Quotes from Lauv

I love exploring the more complicated side of love. I feel like I've always gravitated toward that.

I'm trying to basically just focus on sharing everything that I was feeling with other people, so I can hopefully inspire other people to free themselves.

In day-to-day life, there's so much that's calculated: so many fake, surface-level interactions that don't amount to anything.

In a way, the traditional album is no longer as important as it used to be. But at the same time, I don't want to be the kind of artist who just releases one song after another.

For whatever reason, I've always gravitated towards music that feels nostalgic or longing or beautifully tragic.

I miss the energy of New York City and being able to step out of my apartment and see so much unique culture all the time around me without having to seek it out. In L.A., I have to sort of seek out everything I'm trying to do. It makes it less spontaneous.

Growing up, I played in different bands and did a lot of self-booked touring and traveling around, and my sister was driving us on tour, and we're playing for nobody and literally begging my friends that I went to high school with to buy tickets to our shows.

I've been through so many different phases, partly because I moved around so much. I never found my identity based on where I was from. It was always pick up and explore something else.

Any one thing can get in the way of you and your brain being comfortable and being inspired. It's the difference between a really big song and a song that never existed.

The thing about Sheeran is that he is an incredibly real artist and songwriter. He is not trying to be anybody else other than himself.

With pretty much everything that I've done, in terms of going from being a songwriter and producer for other artists to doing my stuff, all the songs that I've kept to myself have always been me writing about my life.

Everybody in L.A. is a songwriter, producer, actor, creative. For some reason, you're supposed to go to a bar and all hang out and act like you like each other. There is a lot of fake stuff that goes on.

I feel like Drake could literally put out anything - like, the sound of seagulls over a beat - and it could be the Number One song on Spotify.

I love nostalgia.

I think streaming, in general, is democratising music in general.

One of my favorite cities is Tokyo because of sushi, and Asian food in general, but then also the way Tokyo operates, because it's so clean, and there's space for a lot of variety of stores.

I really hope to give to other people who are listening to my music the same thing that it's done for me, which is make me feel more free and more accepting of myself.

'Lauv' comes from the Latvian word for lion, and my mom's side of the family is from Latvia - it's a place I've been probably 15 times or more. I'm also a Leo, and my real name, Ari, means lion.