Ballarat is a small regional town in Victoria, roughly 90 minutes drive inland from Melbourne.
Initially booming during the gold rush. Nicknamed ‘The Rat’, it’s home to roughly 100,000 people.
While the town had its fair share of local talent in the past, it’s still definitely not the sort of place you’d picture world-class talent emerging from — until now. Enter Larissa Lambert, who’s on the brink of international stardom having cemented herself as an anchor in Australian R&B over the last half-decade.
“My brain was always ‘I’m gonna get out of this. I’m gonna make it. I’m gonna be a star,’” says Lambert. “I think when I was younger, it was also a way of seeking validation, and validating myself. I really wanted to get out.”
With over 1 million monthly listeners and public vouches from artists like SZA and Justin Bieber, she’s approaching the release of a defining debut album, Yearning, out September 18th. As Lambert sits down with Rolling Stone AU/NZ to reflect on her journey thus far, her cat interrupts, clawing against her door.
Yearning is a certified coming-of-age moment which explores the complexities of Lambert’s mental health alongside personal relationships, insecurities, fears, and dreams.
Her life up until this point has been far from smooth sailing, with Lambert facing her fair share of bumps in the road. Now, she’s truly arrived.
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Yearning tells that story, offering listeners a far deeper understanding of the person behind the music in her most emotionally mature project to date. “My whole career is leading up to a debut album. You know, that’s like the thing, that’s the moment,” she says. I’m at a point in my life now where I just feel content and at peace.”
Growing up as a middle sibling with an older sister, older brother, and a younger sister, she describes herself as an ‘adventurous’ child who relished in nature, finding both excitement and peace amongst the rolling basalt volcanic plains of rural Victoria. “I was a bit of a feral. I was always running around exploring an abandoned house or something.
“If I met my childhood self now I’d probably want to slap her!” says Lambert with a laugh. But as a child, life was difficult.
She was surrounded by a ‘dysfunctional family lifestyle’ which came with unique family dynamics, including her father being in and out of prison (as she revealed in her interview with Ash McGregor). “I didn’t come from money. I came from a very toxic upbringing” Lambert tells me candidly. “I think I was also looking for praise which I was lacking within myself. I was lacking confidence. That was a big core issue, I can see that for sure.”
Still, she enjoyed her childhood. But, she always had a longing for a different life — a life where she’d be seen, heard, and understood. In Ballarat, that life she dreamt of seemed like a long shot.
There’s a certain type of relentless energy that occasionally emerges from growing up somewhere small: the world feels impossibly distant but somehow still within arms reach. Leaving those environments often means proving there’s more out there than about rejecting where you’re from.
Music became her main way to escape the complicated environment that surrounded her at a very young age, seeking an emotional outlet and a means of validation. She popped up online around 2012, posting pop/R&B covers on YouTube.
“Growing up, my way of emotional release and therapy was to sing sad songs in the mirror,” she says. Eventually, she was scouted for a music camp in Sydney for X-Factor. “With my family, it was, ‘Oh, that doesn’t happen for people like us. That’s not possible.’ It was not even imaginable. The small town mindset is quite common.
In my brain, I was like, I’m gonna do it. You’re just fueling it.”
Paris Inc appeared on X-Factor in both 2014 and 2015, consisting of Lambert and her friends Esra Itawi, Millie O’Rourke, Teal Fisher, and later Shavaun Marie, making it to the top 24 on both occasions.
For O’Rourke (now known as MIM), little has changed about the person she remembers from those days. She describes Lambert as “silly, goofy, and so funny. Sometimes chaotic and rough around the edges, but in all the right places.”
They bonded over a shared quirkiness, eventually spending a lunch break at Parramatta Westfield where Lambert spontaneously joined her to get her septum pierced. Around the same time, a high school careers advisor told Lambert that she should drop out to pursue music, adding confirmation to the path she would immediately begin to embark on.
“I don’t know if it was ever an ambition to become a ‘star’ for Ris,” says MIM. “She’s always wanted her music to be heard”.
As Lambert reached her early twenties, her need to escape the past was slowly becoming destructive.
She eventually reached a breaking point, falling into an induced psychosis which lasted roughly three months, and took her over a year to fully recover. “I found myself getting addicted to escapism heavily. I’ve got an addictive personality, I got into drugs and partying a bit. I just could have avoided so much trauma if I had better emotional regulation” says Lambert.
“I feel like I made a lot of mistakes because I didn’t have the best guidance — honestly, I had really unhealthy coping mechanisms,” she explains.
What was the scariest moment of her life became a turning point that forced Lambert to acknowledge her past, and spearhead the energy into ensuring her music career paid off. “I was like, ‘You’re gonna fuck things up if you go back to the same way that you were. You’re gonna destroy it.’ I was confused. I was like, ‘I’m fucked. I broke myself.’
“In my late teens and early twenties, I definitely had a lot of burdens and demons I was unpacking alone,” she says. “I didn’t really have much guidance emotionally growing up, so it took me a while to really lock in and figure out the right steps.”
Lambert’s highly anticipated debut album intentionally encapsulates that journey as she sets the foundations for the next chapter of her career.
Yearning explores core themes of dependency and validation, two things Lambert has openly struggled in her own life. Compared to her previously released shorter length projects, the album intentionally feels like Lambert’s world rather than a collection of good songs.
“I just felt like I wasn’t ready,” she says. “One thing I am grateful for was taking my time. Sometimes I’d make songs that I feel like other people wanted because I’d have viral moments from covers and I’d try and emulate that, and it just wouldn’t work.
“I’m a big overthinker. I would have hated to put out a debut album and not be happy with it. That would have haunted me forever.”
To yearn is to have a strong desire for something. As she takes listeners throughout her life up until this point, Lambert unpacks the baggage that’s defined her past, and seeks a deeper understanding about herself, and healthy love.
Accompanied by piercing acoustic vocals and melodic R&B production, Yearning begins by questioning love, betrayal, and the impending doom and gloom of unfaithfulness. It slowly builds to a standout title track which sees the fuzzy-love portion of the album reach its peak.
From there, the mood takes a nosedive. On Yearning’s defining moment, “Damaged Goods”, Lambert is soul searching.
She opens asking “wonder if home is further from here? Wish i was a fool that don’t feel these things so deeply. What do I lose if I disappear? Everything I’m scared to lose, I can’t take it when I leave here,” and later, “… please stay, but don’t wake me up cos it’s finally quiet. I’m dreaming of space, maybe gravity’ll make my burdens feel lighter. It’s 2am and I’m faded again, wishing I could be somewhere I’m better again”.
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Throughout both her life and career, perception has played a huge role in Lambert’s insecurities. ”I wanted to post more personality because I think people deserve to know who I am. I think people were just judging me based on how I looked, and guessing what I was like... it was definitely a struggle,” she says. “I was people pleasing and feeling like I needed to be a certain person to be valued. I’d fixate so badly — especially on my image — I would fixate severely. That would be just so damaging for my mental health.”
Constantly challenging her relationship with perception and self love through the lens of a relationship, family, and self, Lambert’s level of transparency and bravery on Yearning only feels possible now. She attributes that growth to putting effort into forming healthier habits, spending less time on her phone, and seeking perspective.
“Yearning to me is about openness. Being open with someone, and being open with yourself,” she says. “Some of the songs I wrote six years ago. I just reworked them because they were about something else I was going through, and I don’t relate to that anymore, so I just reworked it to what I’m going through now.”
That vulnerability has resulted in her most complete work to date. As she begins to receive recognition at the highest level, Lambert has already established herself as one of Australia’s premium R&B voices.
Entering the global R&B zeitgeist currently littered with modern-day icons like Kehlani, Daniel Caesar, and Leon Thomas, Lambert’s had to find her point of difference.
As opposed to trying to force an overly Australian sound — or stray away from the sound she actually wants to be making — leaning into her image has been the most authentic way she’s been able to stand out from the crowd, and keep her international flavour.
Her social media is littered with camping shots, nature hikes, and a wide variety of animal interactions. In the “Blood On The Leaves” video, she hatches from a snake egg before riding through the countryside in the back of a pickup truck, while in a recent teaser clip for the “Yearning” music video, she stands on a tussock hill above a wetlands, holding a sword while her left leg is covered in medieval armour.
“I love Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales. I love NSW. I like the weather. It’s like that perfect sweet spot. But Kangaroo Valley, or somewhere in the highland, in the mountains somewhere.”
Sometimes, life has a funny way of forcing circumstances upon you that molds the person you’re supposed to be. For Lambert, what started as a desperate drive to be seen has now evolved into a search for peace.
“I’ve experienced the worst side of losing my mind. I’m just happy to be present right now.”
Throughout the long process of ‘Yearning’s creation, Lambert’s reverted to her default setting of slow, small towns along the way. She now believes that her humble roots have played an important role in keeping her grounded as her career has ascended. “Small towns keep you humble. You have a sense of humbleness about you that you hold on to and I never want to lose that part of myself,” she says. “They just have a sense of community that I find myself making sure is embedded in my friends and team.”
Over the years, she’s never lost touch with her inner child. As she moves through life gaining more wisdom and lived experience, Lambert is coming to realise that the attention she was once seeking is fleeting.
“Once I got past needing to prove something, I realized I’m really doing this for others because it’s what genuinely fuels my soul. When you get older, you realise that fame is the downside of making art. Privacy, that’s everything,” says Lambert.
If this next chapter in life takes her global, it would feel like natural progression. Embracing what’s to come, Lambert isn’t shy about sharing her newfound idea of success.
“It’s peace, peace is making it. Happiness, and coming back to the things you enjoyed as a kid. I’m most excited to experience peace and a family life.” One day, she hopes to settle down on a farm to start a family, and live her music life from her farm. “...but I need to win a Grammy, man”, says Lambert with conviction.
Next month she’s playing her debut headline shows in the US, with dates in both LA and New York. Her calling to the States feels inevitable, but Lambert reiterates that Australia is home. “I’ll stay based in Australia as long as I can. I would only move there if I have to — I think I’d miss the Australian home feeling. It’s home at the end of the day.”
Looking ahead, Lambert expresses philanthropic goals for the future, hoping to one day fund music schools for talented underprivileged children. “I feel like if I had that as a kid, I’d be a fucking weapon.”
Currently poised for an impactful debut album, Lambert’s come a long way from the child who didn’t think her current life was at all possible. Now, the girl who grew up unsure of how to express herself has built a career around articulating her most personal moments, now using them to connect with new people.
Instead of a past escape fantasy, Lambert’s global success is about to become reality. Along the way, her journey has changed what success means. No longer running from her past, she’s building a life she’s excited to live.
It’s a testament to her patience, dedication, and growth in all areas of her life. According to MIM, she’s still the same person that she’s always been. “She’s real. And that’s so rare.”
As our time wraps up, I ask Lambert how she wants Australia to remember her.
“I hope they hear my name and they think, ‘oh yeah, that album, that album. I got married to that,’ or, ‘that helped me through my breakup.’ I just want to leave a good emotional impact on people. Otherwise it feels like I’m not doing my job properly.”
‘Yearning’ is out on September 18th and can be pre-saved now.
