Hi Lila, it’s lovely to meet you. I’d love to start out by asking how have you been doing during this time period?

This might sound crazy but I am calling from my dorm room at college. I started school three weeks ago, which has been such a change from my whole existence over the past year. I graduated high school and I took a gap year. I’m very excited to be at school, but it’s a little weird to be starting during a global pandemic. All of my classes are online except I get to actually be here. The first few months during quarantine were a break because I felt like I hadn’t stopped working for two years. I love working and being busy but it was definitely a relief in the beginning just to have some time to myself. This pause in the world has made my new music coming out a lot better and more purposeful because I had the time to think about it. But it certainly hasn't been an easy for months for anyone, there is so much happening in the world, so much bad happening, so it has been a real time of reflection. Being at school has been great—it has felt quite normal despite everything. I’m excited to be here and to be around people my age.

What are you going to be studying?

I am undecided, but I am thinking history or global affairs.

How has music served as an escape for you especially lately?

I've been listening to a ridiculous amount of music, which is saying a lot because I listen to a lot of music. I had more time to dive deeper into artists who I love and into their whole discography. I am obsessed listening to albums, it’s my primary way of listening to music. In terms of writing music and making music, I taught myself how to play guitar during the beginning of quarantine. My quartanite writing has been very colored by the fact that I am playing on the guitar and not on the piano. I’ve found myself writing a lot more than I usually do mostly because I had the time. I’d wake up and play guitar in my bed for three hours and write, instead of rushing off to the studio and writing in that environment.

Was there a music genre or artist/band who left a lasting impression on you when you were growing up?

There are so many albums that influenced me growing up. I am so lucky to have had parents who had such an appreciation for music. They didn’t play any instruments, but there was always music in the house. It’s hard to pick but Stevie Wonder Songs In The Key of Life; Rolling Stones and their Hot Rocks compilation and Carole King. There was a real emphasis on 60s and 70s soul music in my house, which was coming from my mom and more experimental rock from my dad. I also remember listening to Houses of the Holy, the Led Zeppelin album. My dad was from Long Island so there was naturally Billy Joel and Bruce Spingsteen. That transitioned into listening to a lot of 90s R&B, like Lauren Hill and D'Angelo—those were huge influences sonically and lyrically. The biggest take away for me was how they formulated these albums into these whole bodies of work and other perspectives.

Your have such an incredible sound. How would you describe your music and how did you find your unique voice?

I am really still on that journey; I don't know if I am quite there and can describe it really well. I am so young, I am just coming into myself before my own eyes, which is weird and terrifying. I think the biggest thing for me was what I wanted to say and vocally how I wanted to say it. There has been such an emphasis for me on wanting to actually sing. The first songs I put out, I was singing in a way of how I thought people wanted me to sing. I was really singing quietly for so long, which might sound weird, but I was wanting to hide behind myself and the sonic soundscape in the song. I was less focused on my voice being at the forefront. The more music I have listened and paid attention to, I have noticed how impactful it can be when the vocal is in front of the song. I took that into consideration and also that I really love singing. When I started, I was working I was 15 or 16 and working with much older men; I felt diminished in a lot of those situations not that it was anyone's fault; it took me a lot of time to figure out how to express what I wanted to express.

Can you walk me through your process of songwriting?

The actual process is always changing depending on where I am and if I am writing with or without an instrument. The process these days is not trying to force it and just trying to let things happen naturally. I find myself singing a lot when I am by myself; I’ll think of one line and write it down and then I will come back to it. In this new college space, I have been reading a lot and I have been struck by a lot of language and I've been pulling from that as well. I have been drawing the biggest inspiration from the guitar, which I don’t understand at all so there has been something really cool and exiting about writing on guitar—I feel like I am a young child trying to figure it out.

**You released the single Locket at the beginning of this year. The music video is great with all of the butterflies. How do you get inspired for that aspects of your music?**

My friends and all of my family would attest that I am a control freak (laughs); I really care about the visual aspect of all of this mostly because I grew up with YouTube. For Locket specifically, I knew the director, Phillip Lopez, since I had worked with him already. We bonded over foreign cinema and different books; we bonded over the same visuals. We met at a coffee shop in LA and he showed me this photo—I think it was from the 70s—of a girl sitting on the back of a pick-up truck and in the back were hundreds of these bright orange flowers. She looked stoic and also sad; it was such a stunning image. I remember him saying, “I listened to the song and I can’t stop thinking about this image; I feel like there is this sense of death of purity happening in this song and I want to be able to capture that.” It was so much fun to shoot; I always wanted to shoot a video on film.

**You recently released a remix of your single Dad’s Van with Skream, can you share a bit more about that?**

With Dad’s Van, it is such a juxtaposition from Locket, most people who know me well would say that I am not a serious person at all; I don’t think I take myself that seriously but a lot of my music comes off in a very serious way, which I am totally fine with it because it is highly personal. With Dad’s Van, I wanted to create a song that felt more fun and a song that I could put on at any time of the day, where you could drive with the windows down and feel good about. Skream is such a sick British artis, who was one of the pioneers in the recent EDM scene. He put an end of summer club vibe that I thought was very fitting for this time when none of us can leave our houses. Maybe it is really important to have music people can dance to in their rooms in that 80s Girls Just Want to Have Fun sort of way? I think it’s extremely cool to have someone put their stamp on my work.

Can you share What’s next for you?

I have been working on my first album for the past little bit and just finishing touches—we are getting there with the album. I am just trying to get a studio in New Haven to finish the album. That’s my biggest focus right now, I am excited for people to hear it. I think it might be a surprise for anyone who knows my music. I am just over the moon for people to hear it—I have never felt this way about my music. Also, I am trying to first semester of freshmen year.

Singer and Songwriter Lila Drew On Music, Finding her Voice and Creativity