- Lauren, this is major.
It's your VMAs debut.
Has it sunk in yet?
- No.
[Laughs]
- It's still surreal.
- Yeah.
- When you're getting ready for something like this,
what do you do?
How do you even prep?
- I feel like you don't.
I feel like you're just, like, "I have to have a good outfit,"
'cause everyone at the VMAs
always just has phenomenal outfits.
- And this is successful.
You did, you understood the assignment.
Tell me about the look.
Imma act like we're on the red carpet.
Tell me about the look, who are you wearing?
- That's a great question.
Maybe look at the tag, I don't know.
- But I know you're ready for this
because this isn't your first time on the big stage.
I mean, you were on a big stage with 'American Idol,'
but then you were competing.
Here, you have arrived.
What is the difference between taking that stage
versus this one?
- There's definitely a big difference.
I feel like now I'm more myself
'cause I'm doing my own music,
and I've definitely found who I am as a person
and what I wanna do music-wise and my vision.
So it's definitely a lot different.
It's not as competitive as 'American Idol.'
I feel like I'm just doing me
and that's that. I don't have to compete with other people.
I'm just competing with myself.
But big difference.
- How did you cultivate your sound?
- Yeah, I feel like a lot of it
came from just practice of writing.
The first songs I ever wrote were absolute trash
and don't represent me whatsoever.
But I just kept writing and writing,
and the more artists that I was listening to
and looking up to,
I realized that was the direction I wanted to go in.
And storytelling and making sure songwriting
and my vocals were a big element in it
and not just doing pop music,
which I thought I wanted to do for a long time.
But the more I started to write,
the more I realized how much I cared
about really telling a story, and caring about that
a little bit more than the beat necessarily.
But just practice.
- Yeah, and you definitely hit the nail on the head
with "Fingers Crossed," which you're performing at the VMAs.
When you first wrote that record, first recorded it,
did you know it would be as successful as it is now?
- Yes.
- [Dometi] Yeah, you knew?
Yeah, yeah.
- When I wrote it, I was like,
"This is the best song I've ever written."
I was like, out of all my songs, this is the best.
I didn't necessarily think, "Oh it's gonna do this,
"it's gonna be played on the radio."
But I was like, out of all the songs,
this is the best one that we have to be releasing next.
- Why do you think it resonated with so many people?
- I think, one, at the time it was released,
it was weather-depression season.
It was kinda like everyone either just got broken up with
or was looking for a relationship.
It was kind of around Christmas.
I think everyone gets sad around the holidays [when]
they don't have a relationship or they've been heartbroken,
and so the lyrics were really relatable.
But I think the melody in it is very catchy
and everyone has been hurt by somebody,
so it was a relatable topic.
- That's true.
And the storytelling, your voice, it all shines through.
When you put a record together like that,
being so deeply emotional, being so deeply personal,
is it hard to be that transparent
or did it come natural to you?
- Yeah, I'm kind of an oversharer.
- Yeah?
- Like, too much. Lik,e people in the room are like,
"OK, we didn't need all your life trauma on the table.
"We just needed one concept."
So it definitely comes natural in a bad way.
- What does that song mean to you personally,
"Fingers Crossed?"
- It's kind of my comeback era song.
I think I was very sad for a while
and was writing a lot of sad songs,
like, "Oh, they didn't love me."
And then "Fingers Crossed" I wrote
after I met my current boyfriend
and it was like an "Oh, I don't need you anymore" kind of song.
Like, "Imma say all the things I wanted to say," kind of song.
- That takes us into "Flowers,"
which you're also performing,
that some people feel like kinda sounds like a followup
to "Fingers Crossed."
- Definitely a followup.
- You see it that way, it is?
- Yeah, I mean, it's about the same person.
- Oh, it is?
OK, word.
- Definitely a followup.
- OK, so I was listening.
I was like, "Hold on, wait a minute.
"This dude is still effing up." [Laughs]
- Yeah, yeah.
It was more of a compare and contrast song
of, the more my current boyfriend started treating me right,
the more I realized my past people
bought me flowers for the wrong reasons,
or did all these things for the wrong reasons,
'cause I was finally having somebody
do it for the right reasons.
And it made me write a compare and contrast
of the two relationships.
- I love that.
Given the success of these two records, they're ballads.
You talked about, at first, thinking you wanted to be pop,
now you're finding your lane here.
How are you approaching new music?
Are you gonna lean more into this space
or are you gonna try to branch out?
What's your thought process now?
- Yeah, a lot of my thought process
is feeling out what my fans wanna hear, too.
'Cause I love being me, but I also love putting out music
that people relate to
to help other people in their situations.
There is definitely time for me
in the pop space in the future.
Right now, I'm loving this "Fingers Crossed,"
"Flowers"-y, ballad kind of vibes.
But definitely, I wanna go into the major pop space one day.
- And you're still in that vibe with the new release
of the record "Narcissist."
What inspired this?
Is this the same guy?
- Same dude.
It's so unfortunate.
[Laughs]
The album is just, like, his name.
- Yeah, right. [Laughs]
- Yeah, it's kind of about the same thing.
I actually, unfortunately, had two narcissists in my life
and it was, like, something I never thought I would write about.
And the more I started talking to people about it,
the more they were like, "Oh no no no, my ex was a narcissist"
or "my mom's a narcissist."
People were just constantly telling me
about everything that happened to them
and I realized that was a song people needed,
and it wasn't just something that had happened to me,
and that no one had written about it yet
in my space of music.
And I wanted to be that person to write about it.
- I love that.
What inspired the treatment for the video?
- That's a great question.
I feel like I can't tell you
'cause part of it leads towards a future title of something.
- Oh, so it's gonna be a followup to "Narcissist"
that's coming up?
- Kind of.
There's something in it that I wanna title my album
and it kinda makes sense,
but I just wanted to portray different characters
in the music video of different narcissists
that people would encounter in their life,
and then, also, have me being the victim
of all three of those characters.
- That's wild, and you still answered my question.
I love Lauren.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, yeah, it's fine, you still gave it to me.
The debut album, we got three records we're in love with.
- Yeah.
- [Dometi] When is it coming?
What are you thinking?
- I don't know if I'm allowed to say.
- But it is coming?
- It's coming.
It's almost done, yeah.
- OK, OK.
- And I'm at the point now where I wrote so many for it
and I was like, "Great, that's the album."
And now I'm like, "Oh, should I write more?"
But it has a lot of songs, a lot of sad -
There actually are a lot of, for a reference,
Tate McRae "All I Wanna Be" vibes,
kind of, on the album as well, but lots of sad ballads.
- How will you know when it's finished?
- Hm, I feel like once I finish
all the final touches on the productions, it'll be good.
But honestly, I am so content with the songs
and I think I know exactly what songs I want on it
that I would just release all the demos, honestly.
- 'Cause that's how good it sounds already?
- Yeah.
- I love that. And I'm so excited for it
because you know it's gonna be cohesive,
because you're in this space.
You're writing along this, you have a storyline.
Do you have a title already?
- Yeah, but I can't tell you what the title is.
- Tell me in my ear.
- No, I can't, I can't.
You'll tell people.
You can't trust people these days.
- Yeah, you definitely can't 'cause I'm definitely snitching.
As soon as you said it,
I was gonna let everybody know what it was.
When you perform "Flowers" and "Fingers Crossed,"
what do you hope that the folks at home
take away from this performance?
- I don't wanna say that I hope people get emotional
because I don't want people to cry,
but I hope people get emotional,
realizing that the lyrics are telling a story
that they wish they were able to tell themselves,
and so that they relate to it
and feel like that song brings healing to them.
- That's beautiful.
At this point in your career,
as fans are getting to know you, getting to know your music,
what do you hope they take away from Lauren as a person?
- That's a fabulous question.
I hope that they take away positive vibes
'cause my music is very sad,
but I feel like me as a person,
I'm very outgoing and energetic
and I try to be as honest as I can,
'cause I'm not the most confident person in the world,
but I try to make everyone else feel confident
and feel heard
and feel like they have songs they can listen to
that help them and heal them.
I hope everyone just feels healed from my music
and being on my page and feels less alone.
- Oh, they're definitely gonna feel positive vibes
'cause you took a negative situation
and turned it into three hits.
Like, come on, man, what are we talking about here?
How many records are you thinking about for the debut album?
- Oh god, I want 16 on it.
- [Dometi] You want 16?
- But I have a feeling that's not gonna be allowed.
- How hard is it to cut records
from a project that you're already happy with?
- I'm not, I'm not.
I'm leaving maybe 15.
- [Dometi] OK
- But it's not going any lower than that.
- OK.
- Final, my line is drawn at 15.
- 15, that's it.
- Yeah.
- You heard it here first.
I'm gonna call that a scoop.
We'll call that a scoop.
Thank you for giving me something.