On Exes, TikTok Fame, and Her Upcoming Single “u look stupid”: An Interview With LØLØ
Based on Canada’s vibrant city of Toronto, singer-songwriter LØLØ has cultivated a loyal fan base reimagining classic hits old and new, from Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” to Taylor Swift’s “Betty,” the latter gaining over half a million views. In her own music, she explores love and heartbreak with unparalleled fearlessness, honesty, and all the pop-punk sensibility of her heroes Avril Lavigne and Paramore’s Hayley Williams. Later this year, she plans to release her upcoming single “u look stupid” ahead of her October EP overkill, and a 36-date tour around the U.S. We caught up over Zoom to chat about her influences and inspirations, new projects, online stardom, and hopes for her career.
[UNPUBLISHED]: On TikTok, you’ve spoken about how you’ve wanted to make music since you were young. What makes you so passionate about music and songwriting as a medium to express yourself?
[LØLØ]: As a kid, I always loved music but I really wanted to do musical theater, and songwriting never even crossed my mind. I would always write in a diary to let out my feelings and express myself but I was so self-conscious about people reading it, like my parents or my siblings, that I would rip up the pages into little pieces immediately after. I had all these ripped-up books and no actual diary but I was subconsciously using it as an outlet. Then at the beginning of high school, my guitar teacher said I had a good voice and suggested that I write songs. And I was like, “People reading my diary thoughts?! No, that is never happening. I just want to be a singer.” And then he was like, “No, I’m not coming back to teach you next week unless you write me a song.” I loved my guitar lessons, so I tried writing a song, and immediately, it felt so good because I was used to writing my thoughts down. And I was like, “I think that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Screw musical theater, being a singer, I want to do songwriting.”
[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you remember what that first song was about?
[LØLØ]: Yes, actually I do! It was called, “It’s Hard to Dream With a Broken Heart.” Shout out to John Mayer who I copied the concept from! But no, it was horrible. Actually, the first 50 songs I wrote were horrible but you know, practice makes perfect.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Would you say John Mayer is your favorite artist?
[LØLØ]: I go through phases of who my favorite artists are but he’s been a constant. I’ve loved all of his albums, he’s my dream man.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song or album of his?
[LØLØ]: It’s so hard to pick but I think my favorite song is “My Stupid Mouth.” It’s an old one but I love how he stops and you think the song’s ending, and then he goes, “One more thing!” I just thought that was the coolest thing. Maybe “Why Georgia” is a close second. Definitely the older stuff.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What other artists did you listen to when you were younger and how have they influenced your sound?
[LØLØ]: When I was growing up, I listened to super pop, super punk, pop-rock. I would practice in my basement to CDs like Green Day’s American Idiot, Hilary Duff’s Metamorphosis album, which actually is a valid amalgamation of my music today. And of course, I listen to Avril Lavigne, like I had a routine to “Sk8er Boi.” All of that stuff is so guitar-centric so my music is now, too.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Billboard has also compared you to Paramore - would you say they’ve inspired you, too?
[LØLØ]: Oh yeah, that was super sick because Paramore is such a huge influence. I’m actually really excited because I’m going on tour with New Found Glory and I’m singing a song with them in their set, “Vicious Love,” where Hayley Williams sings a part. So I’m practicing in my room, and I’m like, “Wait, I have to go on stage and sing Hayley’s part? Like, fuck my life, what the fuck is happening?” But yeah, love her.
[UNPUBLISHED]: And you grew up in Toronto, how has that influenced you as a musician?
[LØLØ]: They say that Toronto is the melting pot of the melting pot because we have so many different genres and sub-genres of music, so many different cultures. Before COVID, you’d go out, walk down the street, and there was always live music and open mics because it’s such a musical city. It definitely influenced me in the sense that I could make whatever music I want.
[UNPUBLISHED]: While looking through your TikTok, we saw and loved your ongoing series where you rewrite popular songs from different points of view, including Adele’s “Someone Like You”, Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl”, and Passenger’s “Let Her Go.” Last September, your rewrite of Taylor Swift’s “Betty” went crazy viral on social media. Can you describe the process of writing the song? What inspired you to pen the track?
[LØLØ]: I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan, so when her new album came out, I of course listened to it so intently. And I thought it was the coolest thing ever that she had three different songs from three different perspectives that all tied into a love triangle. I’ve never seen anyone do it, and when I listened to it, I noticed that there are three songs but they don’t give you all the info. Like, you know what happens to Betty in the future, how she feels but not how she feels in the moment, and I was dying to know the rest of the story. And I was like, “I think I’m just gonna make it up, write my own story.” But I really didn’t think much of it. It took a minute to do, I put it up, and it only got like 200 views. Then two days later, I was at my studio with my producer doing vocals, and all of a sudden, my phone was just blowing up because my “Betty” video was going crazy! Supposedly, someone had posted it in the Taylor Swift Reddit community, and everyone loved it. I ended up doing more parts, recording the entire thing, and it even played on Sirius XM, which was really fun. I was just looking at it today and I didn’t even realize that Olivia Rodrigo commented on it a year ago, saying “I'm crying”! And I was like, “How did I not notice this?”
[UNPUBLISHED]: What was your reaction to such a positive response from TikTok and YouTube, where the song has gained hundreds of thousands of views?
[LØLØ]: It was crazy! Obviously, the satisfaction of tons of likes and comments of people telling you that you’re amazing, I don’t think anyone hates that. I was like, “Oh this is great!” and then I was like, “Oh shit, now I have to write the rest of the song.” After that, I had to really try and it was more pressure but I was so happy. And it was perfect timing, too. I’d just put out my song “Hate U” so it was driving people to my page at the best time. It was an amazing shit storm of great stuff.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Speaking of your original music, you have an upcoming single called “u look stupid” coming out in mid-September! You’ve said of the song: "It's about standing up for yourself and letting people know you can’t be fucked with. Let 'u look stupid' be a reminder: don’t let the stupid people getcha down.” Can you speak a little more about what you meant by that? What was the inspiration?
[LØLØ]: So the inspiration for the song was my ex, who was pissing the shit out of me. Basically, I got dumped on April Fool’s, like out of nowhere, and I never heard from him again. And I was writing tons of sad, sad songs about my ex. Then a year later, I started hearing that he was spreading rumors, talking shit, and I was like, “Are you kidding me? I’m the one who got dumped.” So I decided it was time to change the narrative. I wasn’t gonna write any more sad songs about him, I was gonna write a mad song. And I like, “You just look dumb, you look stupid.” Then I went into a session with that attitude of being mad instead of sad. It was kinda brattier and dumber lyrics than I normally write. Normally, I’m so focused on writing the perfect metaphor but this was like a diss track.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What was the songwriting process like? How did it compare to the way you’d usually write a song?
[LØLØ]: It was a bit different. I’m normally a lyrics-first person so whenever I think of lyrics or ideas, I also think of titles. I have a note in my phone with like a hundred titles, different concepts, a couple of lines here and there. For “u look stupid,” I actually had in my phone, “Roses are red, boys got me blue.” I was in LA at the time meeting a producer I’d never met before, Colin Munroe, and I was reading off my ideas and he said, “Oh, that sounds cool. Let’s just say outrageous shit, weird lyrics, whatever comes to your mind.” And I was like, “I hate your tattoos, I hate your face, so does your dad!” And then he was like, “We’re keeping that,” and we ended up using it. I would’ve never put or kept that in a song but he was a new person in the mix and he was bringing out a wild side of me. So kudos to him.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you usually collaborate with other people when writing a song?
[LØLØ]: Normally, I’ll start an idea but I can’t produce. So I’ll take my songs to one of my two producers, either Benjamin Thomas or Jordan Pastorino. They’ve been doing all of my stuff and they’ve been credited as my producers since my very first song. They’ll put their guitars on it, sometimes we’ll change the melody or words here and there if we need to rewrite a verse or something. That’s usually the go-to process. I can be a girl on a guitar but for my music, I love when it’s rocking and has drums, which I don’t know how to do, so it’s definitely a team effort.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Would you ever want to learn how to produce your own work?
[LØLØ]: Yes, I would love to learn it! It kills me when I can’t do something. I hate relying on other people for things, so production is definitely something I want to learn. Before the pandemic, I never even knew how to record my own vocals or do my own demos but I actually taught myself how to do that. So the next step is production.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You also have an upcoming sophomore EP, overkill, releasing in October. How did you decide on the title?
[LØLØ]: The reason I named it overkill was because I had the songs I’ve released or will release this year—“lonely & pathetic”, “death wish”, “die without u”, “surgery”, “hurt less”—and people were like, “Why do you always write about death and dying?” Then someone told me, “It’s kind of overkill.” And I was like, “Thank you for my EP title! God bless you.” Maybe I am a bit overkill but you have to be sometimes.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How do you think you’ve grown as an artist since releasing your first album “Sweater Collection” in 2019?
[LØLØ]: Definitely a lot. The first song I ever put out, “Yours”, was when I was a starting out artist. It has the punky guitars, it had a beat drop, and after I put that out, I ended up getting on the radio here in Canada. I was like, “Oh shit, my music is liked by other people now. I have to do more pop music so it can fit on the radio.” I was really trying to do that and fit into what people wanted me to be but I ended up not liking it as much. And I feel like now, I’m making music based on what I like, not what I think other people will like. You’ll definitely hear a stylistic change between “Sweater Collection” and the songs I’m releasing now. I think it’s a lot more true to myself and I’m not so worried about like, “Oh, if I have really aggressive guitars and drums, they don’t play me on the radio!” Now I’m like, “Fuck it, I’m just gonna make music that I like, and hopefully, other people like it, too.” That’s worked out better for me.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Why do you think that newer artists are that concerned with marketability and popularity?
[LØLØ]: Because it’s so fucking scary! Like we’re putting out songs that are literally our inner thoughts, our diary entries. You’re putting yourself in this spotlight and laying it all out there. Artists are probably like, “What’s the least risk of people saying that ‘This is horrible and I hate this’?” When people say they hate your music, they’re pretty much saying they hate you. It’s definitely a scary business. As artists develop, they start caring less. At least that’s what happened to me and my friends.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Over the years, you’ve co-written so many amazing tracks with and for other artists including “Run Away to Mars” by TALK, “Favorite What If” by Ashley Kutcher, and “Lies” by GUS. Who are people you’d love to work with in the future?
[LØLØ]: My number one person I’d die to work with is split between Julia Michaels and Taylor Swift. I really think they’re the best songwriters of our time. In terms of other songwriters and producers, I’d love to work with Justin Tranter, who’s done Julia Michaels stuff, Ryan Tedder, Teddy Geiger. I really do love writing, whether it’s for me or for other people. Sometimes it’s more fun for other people because I find that if I have writer’s block for myself, I can just go into a writing session with someone else, they tell me about their problems, and I put it into lyrics. It’s fun.
[UNPUBLISHED]: From all of your work, I get major early 2000s pop-punk vibes, songs that I could absolutely picture playing in a teen film from that era. If you could choose any movie for your music to be featured in, past or present, what would it be?
[LØLØ]: Honestly, if it was a movie, “Freaky Friday” or “Josie and the Pussycats.” I want one of my songs to be one they sing. If it was a TV show, “The O.C.” My first thought was “The Notebook” but I don’t think any of my songs would work there.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Starting August 31st all the way through October 17th, you’ll be supporting New Found Glory, Less Than Jake, and Hot Mulligan on a 36-date tour throughout the U.S. including Texas, California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Being Canadian, which state are you most excited to visit?
[LØLØ]: I think I’ve only been to like 5 of the 34 cities, I haven’t been anywhere. I’m most excited to go to Las Vegas so I’m gonna say Nevada because I’ve never been there or seen the desert.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Have you gone on tour before? What is your favorite part of the tour experience, besides performing live?
[LØLØ]: This is my first tour! I’ve played live in venues around Toronto but I haven’t even toured Canada. This tour is 36 shows, 7 weeks, and I hope I don’t die but I’m very excited. I’m most looking forward to meeting fans. It’s one thing getting messages from people like, “Your music helped me with through a break-up,” that’s the best fucking feeling ever. But being able to put a face to those names and hugging people, I think that will be amazing.
[UNPUBLISHED]: After the release of the overkill EP and the tour, what’s next for you? Another full-length album? Merchandise?
[LØLØ]: Putting merch out for sure. Definitely more music, I already have a bunch more songs ready, just waiting to put these ones out. More shows, more music, more merch.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is a question you wished more interviewers asked you?
[LØLØ]: I wished more people asked me more about my dog, he’s so cute.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Tell us about your dog!
[LØLØ]: He’s a keeshond, he’s 10, and his name is Slim after Eminem, a.k.a. Slim Shady. He’s really chill, he loves to cuddle. Oh, and he’s been in two of my music videos, “lonely & pathetic” and “Hate U.” He’s such a good dog on set, he loves the camera. So yeah, people need to ask about him more, he’s a celebrity!
