After a hiatus of five years since his last trip to India, Lauv, the American singer/songwriter, is gearing up to delight his fans with an electrifying performance at the second edition of the upcoming Lollapalooza India Festival. In a conversation with The Free Press Journal, the ‘I Like Me Better’ artist expresses his enthusiasm for revisiting the country. He discusses the valuable lessons he has learned as a musician during the challenging years of the pandemic and reflects on the liberating feeling that creative freedom brings to him.
Excerpts from the interview:
What can the crowd expect from you at Lollapalooza Edition 2?
They can expect me at my freest with good music, full of positive emotions and my whole damn heart and soul. I expect us all to be really present.
I’m super excited for both reasons, coming to India and for Lollapalooza and all of that. It’s gonna be sick. I just got a vision. I need to look up some videos of how it was last year at Lollapalooza in India because I haven’t. I heard that it was the second edition and it’s really big, that’s so exciting.
What are some of your memories from your previous visit to India in 2019?
All my memories you know, from the couple of times that I’ve been to the country, have been extremely fond. Some really good food, which is such a generic thing to say. I would say the country has some shockingly nice people. You are so sweet and I really feel the love and I want to always give all the love back to you. I see a lot of passion at the shows. Honestly, all good vibes for the most part.
Lauv performs on Day 1 at Lollapalooza Edition 2
The pandemic years were a testing period. Did you acquire a new skill that propelled your vision further as an artist?
For sure. I learnt how to be with myself, which I think a lot of people had to learn how to do. How to begin to accept themselves and to not go crazy, you know, in their own heads when they’re not so busy. So, that was a big thing. It was a really hard, long, crazy journey, always on it, but I feel like I’m so much further along in it than I was. I just had to learn how to deal with a lot of stuff in friendships and how to value family more in a certain way, how to make music in a way that felt healthy for me because I think for a while I was making music in an unhealthy way and I’ve totally flipped that script. In this new album I’m working on, that feeling is so much more wholesome yet fun, exploratory, wild and loving.
How do you look at the right of exercising your opinion as an artist in a world where many choose to remain guarded?
I think that’s the most important part I have to say because that's the whole thing. Like when somebody puts their truth into art, regardless of whether it’s the same truth that another person feels, I feel we can resonate with truth, you know. When I write a song or another artist I love, writes a song about something very particular in their life, it was about that for them and for me, because it’s so honest, I can relate to it in a different way from my own life. I think when you aren’t free in your music, it almost takes away the point. I think music is the difference between a conversation or an essay. A song is that extra freedom you can find in singing things and expressing them in a way that you find beautiful.
Is that an easy path to tread since so much about your profession as a public personality also requires you to be guarded?
I mean, it’s not always easy for sure. I think I’m getting thicker skin where I’m getting to the point of, at the end of the day all I can do is be happy with myself. I can’t make other people be happy with me. I’ve tried, you know, and like, it can work for a period of time and maybe it works but it doesn't work for everybody and then you’re just trying to do that forever and that doesn’t, it’s not fun. So, right now, I’m truly just focusing on how I can make myself the happiest. I care a lot less about what other people think. I think I used to really worry a lot about what people thought about me so much that I think it killed the artist inside of me, for a while. I’m thankful that I’m coming to that other side now, but it’s definitely not always easy. My ultimate goal in life is to really love and be as free as possible with people. To just learn about them, embrace them and to understand them. I also want to expand outside of just making songs.
The singer/songwriter, 29, looks forward to presenting a curated selection of both released and unreleased music to the Indian audience
What satisfies you about creative freedom?
I think about taking risks. So either, like taking a risk in saying something that I feel that I don’t know why I feel it but I just feel it, or asking somebody a question that maybe I’m scared to ask them and learning something new. I think that’s what keeps me interested and keeps me moving forward.
A piece of advice you truly cherish?
I do that a lot with myself. I develop these mantras in my head. They always change, but I feel like there’s just stuff that I say to myself to keep myself going. I have a little token a friend of mine gave me that says positive potato. It says, “I may be a tiny potato. But I believe in you. Go do your thing.”
