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\n \t\t\t\t\tLorde\u2019s Younger Sister India Yelich-O\u2019Connor Playfully Comes Out on Twitter: \u2018I Like Boys &\u00a0Girls\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n
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\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s the main actress,\u201d Yelich tells Billboard<\/em>, but \u201cthe supporting act is still a really big part of the story. All you can really do is be yourself, and deal with the cards you\u2019ve been dealt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tOn Wednesday night (July 30), however, the Auckland native was fully the leading lady at The Wayland bar in New York City\u2019s East Village, where she played songs from her new EP, Fame Is a Bedroom, <\/em>for the first time ahead of its release on Friday (Aug. 1). The space was packed with Yelich\u2019s fans and a collage of friends who make up the small community she\u2019s managed to build in the city, more than 8,000 miles away from home. One of them, a SoulCycle instructor, met her after she took his \u201cLorde vs. ODESZA\u201d-themed class. Many sipped on Yelich\u2019s favorite kale-infused margarita, upon her bubbly insistence that they absolutely had to try it as she got set up.<\/p>\n\n\tYelich has spent the past few years in New York, originally moving to the States at age 18 to pursue acting but later shifting over to music. In 2022, she dropped her debut single, \u201cThreads,\u201d carving out her own sliver of the space her sister had dominated for years, and steadily building up a fan base of her own. <\/p>\n
\n\tAs she\u2019s strengthened her creative voice with subsequent releases, she\u2019s now ready to reckon with the insanity of her life \u2014 some of which can be chalked up to being sisters with a global pop star, but most of which is due to the inherent chaos of being in one\u2019s mid-20s \u2014 on Fame Is a Bedroom<\/em>, a lucid dream-pop blend of influences both classic (Fleetwood Mac) and modern (Holly Humberstone, Mk.gee).<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cA lot of it is saying goodbye to past versions of myself,\u201d she tells Billboard, <\/em>over the noise of guests chattering, mixed drinks being shaken and a downpour outside, perched on a stool at the end of the bar minutes before her set. \u201cWith fame, it\u2019s influenced my desire to be understood. It drove me to want to express my own version of myself in music. I would\u2019t be here without it, but it\u2019s kind of the little devil on my shoulder. It\u2019s something that I\u2019ll never necessarily want for myself, but I love it in a weird way, and I\u2019ve made friends with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tAt the heart of Fame Is a Bedroom <\/em>are tender yet messy relationships \u2014 and yes, that does include the one she shares with her sister. A devastating split from a much older man \u2014 Yelich calls it her \u201cMr. Big\u201d era \u2014 informed the simmering breakup ode \u201cUp in Flames,\u201d which includes a shout-out to The Wayland, previously a favorite date-night spot for her and her ex. She\u2019s had no trouble reclaiming the bar for herself post-breakup, though, because, as she says with a glint in her eye, \u201cIt was always mine, baby. I\u2019m an East Village girl, he lived in FiDi. This was mine from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThere\u2019s also \u201cSail Away,\u201d which she says was inspired by a confusing relationship with a female friend whom she \u201cput on a pedestal,\u201d developing unreciprocated romantic feelings that blurred with the innately \u201cprimal\u201d way \u201cwomen love each other.\u201d But the standout track \u2014 also the most healing to write, according to Yelich \u2014 is \u201cIdol,\u201d on which she was finally able to articulate all of the emotions she\u2019s accumulated over the complexities of sharing her sibling with the public for so many years. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe lyrics are unflinching: \u201cThey don\u2019t understand your love\/ Never be bound by blood,\u201d she sings of Lorde\u2019s fans over a bed of synths and electric guitar. \u201cI\u2019m the one that you\u2019re running to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIdol\u201d isn\u2019t intended as a message to the rest of the world, though. \u201cIt\u2019s a love song to my sister,\u201d Yelich emphasizes. \u201cIt\u2019s saying everything I wanted to say [about her fame] and putting it to bed. It\u2019s really about coming to terms with a private relationship where there\u2019s such trust and love, and also grappling with the emotional tug-of-war of sharing someone that I\u2019m so close to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThat said, Yelich admits that she was a little nervous to play \u201cIdol\u201d for Lorde (whom she, of course, knows simply as Ella), having some reservations about putting confessions such as \u201cYou crush me\/ And trust me, I know that you love me\u201d so plainly. Fortunately, both sisters were working on their most recent projects at the same time, and they often listened to each other\u2019s demos as they were still being made. And with Lorde also pulling back the curtain on a tricky family dynamic on her June album Virgin<\/em> \u2014 the fifth track of which finds her confessing her desperation to be mom Sonja\u2019s \u201cFavourite Daughter\u201d of three girls \u2014 Yelich felt the runway clear for her to dig deep, too.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI was really inspired by her honesty,\u201d she says earnestly of her sister. \u201cI was just really proud of [her writing about] the muse that is our mother. I can relate to it so much. There\u2019s a complexity in, you know, the intimacy of sisterhood. I really grew alongside that song.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTaking that lesson with her, Yelich is continuing to move forward with her heart on her sleeve. \u201cAm I shiny?\u201d she asked at The Wayland with her brow furrowed, powdering her face, divulging that a guy she has a crush on is in the audience, and taking the makeshift stage in the corner of the pub. More shows are in her future \u2014 she\u2019ll play Baby\u2019s All Right in Brooklyn in November \u2014 but on Wednesday night, she radiated happiness at the small gift of performing at her favorite bar in front of people who love her.<\/p>\n
\n\tRight before she started singing, the most important of them walked in. Looking low-key in a simple white button-down and ponytail, Lorde quietly camouflaged herself in the rest of the crowd, and as Yelich sang \u201cIdol\u201d straight to her, the cheekbones she and her baby sister share crinkled with unspoken emotion, pride glowing on her face. That night, she<\/em> was the supporting act, and she didn\u2019t seem to mind at all.<\/p>\n\n\tListen to Fame Is a Bedroom <\/em>below.<\/p>\n\n
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