shaped Scar, issued in 2001 on independent label Koch Records.

Following the release of 2004's Suburban Sprawl and Alcohol, which featured contributions

from celebrated songwriter Linda Perry.

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