Erin LeCount: “Nobody wants to be a good female producer – just a good producer”Erin LeCount’s makeshift garden shed studio is her “safe space”. Though unfinished and not soundproofed, the DIY alt-pop star likes that “it’s not too perfect, otherwise that could psych me out”. Sticking to making her ethereal music where she feels most comfortable is paying off; however. The Essex-born artist went viral on TikTok in late 2024 and has since enchanted a young, cult-like fanbase with over 180,000 followers at the time of writing.

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The 22-year-old has come a long way from the finals of The Voice Kids in 2017, and later creating “tinny” backing tracks on GarageBand, hunched over a laptop in her bedroom. “I just found it fun,” the producer, vocalist and songwriter recalls of uploading these covers to TikTok during her late teens. “A lot of it happened in lockdown,” she says, adding that she first got into producing as a way to boost her confidence and battle imposter syndrome.
“As soon as I got in rooms with songwriters, I would freeze up. Any environment that was too professional or clinical would instantly bring it on.”
Because she also suffered from stage fright, posting to social media felt “more private – even though these videos were out there for anyone to see”. It was also, she adds, “the first time it had been fun in a long time”.
Image: Press
However, there was an issue with her bedroom setup at the time: Erin’s posture was suffering; “It was terrible, so my dad kindly suggested that we build a shed, or just somewhere out of the house, for me to make music in”. Plus, her neighbours weren’t always fans of the noise: “I would be recording and they would bang and shout on my walls,” Erin recalls. “It got to the point where there was either negative or positive feedback,” she laughs. “It was borderline necessity at that point, otherwise we were going to have the council called on us!”
Fast forward to 2025, and the garden shed studio — which remains acoustically untreated — boasts her essentials — a laptop with Logic Pro, a tiny Akai APC Key, a Focusrite Scarlett Solo — plus prized gear for use on the stage as well as studio. This includes a Sequential Prophet, a Boss RC-505 that she uses to loop vocals on stage, a “tiny but powerful” Novation Bass Station, two drum pads, a MIDI Fighter Twister that she uses to affect reverbs and delays, two mics (one that she uses for lead and the other that she’s affecting and looping on) and then Ableton Live which runs on the side of the stage.
“It’s like a playground on stage,” Erin summarises. “I’m dancing and twirling between all these little stations. It’s sort of childish in a way,” she enthuses. “It’s like play, and I love having that.”
Much of her current collection has also expanded thanks to pieces she has borrowed and is yet to give back: “I’ve got very lucky with just being cheeky, and people lending me things,” she says, highlighting her Moog Grandmother and a Native Instruments Maschine MK2. “No piece of equipment has driven me more mad than that,” she says of the latter. “I love the concept, and it looks so beautiful, but I could just never get to grips with it”.
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Perhaps the most basic piece of equipment that she owns is her mic, a second-hand Neumann TLM 103, which came wrapped up in a tea towel. “It was not fresh and new,” she admits, adding that she’s been enjoying growing her range of equipment. “I’m at the point where I’m stopping stealing from everyone I know and getting some nice stuff for myself, but I’ve been in the box for so long that anything else is a luxury.”
More recently, Erin has been breaking down the creative process behind her songs for TikTok and Instagram. In one such video, she reveals that the harps and strings that feature prominently on ‘Mable Arch’ were actually played on her APC. Not only did she find this approach fascinating, but she loved the “slightly shitty quality of it”. This, Erin says, is why she named her latest collection I Am Digital, I Am Divine: “it’s got this divinity to it, but it literally is MIDI and plastic.”
“I love these massive orchestral sound options that, more often than not, come from a machine or a box,” she continues. “There is something so interesting and amazing about simulating those kinds of instruments,” she continues, referencing the work of her producer heroes Sampha, Imogen Heap, Björk and Kate Bush.
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Sharing her behind-the-beats videos has not only helped minimise her imposter syndrome, but she says that “people appreciate it and are interested and fascinated by it”. One clip, in which she dissects Silver Spoon, has received over 600 comments and been loved by 11,000 TikTok users. “I think people are interested in how songs can come from that, as opposed to sitting at a piano and writing, because that’s never been how I’ve approached it,” she considers. “But I care about songs with good melodies and good structure.”
Having previously been unsure if her singular approach to bedroom production was the correct one, the response to her videos has given her “validation that there is no wrong way to go about making a song”. And, while Erin admits that she’s “not the most musically fluent person in the world”, she thinks that “finding out that the instruments are not real is part of the charm. The laptop and my voice are my favourite instruments, which is why most things I do are off of vocal chops, or drones of long reverbs.”
The technique breakdown videos have also helped to subtly negate doubt over how much involvement Erin has in her songs, which is something she has faced for many years due to outdated stereotypes: “So many times, I’ve walked into rooms with people who were there to have meetings with me about my music,” she recalls. “It’s only midway through the conversation that they realise, whilst talking to me, that I make it all,” she says. “But this isn’t something that I’ve hidden. I’m proud of it, and I show as much as I can, because it’s all I do. I do this all the time.”
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As someone who loves self-produced artists and takes a keen interest in who produces her favourite songs, Erin says it’s “lazy when people say they don’t know enough female producers, or that there are not enough”. She couldn’t disagree more: “There are women doing it, but they’re either not calling themselves producers or are not being put in the right rooms. I know so many people who make beats and make tracks and then go ‘but I’m not a producer’, even though that’s exactly what it is.”
Reflecting on her own experience, she says, “You can feel a sort of condescension sometimes, or the idea that you can do maybe 60 per cent of it, and then they’re surprised when you want to do the last 40 per cent as well”. While Erin believes things are improving, she feels that more needs to be done to level the playing field.
“There is a lot of performative-ness and inclusivity for the sake of it,” she says. “But nobody that I know, including me, wants to be known as a ‘good female producer’. They just want to be a good producer.”

Having only been afforded the opportunity to rehearse at local gig venues and community hubs “out of the kindness of people’s hearts”, Erin feels that music production should be accessible for everyone – especially young women. How can this be achieved? An overhaul of school curricula, perhaps.
“Arts and music are being defunded so quickly, which is awful,” she says, “but there needs to be space and accommodation, in or out of school, that is ideally free. Because it was for me, and I wouldn’t make music if I didn’t have that”.
Not only is Erin LeCount one of the most honest and innovative producers around right now, but she’s also unafraid to speak up for the next generation – a role model for other upcoming producers.
Erin LeCount tours the UK in December and the US next February
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