Lynsea on Local Music Somewhere
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Lynsea Turns Textbooks into Alt-Pop Gold with ‘Hormones’
In a world where love songs are a dime a dozen, singer/songwriter Lynsea has managed to do the impossible—she’s made science sexy.
Her latest single, “Hormones,” dropped on August 16, and it’s not your typical alt-pop track. Imagine finding inspiration in a medical textbook, of all places, and then translating that into a synth-heavy, lo-fi anthem that makes you question every flutter in your chest.
Yeah, Lynsea did that.
But this is no surprise when you learn about Lynsea’s roots.
Born in the back seat of a Chevy Blazer to traveling evangelists in Texas, Lynsea’s exposure to music came early. Raised amidst international ministries and steeped in a unique blend of Texas country and Christian rock, she began crafting songs as a child, sitting in front of the stereo and rewriting Britney Spears or Shania Twain hits in her own words. Her deep emotional connection to songwriting started at the age of six, when family challenges turned music into her personal sanctuary.
Her formal music education was sporadic but pivotal. At 8, her great-grandmother enrolled her in voice lessons; by 11, she was singing in her elementary school’s All City Choir, and by 12, she was playing oboe in her middle school band. Lynsea’s musical journey took a defining turn at 15 when a friend gifted her a guitar. Armed with basic chords taught by her uncle, she started writing songs again. By high school, she was performing her originals around North Texas, determinedly sharing her self-made CDs with anyone who would listen.
Despite limited formal training, Lynsea set her sights on Berklee College of Music. Accepted with a songwriting scholarship, she studied Music Business while honing her craft. Between recording a 20-song demo in her studio apartment and funding a Kickstarter for an EP, Lynsea was a one-woman music machine. Post-graduation, she found herself drawn back to worship music, eventually interning and working at Elevation Church’s Elevation Worship Records. But the pull to pursue her own music was undeniable. Under the alias ‘Lewis,’ she released “Coffee At Midnight” and “Handmedown Love,” even venturing into electronic-pop with her husband under the name ‘Alva.’
Then came 2019—a severe family loss—and the world-altering pandemic of 2020, forcing Lynsea to hit pause. Yet, in January 2023, she reemerged, releasing a single every month with local producer Alastair. Tracks like “Waiting Up,” “warmblooded,” and “Out of My Mind” signaled her return. She began exploring sync licensing, signing a few songs with Unicorn Music and Atrium Music, and even completed a regional acoustic tour with Sofar Sounds. With a grant in hand, she set out to create “Hormones” in English, Spanish, and French, marking her full-fledged comeback in August 2024.
“Hormones” takes that dizzying spark of attraction—the one that makes your palms sweat and your heart do backflips—and pulls back the curtain to reveal the science behind the magic. The song kicks off with lines like, “I was doing just fine/ And then you went and changed my mind,” setting the stage for a deep dive into the chemistry of our emotions. It’s more than just a catchy tune; it’s an alt-pop crash course in what happens when your body decides it’s time to catch feelings.
For Lynsea, the journey into this rabbit hole of human chemistry started in 2023. She wasn’t just reading up on hormones for fun; she was on a mission to understand her own body better. “I started my hormone health journey in 2023 and my world was changed for the better,” she confesses. “Hormones are not talked about enough, and truly without awareness of them, they have an inevitable effect on our decisions, relationships, and quality of life.” It’s this raw self-awareness that makes “Hormones” more than just a song—it’s an anthem for anyone who’s ever felt like a slave to their own biology.
Lynsea explains, “It should be known that hormone education is not reserved for women, nor only for sex education. If you are human, you are being influenced by this chemistry daily, so, if you are human, this song is for you.” It’s this universal message that resonates deeply, transforming “Hormones” from a personal journey into a broader commentary on human experience.
Musically, the track is an alt-pop dreamscape. Lo-fi beats and delicate synth layers create a moody backdrop that lets Lynsea’s vocals take center stage. Her voice is both vulnerable and commanding, guiding listeners through a narrative that’s as heartfelt as it is scientific. It’s like listening to a TED Talk, but you actually want to hear it on repeat. By the time the chorus rolls around, you’re not just listening to a song; you’re enrolling in “Love and Chemistry 101.”
Lynsea’s ability to mix storytelling with a dose of education isn’t new. Back in 2020, she dropped “Coffee at Midnight,” a track that turned the mundane into the magical, capturing the unspoken allure of late-night coffee dates. Now, with “Hormones,” she’s peeling back the layers of human emotion, using her own experiences to tackle a subject that’s often ignored. “I’m just such a student at heart that I do want my songs to have some sort of message buried in it somewhere,” Lynsea admits. And buried within “Hormones” is a lesson we all need: sometimes, it’s not just love—it’s science.
Fresh off an intimate performance at McGill Rose Garden on August 17, Lynsea is riding the wave of her latest single’s success. She’s been busy working on visuals for “Hormones,” which are set to drop on her YouTube channel later this month. And if you thought this journey stopped there, think again. She’s also planning to release Spanish and French versions of the track, making “Hormones” a global lesson in the art of love and chemistry. Beyond music, she continues to pursue her passion for foreign languages, volunteering as an ESL teacher for immigrants through International House’s programs.
So, what’s the secret behind that electric rush you feel when you meet someone new? Lynsea has an answer, and it’s not all moonlight and roses. Sometimes, it’s just hormones. And with her latest single, she’s turning that often-overlooked truth into an emotional alt-pop experience you won’t want to miss. Catch Lynsea live at The Evening Muse on September 26, where she’ll be performing alongside Joe May. Expect a night of haunting melodies and lyrics that dig deep—into your heart and your hypothalamus.
Q & A with Lynsea on Local Music Somewhere
Hey everyone. Welcome to Local Music Somewhere here at rbeatz.com. My name is Annaliese and today we are here with Lynsea. She is a pop singer and songwriter. Her new single, Hormones releases on all streaming platforms on August 16th and she’s here with us to talk about her new single. Lynsea, thank you so much for being here with us. How are you?
I’m doing great. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Yay! So I wanted you to talk through about what inspired you to get into the indie pop sound and music in general.
Yeah. Well, I’ve been writing songs since I was a kid and then I finally decided to study it in college. But I think my main influences were really just pop music in the 90s. I would just obsess over whatever album was out most recently. So if it was, I can vividly remember that Oops I Did it Again album coming out and just sitting in front of my boombox, rewriting the lyrics to my own lyrics but it’d be the same melody. I was just so fascinated by pop music and then when I got to college, I kind of almost like rejected pop music because I went to a music college and pop music wasn’t like the cool thing people were into. Jazz and folk and really complex theory and music that was more mature. And so it took me a while to kind of settle back into how much and accept how much I really love pop. And so I feel like once I got to that point in my adulthood, I just accepted that I love pop and I want to make pop music because it’s fun. You can dance to it. People can relate to it. So I guess that’s kind of how I landed on my pop genre for now.
Well, going into more of your college experience, you studied at Berklee College of Music, right? You studied music business. What was the most impactful thing that you took away from studying there?
Yeah, that’s a great question. I haven’t thought about it in so long. I think it’s been 10 years since I graduated and I think going to Berklee was great for many reasons. I wish I could do it again because I feel like I didn’t take advantage of everything that I had so close to my fingertips there. But I think one of the main things was just how important relationships are in the industry. A lot of people that I met while at Berklee weren’t even going to Berklee. They came for a semester to meet everyone and then they dropped out and they stayed in Boston just for relationships. And you wouldn’t know that they weren’t actually enrolled or not. It’s just they were there to meet people and to make connections and be around other people who really wanted to make music. And I didn’t get that memo. I definitely spent all my money and graduated and got the degree. I learned so many valuable things from music theory and ear training and different skills from being there and going to school. But I really walked away realizing that relationships and connections are so important in the music industry.
For sure, for sure.
And being able to like just have face -to -face interactions with people.
Yeah, like you said, connections are such a huge thing. That’s such a smart idea. I never thought about just going to college for a semester just to make the connections and then dipping, you know?
Well, I mean, at Berklee, there’s not really like a campus. It’s just random, I don’t know how they have it now, but it’s just random buildings in Back Bay, Boston. So it’s different than going to a university that there’s a campus because if you drop out, I don’t know that you can just like hang out on campus. But for Berklee, most people didn’t live in the dorms. Most people just lived an apartment in Back Bay. So it was easier to just kind of hang around for a while, I guess, without being at school.
That’s awesome, though. Yeah, that’s definitely how you make connections in this industry. And that’s such an important thing for sure. Well, let’s talk about your new song, Hormones. What was the inspiration for this song and how did it come into fruition?
I came across just different new research on hormone health for all humans, women and men. And I just started, I got, I tend to obsess over topics. So, a couple years ago, I got really into figure skating and I was really obsessed with figure skating. This last year it was hormones. I was really obsessed with hormones. I got all the books from the library. I would read as much as I could to just find out how I can be monopolizing on what’s going on in my body and for the sake of my own health. So that aside, I kind of came out of that era in the summer and I was like, wow, I should write a song about this. It mainly came from an idea of like, What if when we fall in love, when we have that kind of moment with another person, what if it’s really just chemicals in our brain? Like, what if it actually isn’t meant to be? It’s just that at this certain point in our lives, we both have whatever, the right chemical balance in order for us at this moment to connect. And it was very figurative, very theoretical. But the phrase of, so what if it’s hormones came to mind. And because I was thinking about like, what if that is really what happened? What if my husband and I met and it was really just chemical. And that’s what led us to be married for seven years. And then my brain was like, so what? I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I, you know, love this person. So the phrase, ‘so what if it’s hormones’ came up and I was like, that’s kind of catchy. Let me, like, elaborate on that and see where that goes. And that’s essentially how I ended up calling my producer and saying, hey, let’s write about this. And within the end of the day, we had the song.
That’s amazing. Yeah, inspiration can come really from anywhere. And that’s so fascinating that you were so inspired hormones.
So scientific.
Are you like really into science?
Not necessarily. I just kind of like get topics topics come up occasionally where I just kind of latch on to them and I get every book from the library and I just obsess over it. In my personal life, I care about critical thinking and intellect and talking. This song is kind of silly, very Bill Nye or Magic School Bus or something but making it into like a pop song, love song. So, I haven’t necessarily been into science don’t ask me like any scientific questions because I probably won’t know them.
You also have a song called Warm Blooded, so that’s why I was like she must be super into science then if she’s writing these like science slash love sort of songs and kind of bringing it together.
I think it kind of shows what I read because I don’t read fiction. I want to be a person that reads fiction but I just don’t. I gravitate towards really boring like encyclopedia type books you know? I love reading about um, psychology and religion and politics and science and health and stuff. And so I feel warm -blooded. I’m sure I was reading something and I saw the word warm -blooded and was like, oh, that’s a cool word. I want to write a song about it. So it’s funny because it’s less about like the songs necessarily being educational or anything. It’s just from what I’m consuming and what I’m reading, I come across words like warm blooded or hormones or scientific words and those like, inspire me to write a love song.
That’s amazing. Your Hormones release party is coming up soon and so I wanted to ask. You are so philanthropic and you have a donation drive for people who bring clothes in and you get a mood ring if you bring clothes in. Where does like the mood ring aspect of that come into your life? Like what like what do mood rings mean to you?
Yeah, it was a random idea. I was I was thinking about hormones and what I could do to I don’t know bring like get people engaged with it and there’s definitely like an emotional aspect of hormones, that chemicals in our brain affect how we feel. I’m a nostalgic person I grew up in the 90s. Mood rings were like a part of my childhood and so it just that kind of clicked and so I decided I wanted to do something with mood rings. At first I thought I would just get them as merch and then when when we decided to do the donation drive, one of the people I’m working with on publicity, she was like, what if you did something with the mood rings where you give away a mood ring, if someone brings something to donate? And I just, I love the idea because I want people to engage with the donation drive no matter what. But if there’s an incentive, then I definitely feel like people will feel obviously incentivized to come bring something. So yeah mood rings are just i think they are part of my childhood so that feels fun and everything about this song is fun. It’s not it’s not serious in any way. It’s just a fun cheeky love song about the chemicals in our brain. So it’s just kind of silly and mood rings are you know part of a childhood so I feel like it was a good silly connection with it.
We need more musicians like you in the world right now. You give me such like Chappell Roan vibes for some reason. I love your voice, I love what you have to offer like in terms of your vocals and like your lyricism. I just want to ask, is it true that you were born in the back seat of a Chevy Blazer?
Yes. My great grandmother delivered me in the backseat of the car. I’ve been telling this story since I was like, since I, I mean, since I was born, basically. But like any time in school when I had to write a paper for like a state exam, I would always use this story because it would all, people were always mind blown by it to get a great grade, very creative. But it is true. I, there were a couple of things that slowed us down, like we got stopped on the way to the hospital, we got stopped by the cops. So we had to pull over. The police ended up escorting us. My older sister, they left the house in such a rush, they had to find someone to go take care of her. There were some things that came up that slowed the process down and that eventually I was born in the car. My mom says because it was a very fast labor, very quick labor, she has always kind of attributed to how quickly I move in real life, like i’m generally impatient and I just make decisions quick and I move very quickly, my whole life, that’s just how I’ve naturally been. So she says, since literally the day you were born, you were in a rush. I was like, yes.
Oh my gosh. That symbolism is just so poetic in a way. I love that. Like, do you travel a lot then? Is that like, kind of like your personality?
I’m a Sagittarius, a sun Sagittarius. So I typically just, I want to get up and go and I want to change things. I want to, I avoid commitment. But I mean, in my adulthood, I mean, I bought a house. I’ve, you know, I’m married for seven, almost seven years. So I don’t travel as much as maybe my free spirit self would want to. But yes, I typically have that very like free spirit innate way of life in me where I just kind of want to be on the go.
So recently, you released the Spanish version of Out of My Mind. Such a beautiful song. What inspired you to record it in Spanish and can we expect more songs from you in different languages.
Yeah, Hormones is going to be in Spanish and French. I just had one of my final French lessons this morning. I studied both Spanish and French in high school. So I had a foundation. But I kind of got ahead of myself with just declaring I was going to do hormones in French because I got it translated and then I went to sing it. And I was like, whoa. It is not coming back as quickly as I wanted. So I want to learn different languages and try to create this cultural bridge for people. Because for me, whenever I’ve learned a different language, music in that language is what has really helped me. And when I’ve traveled abroad before and when I’ve met people who are working on their English, they say they listen to music in English because it helps them strengthen their English. So I just love creating this fun tool for anyone who’s trying to learn a foreign language to be able to have an English version and a Spanish or French or whatever different version to listen to. So yeah, I hope to only do more and more, even if I was partnering with someone who was a native speaker and singer, And if I’m not singing it, that’s also fine with me because I would love to do songs and languages that I would not, I do not know. So, yeah, I’m excited to see how that continues to develop because it’s something I really passionate about.
And I can tell, like, just like based on the way that you talk about different cultures and different languages and everything, it’s so clear that you have such a passion for it and like I’m so excited to see what other projects you have in the works for different languages and everything like that. So where does the fascination of languages come from?
That’s a good question. I don’t know. I think I mean there’s something about learning music in and of itself that feels like learning another language. So I do think that I, growing up, I was so fascinated in music theory and learning how to play instruments because it was this different way to communicate. But I do think at my core, I care so much about human connection. And when I’ve traveled before, or even in my own hometown, if I’ve run into someone that doesn’t speak English very well, there’s automatically just a chasm. Like, it’s really, it’s hard to connect. And so I think I just want to, I have this dream for myself where there’s, like, nothing gets in the way of me being able to connect with another person. And I think on a deeper level, I think a lot of fear that we have in our society is because people just don’t understand each other. And I think that some cultural bridges through language could help more people feel connected with people that are different from them. So I don’t know.
It’s a lot of things.
That’s so fascinating. I love that you’re so like immersed in it and that you have such a fascination for it and that you want to explore it more. That’s incredible and I’m so happy that like we have people like you who are able to express that through art because it’s a very hard thing to be able to bridge those gaps like you said so I’m glad that you’re able to do that.
I hope it helps to do that. I don’t know what the music will be used for but that’s what I hope it will be used for.
Yeah I think it is, so in Hand Me Down Love, you sang “second hand, nearly new, just hand me down when you’re through, it’s ok, you didn’t mean to.” What does that line mean to you?
I was wondering if someone would ask me that question. That song was is a heartbreak song. I wrote it at a time when I realized that the people that I’d loved before the relationships I’d been in before in my past are a part of who I am now. You can’t just completely when you grieve a loss of someone, whether it’s truly death or a breakup, something where you’re grieving, you don’t really ever get to be rid of that person. So the bridge is a little sassy, I would say. It’s meant to be more like, it was in a feeling of kind of frustration of like, okay, you’re ending this relationship with me so just pass me down. Here I go again with with the love that I have left because I gave you part of myself and my emotion and the love that I had. So now I’m just being I’m being passed on to the next person that I may fall in love with and I only have what is left of that love that I had before. I think that ‘it’s okay, you didn’t mean to’ is really meant more sarcastically like it’s not okay.
I got chills when you said all those things like that is like such a real experience that so many people go through yeah and like the way that you were able to say that and convey that in this it’s so original and it’s so inspiring. I love the song, I think it’s genius. How would you say your music from 2020 to now has evolved?
Yes, it’s evolved a lot. Because I took a big break in between there from 2021 to 23, so two years I didn’t release anything because I was trying to figure out where music fit into my life, what it meant to me, where the purpose was going to be coming from. The releases in 2020 I feel like those really came out of just um moments of inspiration just real moments happening in my life was mainly what I would write around and then after when I came back to realizing like I do want to make music and I want to do it in a way that is fulfilling to me. It’s not just entertainment or it’s not, I don’t know. I’m just so, I’m so connected into making sure that what I do with my life does good, that I came back in 2023 and I was like, okay, I’m going to get disciplined. I’m going to write every week. I’m going to release something every day. I’m sorry, every month. And I’m just going to create this discipline in me so that I can create a life around music and then from there figure out how I’m going to connect it to whether it’s philanthropy or, you know, bridging cultural gaps or something. So I think that was kind of like a long -winded version. I think the short version is that like I just created so much more discipline now rather than before. I treated it like a hobby and it’s some great songs came out of it being a hobby but I just want to make sure that if I make a song and I like pour my heart into it that people will hear it and unfortunately if you don’t take it seriously, if you don’t post about it and if you don’t make connections and you don’t put yourself out there, no one’s going to hear it. When I first started putting out music, I didn’t post about it because I was, I just, I was too scared and, and I mean, it’s time consuming. So I was overwhelmed. And I mean, no one heard it. So I just realized that you have to put in the work in order to make sure that your message and what you’re working on actually gets to be heard.
I’m so glad that your message is being heard now um what can we expect from you like for future music maybe an EP or an album?
Yes, I would love to do an EP next year. I don’t know yet how to make that happen but I definitely have the songs. I’m hoping for it, I’m going to declare it manifesting now. Next year.
Yes. I’m so excited for that. Well, we are going to take a quick break. We’re going to be right back here with Lynsea, but we’re going to move over to our sponsors and check out more from Lynsea here in just a second.
Welcome back to Local Music Somewhere. I’m your host, Annaliese, and today we are here with Lynsea. We are going to be playing a little game of Would You Rather? And we’re going to show some questions up here on the board. And you can just answer them like, what would you rather?
Okay.
So would you rather perform a whole song for a random person on the street or put out one of your least favorite songs on all streaming platforms and have it go viral?
Probably perform a whole song for a random person on the street. I think of Rebecca Black. Years ago when she put out the Friday song, do you remember that?
I remember that.
I feel like she tried to make a comeback after that and she just couldn’t. Everyone just thought of her as the Friday song girl, so yeah I’m terrified.
I never thought of that. That’s a good point. Which song would you sing?
I’d sing Hormones. A little self -promotion. There you go. I like it. They come to my show. They come to the party.
That’s what it’s all about. Yes. All right. So would you rather perform on a cruise ship around Europe for a week or the sphere in Las Vegas for one night?
I, oh, actually, hold on. My inclination was to say cruise ship around Europe. But, cruise ships are so wasteful. They dump so much trash into the oceans. I’ve never been on a cruise for ethical reasons, but can we say it’s a zero waste cruise? I choose that.
Awesome and then would you rather be in a band that makes amazing music but with bandmates who are mean to you or a band that has nice people but who make bad music?
I feel like the amazing music with bandmates that are mean to you is, I won’t say my current situation, but all the guys in my band are like my brothers. So I feel like we always pick on each other. It’s not that bad. And we make great music. So I can deal with that. I also grew up with five uncles but they’re only like eight years older than me, eight to ten years older than me. So they were kind of like older brothers. So I basically had five older brothers. And they just tormented me all the time, me and my sister.
Oh my gosh.
So I feel like I have like a thick skin because of that. Yeah. So I think the amazing music is worth them being mean to me.
Some people actually go for the second one.
Really?
Because they just don’t want to have mean people around them.
I mean, I get it. But if they’re mean, but they’re clever and they’re funny, then I accept it. If they’re mean just to be mean, then I think that’s where I draw the line.
Yeah, I guess it can go like either way depending on like, you know, situation people and all that sort of stuff.
I feel like I just keep editing the options. But I’m going to take it to mean that they’re clever, funny mean to me.
That’s so cool that like, you know, some people might think, oh, mean but you’re thinking of like mean but in a clever way.
Most people who are mean or or that are like in make insults or something they’re clever in some way so I mean, if you’re going to be mean to me at least be clever about it. Put some more energy and effort.
Exactly and then make good music and then have it go top of the charts. Would you rather have an amazing vocal range or be able to play every instrument?
Ooh. I have dreams. I vividly dream every night. It’s exhausting. But I have so many dreams where I can sing like an incredible, like Beyonce. And I wake up and I’m like, oh, man, like that was so great. So that is enticing to me. But being able to play every instrument. I plead the 5th. I don’t think I can answer this one.
You already have an amazing vocal range, so I would say the second one. Would you rather sign a six -album record deal or be a music influencer with millions of followers on social media?
I kind of think the six -album record deal. I just don’t want to deal with social media. Yeah. I can do the posting a couple times a week, but I would just rather be putting my time towards other things. I would rather, if I had an album record deal, I assume, or I would only sign it, if I had someone that was managing my social media for me. That’s what I would do. I’m grateful for social media for some reasons because it is free marketing and I’m able to do that myself. But I would rather not have to do that. I think I would choose the record now.
Yeah, I think so too. For me, I don’t know. I go back and forth all the time on it because there’s some days where I’m like, I don’t want to touch it again because it’s just ads and promotions now.
I spend so much time with content, I would rather spend that time either writing music or you know studying a new language or volunteering some more in the community. I would rather put that time towards other things.
That makes sense. Where has one of your favorite places been to perform?
Oh well, I haven’t really performed that many places I only started performing like a year ago because one of what you asked me a little bit ago about how my process has evolved I started out being saying I’m just going to make music and release it I’m not going to promote it on social media I’m not going to perform I’m not going to do anything I’m just going to write music and that’s all I’m going to do and that didn’t work out for me very well but so I ended up performing last year and I fell in love with performing. Yes. So now I’ve been doing it about once a month for the last year I’ve had a show. So I’ve only performed like four different venues around Charlotte. And I think I really enjoyed playing Snug Harbor this year.
I love Snug Harbor. They have some really amazing artists like they come there all the time.
I think yeah that was my favorite so far.
What stands out to you the most about that performance?
I think it was the first time that I’d really been on like an somewhat elevated stage um the other places I’d played are either I’m just like level with the crowd or I’m just I don’t know six inches off of the ground on a stage and it was I feel like it gave the performance and the set a whole different energy by having a little more room to move around on and also being elevated it just felt like really good engaging with the crowd in that way.
What has been something that stands out to you um when it comes to your career now versus when you started?
I think my resilience, cause when I first started, I would get down in the dumps pretty quick. If I got overwhelmed or things didn’t go my way, setting expectations for my career, for the music. And I think now, I think every artist kind of goes through those feelings, but I am able to kind of put it in check a little bit quicker and remind myself that, like, there’s nothing else I want to be doing. I want to be creating music. And being an artist means that you’re going to have to deal with self -promotion and feeling a little crummy sometimes that you’re not good enough or occasionally comparing yourself to other artists. So I think my mental strength and resilience to keep going. I’m proud of the work I’ve put in towards making sure that I’m mentally in a good spot to be able to, like, continue creating.
What’s some of the most impactful advice that you have received in your career and music in general?
Let me think.
I know I’m pulling out, like, all the deep questions from you.
I feel so, like, it’s so introspective. I’m learning so much about myself. Yes. I think, oof, I think that creating without expectation. Because I think sometimes we get caught up in like the result that we want. And then, you know, months or years go down the road, and you’re not really even doing the thing that you’re passionate about, that gives you purpose and is fulfilling. It’s very easy for me to go weeks without writing. And I’ve spent all my time trying to promote because I, you know, want to gain more listeners and more followers or sell more tickets to a show or things like that and then I’m not actually doing the thing that matters and that makes me an artist. There’s never a point of arrival. If there’s something we want like one day we’re going to get there and then we’re going to want something else, and then we’re going to want more. Innately our brains are wired to continue to just want and grasp and I think allowing myself to relax and know that like I’m never going to get that that feeling of arrival because all I need to do right now is just be present. I need to be present and do the things that are fulfilling to me now without any expectation.
Especially as artists, there’s an expectation of not having a whole catalog yet. Like you need to be starting off with just a few singles. The music industry can be toxic in that way, but the most important thing is that you’re continuing to go. Continue to get up, write, perform, do all those things because the passion of it is there and you want to keep going because you love it so much. You’re never going to feel that sense of arrival. That’s so true. But that’s amazing that you’ve been able to release so many like songs recently like and I want to kind of go through through some of the more recent ones, like what inspired Crawl?
Oh, yeah. So Crawl, well, let me rewind. So last year, one of the things I was experimenting with was writing for sync licensing. There were a couple producers I was working with that were really working on a lot of sync pitches. So, I had somewhat of a small background in sync. I learned about it in school. And then my husband was working with a company called Music Bed. And so we were kind of familiar with sync. But I hadn’t really written straight for a pitch before. I had only pitched my songs to sync companies. But so we came together to write the three of us, the two guys that were producing with two producers I’m working with and then myself. And the pitch was like a dark and moody song that had like lyrics about inner turmoil or something like that. And so we all like started kind of riffing on different ideas. And the word crawl just came to my mind. I honestly had the visual of, I don’t think I had recently watched Harry Potter, but this Harry Potter scene was in my brain when this came up. But there’s, I don’t know what, shoot, what movie is it? He and Dumbledore are like in a cave and they’re on an island in the middle of the cave.
I know what you’re talking about.
They’re getting one of the horcruxes from the dish or I don’t know. I think it’s one of the later ones. I’ll have to look at up later, but you know the scene I’m talking about and so then they all of the like dead bodies start coming out of the water and trying to grab them on this little island or whatever for some reason that is the scene that came to mind. That scene came into mind and then we just kind of developed it from there. They kind of had a track going that was similar to some of the reference tracks that the pitch had linked in the pitch and then we started riffing off of this crawl idea and and that’s what happened.
That’s amazing Yeah, because the song really does have dark, sort of themes with it. But it’s so beautiful and your voice is so angelic through it all. Like, it’s, it’s so, it’s such a beautiful contrast in a way.
Oh, thank you.
Yes. Love Me Anyway. Tell me the story behind that.
Well, let’s see. I think that was just a random, Sometimes I have a word or a phrase that I’m going to go in and intentionally write a song about. And then there’s the other side where I just grab my guitar for therapy and see what comes out and Love Me Anyway was one of the ones that was just like, I don’t know what I want to write about I just feel like I need to write about something. I need to like process what’s going on and I feel like last year was a really challenging year for me so I learned a lot about myself. I think I learned things about myself that I didn’t entirely like about myself. So I was kind, I was kind of wrestling with those things of recognizing parts of myself that I wasn’t super proud of, but nevertheless accepting them because they are a part of who I am. And, so that song kind of came out of it. So it, like, the first lyrics are I mean when I’m sad. I don’t know why that was so revolutionary to me, but realizing that when I’m mean to my husband, I’m actually just sad. I’m not mad with him. That was like, that was like life changing for me. I was like, oh, now whenever I’m mad at him, I’m like, oh, I need to take a deep breath and allow myself to cry for a minute because I’m actually sad. It’s just coming out in this way. So, I just started kind of writing down things about myself that I was feeling, like, frustrated with and just kind of developed from there.
That’s amazing. Like, and like you were saying, some of those simple phrases just stand out in the moment. Some people might not think it’s that revolutionary, but, like, to you, it’s like, oh, my gosh, that makes so much sense.
It’s like a lightbulb moment.
It really is. What’s the thing that draws you to creating music?
I have to. It’s something thatI’ve tried to find other ways to process my emotions. When I was a kid and I was dealing with my parents’ divorce and just some tumultuous things going on in my childhood, I just started like writing and creating music in that way. I didn’t really know how to deal with emotion as as a child, so I feel like it just manifested as songwriting or it just kind of came out as songwriting. And I really, I used it throughout my childhood and throughout high school to help me process feelings. So a lot of times I wouldn’t be able to know what I was feeling until I would sit down with my guitar or sit down with my notebook and start trying to write with melody and lyric and then I would look at what I’d just written and be like, oh, that’s how I’m feeling. So I think it’s just truly so intertwined with how I process emotion at this point in my life that, yeah, I just, I can’t not do it.
Yeah, of course. That’s the true way of a songwriter is coming back to that pen and paper each and every time. Anytime you feel something, any time you get that light bulb moment, like you said, it’s so important. Where do you see yourself in five years, musically?
In five years. I mean, I would love to have maybe released an album. I would love to have a bigger team of people helping to just like bring the songs to life. I think ultimately, I would love for it to be my main source of income. It doesn’t have to be a big income, it can be a small income, it’s fine. But just knowing that like what I have What I am focusing on and putting my energy towards to make a living is through creating music. And that can be like an arm of it. It could be the translations into foreign languages part. Or it could be like a really great merch line that’s ethical. My merch that I’m launching this weekend is on it’s all on secondhand pieces and it’s embroidered by a local artist. So it’s all I just want it all to be very thoughtful. So anyways it could be like whatever it is that I’m doing to make a living is like somehow a part of this music career. That would be ideal.
That’s such a great way of looking at it for sure and I think that those are all very very realistic like goals for sure I think you will definitely have those things by like five years from now.
2029 sounds so far away.
I know I think you can do it sooner personally I think that like where you’re headed right now you’re just you’re on such a impactful journey right now and I can really see like the inspiration and the light within your craft, within the way that you sing, I am so excited to see what’s next for you in the future. And like all the things that are to come for you.
Well, I receive that. I need that kind of energy. Someone else recently told me like, you just got to think bigger. You can’t, you don’t think about the next, don’t think too hard about what your next goal is. Just like think big about what you want and just start like allowing yourself to believe it. SO, I’m working on that.
Go stream Hormones on all streaming platforms, did you want to shout out any of your social medias or anything else?
Sure. Yes. So on Instagram, L -Y -N -S -E -A. and on TikTok, it’s IMLYNSEA.
Check Lynsea out on all streaming platforms and on all social media. And we hope to see you back here for Local Music Somewhere. I’m your host, Annaliese, and we’ll catch you next time.