@schoolnight photographed by @neelumohaghegh

Lo Love

Lo Nightly is a heartthrob, and she has such an exciting career ahead of her. With strong, emotive, and dreamy productions, catchy choruses, and chilling lyrics, she displays her sonic prowess. This singer/songwriter’s voice is sweet but more importantly her heart is very big, and those are the thoughts and emotions you are offered in every record she has put out.

She has currently released 6 tracks on Spotify, but she intends on releasing more singles this year and even a full project. I had the chance to chat with the artist before her show at School Night in Los Angeles and heard about all of the amazing things she’s up to.

A little context—Lo Nightly is originally from Maryland, then moved to LA at 17 to pursue a career in acting. Very quickly the creative found that she wasn’t feeling the passion she thought she had for the path she sought out initially, but then a small dose of fate came about and she met her mentor in a parking lot who took her under his wing and showed her the ways of songwriting.

“Missing You” is a melancholy, but beautiful ballad that sounds more like a daydream lying in the sunshine or a cool night by the ocean waves thinking about the one that got away. “4am” is about the loss of a love and the late night thoughts that haunt heartbreakers as they reach back out. “Heartbreak Wave”, her most recent release, is the realization of the heart wants what it wants, but how it all becomes an incessant, never-ending loop of pain.

Though most of her music leans towards the darker sides of the world of relationships, Lo has explained that her music are stories of experiences, moments, and episodes in her life, and these reflections are then transcribed and redesigned into this musical pieces.

Here is Our Interview:

Looking like a queen, in her cat-woman meets bat woman meets matrix attire, Lo greeted me with a hug and smile that lit up the room and made me smile back. She is such a kind soul. We first started by laughing about how terrible we are about watching movies and TV shows, then how we keep trying to convince our parents to move to Los Angeles from the east coast, then about natural disasters, to the music.

Neelu Mohaghegh [N]: Okay, so tell me how you got started in music. What brought you to songwriting?

Lo Nightly [L]: First off, so super super weird and was not in my plan for life, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I don't know how I got here. But I moved out to LA for acting at 17, and I was waiting tables, trying to be an actress, kind of like every other actress, and I realized I hated it because it was the most competitive energy I'd ever entered into, and I was never a competitive person. And I was competing against friends—that's even worse! And also acting doesn't really have to do with how skilled you are. It's literally just what they're looking for in the moment. It's what fits the picture that they already have in their mind. So, I was like, I like this, but it just didn't really fit me. I was like, maybe I'll just try to find something else. And I was out here and I didn't tell my parents that I dropped out of acting school, and two months later, I was in a parking lot at a music video shoot, and I was talking to my friends about love. Then this guy, like this random dude that was at my friend's music video shoot, that I was talking to about love was like, let me introduce you to a friend of mine. His friend walks over and then he says “Oh my god, you're a writer.” He listened to me talk for 10 minutes. He was 30 and I was 17, so I was like, “this is sketch.” I was thinking this is one of those things that you see on the news that doesn't end well. But the guys that had the music video shoot said you should work with him if he wants to work with you. So, I said fine, we'll give it a shot. We did it at their studio house that they knew so I felt safe, and the mentor was Poo Bear. So, he taught me how to write everything for like a year and a half. Of course I met a guy named “poo bear” at a parking lot and I thought somebody was like messing with me. But he taught me everything about songwriting. I fell in love. I fell in love with songwriting and like, genuinely didn't want to do anything else. I was really happy on a couch, in sweatpants, with a pizza and good music, and I never thought I'd sing ever. Then two people I really respected that I worked with were saying you should just try it. I was like, I'll probably not like it because I just didn't really like glitz of it, but then I tried it and I was like, “Oh my god, this is so much fun”. So, it was really serendipitous. I didn't put myself in this situation. A bunch of other people are like, trust us and I was like, Okay, I'll trust you and I've always trusted other people way too much, but it apparently worked out in my favor. It's a very weird story.

[N]: That’s such a cool story though. Do you have a project down the road that you're planning on putting out?

[L]: Yeah, April, or April/May, depending on when the singles come out. But I waited. I originally had an EP that was gonna come out last August, and I didn't really have an image that I liked because everybody was pigeonhole-ing me into this really sad pop artist, and not that I wasn't like sad pop at the time time, but I just had so much more that I had to say. So, this EP that I finally got to put together that was just fully all me, everybody’s like, “Oh, we see it now. We get it.” It feels nice.

Since, I was thrown into this more of like people pushing me gently, I didn't know who I even wanted to be. I didn't know that was half of it. I thought “oh, if I just write good music, I'll just put a song out when I feel like it”. Then I realized “no, like, I actually want to create a world that other people can live in and see and feel and hear”, instead of just songs every now and again. So, if I had stayed just being a songwriter, I think putting out songs just on a whim was totally cool, but now that I want to pursue singing, I want people to see it.

[N]: Absolutely. That makes total sense. Also, I love the cover art for all of your tracks. Now, is that a vision that you come up with or that somebody who helps you?

[L]: I have usually a pretty thought out vision, it depends which one, but the newest one “Heartbreak Wave”… So, the EP has this fire theme throughout it, it's hard to kind of explain, but that's why the butterflies are on fire, and the tagline for the EP “of all the beautiful things you burn to ash, tell me I was your favorite”. So, it's all these beautiful things burning, and when the EP comes out, people will be like, “Oh, I get it. I get what's going on”. I'm not giving that much up yet, but I'm really excited. I have worked really hard on this. I'm also just, it's funny because obviously everybody puts their input in, but I'm so concrete in what I want for this, which is weird because the rest of the singles that came out before, I was never concrete in them. But for this EP I was, “I think people will like this and yeah, people will like that”. Now, I just feel like an artist, like not even just a singing artist, like an artist.

[N]: You must feel like you have changed a lot then. Do you feel that growth from when you first started everything, like there is a new kind of confidence?

[L]: Yes, a completely different person. I think if I had started any of this earlier, I wouldn't have been prepared for it. I like that now every opportunity, I'm like, “yeah, I'm so ready”. I don't ever get… I mean, of course, I get nervous—I'm so nervous tonight—and I was so nervous the other night, but once I get up there, I just realize that this is so fun. I don't think of anything else. I'll be there like, so I'll be definitely scared. So I don't even think we're going to tell this on stage. But so first song we're opening with, I finished this morning. It wasn't supposed to be in the set. And I was like ”it's going in the set”. My manager told me to open with it.

I literally finished it this morning. We rehearsed it twice. So, definitely scared for that one. Haha. I'm so used to holding onto something for a few weeks and then being like, “now it's ready world”. But since it was midnight last night when I finished the second verse, I was like, “damn, this is gonna be what everybody gets tomorrow”. Haha.

But that readiness was a true testament of her growth as an artist in both herself and her craft.

[N]: That’s awesome. So, for the sake of the blog and our mission, I have to ask, what’s your detour?

[L]: My whole world is love. I'm like obsessed with love, which I guess has to do with a lot of my music. It's insane how obsessed I am with love. Even with seeing people in love. I love even if it's seeing a grandfather with his grandkids. I just love pure interactions. I'm obsessed with people. I love people, I collect people. I meet you, I can't let you go.

[N]: Like “Humans of New York” except “Humans Everywhere”.

[L]]: Literally! That's actually one of my favorite pages by the way. I need them to make a book so I can have that on my coffee table. But, yeah, I think that's probably the biggest thing about me. I didn't really like connect with people before. When I say I didn't like competition, I didn't like like any of that. I grew up horseback riding, and that's the most individual sport in the world. I spent most of my days doing that and figure skating. It's so individual—you're not with anyone for most of your hours, most of the day. So, I'd wake up, go figure skate in the morning, go to school, be really quiet, go horseback ride, and then go home. And study lines ‘cuz I wanted to be an actress. So everything I did, was on my own. So, now that I've been able to embrace so many people, it's like an addiction. I'm just think people are so sick.

[N]: I think we need more of that, especially in today's climate, we need more people who are excited to be with each other.

[L]: That's the sad thing about LA. A lot of people are like, “Oh, the people” and I'm thinking, “what do you mean the people?” You're in the most passionate city in the world, of course some people get, whatever they get, insecure or suddenly scared or hurt, but it's also just about giving them more love. Right? Because if you fill them with love, they're not going to be as insecure. They're not going to be as scared. Be reason that people want to be kind again. It sounds so cliche when I say it out loud, but I feel like, I don't know, it's just music has been able to connect me with people, which is why I think I'm also addicted to that now.

[N]: That makes sense, it’s another form of communication in music form.

[L]: Yeah. People ask me in my songwriting “oh, how'd you come up with this?” and I'm just like, “I'm saying exactly what you think, that's the reason you attach to it so much”. I'm not saying anything out of the ordinary. I'm probably just describing things a little bit more in detail, but other than that, I’m not doing anything extraordinary.

[N]: For sure, you’re just being real and saying it like it is, the way any of us would say it. So, what's your goal for 2020?

[L]: My personal goal… so you know, we all go through different battles inward, and I think in writing music lost a little bit of myself because also this EP, is a Little bit more dark and mysterious. I think I dove into a very dark and mysterious place. I think I want to revert a little bit back to the happy-go-lucky girl I was a year ago. So, that would probably be my goal for me. And then because I got a little cynical this year, I sound not cynical, but I got a little cynical this year, just mostly growing up in the world. It’s a scary place, like whoah haha. Then career goal, the one in my control would be getting both of my EPs out. That'll be 12 songs this year, so that's good.

[N]: That sounds perfect to me. So, who would be your dream collaboration if you could collaborate with someone?

[L]: Oh Coldplay. I’m obsessed with Chris Martin. He’s the kindest person on the planet. When I listened to him in an interview, I thought “I want to be more like you”.

[N]: Even the documentary with Coldplay is so wholesome. [A Head Full of Dreams.]

[L]: It’s wild. It’s my favorite documentary. I made my manager come with me to watch it, and it’s just so crazy. Yes, Chris Martin obviously knew, he was like, I'm going to do this, but at the end of the day, they were having so much fun.

[N]: They're like a family. That's how it should be.

[L]: Exactly. So, I just love everything about Coldplay. And 6lack, the artist/rapper.

[N]: Yes, I think he’s so talented.

[L]: I found him, I want to say like five or six years ago, and he had only two tracks out and they were on SoundCloud, and I was so obsessive—I’d play them almost every day I think. I love him.

[N]: Love this. Haha. Okay, so if you had to describe yourself in a word or a sentence, how would you describe yourself to them?

[L]: Um, I would say, I mean, in a word “empathetic” to an extreme. Sometimes to such an extreme that it hurts me and paralyzes me, because I can't watch the news anymore.

[N]: But… that's where the songwriting comes out of.

[L]: Exactly. So, I’d say empathetic or passionate, for sure passionate.

[N]: And it seems like that's the inspiration for a lot of your songs. You were saying that intense love is what inspires a lot of your music.

[L]: Yeah, literally, most of my songs are about one specific person, and there's no emotion even there anymore, but there's so much passion from that little blurb of time, that story, that I'm just like, “damn, I could just pull from this forever”.

[N]: That’s so cool and interesting. So, a fun question: if you had to give your music a color, what color would it be?

[L]: Ooh, there's so many. I think my sad music is definitely like a blue. Maybe like a light blue, purple-ish color. And then my second EP is bright red, like a dark, bright red.

[N]: Very cool. Is there anything advice you’d give to people who are going into music, based on what you’ve learned first-hand?

My advice anybody going into music would be to close your ears to everyone else, because everybody will have opinions, and you're an artist for a reason. If you want to be an artist, like stick it. Stick to what you feel. I feel like a lot of people will get confused really quickly. Even I got really confused really quickly just because people I respected would say “do this, do that”. I kind of lost like my vision because I trust these people. But definitely close your ears to everybody else, and listen to whatever your intuition says. Yes. Listen to your gut for sure, because the music I'm putting out now, even two years later, is the music I wrote two years ago that I knew this is it.

[N]: I love that.

[L]: Yeah. So just trust yourself. It's a hard industry, but it's so, so fun. Also, I actually got a really, really, really good piece of advice from two like friends that they’re at their succeeding point and everything's crazy. They gave me a good piece of advice, which was enjoy all the small stuff because you’ll climb and climb and climb, and you'll just be worried about the climb and getting somewhere else and realize that the small stuff was the only stuff that mattered—like the bedroom studio sessions and like the making it from your heart instead of making it because you want to stay where you are. They were just enjoying the whole thing…

—————-

We then concluded our conversations with our love for The Weeknd and his new music as well as our fears of being on stage in front of people we knew rather than strangers, and then I let her enter to the stage for her performance. The show was honestly such a hit, with adoring friends and family supporting her immensely, new fans cheering, and the entirety of the crowd joining in on her energy and hype as well. It felt as though the whole room was there for Lo.

Thank you for your time, and I can’t wait to see you continue to share your passion for love with everyone.

Be sure to check her music out on Spotify, stay tuned for the new project coming soon, and follow her on Instagram!

All of the amazing press photos photographed by @gmontero_

[Exclusive]: Lo Nightly on Her Songwriting, Her Love for Love, and Her New EP

Lo Love