by emma schoors
photo by sam fisher
Lauv has grown into himself, and his brand new album All 4 Nothing is 50% healing, 50% party. We had a chance to attend an exclusive °1824 press conference with the popstar recently to speak about his mental health journey, meditation, new music and more.
“Hell yeah,” Ari smiled moments after sharing a new track from the record. “The strings arrived!” he said, reading off one publication’s comment. Not before the two-minute mark the conference morphed into a full-fledged Lauv concert, complete with dancing, virtual cheering, and an overflow of brand new material from All 4 Nothing. Ari’s energy was utterly infectious, and his overwhelming joy permeated the screen as he transitioned into questions pertaining to mental health, vulnerability, and the way they intersect in his music.
“It was a huge confidence-building journey for me,” Ari said of the writing process for his new album. “When I was starting the album, I remember feeling very anxious all the time. I didn’t trust myself. I didn’t think I deserved happiness inherently. I was always chasing something, and the album was this process of, ‘Let me find confidence inside of me. Let me find the peace and the gratitude, and that calmness, more of a spiritual side of myself before my life became kind of complicated.’ It was a lot of meditation, inner-child work, a lot of existential questioning. Seeking, but then ultimately kind of getting to a place of, ‘I just need to be good on the inside with myself no matter what happens on the outside, in the world. I just need to feel okay as a person.” Much of All 4 Nothing leans inward, reflecting on themes of love, loss, and self-awareness.
A song like “Summer Nights” naturally lends itself to the name. It’s got a sun-kissed beat, clean-cut Lauv vocals, and a simple, lightly melancholic melody. Nothing’s overdone on this record, and everything’s at least a little intentional instrumentally, but Ari knew this time around he needed to leave space for his creative mind to breathe. Even if that meant opening up sides of himself he hadn’t quite spent time with before. “I don’t want to say it’s a darker side, but maybe a side that’s a little bit less polished and pretty lyrically,” he says of songs like “Bad Trip” and “Molly in Mexico.” “I love those songs a lot. I try to just literally recount whatever was going on in my life, and not be like ‘Oh, well I shouldn’t put this in the song.’” The songs remain easily digestible and danceable as ever, but Lauv’s framework has shifted for good. Ari knows who he is, and his music is moving right alongside him. “Speaking for myself, you feel ashamed of the parts of yourself that are darker sometimes, and especially having such a spotlight, only want to show the lighter sides. But I got really exhausted with that, because we all have a dark side.”
Within 20 minutes, Ari had a stream of music journalists eagerly sharing which anti-depressants they were on. Where most musicians might answer each question with a buttoned-up, pre-written answer, Ari was simply spending time with everyone, bringing his adorable dogs into frame, and laughing through it all. “I want to guide meditations and stuff, or even just come and hang out,” Ari shared, and went on to workshop ways to share meditative spaces with his fans through social media. “I actually feel like it could be really amazing (…) I love connecting with people.” One person he’s connecting with more recently is himself, and inner-child work played a complicated and important role in Ari’s life leading up to the writing and recording of All 4 Nothing. A memory he goes back to time and time again is good times with his childhood friend. “The amount of summer days skating all day, eating popsicles, jumping on the trampoline, hanging with their dogs and playing video games. I return to those memories daily.”
What would Ari say to his college self, just settling into his path in life and unaware of what lies ahead? “I want to say I would say, ‘Hold on to who you are,’ and just stick with that, but I feel like part of life, and part of, for me, early 20’s, is kind of losing yourself and letting yourself get lost in whatever life is, and then kind of coming back,” he said. “So I would just say, ‘You’re doing great, sweetie.’” That seems to be one of the lighter messages All 4 Nothing offers.
No matter how content Ari is in the present, he is still an ambitious, platinum selling artist, and the future is looking especially bright. “I’m wondering what’s gonna come next. I think the next album, I know it’s too early to say, but it’s definitely gonna be the best one yet. I’m excited.” He pauses for a moment, sees dozens of excited yet confused faces on screen, and continues, “I’m already talking about the next album!”