LP has given hundreds of interviews by now, ever since “Lost On You” became such a huge hit in 2016. We love coming back to her early visits to different European radios, where she talked about this experience from kind of a still surprised perspective, and where she shared her thoughts on how her life looked “before” and “now.” The story of “Lost On You,” as well as the story of LP’s career path around it, is fascinating in general, but above all – it’s very much an inspiration. The way it translates through the screen. We feel as if, back then, she herself was inspired by it, too. The way she speaks about her life and how she perceives things is as if she were trying to figure it all out for herself, thinking out loud.
Still frame from the video of LP in LOS40 studio
The interview for LOS40 she gave in November of 2016 is just a regular radio interview, a meeting between the artist and the host, and the aim probably wasn’t to make it the most sophisticated thing ever. Yet, there are two or three split seconds when, while listening to LP’s conversation with Tony Aguilar, you feel touched, moved, somehow lost in thought.
Apart from their conversation, LP also played “Lost On You” for LOS40, the acoustic version. JD Carrera was her guitarist back then and his way of playing, so emotionally charged, never leaves us indifferent. We loved to hear them playing together back in 2016/2017, just as we had adored how Tim Fagan supported her around 2014. So, this is one more “Lost On You” performance by this beautiful duo.
The interview immediately elicits one special event that took place around that time – LP’s opening concert for her Lost In Europe tour. She played it on November 23rd of 2016, at a place holding 200 people, the Mobydick club in Madrid. We just had a look at the Mobydick playlist and, well, if you like your LP raw, you may never want to turn it off. On top of the distinctive vibe of the show, let us just say that it was the first time “Tightrope” and “No Witness” were shared with the public. Oh, and she played “Long Way To Go To Die,” one of the very few times she ever did – one of the most profound songs by LP, ever. The song we’ve never heard live. Another dream of ours.
✶ Interview – LP for LOS40
✶ Acoustic “Lost On You” for LOS40
TRANSCRIPT
Tony Aguilar: A great honor for me, a big pleasure, welcome, thank you LP, thanks for coming to Los40, are you doing all right?
LP: Yes, I’m okay, thanks, very good.
TA: Well, it’s a great pleasure, I say that ’cause I’m hugely in love with your music and with this album that finally is out in our country too, that’s called Lost On You, congratulations!
LP: Thank you so much!
TA: I’d like to ask you how have you handled this massive success, after all those years. (to the audience) It’s her third CD, the third album LP makes, it’s not the first one but it’s a huge success on a world level, sung by herself. Later we are going to talk about the hits she wrote for other artists as a composer, but now (to LP) I want you to tell me how was it, living through this huge success of “Lost On You.”
LP: For any songwriter or artist it’s always the coolest and biggest dream to connect with as many people as possible, especially over a song that you wrote, so it’s been a really beautiful experience, and just kind of shocking, but beautiful nonetheless. I think I’m still absorbing it a bit, but I’m just… just have the people digging the song.
TA: Well, the fact is, here in our country too, at the Los40, where I had the honor of putting on air “Lost On You” for the first time, I’ll never forget that moment I first heard your whistle, epic, so incredible, played by our radio station. I was absolutely mesmerized, really.
LP: Thank you, that’s really cool! I’m glad, I feel like that’s very cool, the first time you hear a song that you really like, or that you just introduced yourself to a new singer, it’s always a special moment. It’s been for me when I heard some of my favorite singers.
TA: When I presented the song I remember telling all my listeners, “prepare yourself ’cause now you are going to hear your favorite song of this coming season, of this next fall, next year and a long time to come!”
LP: Ah! I’m gonna carry you with me everywhere!
TA: It would be really an honor for me to go with you everywhere! Do you know why I liked it so much? Because, well, I don’t know if I’m wrong, but your last name tells me you have Italian roots, and it resembles so much those great songs written in Italy, Italian music. Is it so?
LP: That’s amazing, it’s funny ’cause before any of this happened, when I wrote it, I remember thinking… I don’t think I said it to anybody, ’cause in America people’d be like: “okaaay”, but I just… I felt like it was the most Italian of the songs I ever wrote. My mother sang opera, and we listened to a lot of Luciano Pavarotti and Caruso. It felt operatic, and there’s an operatic element to my writing and to my singing, so I agree with you, I think.
TA: My mom is a real fan of Italian music, I grew up too with Italian artists whose music was played in our house, like Adriano Celentano or Mina, for instance. So when I heard “Lost On You”, I thought: when I get to interview LP, I’ll ask her if there were Italian influences, ’cause to me it seems so.
LP: No, I’m glad you did. The emotion in a song is everything to me, how it’s presented. And it doesn’t have to be on “10” at all times. I think it’s important how you build an emotion and how you deliver it.
TA: I’d like to get to know Laura a bit more. We know LP’s music, but here comes the moment to ask you a bit more about Laura, how is she. What do you remember, for example, about your childhood in Long Island, in New York, what was your childhood like, how did you grow up?
LP: I feel I grew more involved in Brooklyn, New York, and I liked music but I never… If anyone showed to me my future in music, I would have been like, “really?!” My family were all more of lawyer and doctor persuasion, and I was raised to pursue this kind of thing. So I didn’t know until I was a teenager that I would even try. My mother passed away when I was a teenager and she never really pined away for being a singer in front of me, anyway, but it just struck me how short life is, and I was like: “I need to do something that I love.” But I didn’t know where to begin, so I just kinda… began, you know, in the dark, searching around and just kept writing songs. I think I was more into sports when I was a kid, I liked soccer and stuff like that…
TA: Oh yeah?! [laughs]
LP: Yeah, I thought I would more likely be a soccer player.
TA: What do you think your mother would say, would you have liked her to see you now, turned into an international level music star?
LP: I think she would, actually. She knew I was a bit of a maniac always, I mean, she saw it first, she was the first one to go: “wow, this kid’s nuts!”, and she definitely liked it and I think she would have been pleasantly surprised. She’s probably chuckling about it, at this point. When I sing, I feel like a through thread from my mother’s life through me.
TA: Well, I don’t want to talk a lot about girlfriends, and less still about ex-girlfriends, but you told me before, I’m going to mention it now, and it’s the fact that you had a girlfriend whose parents lived in Marbella, so you traveled a lot to Spain because of that.
LP: There’s probably an ageing man sitting in the mountains right now, in a tipi, going: “wait a second, that’s my daughter’s ex!” You know, it’s beautiful there, I went there a couple of times, and I slept in a tipi and hung out. I love Spain. In fact, I think my ex had her way to move here, but I saved myself! No, I’m just kidding. No, it’s a beautiful country, and I don’t speak really any Spanish. I’ve been to so many countries now that I’m overwhelmed with all the languages I need to learn. But I can speak a little bit of Spanish if I hang out for a while.
TA: But this hippy commune, who knows, inspired you too, didn’t it? To write a song or some lyrics… I tell that because I had Lucas Graham here, whose leading singer, Lucas, grew up in a hippy commune, the biggest in the world, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
LP: I like his songs, I think he’s cool. Hippies are an experience, they have a whole culture, and my ex was raised by hippies. It’s very different, like I said, I grew up with Italian lawyers and doctors, so it’s a very different experience. I think my mother was kind of a latent hippy, she would have gone that way if she had not met my father… If she met Jim Morrison instead.
TA: Anyways, the exes help a lot with the song lyrics, don’t they?
LP: Absolutely! It’s a valuable tool, ask anyone, you can name your new house after your ex. Oh well, I mean it’s definitely something you draw from, and I think it’s always nice… well “nice”… it’s not nice and it’s not fun experiencing it, but it’s good to know it from both sides, like, being the jerk and being a poor bastard.
TA: Let’s stop talking about ex. No more talking about ex. I know that’s enough, let’s drop this topic ’cause…
LP: You’ll be in trouble, man…
TA: Sure, and then, besides, we have a friend. For quite a long time you worked with Red One, you grew popular with his company, how was that period? ‘Cause in fact his music that we got to know lately is totally different.
LP: I didn’t know what was gonna happen with Red One, but I think we are like-minded in the respect that we are positive people. He’s the most positive person ever, I don’t wanna lump myself in with him, but he just got a lot of spirit, zest for life and he’s so talented, obviously. I was signed with him for almost a year, it was cool ’cause I think I felt like him signing with me and working with me got a buzz around me again, as an artist. I was in the writer world, and when I signed with him I didn’t have any expectations about being an artist again, I just was going on and I wanted to write with him and sit with him, but he was very complimentary and encouraging, and I think that, because everybody knew him, and they were like: “why is Red One working with you?” – it got people who might not be interested – interested in me again, so that was really cool. We have a special place in each other’s hearts for sure, we still talk and stuff.
TA: Gracias a LP, thank you very much for being here, thank you!
LP: Thank you.