Love You Later Explores Movement and Dissociation in EP, 'From The Window Seat'
“From the window seat, I feel so out of control, so I’ll be the girl with the headphones on,” is the lyric that started Love You Later’s new EP From The Window Seat that features hit singles like “Girl With Headphones” and “Long Sleeves.” Movement has been an integral part of Love You Later’s healing journey, as it influences introspection in From The Window Seat, as well as the retrospective emotions she has deconstructed for the world to hear in her innermost soul-baring melodies and confessionals.
Pairing electric melodies and honest lyrics with shimmery guitar riffs and euphoric synths, Love You Later creates a dreamy world across the EP’s seven tracks. Veering from introspective ballads like “Long Sleeves” to energetic pop anthems like “Keepintouch,” From the Window Seat is a masterful and cohesive collection of alt-pop gems.
Love You Later has always found peaceful grounding in movement as she’s been viewing her life from a bird’s eye view prior to the creation of From The Window Seat. Love You Later’s most self-reflective project to date, From The Window Seat takes a deep dive into exploring intense emotions that has made her accept herself.
“The title of the EP comes from a lyric in the chorus of ‘Girl With Headphones,’ ‘From the window seat, I feel so out of control, so I’ll be the girl with the headphones on,” Love You Later says. “Whenever I’m sitting at the window seat of a car, train, or a plane, I take a step back and think about where I’ve been and how far I’ve come. Each of these songs on the EP represent a thought or feeling I have from the window seat.”
[UNPUBLISHED]: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Unpublished Magazine again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked about your single “Girl With Headphones.” I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.
[LOVE YOU LATER]: I've been writing a lot and working on new stuff and I was in the release mode space, I'm self-managed and I don't have a team, it's all been really exciting stuff. I played my EP release show in Nashville last month and it was super fun. It was really special to play all the new songs.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Your EP From The Window Seat just released and huge congratulations on that. For anyone who hasn’t heard about the inspiration yet, what influenced the theme or throughline of the EP?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: From The Window Seat is originally influenced by the chorus of “Girl With Headphones” which is the song that made me realize that I wanted to release an EP and have it all flow together under one umbrella. From The Window Seat is like the bird’s eye view of my life and getting a zoomed out view and it’s very introspective, and parts of it are extremely retrospective. It’s the theme of sitting at the window seat of a train, subway, bus, car or plane which is a cathartic feeling. That’s where I do a lot of processing and I feel very inspired by movement and sitting by the window seat and looking out helps me process and get outside my head. From The Window Seat felt right to me in every way.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Last time we talked, you spoke about watching your life pass you by from a car window and that you feel like you’re looking down at your life from a bird’s eye view. How do you stay grounded during the creative process, especially on an EP like this that heavily explores themes of dissociation and movement?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: I feel like the biggest way for me was the process of writing those songs and grounding and affirming myself throughout the process. I still feel those songs and they’re very relatable and close to me, so in my day-to-day life and working through those emotions and feelings has been a huge part of my therapy. I also go out on a lot of walks and it’s the way I stay sane and it helps me to be out in the world and see other faces and people. I think movement, therapy and mental health and taking care of my mental health is really important.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What message, emotions or story do you hope listeners can take away from the EP?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: Ultimately, I would love for everyone to feel connected to the EP in some way, and I really hope that every person that listens finds a piece of them in the songs and connects to something really personally. That's the point for me releasing the music. I want people to connect to it and if they don't feel the same way, maybe they will eventually and they can come back to it. I'd love for the listeners to feel connected and they're not alone in what they're going through and what they're feeling and it's okay to be a little messed up.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Say if someone has not heard of your music yet, what song would you play for them to introduce your discography that shows your creative growth as an artist?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: “Growing Season” is a good earlier song that is still relevant now and people can connect to it. “Chit Chat!” I released back in 2021 and you can hear my writing style. Fast forward to “Girl With Headphones.” Those three songs I feel are cool to personally reflect on and they have different lyrical elements and themes.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Did you have any breakthroughs or lessons while creating the EP?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: I feel like the breakthroughs and lessons throughout the EP helped me realize that I’m not crazy and what I’m feeling is very normal that every 20-something-year-old feels. I learned how to practice a lot more gratitude, or my friends and family and being able to go on walks and the little things. Alongside the theme of the EP and realizing in the scheme of things that I am small on earth and I can still make a really big difference, but I tend to hold the weight of the world on my shoulders and not putting so much pressure on myself is something that I always am working on. I think that was a big breakthrough of gratitude, because it helps me not feel so heavy.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You are playing a mini tour to celebrate the EP release. What is your favorite song to perform live and why?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: I like “Keepintouch” the most because I think it's the newest song that most people know the words to so far. It's fun to see everyone singing along and dancing and it’s a natural head-bopping song.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you have any pre-show or post-show rituals to help ensure you play your best show?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: Definitely lots of deep breaths and trying to enter myself before I go on stage and live in the moment because I legitimately blackout every show and go on autopilot because I love it so much. In rehearsals, I'm always like, am I gonna remember the words to my own songs and questioning it, but then the second I get on stage, it just flows through me which is great. I tend to not be present because I'm on autopilot, so that's a really big thing before I go on stage; deep breaths and reminding myself that this is my dream, my 10 year old self would be so proud.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite part of playing live?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: Having real live humans in a room singing my songs back to me that I wrote in my bedroom or in a tiny studio in Nashville. That human connection is really rare these days. I feel like having people sing along is like a cherry on top. It's really cool.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What artists are you currently listening to?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: MUNA, Japanese House, Holly Humberstone and Caroline Polachek.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Unpublished?
[LOVE YOU LATER]: I feel like because I'm an independent artist, it's always up and down. I'm really trying to practice gratitude, so I'm genuinely really proud of the project that I just released. We had been working on it for so long that the release of the music felt like a release in my body, and so I'm actually trying to be present this time. I invested so much money, effort, energy, love, passion and creativity into this whole release that it feels like a baby to me. I think other than that, the general theme of this era of my career is taking one step at a time and not letting it pass me by too quickly because I want to be grateful for each step of the way.
