Dublin-born, London-based artist and producer Orla Gartland is bold, brash and increasingly self-assured on her second full-length record Everybody Needs A Hero. Fixated on the idea of a ‘hero’ as someone to look up to or someone to rescue us from ourselves, we meet Orla as her most confident self in this record and time in her life. Her angular alternative sound expands through a series of collaborations and is indebted to her own fastidious sense of independence; she is sonically and lyrically louder than ever before.

Gartland began writing songs at 14 years old, sharing them online while developing her skills and building a dedicated audience of die-hard fans through her huge YouTube channel, many of which are still with her today via her ‘Secret Demo Club’. It’s here she shares work-in-progress material, giving her day ones an insight into her writing process and tracks which will either remain forever in demo form or progress into future releases.

Orla’s artistic growth and trust in her own taste can be heard listening to her discography in chronological order. From the softer pop-leaning songwriter moments on her first EPs to the more alternative-influences which permeated later projects Why Am I Like This? and Freckle Season, it’s her critically acclaimed debut album Woman On The Internet, the culmination of over a decade of hard work, which saw Gartland really hit her stride. Cementing her self-deprecating lyricism with a wider palette of influences, Woman On The Internet hit the Top 10 on the UK Albums Chart, has amassed millions of streams and helped Gartland forge an even deeper connection with her fans.

With multiple sold-out headline tours in the UK, Ireland and beyond, festival appearances at Glastonbury and Latitude marking career milestones and nods of approval from some of her biggest inspirations along the way (Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap), the last few years have seen Orla go from strength to strength. Following a notable chapter with her band FIZZ, the group she formed alongside friends dodie, Martin Luke Brown and Greta Isaac, the return to her solo project and the release of ‘Everybody Needs A Hero’ via her own label New Friends marks another exciting milestone for this proudly independent artist.

Taking a considered, hands-on approach, Gartland made a concerted effort to be across every aspect of building the world of Everybody Needs A Hero. Co-producing the album, making intentional choices throughout the mixing and mastering processes and working collaboratively on the project’s creative direction, Gartland signs off every decision. While creative independence is nothing new, in 2024 it’s a choice; a power she notes may have been relinquished had she opted to release the album via a traditional record label rather than her own independent imprint (released via The Orchard).

Citing the influences of multi-instrumentalists, songwriters and producers St. Vincent and Caroline Polachek, Gartland looks up to “proper artists” who not only command an audience but who are the puppeteers behind everything we see from their project. Gartland says “It feels time for me to unapologetically take up space – I’m not interested in being a ‘nice’, palatable artist or songwriter.”

Everybody Needs A Hero tracks the journey of self-discovery you go through as you establish who you are within the confines of a long-term relationship. Often a struggle, and one that may remain internalised, Gartland voices all these intimate intricacies and more detailing the inescapable collective and individual compromises. Underpinned by brutal honesty, there’s a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour to her storytelling on the record, sometimes acting as a defence mechanism for when things start to get a little too real. Poignant, sometimes pointed lyrics are what fans love and expect from Gartland and they are abundant here, “I think this music juts out at the edges more than what I’ve done before,” she notes, it commits the to bit – an exaggerated version of herself.

Written over the course of a year – Everybody Needs A Hero – sees Gartland reunite with frequent collaborator Tom Stafford who crafted Woman On The Internet with her during the pandemic as well as Peter Miles, who took the reins on last year’s FIZZ debut The Secret To Life. Using a variety of both analogue and digital recording techniques with ideas born in Orla’s London studio and realised down at Miles’ creative sanctuary Middle Farm Studios in Devon, Everybody Needs A Hero is direct and feels bigger than the sum of its parts.

Lead single and album standout ‘Little Chaos’ embraces experimentation and the quest to be loud. Like most of the tracks on the album Gartland describes ‘Little Chaos’ – “It’s about trying to figure out how to be someone to someone else without rounding all your edges off,” she explains, “I am all of these things at once and you have to be able to handle and hold all of it.” Born out of a jam session at Middle Farm, Gartland took a harddrive full of sprawling 30 minute long instrumentals back to London and began to filter through them, eventually hearing something special in what would become Little Chaos. Flipping her usual process on its head, the drums influenced the lyrics and melody in real time rather than being added at a later stage – “I felt like a conductor bringing in all the different parts and singing on top, it was a holistic and very fun process.”

The next taste of the album “The Hit” delivers a different kind of punch, “this track is a more subtle, prettier moment,” Orla explains. Part of the slightly softer side of the record it deals with a sister-like friendship, much like “More Like You” from the first album. Detailing the friction and frustration that stems from being so close to someone that you start becoming the same person, “The Hit” is emotionally wrought despite its sonic nonchalance. Describing the relationship in question as “like a voodoo doll thing… you’re so connected it hurts,” she adds “it’s a nice gesture, because you’re admitting you care about that person so much that when they’re in pain you feel it too, but there’s a point that it can go too far and that’s just not healthy or sustainable.” 

Opener “Both Can be True” candidly sets the scene for a core sentiment of the album; that all of the different feelings we have about a person can coexist at once. “In my mind it’s a statement of intent for the whole record,” Gartland says. The drum-heavy track 2 “SOUND OF LETTING GO” bursts through with a similar sentiment and goes a long way to really welcome the listener into Gartland’s evolution.

“I felt drawn to working with friends of mine who are amazing pop songwriters,” Gartland says, noting the importance of her close-knit group of collaborators during the writing of the record. It was the first time she worked with close friend and songwriter Lauren Aquilina on “Backseat Driver” ; they use the titular metaphor to describe intrusive thoughts on this windows-down, sun-blazing, driving-fast anthem. One of many unintentional car-related lyrics, it makes sense given that Gartland was in the midst of learning to drive while writing these songs.

Declan McKenna features on “Late To The Party”, another moment of the record where Gartland proves good on her promise to take up more space. Its indie-sleaze inspired maximalism shines as Gartland holds her own as the main character, brimming with bratty confidence. While she’s no stranger to working with others, jumping on feature tracks by Cavetown and half•alive in the past she explains “I thought I would feel really protective [inviting someone to be on one of my tracks]… but notes “as soon as we started the session it was so easy. Declan came in with a fresh perspective and I trust him so much as an artist; the input was so valuable.”

Inspired by Soccer Mommy and anthemic classics like “Teenage Dirtbag”, Gartland wanted ‘Who Am I’ to have an American sound, which it does – it sounds like it was concocted in a garage jam session. Written with Victoria Zaro who has worked with Tate McRae and Renee Rapp, it was “Andrew” from Zaro’s artist project Ryann which drew Gartland to her. She laughs remembering how many times she told Zaro in the session “I hope you know, it’s the best song of all time.”

There are moments where the album takes this side-step into a softer space, notably on “Simple” which sees Gartland in the zone as the sole writer. Stripping back the humour and embracing vulnerability and sincerity, she explains “this was me setting myself the challenge of being very sweet in a less complicated way.” Musing about eating yoghurt on the sofa and talking about the future, it’s a direct and straight-up love song which creates such a warm, cosy feeling. “Mine” sees this sincerity backed by a haunting strings arrangement, which elevates this slow burn into a timeless and reflective space.

From the whiplash-inducing bassline on “Three Words Away” through to the infectious riff and explosive drums of early single “Kiss Ur Face Forever”, Gartland could so easily be paralysed with indecision, a concept these tracks skirt around. Yet in her choices to make them sound so direct that indecision is transformed into an unshakable stance that doesn’t need a resolution.

“I want to walk on stage to the Superman theme. I want to have a cape. I want the confidence to be almost parody-like; like I AM HERE TO SAVE MUSIC,” she jokes, discussing the album’s title, ‘Everybody Needs A Hero’ offers a kind of oxymoron. “It’s less about me being a hero and more about me saying OK, no joking around now – I really need you.” She explains “there are a lot of bratty and tongue-in-cheek moments on the album but I really wanted it to end on a humble note.”

Noting that conflict and compromise are usually less about the person you’re with and more about what they mirror in you, with this album Gartland didn’t want to fabricate stories with start-of-the-relationship love songs or grand, dramatic breakup anthems; “that’s just not my experience.” Holding that mirror up to herself and deciding not to look away when you don’t like what you see can be so important, “this record is about just trying to figure things out… how to move through the world as a woman, how to be in a relationship without shrinking yourself – that’s so much more interesting to me.”