A CONVERSATION WITH... LVRA
One month after The Great Escape, we look back at the iconic artists we met during that weekend. There’s LVRA, the path-forging and ever-stylish artist whose music leaves you with an adrenaline rush.
Credit: Rachel Wonders
“That moment when I just finished making a song and I’m blasting it on the speakers in my room and I’m just going fucking mental — that’s it! That’s my moment of joy.”
LVRA laughs and throws her hands (adorned with nails that could only be considered artwork) in the air as she answers that question, only bringing them down slightly to tap the crosswalk button as we journey to her next photoshoot.
The joyful and powerful LVRA is a force to be reckoned with in London, and as we travel along Brighton’s picturesque pier, it becomes clearer as to why.
The Edinburgh-born and London transplant has a regular day job like most of us, “stuck in front of Excel all day”, but by night, she transforms into LVRA — a boundless version of herself that can express everything she can’t by day.
“The artist version of me, she exists outside of every single construct as much as possible. My real self, she’s bound by responsibilities to her family, friends, partner, and things like paying the damn rent. She has to interact with the real world, but the artist me? She takes the moments that the real me only started to explore. Artist me breaks the pattern.”
Growing up a curious child easily bored with the mundane, LVRA began her journey with music encompassed not only by her love for music, but her love for her brother.
“He was the first one to introduce me to the idea of different musical genres, and I remember stealing his music to listen to the same stuff he listened to.”
She jokes, “And of course, classic Asian kid. Parents make them play the piano, but man was I bored playing other people’s songs. I started playing my own melodies and singing random stuff over it because that was more fun than practising Fur Elise for the 10th time that week.”
Her love for breaking the mould and seeking out new adventures continued into the very moment she got into music production. “Honestly? I just submitted for a creative competition that gave out £100 a month for creators in different mediums because I was bored. Thought to myself, who cares? And then I won. And I realised I didn’t want to sing in front of people, I hated performing, but producing was it.”
And the goodness kept coming — all the way from winning the Sound of Young Scotland award and gaining the confidence she needed to present her music to a wider audience to performing at The Great Escape to one of the most electric crowds I’ve ever seen. Even though her slot was really in the early hours of Friday morning, the energy from the first day of The Great Escape kept the crowd devouring every single note LVRA put out, savouring it yet wanting more and more. Of course, she wonderfully provided.
While her time at The Great Escape was short (she had just come in on a bus that afternoon and was leaving right after her set at 4 am), she made the most of it. She performed her latest releases but also unreleased tunes — she loves the drama of a live rendition of her recorded pieces.
Credit: Rachel Wonders
“One of the best things about events like this is meeting people I can really learn from and grow with. Growing up, I felt like I was pushed onto such a narrow mindset and now I just want to collaborate and find people with the same passion, same heart, same values as me.”
She smiles, “It’s just really cool making the coolest shit with the coolest people.”
LVRA brings so much to the table, from the ways she makes anyone feel at home around her to the blood-bumping Grimes-inspired style of music she literally brings to the table.
“I didn’t know what inspired me to produce at first. But when I was 19, I travelled around China a lot and I fell back in love with the country. It wasn’t as structured as family visits where, it was just me exploring and rediscovering my identity, my family’s homeland, and myself.”
After discovering new East Asian producers during her time in lockdown, LVRA connected to the experiment and raw music that was screaming at her through her laptop speakers. “Listening to people that looked like me whom I had never heard of before pushed me more down the raw and angry confident route. It showed me what’s so unique about my experience that shapes the way I create.”
“It’s joyfully indescribable.”