INTERVIEW WITH LOVELOVELOVE, LISTEN TO NEW SINGLE ‘VALENTINE’ OUT NOW
This is not a drill! Brisbane artist LOVELOVELOVE’s highly anticipated single ‘Valentine’ has been released today and you should drop everything right now and go listen to it!
LOVELOVELOVE has worked effortlessly to carve out a rich, addictive indie-pop sound over the years but has recently been drawn to a more synth-driven sound that is encapsulated perfectly on the new single. To celebrate the release, the artists caught up with Electric Dreams Media for a little chat.
Introduce yourself, and describe your music as if no ones ever heard it.
Heya, resident pickle-lover Denis here from LOVELOVELOVE. Thanks for stopping by. If I was going to describe the project I would say the music is a colorful sandwich of indie, pop and contemporary influences, where the song-writing is kind of like the secret sauce.
You have only just kicked off your project last year, and it’s seen some amazing success so far including the success of your EP - how does that make you feel as an artist, and does it fuel you to go farther with it?
The response so far has been really encouraging, and there’s definitely been an amazing twelve months of growth. Even just finishing and releasing the EP was a massive achievement for the team so to get support from some big platforms like Rage, MTV and Triple J felt like a real bonus too. I guess, there is always the other side of it where I feel like I've been grinding really hard behind the scenes for a few years working on other projects and finding a consistent sound. Although sometimes it can get taxing, the momentum of the EP has me pretty fired up and inspired to keep making great music long term.
Let's talk a little bit about your new track ‘Valentine’ - how exciting! What do you hope listeners take away from the track, and what does the track mean to you?
Aww, thank you! I’m really excited to launch what feels like a new era and sound with this one. I’m hoping this song is one of those tracks that people love to play loud and scream along too. For me it's really about challenging my own perspective of love and the journey it can take you on - it’s also about making an active decision to challenge the way I've noticed young men in particular can shy away from speaking honestly about love in masculine contexts.
Can you expand more on the meaning of the song, and the creative process you went through when writing it.
Valentine was a really honest look back at my romantic life. I got married last year, and I wanted to sort of do a three minute song about the journey from the ‘crushing’ stage all the way to the ‘i love you forever’ stage. I really wanted not to be afraid of writing lines that could seem corny or typical, particularly if they were the honest truth (at least for me). Love is such a beautiful universal experience and I wanted to fall into that with the lyrics in a way I hadn't been brave enough to before. I remember during the writing I heard a podcast with Matty Healy (The 1975) talking about their song I’m in Love With You, saying he was originally writing, “I’m not in love with you”. Half-way through writing he kind of challenged himself as to why he was chasing down this neurotic path, as if he was scared of being genuine or heartfelt as a result of the toxic masculinity. It was encouraging to hear him talk about changing the lyrics and facing that kind of macho-guy mentality to something more honest. That was definitely something that kept me inspired during the process.
You went from focusing on indie and alt-pop to a more synth-driven sound - how did that come about and where did you draw that inspiration from?
The most recent productions have definitely been more inspired by a certain kind of 80’s rocky synth, drums and guitar thing. After the EP, I found myself going through a ‘palette-cleanse’ discovering new music and I really fell in love with bands from various eras with that aesthetic. Off the top of my head, artists like Chicago, Sam Fender, The 1975, COIN, Wallows, REO Speedwagon, and a bunch more. Much of the take away for me was the relationships between the fundamental instruments (bass, guitar, drums, synths) and how I started to think of them in a more band-like context as we’d begun playing live as a band more regularly. This kind of birthed my love for vintage synths like the DX7 and JUNO and I guess that’s how they found themselves on a few of the new records alongside a more 80’s drum sound.
We are 8 months into the year - what have been some of your highlights in 2023 so far?
This year has been pretty wild and there’s been so many, but the top three would have to be:
The EP release show in May. Was such a fun night and the turnout seriously blew us away getting to play the songs live for the first time.
Playing Felons Barrell hall and just having the most rowdy fun-loving crowd scream ‘Sweet Caroline’ at the top of their lungs. The energy was incredible.
We also did a secret EP listening party with all our friends and family, and it was super special to get to share the final product with the people who helped put it together. One for the books!
What’s next for the rest of the year?
For the rest of the year I’m putting a focus on playing some quality live slots across the east coast. As a band we’ve got our first festival slot on August 15th at Greaser Bar which i’m stoked to be playing. Hoping for a few more major supports in the back half of the year but nothing confirmed as of yet. I’ve also got another single ready for October, which is very much in the same lane as Valentine which I’m keen to round the rest of the year out with…although another headline show is calling too, we’ll see ha!