UK Singer Lauren Auder Shares Cinematic Visual For ‘Heathen’

London singer-songwriter Lauren Auder has released the official music video for her latest single “Heathen” from her EP 5 Songs for the Dysphoric, released February 12 via True Panther and Harvest Records.

Directed by Layo Mussi, the “Heathen” visual plays out like a cinematic indie film creating intense emotion through simple changes in scenery, lighting, and angles. Auder finds herself wading through ponds and brooding in the blaze of a bonfire. Elsewhere, she peers out of a window into the foggy countryside. Auder lights up each frame with her magnetic presence and ultimately heightens the song’s stormy intensity.

As a song, “Heathen” is about “longing for a test run before life proper. Learning to accept that all we get is a 9-month-long bomb shelter before you’re very much in the world,” says Auder, who has referred to the track as her favorite she’s worked on thus far.

5 Songs for the Dysphoric is the third 5-track project the pop musician has released, following 2018’s Who Carry’s You and 2020’s two caves in. “I think part of the reason the past two EPs were made in such an insular way was that I needed to discover myself and get to the point where I felt confident in my artistic voice,” says Auder of those first two projects. “By the time I made this EP I felt comfortable enough to let in some exterior influences, without being afraid that it would no longer sound like me.”

The EP found Auder working with producers and co-writers Danny L. Harle, Tobias Jesso Jr., and producer Clams Casino. There’s also a notable duet on the project with “Unseen” which features fellow British singer-songwriter Celeste.

“What a pleasure making this with artists I love, capturing this past year of my life,” Auder wrote of 5 Songs for the Dysphoric on Twitter following its release. “Grounding myself firmly in who I am with all the reckoning that entails. It’s also just fun and quite playful I think.”

Earlier last year, the singer also worked with HAIM on The Summer Girl Remixes Volume 1, a new compilation that featured five new remixes and a video edit of their track “Summer Girl” from their third studio album, Women in Music Pt. III.

5 Songs for the Dysphoric is available now, stream it here.