Lav shares new single ‘The Girls Before Me’

This week Lav shares new single “The Girls Before Me”. The track follows bedroom anthem “Wavvy” and Billie Eilish co-signed lo fi garage-band cut “From Me The Moon”

Her latest single “was written out of a deep insecurity of constantly comparing myself to past loves. Always wondering if when they look at you, they’re recalling just staring into a paper mache they’ve built up of a before lover. Most of the time it’s all in our heads, and in this case it definitely was, however that didn’t make it any less real or painful to feel.”

The song is accompanied by a low-fi, 90’s VHS style video which captures an avant-garde picnic scene packed full of toys and scandal.

“I love working with Marielle because she really helps my campy visions come to life” says Lav. “The video is a lot less emotional than the mood I got into while writing, and I think that makes the whole image more palatable, but also I loved to dress up and have a picnic with a bear and some snails.”

The LA artist is fast gathering momentum with features from the likes of Fader, to Dork and much more. Her first single “From Me, The Moon” was written at 3am in her bathroom one sleepless night and was shouted out by Billie Eilish in a CBS interview around the Grammys. Billie continues to support her on her Beats1 podcast and Instagram.

Follow up “Wavvy”, a song about outdated rules around sexuality and the ways women express desire premiered on Nylon with its gory revenge fantasy video and a few weeks later NME featured her as one of their ‘Breakout’ artists.

The Californian has come a long way having grown up in a crowded, one bedroom house riddled with addiction in Venice. Her mum ran with the local skate and surf scene in Dogtown, and her dad “disappeared out the picture real quick” – she was mostly raised by her “super hippy” grandparents. Grandpa was a Blues musician which opened her up to vintage, instrumental sounds and popular jazz singers like Peggy Lee and Julie London.

Lav suffered debilitating panic attacks in 3rd Grade and by Middle School, “all hell broke loose.” – In her teens, she became extremely agoraphobic. Eventually, she moved to Utah where she finished up her education at a residential school specialising in rehabilitation and treatment and got engaged to someone who she found out to be “uber controlling”.

After breaking up, she got a bunch of tattoos, quit college, chopped off her hair and dyed it black – “I was blonde, cos he wanted me to be blond”.

Lav kept her writing to herself, and built up a huge following on social media instead – her off-the-cuff observations on TikTok and Instagram quickly gathered over 200K followers, but even then didn’t think anything would come of her music before sharing “From Me, The Moon”.

From sharing her experiences online, Lav realised she wasn’t alone. “I’ve felt voiceless my whole life, but I realised later that so many people relate to the way that I feel. Being open and honest is a really good value to have.”

Tilly McCarthy
Photo: Joshua Min

“The Girls Before Me” is out now on Color Study.