INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY SAGE GROVES ☆
NEO-SOUL SINGER-SONGWRITER LINDSEY LOMIS IS NO STRANGER TO CONNECTING PEOPLE THROUGH HER MUSIC—but after garnering over 4 million views on a snippet of her latest single “Half of Me,” Lomis has a whole new outlook on her career as an artist.
Born and raised in Nashville, Lomis has been surrounded by music her entire life. At just 23 years old, Lomis has spent her decade-long career crafting her narrative lyricism and stripped instrumentals to create an unmatched discography. Earlier this fall, after posting a video to her Instagram, millions of social media users flocked to hear an acoustic snippet of her latest creation. With over two thousand comments pleading for the song to be on streaming platforms, Lomis released “Half of Me” on October 8.
Luna had the pleasure of chatting with the rising star about this new profound hit, and how the process has impacted her next steps as an artist.
Read our conversation with Lomis below.
LUNA: “Half of Me” narrates such a vulnerable moment of post-breakup realization. Could you tell me about the first lyrics you came up with when writing the song and how the writing process was for you?
LOMIS: Well, the entire first verse into the first chorus all came out at once. I came home from going out and wrote it very late at night. It was the first time I’d gone out since I had gone through this big breakup, and I think there was a moment where I just looked around at everyone and thought, “Oh, no one actually is better than you.” Like, “Oh shit, this has just made the heartbreak hurt way harder.” But I think the main realization was how much of my life, my personality and who I am had developed with another person for three years. So I think I came home and was just like, “Oh, I really didn't just lose you in this breakup, I lost so much of myself too.” I wrote it on a late night in my feels. I literally start the song with, “The day is done now, so I look for somewhere else to put all my love for you,” and I literally say, “I go out.” So, it’s very on the nose. It's exactly what happened.
LUNA: The structure of the song really does just make it feel like you're listening to a story!
LOMIS: Those are my favorite kinds of songs. I mean, I really look up to artists who write so conversationally. It just feels so direct and genuine, and I think this is a moment where the song happened so organically.
LUNA: Speaking of structure, “Half of Me,” like many of your songs, relies on this cozy, intimate rhythm that really allows your lyricism and vocals to shine. Was there any point in the writing or production process where you thought the song would have a different sound or groove?
LOMIS: Honestly, we really stayed true to the natural structure of the song. I think the biggest difference was that I sat down to write it on piano, and thought “Oh, this is gonna be a piano song.” Then I took it into the studio and I was playing it on guitar and I was like, “Oh, this feels so much more me.”
I write a lot on piano. I use the piano to really feel and get the emotions out. Whereas the guitar for me is just instinctual. It's like a second voice. And so the biggest difference was switching to guitar. Even with the groove and everything, it's just what we started to play. I knew I wanted the whole first verse stripped. I knew I wanted it to feel like how I wrote it. All the other elements, we were just very intentional about not overdoing it.
LUNA: Your sound as an artist is so unique, and you said in a previous interview with us that you’re very reflective of what you listen to when you create. Do you still resonate with that?
LOMIS: Totally, yeah. I think I'm influenced by anything and everything. I think we all are, just as human beings. Over the years I've become so much more intentional about what I’m taking in. Even sonically, I've been going backwards—I just get older and older and older and older with my artists I listen to. I think now my writing process has changed probably since I did that last interview, where I don't reference songs before a session. I don’t go into the process saying “I wanna do something like this,” or, “In this world...” I let my intuition start a song, and then I bring it in to my producers and explain the best that I can. But I’m definitely influenced by so much music, and I think lately it's just been a matter of stripping it back. What I actually pull from as an artist is a little more specific than that.
LUNA: For people reading who might not be familiar with your music, who would you say is in the Lindsey Lomis extended universe?
LOMIS: Oh, interesting. Like artists that I can tap into?
LUNA: Yeah! Like a “If you listen to this artist, you should tune into ‘Half of Me.’”
LOMIS: Totally. The artists that showed me the kind of artist that I wanted to be growing up as a very young girl were Amy Winehouse, Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Adele. That was my whole world. I think artists I can relate it to now, more current artists, are Cleo Sol, and some similarities to the Olivia Dean vibe. I really love Daniel Caesar. My production isn’t quite there yet, but there’s elements of Brittany Howard and Alabama Shakes.
LUNA: For sure. I love all these artists. We have similar tastes.
LOMIS: You’re speaking my language. I’ll even add John Mayer in there, too. I think Continuum has been a huge reference for me. Just in the timelessness of an album like that and the impact that writing has.
LUNA: Totally timeless. Circling back to the song itself, “Half of Me” garnered massive attention online before its release. With over two thousand comments asking for the song to be released on streaming platforms, how did this influx of love for your music make you feel?
LOMIS: I mean obviously I'm so, so continuously grateful for that. I wrote this song last November, so it's been almost a year now that I've had this song, and we produced it out, had a working tape. I had a voice memo of the demo in the room. But I hadn't had a real demo on my phone since we wrote it.
It was one of those moments where you can get so caught up. You can really give yourself these boundaries to what you can show people as an artist. I'm like, “Oh, I have this whole meticulous plan of my release strategy and the order of events and how I want to lead up to a song.” But with “Half of Me,” I’d just been playing this song for a year to myself because I love it so much. I've known it’s special because of how it makes me feel to sing it. That sounds so stupid.
LUNA: Not at all!
LOMIS: With all the other songs I had written over the past year, it was one that I just kept coming back to. And so of course, I filmed it to post just for fun. I even thought “I probably shouldn’t post this because I have no plan to release it right now.” But I love it so much. I'm just so happy it resonated with people the way it’s been resonating with me, and I think it attests to how connected we all are and how real shit will always shine through.
So when I saw people's reactions to it, I was like, “Well, I have this song. How about I just give it to them? It’s done and I just need to re-record some things.”
LUNA: I feel like recently, over the past couple of years, people will post snippets of their music and listeners online will be like, “Oh my God, is this out yet? Can we have it out now?” And I think that can create a pressure on artists to be like, “Oh, wait, let me get in the studio before the hype dies down.”
LOMIS: Totally. Yes. So many artists do it so differently. I definitely overthink too much to do it like that. If this song was just a chorus and I hadn't finished writing it, it would have taken me so much longer having no idea the direction of the song. I wouldn't have been able to release it just because I would have been going back and forth forever trying to make it perfect. So I'm grateful that, yes, it wasn't a part of a plan to release this next, but it was already done and I loved the song.
It feels like the most authentic song that I've put out in a really long time. And all the songs I've been putting out this year are that, but this one felt like it really came straight from my soul. So it feels good that people enjoy it.
LUNA: For a song that’s so personal to you, what do you hope listeners really take away from listening to “Half of Me?”
LOMIS: I think for me, heartbreak has illuminated certain songs I listened to for years and years and years, that I never really listened to until I was like, “Oh my God, this, word-for-word, is exactly how I feel." And over the past year, I feel like my relationship with music has shifted because of that. When I started seeing comments on “Half of Me” like, “I wish I could send this to her,” or generally comments by people really resonating with that, I was like, “Oh, this is wild to think that a feeling I've had towards other people's music over this past year when I've really needed it, someone could have that with this song.”
I do not take that for granted because I know exactly what it feels like to have a song that sees you exactly how you are scared to be seen, but need to be. People can relate to this. I’m so sorry that people can relate to this song, but it does make me feel comforted. I'm like, “Oh, this is normal,” and we're all gonna get through it.
LUNA: Exactly. We aren’t alone in it.
LOMIS: Yeah. We aren’t alone.
LUNA: Speaking of, you have an upcoming show in Los Angeles! What is your favorite part about playing live and what are you most looking forward to?
LOMIS: Performing live is the reason I’m even doing any of this music stuff. I truly discovered my love for music through live shows. When it comes to my stage presence, it's so much less of a performance per se, and more of a conversation. I talk to the crowd like how I talk to my friends. Playing live is where I feel so effortlessly myself and I don't have to even think about it.
LUNA: You’ve had a few singles drop this year. What are your next career steps after soaking in all this love on this new single?
LOMIS: There are definitely more songs on the way. “Half of Me” in particular, how cathartic it has felt to release something that feels so me, [has] influenced the way I wanna treat the next phase of music as well. It’s begun this eye-opening path for me. So I have some new songs. You may be getting some different versions of other songs that I have. Maybe some stripped versions of things. And then playing those songs live.
