'Chasing Fire' is about fighting for something that's already over. It's the beginning of the end. It's desperation. It's grand. But it's hopeless.
Lauv
'Lauv' comes from the Latvian word for lion, and my mom's side of the family is from Latvia - it's a place I've been probably 15 times or more. I'm also a Leo, and my real name, Ari, means lion.
I feel like Drake could literally put out anything - like, the sound of seagulls over a beat - and it could be the Number One song on Spotify.
I am realising this now more as I grow up: that I never really felt connected to locations. In some sense, I always kind of felt a little lost in that I never had any hometown pride. While I experience a lot different places and experiences, I always felt a little detached.
I write a lot of sad songs!
I've always hated the feeling of trying to be cool or trying to fit in.
I love nostalgia.
Being vulnerable is the hardest thing for so many people, including myself, but it's also the most satisfying thing.
At the end of the day, we all want to fall in love.
Everybody in L.A. is a songwriter, producer, actor, creative. For some reason, you're supposed to go to a bar and all hang out and act like you like each other. There is a lot of fake stuff that goes on.
One of my favorite cities is Tokyo because of sushi, and Asian food in general, but then also the way Tokyo operates, because it's so clean, and there's space for a lot of variety of stores.
I love exploring the more complicated side of love. I feel like I've always gravitated toward that.
I miss the energy of New York City and being able to step out of my apartment and see so much unique culture all the time around me without having to seek it out. In L.A., I have to sort of seek out everything I'm trying to do. It makes it less spontaneous.
'I Met You When I Was 18' is a collection of songs, a story about moving to New York City when I was 18 and falling in love for the first time. A story about trying to figure out your own identity whilst being deeply intertwined with someone else's.
Kids can tell if you're being genuine or not.
The thing about Sheeran is that he is an incredibly real artist and songwriter. He is not trying to be anybody else other than himself.
I'm super-into sappy movies like 'La La Land' and 'Midnight in Paris.'
I just think that any person who wants music to be their career shouldn't focus on a record label. I have seen friends who sign to a label too early in their career, and they lost control over their music, and their releases were delayed or never put out.
In day-to-day life, there's so much that's calculated: so many fake, surface-level interactions that don't amount to anything.
People come up to me with tattoos of my lyrics!
For whatever reason, I've always gravitated towards music that feels nostalgic or longing or beautifully tragic.
Growing up, I played in different bands and did a lot of self-booked touring and traveling around, and my sister was driving us on tour, and we're playing for nobody and literally begging my friends that I went to high school with to buy tickets to our shows.
Ever since I visited Paris when I was younger, the sappy side of me really wanted to write a song about it someday.
I went from playing for nobody and having awkward experiences at award shows to now being all over the place playing sold-out shows for people who know all of the words.
I think a lot of pop music is escapist.
I've been through so many different phases, partly because I moved around so much. I never found my identity based on where I was from. It was always pick up and explore something else.
I really hope to give to other people who are listening to my music the same thing that it's done for me, which is make me feel more free and more accepting of myself.
It's tough to know what I'm going to write about. I never really know until it starts happening.
I sort of feel that I have to constantly be really, really honest with the way I feel, and I have to get that out.
I think everybody goes through that, especially... being in love for the first time. Some people, they're lucky enough that that ends up being who they're with for the rest of their lives, and sometimes it doesn't work out.
For a lot of people going through their first love, you're both still figuring yourself out.
I could never write a proper party song.
In a way, the traditional album is no longer as important as it used to be. But at the same time, I don't want to be the kind of artist who just releases one song after another.
Living in L.A. has been really good for me as a creator and musician.
With pretty much everything that I've done, in terms of going from being a songwriter and producer for other artists to doing my stuff, all the songs that I've kept to myself have always been me writing about my life.
All of this music, It's definitely been the most freeing thing that I've ever done.
Any one thing can get in the way of you and your brain being comfortable and being inspired. It's the difference between a really big song and a song that never existed.
All the best art and music feels like some type of truth - even if it's really simple - that you just can't deny. A listener can feel that.
I love bodies of work and albums and stuff like that.
I put out my first song, 'The Other,' in 2015 just on Soundcloud. It was always my most popular song but never really went far in a mainstream way. Then, a couple years after it came out, I watched it go from 8 million to, like, 100 million.
I think streaming, in general, is democratising music in general.
I'm trying to basically just focus on sharing everything that I was feeling with other people, so I can hopefully inspire other people to free themselves.
I do feel like I'm a little too much of a bummer sometimes.
