I’m sitting with Lisa McLaughlin, alias Haylar, in the foyer of the brand spanking new Hoxton Hotel (on the site of our beloved Central Hotel), nestled in the quietest corner we can find. It’s comfy, it’s cosy and the ideal spot for her first major interview.*
I notice she has a wee tattoo on her wrist, a circle, the size of a five-cent coin. Thinking back over our conversation, the tattoo seems like a signifier, a place in this particular artist’s psyche where unity, harmony, and infinity are finally beginning to evoke feelings of wholeness and protection.
The life cycles and natural rhythms of a circle begin with a baptism, a naming, and Haylar has special connotations for the German-born (Münster, a city in the Western region) Tyrone-raised singer.
“So my mum’s maiden name is Haylar, and when I started recording in 2023, I went in with a different vision. My own name didn’t seem right for the new sound so when my grandmother passed away I wanted to mark that and that surname had a contemporary ring to it which I felt matched the music.”
This new electronic based sound was a massive leap in style for an artist who had previously been a hot tip around the mid 2010’s with a songbook that impressed promoters enough to have her open in the Olympia (as it was called then) for artists like Emelie Sande, The Goo Goo Dolls, Plan B, Moving Hearts and many more established acts.
McLaughlin was already well known on the burgeoning local scene for being the hostess of the late, lamented Saucy Sundays showcase gig in The Grand Social, where many acts like Kae Tempest, Wyvern Lingo, Niamh Regan, The Strypes and The Hot Sprockets got a leg up. In retrospect, McLaughlin was probably 10 years ahead of her time with her folk-inflected songs. However, the sudden death of her father in 2014 changed everything.
“It was a weird thing when Daddy died. He was diagnosed with a mental illness when he was very young, so I never really knew him in a normal sense,” she reflects, “It was a very turbulent time; we didn’t know from one day to the next what we were going to get.”
McLaughlin started singing and writing songs from as young as twelve years old. There was never a moment where she envisioned herself bathed in the star-spangled light of A-lister fame, rather singing was her way of coping with life.
“When you grow up with a parent like that, you’re very much in fight or flight all the time,” she tells me, reflecting on how it affected her own self-confidence as an artist “I would start recording something, and then I would second-guess it.”
Following his passing, McLaughlin describes the emptiness and loss of grief manifesting as a simultaneous loss of creative impulse.
“I’ve never really spoken about Daddy’s illness before, and I think when he passed away, something ended for me,” McLaughlin confesses. “I had to almost rebuild my life from scratch,” she admits, “The creativity felt like it disappeared. I was thinking, was [the artistry] just there because of that, or was that there because I was good at it? I was questioning everything deeply.”
Naturally, McLaughlin’s reconstruction of her life at large gave way to a rebuilding of her creative vision as well. While gradually reconstructing her creative path, McLaughlin gained the strength and clarity to become confident and self-assured in her new sound.
“I only feel like in the last couple of years that I was able to bounce back… There’s a state of calm that was never there before.”
Swapping the guitar strings for synth lines, McLaughlin feels energised by the new angle taken in her music production and songwriting process. She admits that a more melodic electronic, atmospheric sound had always been on her radar, but she never before felt confident enough to nosedive into a new genre.
“I love clubbing and I love dance music, but before I felt like a bit of an outsider because no one knew me for that.”
In her early meetings with producer Karl Odlum, it was clear that a change in sound was needed: “I went into [the studio] and said… I have a love for this other music that I never really delved into before.”
Breaking back into the music scene and experimenting with a new sound required an adjustment period of its own, with McLaughlin swapping out her old folk songwriting techniques like shedding skin.
“I’m writing from melody, not from my mind… I’m coming up with melodies all the time.”
HAYLAR’s unique fusion of sound and storytelling, alongside her creative partnership with Odlum, have made the rising electronic musician gain increasing visibility across Ireland and the UK. HAYLAR made her debut on the stage with a sold-out gig in Curveball, the Button Factory’s upstairs venue, in November 2025.
McLaughlin wants to maintain the optimism surrounding HAYLAR’s debut going forward: “I think it’s really important for me to be more positive because I haven’t felt positivity in so long. I feel like my confidence has always been taken from me. Now I’m like f*** that, I deserve to be here.”
At 48 years old, McLaughlin wants her genre-shift, midlife hiatus and reinvention of her writing process to serve as an inspiration to other women and artists who have stepped away from their art and are looking for the motivation to come back.
“I’m trying to fly the flag, especially for female artists that maybe have taken a break and don’t feel like they can get back into it again.” she states “It’s really important that we champion women in that way.”
McLaughlin’s refreshed stage persona has made her step back into the centre of her own life story. Even though the writing for the first album has been completed, McLaughlin feels like there is much more to come from HAYLAR. With the birth of her new electronic alter ego came a reinvigorated stream of creative impulse.
“I don’t feel I have as much imposter syndrome anymore. I feel like I’m really standing up on my own now.” she reveals “I feel like this is only the start.”
Words: John Brereton
Haylar plays live in the Chelsea Underground (beneath the Chelsea Drugstore, 25 Georges St, D2) on 17th April.
* This interview preceded the hotel’s ridiculous, ill advised court action against Izakaya and will not be used again by us for any interviews, an action I hope all other journals will side with us on as their upstairs Library Bar was a regular spot for interviews to take place.
