Canadian Singer-Songwriter Renforshort on New Music, The Pandemic and More

2020 has been quite a fruitful year for Toronto-bred singer-songwriter Lauren Isenberg aka Renforshort. The Canadian pop-rock artist released her seven-track debut EP teenage angst, dropped a bunch of singles, had her song “i drive me mad” given a mix from American musician Mike Shinoda, contributed to the musical drama Clouds and was recently Vh1 India’s spotlight artist of the month.

In this interview with Rolling Stone India, the young singer talks about growing up in Toronto, getting signed to Geffen Records, how she’s been coping during the pandemic and more. Read excerpts below.

How was it like for you growing up in a vibrant city like Toronto?

I loved growing up in Toronto, it’s such an awesome city. It’s also super artistic, I feel like there’s a lot of focus on the arts there. This was very lucky for me, cause that’s how I met my managers.

Speaking of your managers, you got signed to Geffen Records very quickly and started putting out music at a fast pace. What’s the journey been like for you so far?

It’s been a crazy experience for me because it’s something I had never experienced. Before I was signed, I never put out a project or had the push that I did and that was crazy to see, also seeing my team expand was very cool. I’m very lucky to have them.

Your song “afterthoughts” was included in Clouds. What was it like being involved in that project?

That was a really cool process, I got sent the movie to watch and where a song would be, and I got to get inspiration from the movie and choose a scene to write for. It’s interesting, it’s really different than anything I’ve done before, and I loved it!

You’ve followed up your EP with “fuck, i luv my friends” and “nostalgic (luvsick),” what can you tell me about these songs?

They are sonically pretty different [to each other] at least to me [laughs]. Lyrically I think they are quite similar. They follow the narrative of missing someone. “fuck, i luv my friends” is missing people that are still present in your life whereas “nostalgic” is missing someone and not being able to do anything about it. So, one is just cute and the other is kinda sad [laughs].

How have you coped during the pandemic?

I have been getting used to it, it’s weird cause now I view this as the new normal. I think you have to make sure you are communicating. I FaceTime my friends quite a bit now, and that’s something I never used to do. It’s been really helpful and makes it easy to talk about your emotions.

 What’s next for you?

I’ve got a lot of really cool things that I’m excited for coming up, but I think I’m most excited for my next project, it’s gonna be really cool and I’m so excited to share it with the world!

Once things get better, would you be keen on touring in India?

I would absolutely love to go to India, it’s been on my list of places I’d like to go to forever. I love the culture and the country, it’s so beautiful.

Stream Renforshort’s music below: