Code, Chaos, and Car Boot Sales: Erin LeCount’s Unconventional Path to Electronic Enlightenment

In an unassuming garden shed, Erin LeCount is crafting renaissance orchestras from plastic keyboards and computers. It’s a duality captured at the heart of her new EP ‘I Am Digital, I Am Divine’ – a collection that explores what it means to feel simultaneously mechanical and transcendent. The juxtaposition of synthetic tools creating deeply organic, almost spiritual sounds mirrors LeCount’s own artistic journey, where technology and emotion intertwine in unexpected ways.

At just 21, LeCount has already lived several musical lives. Her journey began with an innocently misunderstood Duffy cover someone broke out at a Hopton caravan park talent show. “I didn’t know it was a cover, I thought she’d written it and that she was a genius,” she recalls. “I started singing out the caravan windows and pissing everyone off. I realised that you could write songs and they weren’t just for adults.” That early spark, combined with her father’s love of Daft Punk and her own appreciation for Florence + the Machine, set her on her way.

The path from caravan park performances to crafting intricate electronic compositions wasn’t a straight line. By age nine, she was performing at open mics in Essex pubs, though as she notes, “I wasn’t really aware though, and not really consciously thinking about putting myself ‘out there’.” Under the guidance of her primary school music teacher, Peter, who owned The Hermit Club in Brentwood, she immersed herself in live music every weekend. “We’d practice every Saturday in a band, learning instruments and covering songs we liked,” she remembers. “I made silly amounts of money busking as a kid.” These formative experiences provided an education in performance that few could match.

At twelve, she was scouted for The Voice Kids, an experience that fundamentally altered her relationship with music. “I’d never had singing lessons; I’d never really wondered or questioned if I was a good singer or not. I just did it without thinking – it was fun, it was intuitive,” she explains. “Suddenly you’re surrounded by kids that starred on the West End, kids younger than you that are classically trained, and you’re suddenly being analysed and coached on how you sing, dissected on how you pronounce your words. I realised that it’s a sport and an art.”

Now, nearly a decade later, she’s emerged with ‘I Am Digital, I Am Divine’, an EP that grapples with the complexities of human emotion through the lens of technology and spirituality. “It’s about feeling inherently dysfunctional as a person, like you’re a machine with a fault in your code or a piece of art, like a statue that has come to life and can feel everything in a way you’re not supposed to,” she explains. Each track on the EP represents a different facet of emotional dysfunction, aiming to resonate with listeners in profound ways.

Between recording sessions, LeCount maintains an eclectic set of interests. “I’m an avid car boot sale enjoyer – every Sunday like church,” she shares. “I like dance; I’d like to go back to dance lessons. I run a lot, and I lift weights; I’m quite strong.” Looking ahead, she’s careful not to let recent success dictate her future direction. “Getting praise for something you make is lovely, but I’m very afraid of being redundant and safe in trying to recreate that same response over and over again.”