Introducing The Dynamic Emerging Alt-Pop Artist…LVRA

Emerging talent LVRA is an artist that is effortlessly changing the pop music sphere. Hailing from Edinburgh, the 21-year-old talent first fell in love with music as a child. At a young age, the songstress found herself singing and creating melodies while consuming an array of artists like Radiohead and Muse. As the years progressed, LVRA honed her craft and began to write her own music to post on her Soundcloud.

Alongside LVRA’s growing music career, the songstress also pursued a philosophy degree at university. Between juggling her school work and artist duties, the emerging talent created a dynamic sound the blends the traditional instruments reflecting her Chinese heritage and neo-soul.

Fast forward to 2021 and LVRA has graduated university and delivered eight unique singles that showcase her boundless creativity and vulnerability. With her latest single ‘Nightmare’ making the rounds and the release of her sophomore EP later this year, LVRA is showing no signs of slowing down. We were able to chat with the talented singer about everything from her music origins, genre-bending sound, and upcoming EP. Read the full interview below.

Heya LVRA! Thanks for sitting down with us. 

Hi! Thank you so much for having me.

We are well into the summer months, How’s the season been treating you so far? 

It’s been pretty busy on my side, working a day job and making music at the same time has been like working 7 days a week but fuck it, it’s kept me busy during an otherwise pretty boring period.

Let’s talk about your music journey. Taking it back to your childhood, which artists or genres inspired you to pursue music?

Honestly, I always found myself singing, writing melodies before I really paid much attention to the music I was listening to. I have no idea where that came from. When I was younger I was definitely influenced by alternative/rock music that my older brother listened to, Radiohead, Muse and all that – I went through loads of phases, but I remember the first real electronic album that I became obsessed with was 2012 by Flume – the meshing of genres, samples, electronic sounds were all so new and exciting to me at the time. 

Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?

Not really, I sang so much random shit that I ‘wrote’ – but the first song I properly put out there for people to listen to is actually still on my Soundcloud now called ‘bodies’ and it was like a typical sad heartbreak song. It’s funny how your music changes with you but it’s because of that song that I got the confidence to get to where I am now, so I’ll always treasure that first track.

What strategy or format do you usually follow when creating your music – what comes first, the melody, production or lyrical content? 

Honestly, it depends on what I’m being inspired by. In the past, I’ve been more of a songwriter-then-producer, but definitely when I’m feeling super inspired by the electronic music that I’m listening to I’ll want to play with purely instrumental ideas and then write on top of it. I think the different methods definitely bring out different sounds in the end.

Your music has such a dynamic and genre-bending sound. How would you personally describe an LVRA track? 

Wow, thank you! That’s an awesome compliment. My tracks are energetic, a bit frantic, aggressive but in a way that makes you feel a little bit crazy, in a good way. 

We hear that you are also a philosophy student. How do you balance your growing music career and education? 

I actually graduated last year! Working full time now in London, basically doing music whenever I’m not so it’s pretty crazy busy over here, but I love the whole process of it, the music, the art, the visuals. When I was studying I had a lot of control over my schedule, I’d be staying up all night writing essays and then just spending a whole day making tunes shutting myself up in my room. I quickly realised most of it was going to be self-taught so my lectures became a pretty low priority. My uni was weird in that only our final year exams actually counted toward our grade, so I found myself with lots of time to do other shit.

Let’s talk about your latest single ‘Nightmare’. Absolutely fantastic! What themes and messages did you want to explore with this track?

Thank you! NIGHTMARE was a song I’d been meaning to write for a long time but was kind of waiting for the right inspiration. A long bout of lockdown and being at home brought back a lot of childhood memories – I’ve struggled with insomnia and anxiety ever since I was a kid. I spent a lot of time distracting myself, staying up playing video games, watching random shit until I was too tired to think. Not being able to sleep was the real nightmare, a lot of the track is like a dialogue between me and myself because at those hours it really is just you and your own thoughts. 

Can you take us through the creative process for the accompanying video? 

A lot of the time when it comes to the videos we create we start off with just an initial idea, some come easier than others, but I remember just going to Oscar with the idea like ‘I want a bed at night in a huge field, with chains’ and then he just made it happen. It was his idea to have a Mad-Max style colour grade – we kind of wanted to create a video that fucks with the viewer’s perception. It was all shot one take to try and capture the entire ‘journey’ that your mind and body can go through when you’re exhausted but still super awake.

Do you have plans to release a follow-up EP to your 2020 release, LVCID? 

Yep! Expect my second EP soon, around September – so excited to share it!

What can fans expect from LVRA in the coming months? 

More releases, more visuals, hopefully, a few gigs here and there. It’s been difficult to really interact with my listeners over lockdown, I can’t fucking wait to play this next EP live! 

Thanks so much for having me again, big love <3

Check out LVRA’s latest single ‘Nightmare’ and watch the video for the track below.