Get to Know LO LA: Your New Favorite Indie Artist

interview conducted by Casey Seagriff

“Toxic Love” by R&B Pop artist, LO LA, is the perfect song to sing along to this Valentine’s Day if you’ll be spending it alone on the couch binging Gilmore Girls like me. But even if you’re not, you are sure to be obsessed with LO LA’s newest single.

Beginning in January, LO LA found herself instantly inspired by a beat, “I think I wrote this song in twenty minutes. It was just one of those songs that happen so quickly. I just felt it, knew exactly what I wanted to say,” she told Fangirls: World Tour.

Before the end of the month, the single was recorded and ready to be released. When asked about her recording process she said, “it was actually one of the fastest recording processes [she] had ever experienced.” LO LA explained that the direction she was going with this track is very similar to her single “Dirty Clothes” which strayed away from the pop scene. Tyler the Creator was a big inspiration of hers while writing and working with her producer.

She hopes that others can relate to the push and pull of a toxic relationship when you can’t stop thinking about them even though they aren’t good for you. When asked about the song, she laughed and said, “I’ve never done drugs before, but I’ve definitely been addicted to a toxic guy.”

Ouch. I think we can all relate to that to an extent.

Songwriting wasn’t always the goal for an LA native., it wasn’t until her high school’s Jaq-Fest, a fun play on Coachella, that things changed.

LO LA has always loved music growing up. She participated in musical theater and took singing lessons into her teenage years, but the moment she realized she wanted to do music forever only happened in her Junior year of high school. She was performing “Can’t Take My Eyes off You” by Frankie Valli when it just hit her, “this is what I’m meant to do for the rest of my life.” She described it as an “out-of-body experience” something only a few can relate to.

In 2018, she released an original single titled “Can’t Keep Helping Myself” that now has over 36 thousand streams on Spotify. It was followed by a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Queen of Disaster” that ended up going viral on TikTok, being used as a sound over 71,600 times.

When she’s not releasing music, she’s writing it.

LO LA explained that her favorite place to sit down is at her keyboard alone in her room. She mainly starts with music and starts working on lyrics once something sticks. Her goal for the next year is to release one single every month and to keep promoting her music as an independent artist.

You can find “Toxic Love” out right now on all major streaming platforms as well as LO LA’s entire discography. Be sure to follow along on her musical journey by following her Instagram at musicbylola_ and checking out the link posted in her bio for more updates.