As a pop-rock girly with an edgy vulnerability, LØLØ tells stories of situationships, doomed romances, and break-ups with raw, emotional lyrics. She announced her debut album, falling for robots and wishing I was one, today (April 4) along with a new single, “u & the tin man.” The album comes out on June 7, and she’ll be going on tour with jxdn starting on July 6 and concluding on July 28.
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Back in January, LØLØ sat down with American Songwriter to talk about the new album, her influences and inspirations, and how her writing process has changed since she started in the industry.
[RELATED: LØLØ Explores Feeling Stupid About a Toxic Person on Newest Single “2 of us”]
American Songwriter: What images or themes have you been exploring in the new album that are similar or different to what you’ve explored before?
LØLØ: I feel like every time I make an EP/album, I’m kind of like, okay, these songs need to go together because these are just my last five singles. So I look at them and I’m like, what’s the theme here? But it was cool because for my album I got to be like, okay, what do I like, I got to look back at my EP stuff and be like, how do I want to expand this? And what do I want the theme to be? And I kind of went in to the album thinking, I want to write songs that fit in this theme of falling for robots and wishing I was one. And because I was realizing that … all of my problems in life … were either falling for people that I felt had no emotions, or I just couldn’t get through to them. They were literally like a robot that didn’t have feelings, and [I was] feeling too much and being too emotional and having too much anxiety and taking things too personal, being too sensitive. So I thought that was a really cool juxtaposition and then I wanted to explore that.
I wrote the song “u & the tin man” literally three years ago and I loved it so much, and I was like, Oh, this is my favorite song I’ve ever written [laughs]. And I knew that I wanted that to be part of my album, so I kept it. I didn’t put it out on my EPs or anything. And I’ve always been obsessed with Wizard of Oz. Wicked is my favorite musical, I just love everything about that. So “u & the tin man” was the starting place for everything, and than I kind of centered everything around the Wizard of Oz theming, because it’s kind of like, Dorothy is put into this world where she’s alone and navigating through all these things, and I feel like that’s honestly really relatable.
AS: On this new album, how has your sound developed since you started making music? Have you grown on this album?
LØLØ: It’s funny, because when I first started writing songs it was very singer-songwritery. I was very into Taylor Swift at the time, and that was when I started learning guitar. I was learning Green Day songs and Taylor Swift songs. All of my first songs I ever wrote sound absolutely terrible [laughs], and I’m so happy I never recorded them, or most of them. [So] it was mostly more singer-songwriter. Once I started actually producing music and met producers and, you know, had drums and all this stuff, it turned into, like—people call my music pop-punk, but I like to think it’s pop-rock. But I start all of my songs on my bed with a guitar, and it’s, like, sad, always [laughs]. And then it ends up sometimes being fun. But I’ve always wanted to put out more singer-songwriter stuff.
People know me for the pop-rock songs … and even performing I love to get the crowd going and jumping up and down. That’s been my whole vibe and brand. So I’m very excited for the album now that I have more songs and more album tracks and stuff. To have more singer-songwritery songs, more emotional songs, and I feel like people will honestly be so surprised at how many there are on the [album]. So I would say the sound is going back to my roots of singer-songwriter. There’s still the rock stuff on there, but it’s definitely moving toward more organic sounds … and more vocal and really focusing more on the lyrics rather than the production because I’m a lyrics girly. I really like when I write a song, I write the lyrics first. Which, supposedly, I’ve learned coming to L.A. and being in sessions, that’s not how most people do it. Most people do melody first, but I pretty much will write out lyrics, a poem, and then turn that into a song.
AS: [For] your poetic vision, your common thread for this album, we kind of talked about The Wizard of Oz a little bit, [but] can you expand on that?
LØLØ: I would say each song on the album is either about falling for robots, or wishing I was one. I was very particular. There were some songs that I really, really liked, but it didn’t make sense with the theme. And I was like, it can’t go on, I’ll release that in the future, but it cannot go on. So every song relates to one or the other.
And it’s not all about the same person. I started writing this album in 2021, which is crazy because by the time it comes out it’ll be a full three years that I’ve been including songs [on the album]. It’s been really interesting because the last song on the album, which is “u & the tin man,” will be the first one that I ever wrote. So, the first one I ever wrote is ending the album, so I kind of started and built from there.
AS: How would you describe your whole songwriting aesthetic?
LØLØ: I would say my songwriting is very blunt. I tend to overshare too much. It used to be something that I was worried about, but now I’ll put out a song and people will be like, “Oh, my God, this exact thing happened to me.” I think it’s so interesting that you could be so worried about oversharing and [being too] intense … and it’s like, all of these other people connect to it, and you’re like, wait, it’s actually not so intense. We all are the same, we all have the same experiences. So I’ve kind of embraced that now, and I want to overshare … I try to say things sometimes that people will be like, “Oh, she just said that” [laughs]. I love it, hopefully they love it.
I like to be really specific, because I feel like specifics [in] songs are just so cool, and then it’s even cooler when someone’s like, this literally happened to me … I think that’s really cool.
AS: So, what is your songwriting process?
LØLØ: I start with lyrics, always. I basically have a note on my phone with all of my lyrics and title ideas, and sometimes I’ll just be walking down the street and something will come to me and I’ll just put it in my notes. Then when I feel inspired to write something, it’s either something came in my head and I happened to be sitting on my bed, so I will take my guitar. Or I’ll sit down and I’ll look through my notes and be like, oh, yeah, this title, I’ll start with this. So basically, I’ll start with either a verse or a chorus, just a few lines in a row. Then sometimes I’ll just finish it there on my bed, if I’m really getting into it. And if not, then I have songwriting sessions all the time in L.A., with producers who are way better at instruments than I am [laughs]. So I’ll bring it in to them and be like, “I wrote this chorus,” or “I wrote this verse,” what do you hear [for it]? Could there be drums, etc. And then we do this session and sometimes there’s co-writers and [sometimes] there’s not. [But] it always starts with me.
Sometimes I write the whole song myself, which I used to be scared of doing because I feel like I need to bounce ideas off of people and like, what if it’s not good. I kind of wanted another person to hear it first. But I’ve gotten to a point after writing so many songs that I’m like, No, this is good. I don’t want anyone else’s opinion on this [laughs]. There’s a lot of songs on the album that were just written by me, which I think is really cool. Because I’ve been doing co-writes for the longest time, and I feel like this past year I kind of took a step back, actually after I wrote “tin man” because I wrote that one by myself. I love writing with other people and collaborating, and I think it’s so important, because people will think of something that you would never think about … but I definitely, after that happened, I was like, I want to write more songs by myself. I think that’s important also.
Featured Image by Justin Alexis
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