Loviet: A Conversation
A Lollapalooza Interview!
The Garnette Report’s Taylor Hawkins got the chance to sit down with singer-songwriter Loviet after her 2023 Lollapalooza set to talk about all things music, from performing to new releases and more.
TH: Can you give me and the readers a bit of insight into Loviet ‘s style of music?
L: “I’ve kinda been describing it mostly as like a 90s, Y2k aesthetic. ‘Cause I was born and raised on that. And, it’s more in, like, the alt indie-pop/indie-rock range. I’m really inspired by artists like Pole and Third Eye Blind, and Sam Fender. I love Holly Humberstone, 1975, and yeah, we’ve been kind of all over the map lately. Ethel Cain, Lana Del Rey; lots of big artists that I just adore”.
TH: You kind of touched on this already, but what made you gravitate toward this genre?
L: “I started out when I was a kid, like, I would be around the era of, you know, Kings of Leon and the White Stripes. So I started out playing in bands and working my way up from my small hometown, which was very very small on the east coast. And, I always played guitar. I started guitar when I was very young and fell in love with it. So I just wanted to play more, um… I wanted to play with my guitar. I wanted to be like Sheryl Crow or more of the Michelle Branch’s and things like that. So, yeah this genre felt very true to me because I get to express myself in that way, so it’s very very fun”.
TH: I did hear you talk about your hometown very briefly on stage, and I thought ‘Oh shit, there’s some shade!’
L: “Yeah, very tiny”.
TH: I can understand that though I’m the same way.
L: “No way where are you from”?!
TH: I’m from about three hours South of here, so, nowhere.
L: “Gotcha, well that’s me. I’m like if anybody asks it’s… nowhere, literally nowhere”.
TH: So, where are you from on the East Coast?
L: “I’m from Shelburne, Novascotia. It’s a population of about 4,000 or less, I think? It may be even tinier than that.” “But I live in Toronto now though, I should say that. I’m based in Toronto, I’ve been there for about 6 or 7 years, so Toronto is my hometown”.
TH: Did you move there for music?
L: “Yep, exactly! You know the small-town girl moves to the big-city type thing IDFK”.
TH: So was this always something you wanted to do then?
L: “Absolutely! I think from very young I was just like ‘This is what I’m gonna do’”. I don’t know, I mean my mom was a singer. She didn’t do it professionally, she didn’t pursue it and I always thought, like, ‘damn, that’s crazy!’ And she’s been so supportive too. So, I think that was kinda my feeling from the time I was born, I was just kinda like there’s something I should be doing with this. And I’ll say it took a long time. I was not very good growing up. I had to, like, work really hard to get better, and you know how it is, like, you just gotta believe and do what you can to work on yourself and make it happen”.
TH: So then can you tell me about the road that got you here?
L: “I’d been working really mostly playing bars. Like I’d played bars and then I went to school for music”.
TH: Where did you go for school?
L: “I went to just a campus, like a small college. It was called Nova Scotia Community College. And did two years for music, and one year for recording, and just kind of dedicated everything I could to it my whole life. I played in different bands and got as many experiences under my belt as possible. And then, made the move to Toronto, worked with a few producers, and I’ve just been, you know slowly building as much as I can”.
Throughout our conversation, Loviet and I slowly and yet unintentionally progressed to our shared experiences with regard to working through stage fright and the anxieties that come with performing.
Loviet shares, “I’m also someone that’s like, I kind of get anxious, but I love performing. Like I’m not scared on stage because I think I’ve come to a place where I feel more powerful on stage than when I’m… Like I feel more scared in these situations”.
I found Loviet extremely grounded and a genuine person to talk to and I found myself sharing with her my own journey with overcoming stage fright. We bonded over fighting through those anxieties when we ultimately knew the end goal was something so much more important to us than the fear in those moments.
TH: You said your mom was a singer, how did that shape and inspire you?
L: “She’s just a really cool, nice mom. She’s just a sweetheart, and, you know, she’s great at singing. And, like again, I learned how to sing as I grew up, but I was very shy as well about it, so I never really shared it with my mom that much. Like she had her own thing and I kinda had my own thing. But I liked that because of that she had music instruments around, she had people playing music in the house, and she’d go off and do shows and I’d be like ‘What’s that like?’ So I really had an experience of watching and learning like the process”.
TH: She did perform a little bit though?
L: “She did! Like she did it in our town and around the Maritimes which is where I grew up. And, my grandfather was a violin player, like a fiddle player they call it. So he was doing like the country-style fiddle. He played with Hank Snow, which was a big guy in our era back then. So I got to experience music through my family first, and then I sort of got to do it myself and do it my own way. I mean, I was a little punk kid, I thought I was so cool and had to do it my own way but yeah. I’m very lucky! It’s definitely in my blood and in my bones”.
TH: You write Loviet’s songs correct?
L: “Yes”.
TH: Can you walk me through the creative process of writing a new Loviet song?
L: “I literally have to be in the vibe. Like I was thinking about this the other day, and I was like you literally have to be in the best state. Like, if you’re too upset about something, I feel like it’s really hard to write about that thing. And then if you’re too happy… there’s nothing missing so you’re not fulfilling anything with that. So, I feel like you just need to be in the perfect middle zone where you’re just listening and you wanna just hear something”.
TH: Are we going to see this type of writing with any new Loviet projects in the works?
L: “I feel like this record that I’m just about to release, which is September 29th, it kind of speaks to that a lot. I was talking a little bit about this record, it’s called “Little Heaven”. And it just feels like one of those records that kind of sharing that side of my perspective. Because writing for me, since the climate kinda has to be like a special climate, I kind of just try and encompass something that feels safe. You know what I mean? Just like the place that I’m in needs to feel really safe. So this record feels like it’s a place. It feels like I’m kind of harnessing a space, and making that record in that space”.
TH: So what is the vibe of this new Loviet record?
L: “It’s kind of more raw than usual. I worked with a producer, his name is Matt Tinassey, and we produced it together. He actually works with Ethel Cain, very very cool, I’m obsessed with Ethel Cain. Um, but it was kind of just like get in and just play guitar. Play the parts, we demoed them all before we went in, and so it’s kind of more raw… It’s a little bit more, like, downbeat. Because we wanted it to be like, ‘f*** the system’ we are doing a sad summer versus like a super upbeat summer”.
TH: Yes ok, I see you with the sad girl vibes.
L: “Exactly! I usually go for more Power Pop, but it was nice to kind of sit back on this one and do something for me. It was sort of like, make songs that felt nice. Whereas like, we already have a plan for the next one which has a little bit more of the sort of, banger-types. So, it was nice to separate those two things”.
TH: What is your favorite Loviet song so far?
L: “It’s called “January”, it’s really personal. I wrote it in that month, and it was when I was making that record the “Night Time Is All In The Timing”. And it was the last song to make it onto the record because…sort of like what we were saying about the climate thing”. “Like, I was writing by myself and I was very alone at that point, it was the winter in Canada. So it was kind of a shitty time. But, I was writing from places that I had never written before which was very exciting for me and I was excited to do that. But “January” happened to be the last song that made it onto the record because we were about to go to the studio, as I was like ‘We have four songs we know we wanna record. We know those four songs, what’s missing?’ And it was just something like that. And I pretty much just sat down with the guitar and played for like 15 minutes straight and recorded on my phone and then we eventually just shortened it and made it the song that it is today. So it was very honest”.
TH: Yes! And well, I mean, you’re here performing at THE Lollapalooza! How does it feel to have made it here?
L: “It’s amazing! I’m so thankful and I’m so lucky that I have a great team. Like it’s just me and my manager we are unsigned, no label. So, it’s just very cool that this happened and we got to play the Coinbase stage, that’s crazy”!
TH: And that was the thing, I was watching you and I thought to myself ‘She could headline one day 100%! Like just give it a few years and she will be there’.
L: “I’m keeping you! OMG, I’m keeping you with me for the rest of the day”!
TH: I’m so serious, I will not flatter people if I don’t mean it, but I was literally watching you like “Yeah Loviet is gonna be next to Billie Eilish in a few years. Like, you have that voice! It’s very early 2000s Pink and when you were performing I was like ‘I don’t know if this is her vibe but I have to tell her’!
L: “Baby! Bless you, I f****** love Pink! Stop your such an angel. I love you. That’s the biggest compliment. See this is the era of Y2k! It was her, Kelly Clarkson, Avril! I used to belt those songs out in my room when I was little so that means so much! Like Lady Gaga too, like the Y2k pop girls, all that was so what I wanted to be”.
TH: For real though you were taking me back to all the feels.
L: “Aw bless you. Hell yeah, babes”!
TH: What was our biggest takeaway from your time as a rising star in the music industry right now?
L: “I think it’s to be happy! When your doing anything. Just do it for you and be happy. Cause what’s the point if you’re not? You know”?
*Manager walks by*
Manager: “Our motto”
L: “Our motto: be f******happy”!
Manager and Loviet together: “A win’s a win”!
TH: So how would you say Loviet ‘s sound has evolved from the beginning of your career to now?
L: “I’m definitely doing more of what I want now. There’s a lot of different things we tried. Like I was excited to try it all. Like we talked about all these pop influences, I grew up on all of that and I wanted to try it all so it’s been really fun for me now to feel like I’m back to myself and back to, almost like the 14-year-old self in her bedroom that wanted to do this from day one. And I’m just doing what I want”.
Listen to more Loviet below!
Check out our coverage of Loviet’s Lollapalooza performance and the festival HERE!