Q&A: Mia Lorelei’s new single, “Come Crashing”, takes listeners on a reflective journey
MASTERING THE ART OF BUILDING WORLDS FROM HER MUSIC — indie singer/songwriter Mia Lorelei finds inspiration through the dynamics of her ever changing environment. She sees dynamics between relationships, herself, and the world around her as muses for her music, while creating intriguing visuals to accompany them.
As she navigates her way through the indie music scene and discovers her true sound, the New York-based artist provides listeners with two singles, written in the same week. The first of the two, “Running Cold” is where Lorelei says she began to find her footing within her music and hopes to make music similar to this alt-rock sound, reminiscent to Slow Pulp and feeble little horse.
Her latest single, “Come Crashing”, is set to release Oct. 18 and shares her experience of returning home to California and reflecting on a past fling, all while acknowledging that this person is the force of nature that destroys the sandcastles she has built out of past memories. Luna sat down with Lorelei to discuss her new single, her love for dynamics and world-building, and more. Read the full interview below.
LUNA: What inspired you to start creating music? Did you grow up with a musical background?
LORELEI: I was raised in a very musical family, and my dad has collected vinyls since I was a kid, plus he took me to my first concert. I didn't start playing instruments or anything until I took ukulele lessons in fifth grade. From there, I taught myself how to play the guitar throughout the years. And then, a classic pandemic story, I really locked in during 2020 and was playing the guitar all the time, and I started writing music my freshman year of high school but didn't seriously start making any demos or putting things out until I moved to New York for college.
LUNA: You originally grew up in San Diego. Would you say the move across the country to New York has also shaped your musical style in any way?
LORELEI: Definitely. Especially the first year that I moved here, I noticed that I had kind of a distinct sound in California versus here, which I think was just due to the change in pace. And obviously the environment is quite different from coast to coast, and then just being able to be surrounded by such an awesome music community here in New York has been super inspiring. Going to shows all the time and getting to work with people in the city has been awesome and definitely impacted the way that I write and what I'm surrounded by and what inspires me.
LUNA: I wanted to dive a little deeper into your new single, “Come Crashing”. Can you share the story you’ve decided to tell with this song?
LORELEI: This one I actually started writing on the plane ride back to California. When I was there, it was over one of my spring breaks, and I was going back home, and it revolved around this line that I wrote. I was about to land in California, and then thought about an old summer fling that still lives there, and I was just surrounded by all this coastal imagery and reminded of what used to be. And then the line that came to me was, “building castles out of things we buried.” It revolved around the fact that I kept romanticizing past memories from this relationship when they were old things that should have been buried. I just leaned into the imagery of the sand castles on the beach, and then I had this idea of building sand castles, and how they're easily knocked down by waves and by wind and just nature in general. So, it’s the idea of this other person being such a force of nature while I'm over here, building pretty little castles out of old memories and stuff.
LUNA: That’s such a creative concept and view on that. You mentioned that your previous release, “Running Cold”, helped you find your footing within your music and really helped develop your sound. Does this new single feel the same way, if not a step further?
LORELEI: Definitely. These two I actually wrote in the same week and I recorded them at the same time too. It was kind of a natural progression, kind of just clicked in terms of the process of the past couple of years of finding my sound and figuring out what I like and what I don't like, and then finally arriving to a point where I'm like, “This is what I've wanted to sound like.” There are a couple songs that I have out that I've kind of had aspirations to be more indie rock and grunge the way that these ones are, but I just wasn't writing songs that sounded that way. I was really influenced by Slow Pulp and feeble little horse, which I was listening to a lot at the time.
I always get this gut feeling when I write a song where I'm like, “I need to record now before the creative shelf life of it expires and before my excitement goes away.” But, it's a very specific feeling that still carries on, even now. In December, I was finishing recording my EP that just came out, and since I was mostly focusing on recording, I hadn't really been writing that much new stuff. Then, there was kind of a lull in early 2024 of just writing things that weren't necessarily sticking. The California scenery change always kind of re-inspires me, and I find new influences just because I'm surrounded by new things. That definitely was a kickstarter for bringing out this new sound. I think it also was brought about because I had gone back and forth between the two places, and I was kind of learning how to balance my identity no matter where I was, instead of there being a California version of me and a New York version of me. Finding my footing was just about coming more into myself and being able to almost create a new identity, combining the two parts of me, instead of keeping them separate and just leaning more into indie rock sensibilities in terms of strong song structure.
LUNA: As someone who can seemingly find inspiration in anything, what does your creative process look like?
LORELEI: I'm definitely a bigger picture creator when it comes down to it even though I am a musician and a songwriter. The visuals are something that go hand in hand and are subconsciously happening at the same time like I mentioned, with the imagery that I explained for “Come Crashing.” It's just happening simultaneously. It had that line that I had written, and then I built the rest of the song around that. I'm really big on just messing around and finding a sound that I like, and then whatever words come out of my mouth come out of my mouth, and I'll kind of run with that, as opposed to having something pre-written and then building that into a song. Intuitive writing is something that I've been doing more recently, which is a liberating feeling of just seeing what your subconscious creates, and then, as I mentioned, the visuals are happening simultaneously. So then once I have a song, I immediately am building a world around that. I just love creating these different concepts and bringing them to life.
LUNA: Where are some perhaps unlikely or unexpected places that you pull inspiration from?
LORELEI: I'm definitely heavily inspired by the dynamics between things, whether that's my relationship to myself or my relationship to others, or relationship between two people that I'm observing. I'm fascinated not just by social dynamics, but dynamics between intimacy and connection and exploring how that kind of plays out metaphorically into real life and tangible things. These two singles are perfect examples. I like noticing metaphors amongst very mundane things in my life. It's a sight of songwriting that comes easiest for me and that I like to explore.
LUNA: So dynamics are a big theme in your music, but are there any other themes or messages that you’re most passionate about conveying in your music?
LORELEI: My relationship to myself is something I explored a lot on my last EP. Since I’m in my early 20s, it's very natural, obviously, to be thinking about maturity, it's such a rapidly changing part of anybody's life. And so that definitely gave way to lots of reflection of my childhood and how I was raised, and just the way that things from my childhood come up now, and how no matter how much I may have changed since moving, there's all these core parts of me from when I was really little that are still a part of me now. I think that that's definitely a through line that's still seen through a lot of my songs that I'm writing now,
LUNA: Who do you dream of collaborating with whether that be another artist or producer?
LORELEI: Oh my gosh. I wish you could have seen the way that my jaw just dropped. Really good question. It's crazy, because a lot of the people that I'm friends with and working with now are my favorite artists, which is something that I'm so lucky to do. In terms of people that I haven't worked with yet, one of my favorite albums of the past year was by Mali Velasquez, I'm Green is the name of the album. That album actually changed the way I sing and the way I write and the way I approach production, so I'd love to collaborate with Mali. I also definitely would love to keep leaning more into a little bit more experimental rock side of things.
LUNA: What are you most excited about for the remainder of the year as well as the upcoming one?
LORELEI: This song specifically is the most proudest I've been production wise and just song structure wise in general. This is what I've always wanted to sound like. I'm excited for the world to see myself the way that I've always hoped to be seen. I'm really proud of the visuals that I've created for these two singles. It's kind of a fresh start where I'm just doing lots of writing and working with new people that I haven't worked with. So, it's a very exciting period and I'm really excited to play these new songs live too. I got to play “Running Cold” back in April live for the first time, and my band members were saying that it was their new favorite song to play live. I'm super excited to reimagine these songs, and it's crazy how much has happened since this time last year, and I'm just excited to see what happens in the next year in the same regard. Now that I know the sound that I would love to recreate, I'm excited to build upon that. I'm also getting more into the world of production, so hopefully a self or co-produced Mia Lorelei track is coming soon.
