Ari Staphrans Leff, professionally known as Lauv is a multi-platinum singer and musician known for his iconic hits like “The Other” and “I Like Me Better.” He grew to stardom after releasing his first EP, “I met you when I was 18” in 2018 and followed that release with his debut album “how i’m feeling” in 2020, which was released weeks before the COVID pandemic. This time, Lauv is back with his sophomore album “All 4 Nothing” which was released on August 5th. The immersive album is filled with mixes of nostalgia, conflict, and self-empowerment.
“50% healing, 50% party,” is what Lauv answered when asked to explain the balance when working on his newest release “All 4 Nothing.” The album focuses on Lauv’s confidence journey, inner child meditation, and mental health. In his song, “Kids Are Born Stars,” Ari talks about his inner child, even including “his son, Joshua” as he said during the conference, and his TikTok, who is actually his manager’s son. He said that during the lockdown, he would talk with him on FaceTime telling him “Ari, don’t worry, it’s all going to work out.” This album is meant to feel stress-free and find your inner child as Leff said which Joshua helped with. Continuing throughout the call, he continued to answer questions surrounding the inner child aspect of the album, Leff stated that he experienced “inner-child meditation” which was finding the peace, gratitude, and confidence inside himself that he felt before “[his] life got kind of complicated.” It also included a bit of existential questioning as well.
When asked how he deals with meditation and mental health and how he plans to have that play a role with the fans, he suggested that he was interested in doing a guided meditation on Instagram Live or to even doing a podcast surrounding mental health. Showing his vulnerability of himself, which is very personal, to the fans gains a form of trust that he can open up around them.
Emotional contrast is very eminent throughout Lauv’s music releases, there is no doubt that “All 4 Nothing” does as well. Past releases focused on young love along with loneliness and isolation. Leff claims that this new release is “sorta like coming out from all that loneliness and getting out of the woods,” along with pieces of happiness. There is an obvious look at the self-growth between every release, especially in this new release.
Opening up throughout this conference and with the songs on the newly released album “All 4 Nothing”, gave us a look at how Lauv plans to connect to fans not only with his music but with his personal side including mental health. Being able to gain more confidence and self-growth shows his journey from feeling isolated and alone to feeling happiness and reflection.
Lauv is currently on his North American tour for the newly released album, “All 4 Nothing” with special guest Hayley Kiyoko alongside the openers Aidan Bissett and David Kushner. Find him playing in a city near you here.
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