Lucia & The Best Boys have joined forces with Chvrches‘ Lauren Mayberry for a brand new single called ‘Lonely Girl’. Check it out below.
The track marks the first new music from Lucia & The Best Boys in three years, and sees the artist join forces with the Chvrches and solo star for the first time.
Written by Lucia, alongside longtime Best Boys Haydn Park-Patterson and Calum Stewart, the track documents the singer’s connection to rural Scotland, and tackles themes of community, friendship and the feeling of being an outsider.
The song settles into an intricate, folk-inspired guitar melody after a powerful, distorted intro, and sees Lucia provide ethereal vocals. “I used to be the fly/ that couldn’t find the window/ Just flew around/ in the direction/ where the wind blows,” she sings.
Mayberry then joins, and the two of them reach the euphoric, joy-fuelled chorus: “I no longer feel like a lonely girl/ They say you’ll need to move away to live your dreams/ Beside the stars and you’ll go far or so it seems/ But I’ll dip my toes in water when I need that clarity/ ’Cause where I thrive is where I am”.
“Lonely Girl is a song about finding a sense of belonging in both people and place,” Lucia shared. “I grew up in a small rural village in Scotland and as a teen who wanted to make music, I felt isolated in many ways and felt like I needed to reach far beyond my every-day surroundings for inspiration.
“But by the passing of time, strengthening my connection with the land and finding those rare friendships that really uplift, nurture and allow you to be yourself, I have never felt more at home.”
The singer added that the track started with producer Yves Rothman (Blondshell, Courtney Love, Kim Gordon) and they both came to realise that “Lauren’s voice belonged on this song”.
“Not only because it felt like a dreamy pairing but because I knew that if anyone was going to understand the meaning of this song that is so deep routed in where I come from, it would be Lauren,” Lucia added.
Mayberry also added that she was surprised that she and Lucia hadn’t crossed paths up until last year, and described why she was happy to take part in the collaboration.
“[Yves] mentioned having been in Glasgow working with a Scottish artist which made my ears perk up and I was happy to learn that it was Lucia & The Best Boys, because I love her, and could see his approach really working with her style,” Mayberry said.
“It’s been so exciting to watch her get recognition in the Scottish and wider British music scene in the last few years. Lucia has such a singular vision and really knows what she wants to create, and that’s a really inspiring energy to be around. Plus for once I didn’t have to alter my accent to blend in with another singer – our celtic vowel sounds were perfectly aligned.”
The new single comes ahead of Lucia & The Best Boys playing three headline shows this spring, taking place in London, Manchester and Glasgow on May 21, 22 and 29 respectively. Visit here for tickets.
Lucia & The Best Boys’ 2026 UK tour dates are:
MAY
21 – Islington Academy, London
22 – Manchester, Academy 2
29 – Glasgow, Barrowland
A press release also shares that the single is the first taster of more new music still on the way from Lucia & The Best Boys, and more details about forthcoming material will be shared at a later date.
Back in 2019, NME spoke to Lucia about her time in the industry and how it felt to be “leading Glasgow’s young, vital glam renaissance”.
Looking at how she had grown as an artist, she shared: “I think at first when you when you start doing this, you really care about the way you come across, and end up comparing and judging yourself a bit too much. This year, I discovered that I don’t really give a fuck.
“I like the feeling of not knowing what I’m gonna do next. I think it’s more interesting. Nobody has to do one thing. I don’t just like punk music. I don’t just like disco music. I don’t just like pop music. Why not combine everything you love into one? Express yourself truly and it says a lot more.”
As for Chvrches, the Scottish synth-pop band haven’t released an album since 2021, but did play live up until 2023 and also supported Coldplay at Milan’s Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
Last summer, they told fans that they had started work on a new album, and earlier this month, bandmates Martin Doherty and Jonny Scott told NME about what fans could expect from the project.
“Some of the songs that ended up on this project started out as a reaction to feeling quite lonely,” Doherty said. “I haven’t really talked about this, but a bunch of really traumatic things happened in a row.”
“My dad died, while Chvrches felt as far away from being a thing as it’s ever been. We never split up,” he added. “Right now, we’re about 90 per cent finished on album five, but at that point I felt like there was no one in my orbit.”
In the time that the band have been on a hiatus, Mayberry has turned her sights to another project, and dropped her debut solo LP ‘Vicious Creatures’ in 2024.
She has also joined forces with IDLES‘ Joe Talbot, Death Cab For Cutie, and The National‘s Aaron Dessner. The latter saw them record a cover of Frightened Rabbit‘s ‘Who’d Kill You Now?’ for ‘Tiny Changes’ – a commemorative tribute album for the band’s late frontman Scott Hutchinson.
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