Lauv

In finding his safe space, and having attended the prestigious Steinhardt School, Lauv signed his first record deal in his junior year before deciding to stay and finish his degree, a decision I curiously ask what was behind the decision? “I feel like I was lucky enough to go to NYU. And I was already three-quarters of the way through the course so I might as well finish for the degree because it's not a cheap school to just up and leave” something warming to hear. I speak with him about the pressures so many feel when it comes to feeling like they are missing up a chance, to which he replies it was the right decision for him at the time with New York still holding a special place “Honestly, sometimes being in LA. I'm like, I want to go back to New York. I loved it there.”

As an outspoken advocate Lauv has worked on providing safe spaces virtually and by physically donating funds from his earnings in the hopes of creating a community from the very beginning of his musical career. “I guess it just felt like a natural thing for me to do. I wasn't aware of my mental health as something like anxiety or depression when I was younger, I didn't really understand or pay much mind until I went into a really bad, horrible, horrible pit of it. It was fast when it snowballed. I had to learn what was going on real fast. That's when I got diagnosed with OCD and depression and got put on medication for the first time. So I want to be able to help”

Lauv tells me about surrendering to process as he learned more about the depths he was in. He tells me how by witnessing others' experiences, he felt he could understand the finer details, allowing him to open the door and dive into ways to create outwardly from it. “That’s when I started my foundation,” he tells me. “It was originally centered around when I first put my song ‘Sad forever’ out. I realised I could take money from this and start putting it in the foundation, finding ways to distribute it to different organisations.” The foundation he bashfully talks about is one that has helped create safe spaces for those struggling in the US, and an admirable endeavor with the help of Microsoft that he seems to initially underestimated now something that fills him with pride from the smile on his face. “It's cool to look back at as something that we've done to help others.” As we take the next few minutes talking about the chaos both have felt when trying to deal with our experiences, it’s interesting how we both feel in the way of coming to terms with medication.

“The medication thing was super weird for me because when I was actually in college, I went through a period where I just saw the school psychiatrist, and they were so quick to just prescribe medications to me. I remember I filled the prescription and never took it, but then when I hit this other point at the beginning of 2019 I felt as though there was nowhere else for me to go. I was going to have to give this a try.” It’s brutal, I remark as I mention the trial and error that takes place when trying to find the right one that works for you. “Tell me about it. I had one of those situations where I would become obsessive and do a lot of research. It took a while for me to feel anything but when I went the other way and I almost had this hypomanic stage, I don't want to like officially call it that, but I was not right on the other end of the spectrum. People in my life would say I went from being the saddest person to the opposite end of the scale which meant I had to face the feeling of my mood going down before adjusting the medication to end up in a more centered place.” As someone with Bipolar, I feel I can empathise when it comes to the swinging of the pendulum. But it seems from these experiences that Lauv has found comfort in not just speaking openly to fans but in how it intertwines so naturally in the songs he writes.

“It kind of comes out in any song. I feel for me when I write I specifically go in with nothing as much as I possibly can because I find that if I have an idea of what I want to write about I already think about it too much. Then I can't make the song. So I have to go in as free as possible and go with whatever comes out naturally.” It’s a routine that works, having had over 1.1 billion streams on tracks like ‘I Like Me Better.

With Lauv embracing his method of writing and how he’s able to connect to each track emotionally, I ask how he’s come to connect with ways to help his mental health whether it be therapy or spirituality, “There's been a therapist but I'm not super consistent with it. I’ve learned to try and check in every day with myself, which is good” he explains to me, “Over lockdown part of my journey unfolded on a much more spiritual path. I found myself not just going down the traditional/normal meditation route for a lack of being more articulate. I found myself on a weird journey with a spirit guide. I feel like I've opened myself up a lot more than previous.” Lauv describes to me how at the beginning of lockdown he found himself in a moment of crisis “I realised that everything in my career had taken me so far away from my true self. I still didn't fully understand I'm still trying to understand everything in my career. Even though I'm making my music out of my life experiences, I felt like I built up this whole outward persona that constantly needed more from me. I was just sitting there feeling constantly anxious in my body because I was just very unsettled. So I found I had to dive deep into things like nature and meditation to help.”