"Above all else, I was always working to write a story start to finish," explains Audrey Hobert of 2025's best debut album, 'Who's The Clown?' - a relatable twelve-track ode to the comedic rollercoaster that is life.
Pop mastermind Hobert says: "All I’ve ever cared about doing with my life is somehow, someway, making people feel like they have permission to be themselves. I have no choice but to be myself in this life; I just am who I am, I am always myself. If young people felt that they could always be themselves, even if they don’t feel beautiful, or if they feel awkward or unwanted, everything would be easier. For everyone. I want to be that voice for people. I want more than anything to be the person that someone can look to and see being so truly who they are, that it makes them feel like they are beautiful, funny, smart, interesting—like me. I have been shot down by boys, I have been called ugly, I have been told to shut up by my friends at sleepovers in middle school. But I have risen from the ashes and I have written this album. It is for everyone."
With the company of a donkey and miniature horse, Coup De Main recently met Audrey Hobert in Los Angeles to shed some light on the star, the myth, the legend...
COUP DE MAIN: Yesterday, I was reading about you writing 'I Like To Touch People' after watching a Steve Martin documentary and thinking about how you would open a comedy show if you had one - and then last night, you performed live at a comedy club and opened your set with 'I Like To Touch People'. Was that as much of a full-circle moment for you as it was for me?
AUDREY HOBERT: <laughs> Yeah! I mean, I can't tell you how often I'm choking back tears about all of this. I've seen comedy at The Elysian that has only ever been stellar, and seeing my name on the marquee there, it felt like it was Madison Square Garden. I wouldn't allow myself to actually cry during a show, but if I were more free in that way, I would have been crying. It meant a lot.
CDM: The CDs you gave everyone attending this tour are cute. Did you doodle on them?
AUDREY: Yes, I did. I doodled on every single one.
CDM: How many did you doodle for all of the shows?
AUDREY: I think 400.
CDM: That's a commitment!
AUDREY: Totally.
CDM: I thought you would appreciate the fact that the wine bar I went to dinner at before your show last night was randomly having a Christmas-themed Taco Tuesday. The entire evening felt very Audrey-Hobert-coded, so thank you for that.
AUDREY: What? Oh my god, what wine bar were you at?
CDM: It was called Justine's Wine Bar - a five-minute walk from the venue.
AUDREY: Okay, oh god, I gotta go there. That sounds like fun. It sounds like, literally, my kind of thing.
CDM: So, important question... Who? Is? The? Clown?
AUDREY: Well, that's kind of the question... it's supposed to be funny. I had the idea for the album cover and the title the morning after I finished writing 'Sex and the City'. It woke me up at 6am and it was in my head, and I just thought it was funny that there's an actual clown in a photo with me - and the question is: "Who's the clown?". So, I guess the answer is: we'll never know.
CDM: A big theme of this album feels like your search for connection - from pretending in 'I Like To Touch People' ("But when they talk I go snore / But to them I’m begging more"), settling in 'Sue Me', and trying your best in 'Bowling Alley' and 'Thirst Trap'. What do you think are the hardest and easiest things about connecting with other people?
AUDREY: The hardest thing about connecting with other people is when you don't like them and you know it, but you're wanting to be polite. And then the easiest is that it's usually very easy for me. I love people.
CDM: Are you familiar with the concept of 'weak ties'? It was a term coined by a sociologist in the 70s to describe casual connections in your outer circle of acquaintances. Traditionally, we're taught to believe that your inner circle are your most important relationships, but there's a theory that acquaintances and almost strangers can be just as important because that's how we communicate in the building of worlds and sharing/learning of new information. Do you relate to that in any way?
AUDREY: Yeah, I think I'm gathering what you're saying, which is that you assume that the most important people in your life are the immediate ones, but actually it's the circle surrounding those people. Yeah, I think that's true.
CDM: What does connection mean to you?
AUDREY: I think it's more important than money, fame, success, and cool cars.
CDM: 'Past Lives' director Celine Song told The New York Times that she believes in love at first conversation, and I agree. To love someone, is to know them. I mean, how can you love someone that you don't know?
AUDREY: Yeah 100% - looks don't usually do it for me, you have to make me laugh.
CDM: How do you feel when you've met someone you really connect to?
AUDREY: Like I want to explode.
CDM: Would you rather be good at talking? Or a good listener?
AUDREY: I think if you're a good listener, you will be inherently good at talking.
CDM: How do you feel about dating apps?
AUDREY: I've done it - not currently doing it.
CDM: What do you think are your best and worst character traits?
AUDREY: These are great questions. I think one of my best character traits is that I have a really good memory. One of my worst is that I sometimes assume people won't care about my presence or my opinion, and in the absence of both of those things, I think I can sometimes offend people or hurt them.
CDM: What are the most impressive traits you have admired in other people?
AUDREY: Kindness - the best and most impressive thing to me is kindness, and being smart.
CDM: About 'Bowling Alley', you've said that it's partly about "people who you’ve known for years only acknowledging you when you do something exciting artistically and in the public eye" - which perfectly sums up one of the main things I hate about the transactional nature of the music industry. In a weird way, is it a relief when someone shows their true self?
AUDREY: Yeah, and I've been wrong sometimes, but I feel like my read on people upon first meeting them is usually somewhat true. So yeah, I feel like I've been shocked before, but usually it's not that much of a shock when someone reveals their true selves.
CDM: What are your friendship and relationship red flags?
AUDREY: Red flag is when you're funny, but in a mean way, I just dislike meanness. Red flag is that I don't like being told that I am, or something I'm doing is cute, unless you are in love with me.
CDM: I love the little "and you're still DJ-ing?" at the end of 'Chateau'. Who says that?
AUDREY: Gracie [Abrams]!
CDM: You mention the 405 in 'Drive' and Gracie Abrams has her song '405' - what is so inspirational about this highway for songwriting?
AUDREY: I mean, full disclosure: I was on the 101, but 405 sounded better.
CDM: 'Sue Me' has one of the most iconic lines on your album: "In my bones, yeah I know it’s platonic / But fucking your ex is iconic." I love the ironic comedy of that, but do I need to sing your own song 'Don't Go Back To His Ass' to you?
AUDREY: Wait. Do you need to sing my own song, 'Don't Go Back To His Ass'? Yeah, sing it. Sing it!
CDM: "I think he’ll text back when I’m in the shower," in 'Thirst Trap' is very me-coded. My version is: 'I think he'll text back while I'm sleeping.' Someone once told me about how when all their energy was focused on a crush or infatuation, it would determine their mood in a co-dependent way, and I think that's so true. It's dumb how your happiness will fluctuate depending on whether someone has texted you back or not. Limerence is truly terrible.
AUDREY: It's the worst. It's the worst in the world.
CDM: When's the last time you experienced it? Was it when you were writing the song?
AUDREY: No, it was probably a few short weeks ago.
CDM: It's over now?
AUDREY: Right now, it's not as consistent as it once was. It's just sort of fleeting all the time.
CDM: 'Sex And The City' is another one of my favourite songs on your album. It's perfect. If you could change one thing about dating, what would it be?
AUDREY: Feeling nervous.
CDM: Aside from 'Joey' in 'Friends', who are your other dream TV/film boyfriends?
AUDREY: Adam in 'Girls'. Period. The end.
CDM: Which character in the TV series 'Girls' do you most relate to?
AUDREY: Does it have to be one of the four girls?
CDM: No.
AUDREY: I'm trying to think. Sometimes I feel like Elijah, sometimes I feel like Hannah, sometimes I feel like Ray. Sometimes I wish I felt like Jessa, but I'm so not Jessa.
CDM: Do you think of yourself as a people pleaser?
AUDREY: I think I want to please people, but I don't think that quality serves you ever, and I think you can please people and also have boundaries, so I'm working on that.
CDM: Shots are fired when you say: "If he wanted to, then he would." What are some other important Audrey Hobert life lessons that we should all take to heart?
AUDREY: I would say something my mom has said to me a lot: fear and worry are the biggest waste of energy. I'm gonna go with that, even though that's my mom's quote.
CDM: You can't control how other people treat you, but you can control how you choose to think about it.
AUDREY: Yeah, 100%.
CDM: What was it like working with Ricky Gourmet on this album? And why did you find it hard to write songs in front of him?
AUDREY: Sunshine, rainbows, daggers and true joy. And because it would have involved him sitting in a completely separate room from me, and me just being in his space and not talking to him for an entire day, and I just figured, may as well not put him through that.
CDM: A friend recently told me that she could never be a musician because she would never be able to give people access to her body in such a public manner. Is this something you've thought about while having to navigate the expectation of your life being turned into content for strangers on Instagram and TikTok?
AUDREY: Oh my god, yeah. Girl, yeah. I just don't look much. The first week that 'Sue Me' was out, I was on TikTok, and I sort of had a minor meltdown at the end of it, where I realised that none of this is gonna be fun if I'm seeing myself doing it all the time, so I just tapped out. I don't really plan on tapping back in. I think I'll be on the fast track to being boring if all I'm doing is looking at videos and photos of myself and what people are saying about me and my songs, but privately, the more music videos I've shot and photos I've taken and times I've performed, I feel myself actually just really accepting of things that used to bug me.
CDM: What are things that used to bug you?
AUDREY: Like forehead lines and general face stuff, but I'm feeling good these days.
CDM: Journalist Sable Yong says in her book 'Die Hot With A Vengeance' that: "Pretty privilege is a form of self-sustaining energy - all the positive feedback that attractive people receive instills a kind of self-worth in them that they are indeed deserving of everything they desire, which makes their endeavours that much more persuasive. After all, believing in yourself is necessary for others to believe in you too." Do you agree or disagree?
AUDREY: I mean, I agree with the second part, I think that's true - believing in yourself. People are gonna sniff out on you if you don't feel like you deserve it, and it's gonna make them also think that you don't deserve it. Confidence is the hottest quality. It gets you everywhere in life. And a work ethic. And then, as for pretty privilege, I'm happy for all those pretty people.
CDM: In 'Silver Jubilee' you mention, "I wanna make it but it’s fun to be a normal girl." What does being a normal girl mean to you?
AUDREY: You know, what's so funny is that I have a video of myself writing that line, and I said that line, and I immediately asked myself: "What's a normal girl?" So, what is being a normal girl to me? Being ignored, generally. Because when you even have a shred of notoriety or fame, people are just gonna give you more attention and respect right off the bat. But so much of my life has been no one looking at me. And that has made me weirdly feel interesting at times, so I think that's what I meant by that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Portrait photos by: Ragan Henderson
All other Instax photos by: Shahlin Graves
Design by: Lola Jacob
Styling by: Emily Cancelosi
Hair & Make-up by: Audrey Hobert
Audrey Hobert's debut album 'Who's The Clown?' is out now.
Watch the 'Thirst Trap' music video below...
Audrey Hobert