"With pretty much everything that I've done, in terms of going from being a songwriter and producer for other artists to doing my stuff, all the songs that I've kept to myself have always been me writing about my life."
"All of this music, It's definitely been the most freeing thing that I've ever done."
"I love exploring the more complicated side of love. I feel like I've always gravitated toward that."
"I really hope to give to other people who are listening to my music the same thing that it's done for me, which is make me feel more free and more accepting of myself."
"'Lauv' comes from the Latvian word for lion, and my mom's side of the family is from Latvia - it's a place I've been probably 15 times or more. I'm also a Leo, and my real name, Ari, means lion."
"I went from playing for nobody and having awkward experiences at award shows to now being all over the place playing sold-out shows for people who know all of the words."
"People come up to me with tattoos of my lyrics!"
"One of my favorite cities is Tokyo because of sushi, and Asian food in general, but then also the way Tokyo operates, because it's so clean, and there's space for a lot of variety of stores."
"Kids can tell if you're being genuine or not."
"I've always hated the feeling of trying to be cool or trying to fit in."
"Any one thing can get in the way of you and your brain being comfortable and being inspired. It's the difference between a really big song and a song that never existed."
"I love nostalgia."
"I sort of feel that I have to constantly be really, really honest with the way I feel, and I have to get that out."
"All the best art and music feels like some type of truth - even if it's really simple - that you just can't deny. A listener can feel that."
"I'm super-into sappy movies like 'La La Land' and 'Midnight in Paris.'"
"I've been through so many different phases, partly because I moved around so much. I never found my identity based on where I was from. It was always pick up and explore something else."
"For whatever reason, I've always gravitated towards music that feels nostalgic or longing or beautifully tragic."
"At the end of the day, we all want to fall in love."
"Growing up, I played in different bands and did a lot of self-booked touring and traveling around, and my sister was driving us on tour, and we're playing for nobody and literally begging my friends that I went to high school with to buy tickets to our shows."
"I love bodies of work and albums and stuff like that."
"Ever since I visited Paris when I was younger, the sappy side of me really wanted to write a song about it someday."
"I put out my first song, 'The Other,' in 2015 just on Soundcloud. It was always my most popular song but never really went far in a mainstream way. Then, a couple years after it came out, I watched it go from 8 million to, like, 100 million."
"I think streaming, in general, is democratising music in general."
"I feel like Drake could literally put out anything - like, the sound of seagulls over a beat - and it could be the Number One song on Spotify."
"I just think that any person who wants music to be their career shouldn't focus on a record label. I have seen friends who sign to a label too early in their career, and they lost control over their music, and their releases were delayed or never put out."
