Lauv used “inner child meditation” to help him “reconnect” with himself while writing his latest album ‘All 4 Nothing’. 

The singer-songwriter shop to fame with a string of viral hits – including The Other and I Like Me Better – before releasing his debut long-player ‘How I’m Feeling’ in 2020. 

However, when the pandemic shut the world down, it sent him into a state of anxiety, leaving the musician feeling disassociated from himself.  

“I was feeling really out of touch with myself during the pandemic. Really anxious,” he tells Retro Pop’s August 2022 issue. “Feeling kind of disconnected from Ari, the person, because I feel like my life had gotten so crazy with my career and everything.”

Recognising the problem, he embarked on a journey of personal discovery, which saw him look back on experiences from his childhood and reconnect with the passion that compelled him to pursue music. 

“One of the ways I was doing that was inner child meditations, which are these journeys where you visualise yourself at whatever younger age comes up at the moment,” he explains. “I’d have these conversations internally with myself and I realised that I always had this dream to do this music thing on a big level. 

“In my early 20s, I became so obsessed with it that I forgot about me, the person, and the rest of my life. That led me to be really lonely and to feel really anxious and stressed out, and I was like, ‘I just need to be Ari now’.”

He deals with issues such as alcohol and drug addiction on the album, and while he was cautious not to glamourise that lifestyle, Lauv insists it was important to touch on the subject matter.

“It’s interesting because I definitely didn’t want to condone anything, getting into anything unhealthy,” he shares. “At points, I definitely felt like I was struggling a bit with some of it. But you know, I feel like my music has always been an outlet for me to say what’s going on in my mind, so that’s what was going on at the time. 

“So I wanted to put it out there, but also be conscious to not glorify anything.”

Read the full interview in the August 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store or use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist.