Since the release of 2017 Lost On You, LP has already been to Hungary twice and is now preparing for the third performance at the Budapest Arena on 7 March with VÉRITÉ. Before the concert, we had the chance to have a few questions with her.
You love meeting with new people and fans. How can you manage to spend some time with your fans on such a busy tour?
I really try to stop when I see people at the hotel, but sometimes it is not possible. I think it is very important, to be in a connection with our fans, especially today, because there’s so much stuff out there. I think there’s a difference between a fan and someone who listens to a song once in a while. People, who listen to your songs, or maybe a playlist don’t feel necessarily going to a concert. The value of the fans is so deep to me and I try to say thanks every night, when I am on the stage, I appreciate always those people, who came to my concert because there are so many things that you could do instead. Just even including staying home and just hanging out. I think it’s a special event, to have a show, so I’m trying to honor it, and I always feel bad if I can’t say hi to someone, sign something or take a picture with the fans, because I feel it’s a deep connection that we have through music.
You are not only an artist, but also a role model for your fans. Is it possible to live these encounters as a fan and artist, or do you have to take on a special responsibility?
I think being kind to people is always a responsibility as a human. My love language is respect, and I really appreciate it, when I thank my audience for coming to one of my shows, and some of the fans, thank me for coming and performing my songs. Mutual gratitude is important, no one has to come to see my show. They can listen to music in complete anonymity. That’s fine. But fans are coming, making that effort and makes me wanna make even more effort for them.
Which concert do you think is the best for your audience to connect with you and with your music?
I think all of the shows are able to do that, but festivals might be my least favourite, but some people love it. I like seeing artists at festivals, it is fun, but it’s a different style of experience. I think it’s really up to the audience, how they like it. I have some plans for the future, I’m gonna try to give some different types of shows at some point. Something that’s like an experience for people that’s a little different. I don’t know where am I going to end up with it, but I have some things in the making which I’m excited about.
Your songs are full of very deep content. What are the issues you deal with in your day-to-day life?
I am so grateful that I can travel the world and play these shows to people and it’s a highly privileged version of life sometimes, but I think that there are also a lot of moments of mundanity. I think in as busy a world as there is, quiet inside of you could be nice. You can appreciate quiet moments, but it’s not calm for everyone, sometimes it just feels like straight-up boredom. As an artist, I feel the responsibility of my job is to blow up these moments in life, that are unforgettable and that are very deeply affecting to me. I am a pretty emotional person, but I think we all kind of are. People appreciate me taking these very emotional, dramatic moments in our lives and breaking them down to our most common denominator and trying to make myself and somebody else feel something. That’s the goal, I guess.
When it comes to writing about your own experiences and thoughts, which stage of the process is best suited to this? When everything is already clear to you, or is writing part of this clarification process?
Yes, it is. I’m still learning the times that I process, I know that I process things sometimes way after, sometimes right after, sometimes during. The way I will write a song depends on what stage I am in. Sometimes I’m writing three different songs, kind of about the same thing, but they sound like different things because I’m at a different stage of accepting or letting it go. I just try to scoop out what’s there. Sometimes, when I look back at records I just realize, how pissed I was. I remember back in the day I had just written Lost on You, and later, when I was writing a new song, I needed some months to calm down, because I felt I was so angry. I waited a few months and then when I wrote it, I was able to deliver it. I love it when you could feel the hurt and you could feel the ZAP. I’m writing a new record as we are speaking and I have different things that I just came out of and that I’m into now. So, we’ll see.
Has any of your songs’ meaning changed for you, when you are listening to them years later?
I thought The song titled Dayglow was only about my ex-fiance and then I realized it was also about my father because of the similar effect on my emotions. Sometimes I just can’t believe what I’m feeling, it’s very weird. Kind of a dream-like thing that creeps its way into my writing.
LP will perform at the Budapest Arena on 7 March. Details are available at the event, on the official Live Nation and LP website.
