Berlin / songwriter / indie pop

LACODA.

Fear No Ghost · Debut album

Newcomer of the week · Deutschlandfunk Kultur Reviewed in Rolling Stone

01 / The artist

A road trip
to yourself.

Much like her home city of Berlin, LACODA carries a musical melting pot within her. Most easily filed under indie pop, her songs stretch far beyond the bounds of genre. Her debut album Fear No Ghost is cinematic yet pointed: one moment it unfolds an endless desert, the next it offers an eye-level view of visceral human experience, all guided by her sonorous voice.

“By coming to terms with my own femininity, I've become strong enough to be vulnerable.”

Verena Wickel, aka LACODA, was born in Berlin and immersed in electronic music from an early age. Even there, she was drawn to lyrically rich, harmonically driven songs. On Fear No Ghost, she nods to the Berlin basements of her youth with synth-heavy, spacious production. The songwriting itself shows the influence of her heroes Lana Del Rey, Sevdaliza, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks. Haunting melodies carry her exploration of womanhood, framed by stoic guitars, pulsating rhythms and enigmatic production.

“I found that the best way forward was retracing my steps, not just musically but in life,” Wickel says of her creative process. “By coming to terms with my own femininity, I've become strong enough to be vulnerable. This allows me to create music for a future I believe in.”

02 / Press

“Fear No Ghost offers more accomplished melodies, daring chord progressions, rousing hooks, catchy choruses and hypnotic grooves than some of her peers come up with in their entire careers.”

Musikreviews.de Translated from German