Love in this Club: an Interview with Arthur aka LoveClub
[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about yourself.
[ARTHUR:] I grew up in Canada on Vancouver Island. I now live in LA. I started Loveclub 2 years ago. I put out my first single in 2018 and have been releasing singles since. I joined TikTok and had been posting music for quite a bit, since October. One day I was cutting a mango and a friend was over and they hadn’t seen the way I cut it before. I thought maybe that would be a good video because I had seen how-to videos on Tik Tok before and I was like I’m just gonna do a little video, put it up, and see how it does. That was my best video, compared to the music stuff, I think because there is already so much music on the app it’s hard to differentiate yourself. That video got 30,000 views in one or two days. It was crazy, I got 1000 followers and before I had like 30. A couple days later I posted that banana TikTok and then it started to translate over to people listening to my music on Spotify. Seeing that inspired me to keep trying to grow this audience since people were checking out the music.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Did you anticipate blowing up on TikTok?
[ARTHUR:] No, the mango one, I didn’t expect it to do anything then it did pretty good. Then I posted the banana one and I looked at my phone and it got a couple of likes in the first couple minutes and I was like, “If it gets 500 views, that’s sick.” Then I didn’t go on my phone for two hours and when I looked it was at 300,000 views. I definitely didn’t expect that and then it just kept going. I don’t know how it’s happening but it is.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How has blowing up on TikTok changed your life?
[ARTHUR:] I wouldn't say it’s changed my life. It is pretty bizarre. I want to do music as a job full time and growing the fanbase is the hardest part. The fact that this translates a decent amount is super cool. The amount of TikTok followers is not very important but when I see people follow me on Spotify that gets me stoked.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What do you think is so captivating about your videos that makes people like them so much?
[ARTHUR:] I think it’s just not trying too hard, maybe it feels like you’re hanging out with me. Every video I post is the first take, it’s not like I’m trying to do it again to make it better. So, if it’s not perfect I put it up anyway because it’s better and more authentic that way.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What prompted you to post videos of you cutting fruit?
[ARTHUR:] I posted the first one, the mango one because my friend hadn’t seen the way I cut it, so I thought maybe one person could learn how to cut a mango without getting all messy if they saw my vid. The banana one I think was a little more original. I’ve always cut them like that, it just made sense to me.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What’s your favorite fruit to cut?
[ARTHUR:] I’d probably say a banana. I’ve been thinking about getting a banana tattoo for a while now and then that video blew up, it’s pretty funny it happened like that.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What’s the hardest fruit to cut?
[ARTHUR:] Watermelon, for sure.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What’s your favorite fruit, in general?
[ARTHUR:] Raspberries are super good.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Has TikTok brought a new fan base to your music?
[ARTHUR:] Yeah, out of 1,000 people, maybe 10 will click the link to my Spotify. The more people see my videos, the more people go to my music. In the past couple of days, I’ve been posting videos using my songs in the background. It’s interesting because even if the video doesn’t get crazy numbers, a lot more people actually go check out my music if a video has my music in it. I’m always surprised how powerful Tik Tok is, it’s a powerhouse, it blows everything up.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How would you describe the style of the music you put out?
[ARTHUR:] It’s Alt-Pop, on the softer side. Mostly romantic stuff, love songs, but sometimes it’s just about the complexity in relationships between two people and not necessarily romantic. Also, lyrics are super important to me so I definitely like to put a lot of time into them.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How has being an artist in quarantine affected you making music?
[ARTHUR:] Honestly, my life is pretty similar to how it was because I’m just on my computer making music in my room. I guess the only difference is when you get a little antsy from sitting for a bunch of hours and you want to go get a coffee with friends or something then you’re still just at home.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What is your process for making music?
[ARTHUR:] I make it all myself, I produce, write, sing. I try to focus on producing the track while I’m writing, I find that’s my best practice. It’s the most likely a song will get fully done. Sometimes I’ll write songs on the guitar, just playing chords and writing lyrics and singing them then produce it once the song is already written. It varies, sometimes you start with just a drum beat or a cool bassline. I think most artists would say it always happens differently. That makes it enjoyable every time because it never happens the same, as long as you get to the end result, the steps can be rearranged.
[UNPUBLISHED:] If you could collab with anyone who would it be and why?
[ARTHUR:] The Cure, I really like them, I think that would be cool. They’re kind of pop music but not necessarily for their time. They wrote sick songs and their sound was very identifiable.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What is the inspiration behind the name “Loveclub”?
[ARTHUR:] The name is just Loveclub on Spotify and all the other streaming platforms but for all my social media handles I made it 1800loveclub, like a phone number. I think of it as a love line almost, so you can call in and get your fix. If I ever made merch I would keep 1-800-LOVECLUB for certain things because I think it looks cool, it’s easy to remember. The music name is just Loveclub and someone asked if it’s a Lorde reference and I didn't even know she had something called that at the time I started the project. I was thinking of band names for a long time, I thought I’d just use my name if I couldn’t think of one. I was about to release my first single and I just thought of it and thought it could be pretty sick just as one word put together, kind of like Coldplay.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any advice for musicians trying to make it big on TikTok?
[ARTHUR:] Being authentic is super key. The people who are being totally themselves do the best I think. It also seems to help if you not only focus on the music but you find something kind of random that people find interesting and can remember. I don’t try to push music too hard because if people like you as a person, they’ll eventually go check out your music. Being authentic and finding some sort of niche is the ticket, I don’t know how but I got pretty lucky with that myself.