Q&A: Bloody and Happy, Cody Lawless Talks LSD & His Debut Album ‘Sunshine State of a Happy Camper’
THE RAP TO INDIE POP TRANSITION — is not commonplace for musicians, and it’s even rarer when that move is dire and necessary. Before Cody Lawless went under a version of his legal name, he was recognized as KNOWN., a rap persona concocted in his teen years.
For a young person rapping, it’s really not bad. “The early stuff is kind of embarrassing,” Lawless said. “It’s kind of cringy.”
Zoom out, and not too much time has passed between his KNOWN. days and new career at 23. Within those five years, Lawless has lived an entire past life and has shed his old skin. Born and raised in Canadian town Mission, British Columbia, Lawless released his first album, Sunshine State of a Happy Camper, via MNRK, June 23. After a bad trip on LSD and a trade-off between rap for psych-rock, Lawless felt a need to develop a sound more true to him.
On the outside, the new record is full of beach tunes: airy and psychedelic-infused sounds about love, drugs, and Friday nights on the island of San Araya. Except, just like there is more to Lawless, there is more to Sunshine State of a Happy Camper than just good vibes.
A concept album that took Lawless nearly four years to craft, it takes place on the fictitious beach town of San Araya, and its inhabitants are Lawless’ characters (Maria, Grace, Sally, etc.), whose lives are each taken from parts of his real life. He uses each character as a vehicle to tell his own stories about escaping reality, finding independence, and following the light when you’re beaten and bruised.
Collaborating with high school friend and fellow B.C. local Powfu and producer KULTARGOTBOUNCE, Lawless shows a fierce yet humble drive to be indie pop’s next star.
Continue reading below to learn about the acid trip that changed his life, the real life inspiration behind Sunshine, and how Lawless formed his new sound.
LUNA: What got you into rapping in the first place? What made you pivot into your new sound?
LAWLESS: I was raised a metalhead — metal is my first love — but then my sister bought me NBA 2K12, and it had this song on it from the soundtrack by this rapper XV. It’s called “Awesome” featuring Pusha T. I heard that and it wasn’t what I perceived typical, normal rap would be like. It had piano… I don’t know, to me it was very beautiful.
I was 12 at the time and I’d say, “Maybe I’ll do this too.” I was writing little love songs, little love raps or whatever. It eventually got to a point where I got into the circle of rappers in my area, who are pretty big in Canada wide, like Snak the Ripper and Merkules. When I was 17, Snak the Ripper told me, “When you graduate high school, I’m gonna take you on tour.” That’s when I started going by KNOWN. I went on tour in 2018 and I was continuing that, and then obviously the pandemic stuff happened about a year and a half, two years later.
I decided to try LSD for the first time. First and only time. I was 20, and I took way too much acid. I lost my fucking mind. I was put in this existential kind of crisis. You know, when you just think, “What am I doing with myself?” Anyways, I had this terrible, terrible trip that put me into this existential crisis where [I was] just like, “Do I want to be remembered by the songs that I’m putting out right now?” I was like, “I don’t even really enjoy doing this except for when I perform live.”
Around that time, too, I wasn’t really listening to rap anymore as a main influence. I was listening to Tame Impala, Foster The People, Plums, Skegss… all this Aussie surf rock and all this psych-rock. I need[ed] to make a switch, and then we made the switch.
LUNA: Where were you during your trip?
LAWLESS: I was in this little town called Harrison Hot Springs with two of my friends. We took too much; I took, like, two and a half tabs my first time. I had this insane panic attack for a long time. But then we put music on and all of a sudden everything got beautiful. After the trip, my serotonin was just through the roof for weeks. Some nights I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited to wake up the next day. Everything was fine and dandy for three weeks, and then all of a sudden my brain just crashed. I ended up being in this weird, anxious panic state for a while. I was like, “I don’t know how long I can do this.”
LUNA: Have you tripped since then?
LAWLESS: No, I haven’t done anything since then. I used to smoke a lot of weed, but ever since that, I was like “Okay, I’m good.”
LUNA: Do you feel like a different person after that experience?
LAWLESS: Completely. I feel like it made me grow up faster. I had to deal with this whole mental health thing going on in my head. I don’t think I was in a right state of mind prior to doing it. I feel like I was a very numb person, and it brought up all these emotions that I was to deal with. Which in turn made me a better human, but is the pain that [was] caused worth it? I don’t know. But I’m here today talking to you, so I’m very thankful for that.
LUNA: Your new album, Sunshine State of a Happy Camper, is very conceptual. How did the idea for the album start for you?
LAWLESS: The original thought behind Sunshine State of a Happy Camper was [that] I wanted to make it like a movie, if I ever produced a movie one day. When I was 18, I used to be obsessed with watching Grease and those types of movies. You know, old love movies. I love surf rock, old retro-sounding type of recording. When I was 18 I would stay up till two or three a.m. and I would smoke a lot of weed and just dance around in my kitchen. Literally just dancing around my kitchen with my headphones on, listening to this music and envisioning a surf town and all these stories and characters and their lives, how in-depth they could go.
I toyed with the idea for a couple years and I finally got the right sound. I knew I couldn’t do that with a rap album, so as soon as we started doing the sound I was like, “This is the perfect opportunity.”
LUNA: How did you find your new sound for this album?
LAWLESS: It’s just a big mix of bands that I really love. When me and Powfu talk about it, he really loves punk music, like Blink-182 and [ones who] use that diaphragm voice. But he can’t do a high falsetto. I can’t use the diaphragm voice to make myself sound punk, but I can do a really clean high falsetto. It’s one of those things where it’s developing your sound through what you’ve listened to.
LUNA: How did you tweak the idea for Sunshine from its inception, when you were 19?
LAWLESS: Have you ever seen The Lumineers’ album III, how they did every video like it was a story? That was my original plan: make every song on the album fit into a narrative like a movie. That’s why not all [the] songs carry a certain theme. The whole album doesn’t carry a story, but it carries bits and pieces of an individual. I love music that you can listen to yourself and get your own meaning from it. I didn’t want to make it too specific, but I wanted to make all the videos one big story.
LUNA: Are any of the characters in the album rooted in your real life?
LAWLESS: The only one that’s rooted in real life is Grace. One day when I was 21, I was head over heels for [her]. We had met for the first time and I was completely taken aback. But I read the situation wrong and got shut down. Then, the next day I went home and made that song in my bedroom. Melody can really tap into some emotions, and that melody of “inflate my heart / dear God / I’ll float away,” that’s what that song is about. And it’s about a real person.
LUNA: Some of the other songs on the album are about an old relationship, and there are themes of finding your own ground and independence. Can you share more about that?
LAWLESS: I’ve only ever been in one relationship my whole life. It lasted 11 months, but it shouldn’t have lasted that long. I tend to be a pushover in life — you know, keep things to myself and just try to people-please. In “Hold My Hand, Maria,” it’s me realizing … “I know there’s a peace out there, and that peace would be attainable if I left you.”
Honestly, writing this album made me realize [I] gotta get out of this situation. It wasn’t anything bad — it was just one of those situations [where I wasn’t] happy. What am I living for if I’m just living for someone who I try to make happy, who doesn’t even make me happy? Wonderful girl, just wasn’t meant for me. This album was one of those things where it was [like,] “Let’s put my own experiences into all these different characters.”
LUNA: You said in a press release that this album is about “wanting to break free from where I was in my life during the writing process.” Was there anything else from that chapter of your life that inspired the songs?
LAWLESS: I was going to therapy a lot after the acid thing. I was working out a lot of confusing feelings I had that I didn’t really know how to process. I wanted to break out of that whole “scared to feel” [thing]. I’m 23 now, and it’s been three years since all that stuff happened. I feel like just now I allow myself to feel, which is cool. It’s kind of cool that the album’s coming out right now when I feel like I broke free.
Cody Lawless opens for Powfu’s European tour this fall. Sunshine State of a Happy Camper is out now.
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