hey, you guys. i know itâs been a minute since i came on here, and i feel terrible about that, but i hope your year has at least been manageable, and hopefully even fun. iâm thinking of you.
i took a few months off at the beginning of this year, which was so great - i did a bunch of swimming and driving around and being salty - and now iâm just getting into making the next body of work, which is very exciting and scary but SO VALIDATING (i also went to a wild beautiful fashawwn ball last night which maybe iâll elaborate on in another post).
the other day i was in the studio with some new friends, and i asked them which one song they would send into space, to live on forever, if they had to. one said âperfect dayâ by lou reed (a song which i heard when i was thirteen in passing somewhere, then went home and sat in front of my familyâs desktop computer listening to, and cried my eyes out) and someone else said âgod only knowsâ by the beach boys, also in my top 5, so complex and kind of bittersweet and happy, also a good choice. and i thought about it for a while, thought about talking heads and fleetwood mac and nina simone, but the song that came out of my mouth was âdancing on my ownâ by robyn. this song, to me, is perfect. itâs happy and sad, fiery and independent but vulnerable and small, joyous even when a heart is breaking. every line is perfect, how that second verse (âstilettos and broken bottles / iâm spinning around in circlesâ) stumbles perfectly into that bridge (âthe lights go on, the music dies / âŠi just came to say goodbyeâ), and final chorus. itâs just perfect. we put it on right there in the studio, and i was up out of my seat dancing with my eyes screwed shut, and my hands up around my ears, and we looked into each otherâs eyes and sang the words, and i could feel something hot and teary in the back of my throat just from FEELING so much at once. and i think it was then when i realized iâm going to be in love with music for the rest of my life. itâs going to be the most important friendship iâll ever have. iâll never, ever leave it alone, because you canât leave alone something like that, something that makes you weep alone on aeroplanes or jolts you out of a chair and shatters your face with a big toothy smile. i think thatâs a cool, intense revelation to have, going into your second record. first records are like meeting someone and feeling that need to do everything, just in case for whatever reason, you run out of time, or they stop feeling the same way as you. i feel much calmer, more comfortable in my love of doing this, and its apparent love of me, this time around. so thereâs that. Â
the main reason i was inspired to write to you today came from googling a picture of britney taken by david lachapelle, and stumbling across this website called one week // one band. they had this incredibly thoughtful collection of quotes and ideas regarding this photo. out of morbid curiosity, i typed in my own name to have a look at what people were saying. and you guys, i have been sitting here for almost an hour fluttering my hand against my chest and making these tiny high-pitched sounds, because how i was written about, how pure heroine was written about, was remarkable in its attention to detail and flow in these songs. i make music for you guys, as you know, and to read these interpretations of the songs that were so nuanced and so much smarter than anything iâd read from an adult journalist (i believe the author of these wonderful pieces is a touch younger than me) was so inspiring for me. these pieces of writing are like a map to this record, and this (dare i say it bleugh) era. they should be packaged with my record, for goodnessâ sake. theyâre brilliant. you can find the author, sophia, at http://nyogu.tumblr.com/, and the pieces on my work at http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/tagged/lorde/chrono
and i guess thatâs it for now. sending so much love to you all. thank you for loving and living inside my music. know that iâm taking my time to make the new stuff as good as i can. know that music is still making my heart skip every day. canât wait to hang out soon. love you. xxx L
