Lorde was a collaborative producer along with Little, in which she listened to a lot of electronic music in order for her to develop a "real taste" of what she wanted the album's production to sound like. Later, Lorde went to show the lyrics to her boyfriend, James Lowe, and stated that sharing things with her boyfriend encouraged much of the album's writing and ultimately inspired and drove her to write the majority of the album. Lorde also listened to American singer Lana Del Rey, taking influence from her hip-hop genres. For influence, she cited James Blake and minimalist music. If I can make something which does feel like that, and feels right and true and good, then I will have succeeded." ĭuring the recording of the album, Lorde stated that she "didn't really have a specific sound in mind when I started recording", continuing to say she listened to a large amount of hip-hop, electronic and pop music. I'm working on an album at the moment and it seems a lot of albums lately don’t feel like a cohesive set of songs that complement each other and mean something as a group. "The goal for me is to make a body of work that is cohesive, that feels like an album and is something that I'm going to be proud of. When choosing the songs to include on the final track listing, Lorde and her A&R decided to keep it at ten to avoid "filler material." Lorde discussed her objectives with Pure Heroine stating Ten songs were included in the album's final track listing, with around seven or eight tracks not making the cut. Lorde wanted to write her own music, and the album's content was co-written with Joel Little. The recording took place in Auckland's Golden Age Studios, a small studio without expensive technology, and was completed in less than a year. Recording for the album was overseen by Lorde and Little, and was described by Lorde's A&R Scott Maclachlan as a fairly short process, with the majority of what Lorde played him ending up on the final edition of the album. Initially Lorde and Little played demos to A&R Scott Maclachlan, in which they would discuss songs, exchange comments and change some aspects of the songs. As with The Love Club EP, Pure Heroine was recorded with producer Joel Little at Golden Age Studios in Auckland. Composition and writingīefore beginning work on Pure Heroine, Lorde stated her intention for her debut album to be a "cohesive" work. Lorde's debut extended play, 2013's The Love Club EP, received acclaim from music critics who compared the EP to the work of Sky Ferreira, Florence + the Machine, Lana Del Rey, and Grimes , and reached number one in New Zealand, number two in Australia where it was certified five times platinum for shipments of 350,000 copies , and twenty-three on the US Billboard 200. She was eventually paired with New Zealand compatriot writer and producer Joel Little and this working relationship clicked almost immediately. Maclachlan told HitQuarters: "Fundamentally I think she understood that she was going to write her own music but would need someone to help with the production side of it." Lorde began writing songs on guitar at the age of "13 or 14". She was signed to Universal by her manager Scott Maclachlan when she was 13 and was initially put together with a succession of different songwriters in unsuccessful attempts to develop her own music. From the age of 14, Lorde worked with Universal to develop her sound and artistic vision.