Q&A: Riz La Vie Reaches for Growth in Debut Album ‘Haven’
FROM VIRAL HITS TO BREAKOUT MOMENTS — RIZ LA VIE has made his rounds. After years of anticipation, the LA-based New Jersey native has finally arrived with his debut album, Haven.
Tender at times, yet Haven doesn’t lack explosive moments, demonstrating RIZ LA VIE’s encompassing writing that is capable of capturing and breaking hearts. Unlike the infectious “Napkins” and the natural-cool “Pisces,” both of which garnered eager support for the artist, Haven surrounds RIZ LA VIE himself.
If “FYP” isn’t obvious enough, RIZ LA VIE misses New York City, the haven of his youth. Written and recorded during his transitional months when he first arrived in Los Angeles, Haven documents these complexities, the juxtaposition of safety and fear, nonchalance, and uncertainty he experienced in search for a new haven.
Nostalgia and carefree acceptance run as the undertone to the record, while RIZ LA VIE’s sensual and magnetic vocal provides grounding comfort. From R&B to dance, honey-smooth production to plasticky anti pop, Haven gives us a glimpse to RIZ LA VIE’s kaleidoscopic life.
Luna recently caught up with the artist on the immersive and honest record, his life in LA, and moments he enjoyed during the album-making process. Read the interview below.
LUNA: What’s one song you’re currently obsessed with?
LA VIE: Right now I'm listening to the song called “People” by Libianca. Oh, it's so good. I played it, like, 100 times this morning.
LUNA: It seems like you definitely took your time to finish up your debut album, as it's been a while since quite a few songs of yours have blown up in different ways. Was there ever a time when you started questioning why you are even working on an album?
LA VIE: For me, at least when I set myself on a course, I know that's where I want to be — [I] walk the path and enjoy every step. I got really into Thích Nhất Hạnh, a monk who has this series of books called How to Love, How to See, How to Walk, How to Eat, How to Relax, [etc.] They are about being in the moment of what you're doing and really enjoying it, feeling every step on the bottom of your feet — literally, which as a New Yorker I've never done, ever, in my life. I was walking to just walk. Being away from home and missing it, I was seeing new perspectives and trying to embrace them; I got the box set of all those books two or three years ago, and every time I open a new one I just have a new chapter in my life. Right when I moved to LA, I started reading How to Walk and I was like, “Oh, that's crazy,” because it's not a very walkable city and I'm very much a walker. So I had nowhere to go.
There were definitely moments of frustration along the path [of the album]. I'm really lucky. I know that and I'm really grateful for it. I worked really hard to make it worth it. I think all artists encounter resistance, and I experienced a lot of it. Of course with singles, maybe, you can be more fluid and keep people more up to date on what you're doing, but as a Pisces and as me, I really wanted to disappear and just be my own person. I’ve figured myself out again and again and again, so this is my exploration of that process and feeling out myself again in a new place, and just finding that safety within myself to do it again.
LUNA: What are some feelings that you attached to this album? There are so many different kinds of genres and ideas but it feels very cohesive.
LA VIE: Thank you for saying that. The album feels like the juxtaposition between impending doom and finding safety. Dualism is so big in my everyday life. I'm always on these two sides of everything. So on the album you really feel this sense of push and pull toward the light and then back to dark, back to the light and dark… That's kind of how I live my life day by day, just trying to prepare for the next section of life. I'm trying to do my best to get to the next section. As a world, we're doing the same: you hope that the sun is gonna rise and you know that it will, but I don’t know if I will. I guess to simplify, I really wanted it to feel like there’s hope in doom.
LUNA: Why is it called Haven?
LA VIE: When I was first making music, I would walk around New York City without really an apartment or a place to go — I was waiting for the studio to open up for a few hours or I was crashing and waiting for roommates to leave so I can come crash on the couch, just young shit. New York was my haven — it still is and I still do the same shit, but not all the same shit. I left because I wanted a space of my own. I found this place and I was working on making it a creative haven for myself, but I'm in a city that I really dislike. It's crazy because it's hard to be so far from the shit that I want to be doing, but also doing the shit that I almost want to be doing every day. At the end, I had to realize the haven is literally in my own self and my own mind — no matter where I'm at, no matter what I'm doing. I have to protect that. That idea is going to come with me for the rest of my life.
LUNA: I do want to talk about two songs, particularly the one for LA and the one for New York. Why do they specifically end up sounding like the way that they do? Because sonically they're very different.
LA VIE: For “(H)LA,” that song is supposed to feel like smoky Russian punk music — that's what I was listening to a lot. When I came here [to LA] I was just obsessed with it. I have a vocal coach and she was like, “You need to touch this lane,” and I was like, “Dude, I know, I've been thinking about it all day.”
So she helped me, and this was the first song I ever wrote with anybody. She's an LA native. She worked, lived here her entire life. The first verse was her idea and it was the first time and the only thing on the album that is not from me — it's almost like a sample or a reiteration of what she was saying to me. The hook obviously is me and everything else is me, but it really meant a lot because she's from LA and she's, like, 60. She's been here her whole life. She's so LA. To have her perspective and a song that's kind of trashing the city, it's so hard. It’s a desert; it's a city built on sand. Sometimes you're seeing shit but it's a mirage. It might not be real and you have to be very mindful. People talk a lot of shit about a lot of things but I have found a lot of love here and I do appreciate it. I'm not gonna sit here every day being like, “Fuck this.” It's good for some things. I really appreciate those things.
One of those things is you have to be super mindful in New York, but out here it’s a different type of mindful. “(H)LA” is also an homage to LA. It has this different kind of dirt than New York — it has dirt from the ’70s that hasn't washed. It has this different kind of grid and I appreciated that.
“FYP” is about how everyone I'm friends with is living in New York still so I'm seeing everyone and everything they're doing pop up on my “For You” page. I was just a little homesick, and I wrote it in 10 minutes. I had Lucy [Blomkamp] next to me and I wrote the whole thing. It was really easy to put one thought into it. I didn't think the whole time — it was awesome.
LUNA: Why did the song name for “Hot Rod” get changed to “No Doubt?”
LA VIE: I think it's just easier to identify. When we were making the song, I think Dan [Hartzog] just named it “Hot Rod” and we never changed it. I have this wall in my apartment [where] I put all these post-its on every song and everything that has to do with every song so I could see it in my mind. When I kept looking at “Hot Rod” I was like… It’s just always been “No Doubt” to me in my head because the song's about Gwen Stefani and the early 2000s. It was about when I was living in Williamsburg, I was playing all this “No Doubt” … I kept running it up. I just got really imprinted, even from when I was young. I wanted it to be more of an homage than just some random name, I guess.
LUNA: We talked about some influence for the album already, but who are some names and artists that got mentioned in the studio?
LA VIE: I listened to so many different kinds of music, it's just this big mosh ball in my brain of how to express this or how to put Sade into this feeling, or just a big multiplication table in my brain. I wanted the feeling of Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was listening to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below by OutKast a lot. I was listening to straight trap music, and then I would listen to the Parachutes album by Coldplay. I listened to that a lot when we made “Firescapes.” I really wanted to make a Coldplay record. I remember singing their songs in my room growing up, all these different bands — Nirvana and stuff like that.
For this album, I really felt like making those records because music is in a very particular place right now. It's very tongue-in-cheek. I really love the balance. I want you to be able to laugh with it but also cry with it — it is so cheesy, but it's really true. I was really thinking it out loud and honestly, it was pretty true. I listened to a lot of The Weeknd. I went to this Weeknd concert [where] we had box seats and we literally had the time of our lives. I was leaning over the railing yelling all these The Weeknd songs. That was right when I got to LA, too. I had made a whole album in 2021 and right when I was filming the “No Doubt” video, I fell off that car that I was filming in and I shattered my collarbone. We were in Malibu for two months, we shot this video the last two days I was there, shattered my collarbone six weeks before Lollapalooza. When we got back to New York, I got us a sick apartment for the month and we had a studio booked every single day for 18 days. I was not about to skip them, because I just don't do that. So I was literally sitting here with the fucking sling on and I was just clicking all this different shit. We made this whole album through the pain.
Some of the stuff made it, but in January of last year I ended up making the decision to just make a whole new album. 10 of the songs I made [were] from moving here and [were also made] over the summer. “FYP” was the last song I made.
LUNA: What is your personal favorite track of this album, and can you tell me a little bit more about the making of it?
LA VIE: You know, they're all my babies.
LUNA: I know. You can name two if you want.
LA VIE: Honestly, it might be “Audi.” It's the scariest song. I had this session at Westlake studios in LA [in] the Michael Jackson room. They call it that because that was where Michael Jackson used to record. There was this huge live room, beautiful wood paneling, and there are these two windows, but one of them… Michael Jackson used to have this monkey called Bubbles, and Bubbles used to sit in this window and watch Michael record. So we started doing this little demo with really dope people and all of a sudden I just got smacked with depression flakes. I just sat at the piano and I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it. Bluey walked in and he was like, “Yo, are you good?” And I was like, “I don't know. We're in such a legendary room right now, I just don't feel like I'm doing it.” And he was like, “How about I just play some chords on the piano, and you just ballad it?” And I was like, “Sure. Fuck it.”
So he recorded the chords. I sat in the live room for 15 minutes and wrote this part. Instead of doing it in this low voice, I just belted it. The lyrics are really wild and really close to me. We had this whole version and I sent it to my friend Lucy Blomkamp, who did a few flips on the album. The way she sent it back was the most perfect production. It felt exactly like what was in my brain. It was so good; it scratched my brain so well. So yeah, that might be one of my favorites. It's just quick, straight to the point.
LUNA: You’re going on tour soon — what song are you most excited to play live?
LA VIE: We've been playing all the songs live and it's crazy. There's this song called “Firescapes,” which is tuned to 432 Hertz. That song crushes. I love playing that song. My drummer, Taylor's, snapping on “Trance.” That song is maybe my second favorite on the album. I mean, they're all my favorite. “Little Planets” is also one of my favorites to play a lot.
I played the record for one of my friends and he was like, “Wow, Riz, I can really tell that you really thought about the live show for the songs.” And I was like, “Dude, I did not think about that at all.” And I'm terrified to see if they're gonna sound good. We've been rehearsing three times a week. Every one of those songs is such a fucking pleasure to play… “Maps” live is sick. “Audi” live is sick too. It’s crazy.
LUNA: Any final words on what you're expecting from this year as an artist? What are some goals that you want to achieve? Do you envision yourself seeing this album differently in the span of a year?
LA VIE: Thank you for that — it’s a perfect question because I really do. I made this album with the intention for it to grow in ways that it grew me. I see myself differently than I saw myself last year, and I know that when you first listen to this album you're gonna have a favorite song. Then on the second listen you're gonna have a different favorite song. And every time you listen to the album, I hope that it gives you something new to love. I think over the course of this next year, the world is gonna really come into phases with each one of the songs. I'm excited to share them. I'm excited to share more music because I have more songs coming out this year than just these 14. But for now, I'm thrilled. I'm excited.
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