Khruangbin’s Laura Lee On Fashion, Motherhood, And Grammy Nominations
A LA SALA
Laura and I are connecting from different time zones. I’m in my office in Brisbane on a warm Monday afternoon, while she’s speaking from her hotel room in Milan, early in the morning after a show. Despite the early wake-up, Laura is warm and engaging.
“Australia feels like home somehow, but so far away,” she tells me. “There’s something very Texas about Australia.”
Laura’s connection to Australia is evident, especially when she recalls her most memorable show here – Golden Plains in 2019. “When we played, everyone held up their boots. It was something that I’d never seen in my life,” she reminisces. The Victorian festival tradition – raising boots in appreciation of a set – earned Khruangbin the Golden Plains seal of approval. “I loved it,” she says.
A lot has happened since that gig. Khruangbin is now touring their fourth studio album, A LA SALA – “I love playing with my best friends every night,” Laura shares – and outside of music, she’s embraced a new chapter: motherhood. “Everything has changed in the best way possible,” she says. “You have this wonderful and wild identity crisis when you become a mum. And you really have to think about what your values are because all of a sudden, you’re instilling them into a home that you’re creating.”
The making of A LA SALA coincided with a pivotal moment in Laura’s life – she was eight months pregnant. Instead of retreating to guitarist Mark Speer’s family barn, where the band usually records, the trio stayed in Houston, where Laura could be closer to everything she needed: “I felt better being near civilisation,” she recalls. Three weeks later, the album was complete. Now, every night on the A LA SALA tour, the album is played in full.
Adding to the whirlwind of milestones, the band has snagged their first-ever Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. “It was very, very unexpected,” Laura admits. “We’ve been living this existence where we’re a band that people either really know or really don’t. We’ve still managed to stay kind of small but grow at the same time. It felt like that was never gonna happen – not in a good way or bad way. It was just never one of our goals, necessarily, to win awards. We just like making music. And I think because it was never a specific goal, it feels really special. I’m humbled, certainly overwhelmed, and still a bit shocked.”
I’m not. For those familiar with Khruangbin’s music, the Grammy nod comes as no surprise. The band possesses the ability to transport listeners to another place entirely – fitting, given their name translates to “aeroplane” in Thai. Their atmospheric sound, an intricate collage of global subgenres, creates an immersive listening experience that is both unique and familiar. It seems every detail – from the music itself to the album art – is meticulously curated and considered. Laura’s approach to her tour fashion is no exception.
“Our tour prior to this one had a very specific look and feel to it, and I think we all felt like we had outgrown that, at least for now,” she explains. This evolution saw Laura swapping her signature five-inch (minimum) heels for socks, and exchanging the feathers and sequins for denim and dresses. It’s a shift that aligns with A LA SALA’s central theme of home. For Laura, a Texas native, home often means jeans – specifically Levi’s, with whom she has collaborated to custom-dye her jeans to coordinate with the rest of her stage looks. “I have to plan about a tour ahead so I can send them all the colours I need and have them in time,” she says.
As for what tops the jeans, Laura’s tour wardrobe is an eclectic mix of vintage and designer pieces, including Self-Portrait, Ukrainian brand Paskal, and items from Poshmark and a vintage store in Salt Lake City she discovered years ago while on tour. “I just ransacked the place. They thought I was completely insane. I had, like, four trash bags of dresses. But I knew exactly what I wanted,” she laughs.
This tour, Laura’s aesthetic centres on a playful yet polished silhouette: eclectic dresses layered over jeans, a look that feels childlike while maintaining a sophisticated edge. “I think of it like something a little kid might wear – a tutu over jeans – but at the same time, it feels very grown-up,” she explains.
Styling herself on this tour has been a “wonderful, thoughtful process” for Laura, who views fashion as an ever-evolving extension of her visual identity, both as an artist and as a person. And with Khruangbin’s Brisbane show at Riverstage fast approaching, the anticipation is building to see her and the rest of the band’s electric style in action.
