Lola Young: “Love in Any Form is so Important”

I’m alright you know; I think I’m good. I have a mental health condition, so I know and understand the struggle of someone who goes through it day-to-day. Luckily mine is very much sporadic, my episodes kind of come at different points in my life. So, right now I think I’m good, I mean it is what it is. I also just want to say thank you for asking this question because I think it is so important for it to become normality to ask people how they actually are. I’m someone who usually does ask that question, I think it’s really important to check up on the people around you, or even those that aren’t. I met a girl recently on a video that I was at, and I could tell that they seemed quite down, so you’ve always got to check. Sometimes you can sense it just by a person’s energy.

Yeah, I’ve always known I wanted to do music since I was very young and it was just one of those things where there was never another option for me. It was only this. I was never really good at anything else when I was at school. Like I was good at school, but I wasn’t amazing, you know? And I feel like there are two types of people in this world, there are the people that are sick at school and academics and then there are the people that just aren’t very good. And with the education system, there seems to be this thing where there’s just no middle ground. I mean there are people who get B’s and C’s, but they just classify that as being ‘not good’. There are a lot of creative people in this world, and I think a lot of them have a tendency to be a bit contained or reserved when this shouldn’t be the case.

Yes and no. Growing up I was always – I don’t want to say mature, because I definitely haven’t always been mature, haha. But in the sense of that, I’m able to just talk to people and to communicate what I want. So, I don’t feel like that’s ever really been an issue because I always know what I want in regard to my music. Also, that first release, I see it more as just a little project that I dropped, and yeah, I guess you could call it an album, but it was more just me experimenting. Basically, I feel like people will only treat you differently if you feel differently yourself. Now that’s obviously not the same in every scenario, but I feel like people will only treat you differently if you allow them to.

“Pill or a Lullaby” basically means do I need a pill or do I need just need someone to sing me to sleep. Because I had sleep paralysis for the second time in my life the other day. Have you had it? 

So, in my first ever sleep paralysis I saw a man in the room. I can’t really remember because my first time was when I was around 10 or 11. But there was a man in the corner of the room and I could see my body asleep through the eyes of the man, it was really weird. I’m so glad I’ve only had it twice because the last time I had it right, I was lying in bed, and I woke up in my sleep paralysis loads of times almost like the film inception. So, it was a dream within a dream whilst being paralysed. Horrible.

A lot of people don’t ever get it in their life, some people get it loads. But yeah, I know some other artists suffer from sleep conditions like Beabadoobee made a song about it and about insomnia. Obviously, I’ve had insomnia before, but that was a result of other things, so as in I’d be up every day until I don’t even know when, I just couldn’t sleep basically. Anyway, my there’s a lyric in the song that says, ‘if I befriend tomorrow, will it treat me right?”, so that’s saying if I think positively about tomorrow, ‘will it treat me right?’, and I’m actually posing that question ‘will it?’. Because naturally, I’m quite a negative thinker, which isn’t a good thing. I know quite a few people that are, and I also know a lot of people that aren’t. Sorry if I’m going off on one for this question but I honestly feel like, when it comes down to it – Pill or a Lullaby is the idea of do I need something artificial in this life or do I need something natural to make me feel better about myself?

I actually found it very comfortable, it’s the only place that I feel like I can be that open and honest. I really just feel like music truly is the only place where you can be that honest to yourself and your audience. So why not?

No not yet, but I’m getting there. It’s so annoying because I love my sleep, massively. And just stay with me on this, because this is really interesting. So, animals in the wild only know when to sleep when the sun goes down, right? But we as humans invented the light bulb, which means that we can stay awake past sunset. So, what that does is, it means that obviously if you party, take drugs, and what not you are damaging your body not sleeping at the right times. I’m massively into being more like the animals, so I feel that when the sun goes down, that’s when you should go to sleep. So, depending on the seasons, whenever it starts getting dark, that’s when you should sleep. Sleep is actually really complex, there’s ways you can train your body to get a certain amount of sleep, and too much sleep can also be awful for you.  

Just the fact that love and relationships are really hard, but music can be an amazing cure for them. And I feel like this EP allows you to really feel certain emotions, like I can sit and cry to it. But I also want them to be hopeful as well and know that love in any form whether it’s mum, dad, friend, or partner, is so important. Just not too important to the point where you stop being yourself.

Oh my gosh, what a question! So, I properly learned what kind of person I am in relationships and how difficult I can be. But I also learned how not everybody works together you know. You can meet someone and think that it’s forever and it never is. I don’t mean to be negative. It can be for some people and when it is, it’s beautiful. But, when you really think it is, when you believe it’s going to be forever, unfortunately, it usually isn’t. It’s a tough pill to swallow because you know when you’re in a relationship and you think about that person every day, you love them so much and hope for it to feel like that forever. You end up doing things to push them away or you end up getting pushed away by little things that they’re doing. I honestly believe that if you love someone and it’s going to be forever, you don’t necessarily realise it until a bit later.

I’d say a blessing in disguise in some sense where I could really focus on myself and my music. But also, the complete opposite at times. It was very hard for a lot of people, especially us creatives because it messed up a lot of things. It messed up a lot of my plans and other artists’ plans. So definitely a blessing and a curse at the same time for sure. 

I think I try to set small ones but sometimes they just end up really big and too far for me to reach. I think it’s important to set yourself small goals. Even just when we spoke about mental health, setting small goals like I’m going to wake at this time tomorrow and make my bed. In reality, that is such a small goal but if you do it then it can help set off a chain of events. So yeah, in terms of my music I definitely try to set up a group of smaller goals rather than a few big ones.

Fucking random. I don’t have a fashion style; I wear what’s comfortable or I wear what I think I look good in. I’d say it’s classic, kind of Victorian esc mixed with streetwear. Because I love a good corset, but I also love trainers and shoes. I’m massively into them. It’s definitely eclectic, I like to wear different things. I would never wear anything bright or neon yellow for example. That’s just not me. But the word would 100% be random. 

I personally prefer the smaller intimate gigs. But I love both, they both offer very different things, hold specific purposes and are both so much fun in their own right. So, I definitely prefer the smaller, intimate gigs when watching other artists. But when performing it’s pretty much 50/50 or right now post lockdown its whatever I can get!

Prince. Hands down. I saw him when I was really young, but it was amazing.

My family and friends. Honestly, that’s such a cliché answer but I feel like everyone should be even more grateful for them and it’s easy to take them for granted sometimes. I’m so grateful that I have so many amazing people around me because if something ever happens within my music as I progress to the next level, then it’s very important that you have actual real friends with you. Like say if you get a promotion from your job, you need real people around you to actually congratulate you with no hidden agenda, no jealousy, you know. I’ve seen all that already so I’m really grateful for who I have close to me at the moment.