Photo Credit: Jacqueline Day (@jacquelineday)
By Alissa Arunarsirakul // May 18, 2020
Not even a full year into his music career and LVRBOY is already one of our favorite indie pop artists. The Nashville mastermind embodies the sad boy culture we’ve all heard so much about, but there’s something special about his luminous aura that makes us feel understood and complete. As we push through the current pandemic, LVRBOY delivers a fantastic mini album that’s bound to leave you begging for more: ghost in my room.
On ghost in my room, LVRBOY reflected,
“Thank you for streaming ‘ghost in my room.’ It’s my debut mini album. Feels great. Feels great that it’s out. Super surreal.”
To celebrate the release of his new music, we recently chatted with LVRBOY about tornados, demos, and of course, ghost in my room.
HH: For those who don’t know, how did you come up with the moniker LVRBOY?
L: I think the simplest way I’ve been able to explain my moniker, LVRBOY, is that it explains who I am better than my actual name ever could. I remember writing “change my mind” with my number one collaborator, STRUAN, and thinking to myself, “This is something different than anything I’ve ever done.” I obviously write a lot about love and heartbreak (which are two emotions I am very in tune with), so the name LVRBOY came to mind pretty instantaneously. It honestly has allowed me to fully be myself.
HH: As someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, you’re very in tune with your emotions. How does it feel to know that you have a caring community around you when everyone rallied together to repair your house after the Nashville tornado?
L: That was one of the scariest things to ever happen to me and, when I woke up, I was still in shock. When I arrived back at my house the next morning there were already people there to help. Friends, acquaintances, strangers. I think that speaks a lot about not just the artist community we all have been blessed with here, but the community in general. Nashville is like no city I have ever lived in. The amount of love and support I witnessed that day and in the weeks following the tornado were insurmountable. With the amount of help we received, it took half a day to clean up our house and clear the debris and, once it was done, we all moved onto our neighbors’ houses. It was quite beautiful. As someone who doesn’t cry a lot (surprising, I know), mostly because I’m afraid to, I couldn’t hold it back that day. I think we’re all lucky to live in a place like Nashville.
HH: You’re treating us to ghost in my room at a time when music is such a helpful tool to ease our minds and lift our spirits. Can you describe the creative process behind the mini album?
L: ghost in my room is a collection of every official release you’ve heard from me thus far, plus two new tracks, so the creative process started a year before I even launched LVRBOY. I knew I wanted to release two mini albums that would one day become a full-length before I even started recording. Once I had found my writing team and producer, Garrett Miller, the plan was simple: write as much as possible with those writers, record each song up to a certain point, then continue writing in an attempt to beat out the songs we had already recorded. With that being said, a lot of those songs are coming back around for the second mini album, but the ones on ghost in my room are there for specific reasons, whether they round out the EP or sonically it felt right. A lot of the songs you’ll hear on the mini album are about one specific relationship, and the title ghost in my room derived from a line from track two about still feeling her presence.
HH: You already know “change my mind” and “make it” have gotten exceptional responses from your dedicated fans. Do you think they’ll respond the same way with the rest of ghost in my room?
L: To be honest, I think the two songs they haven’t heard are my favorites, so I think they’ll respond well. I produced a demo of a song called “ny nm (demo)” by myself in three days and put it out about two weeks ago and the response to that has been amazing–mostly because of how heartfelt and real the lyrics were. Because of that, I have a feeling listeners are really going to enjoy the last song on the album.
HH: Can you describe every track on ghost in my room in one word each?
L: “now that i’m leaving” – regret
“homesick” – lonely
“i don’t think about u” – free
“change my mind” – nostalgic
“make it” – confused
“nothing to say” – uncertainty
HH: If you could turn back time and write any hit song, which would it be?
L: There are just so many songs throughout my life that have made me feel so many different things, for so many different reasons, so in the interest of not losing it trying to think of them all, the song that came to mind in the last year or so was “The First One” by Astrid S. I remember thinking, “Damn, that’s what I want to say to every girl I try to date.” Haha.
HH: What are your three hidden hits?
L: Charlotte Sands – “Nothing’s Even Wrong”
Plested – “Worthy of You”
JT Roach – “Symmetry”
The Hidden Hits 