Spotlight: Lucy Loone is Back: ‘Eat It Up’ Coming Fresh Out of the Oven in 2023

 

☆ By Marilù Ciabattoni ☆

 
 

STRAIGHT OUTTA THE CIRCUS — Lucy Loone has certainly come a long way since sharing demos of her original tracks on SoundCloud. She’s released a lot of music since then. After her debut mixtape, Looney (2019), Loone released three EPs: I Love Lucy (2020), Red Christmas (2020), and Bring Me the Axe! (2021).

But, as Loone explains, these little projects were nothing but prologues to the bigger story of her creature, the character we all know as Lucy Loone. Now it’s time for us to listen to her debut album, Eat It Up, whose release date is yet to be confirmed but which can most likely be expected sometime in 2023.

I’ve been following Loone’s artistic journey for three years now. I first discovered her music when Melanie Martinez gave her a shoutout on her Instagram stories, so I listened to her first mixtape: captured by her hypnotic net of vocals, catchy beats, and unique instrumentals, she managed to keep me hooked ever since (also thanks to her strong social media presence). If I were to describe Loone in just one word, it would be “creepy-cute.” Her gory aesthetic is full of seemingly outdated outfits, pastel colors, and polaroid photos.

While she dreams of going on tour, meeting amazing people, doing exciting collabs in music and business, working on finishing the music videos for every song on her debut album, beginning her second record, and plotting the next move for world domination, she found time to answer some questions about it all.

Born in Nebraska but raised in California (where she's currently based), Loone’s wildest dreams can be summarized in just two worlds: world domination. Originating from a talented family, she grew up surrounded by art and beauty, whether in the form of painting, dancing, or music. If this is the childhood of the girl behind Loone, then how was she born?

“It’s probably an entire book chapter I could write,” the artist admits. “But in reality, the universe definitely pushed me [...] to let Lucy Loone live, and now I’m letting her take over the show and convey her messages to the world.”

Since day one of her music career, everything Loone has released is independent, self-funded, and produced with friends. Recently, she signed a one-album deal with an independent label that helped fund the music videos for her upcoming record, something she’s grateful for.

Thanks to her strong social media presence, her fanbase built itself, “because when you put out your authentic energy, it always finds its way back to you,” she believes.

Her first mixtape, Looney, was inspired by melodic trap, time travel, the circus, and telling Loone’s origin story, which was followed up in the I Love Lucy EP of 2020. So how does Eat It Up fit into this narrative?

“Eat It Up feels like its own dreamy realm that Lucy is experiencing now,” Loone says. “It’s full of love, uncovering truths about life and self-awareness, dealing with loss and betrayal, dealing with self-control.”

The pillars of Loone’s storytelling are simple: self-awareness and duality. “It’s a strength to lead with love and empathy but it’s also necessary to stand up for yourself against the opposition and the forces that want to see you fail,” she mentions as an example. Or, “Nothing is real, but everything is real at the same time.”

The two lead singles Loone has released off her upcoming album so far, “Whole Milk” and the homonymous title track, represent the sonically emotional journey the album entails. In Eat It Up, the first chapter of Loone’s story, “heartfelt diary entries,” coexists alongside tracks that “have more of a fantasy, hard pop flare.”

The aforementioned overlaid vocals that sound so addictive to me are a manifestation of the hundreds of voices in Loone’s head, as she herself calls this stylistic choice. “I love harmonies, and I’ll never stop being a harmony maniac,” she describes. “It’s just who I am at the core.”

Perhaps also guided by her guardian angels, Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga, Loone’s fashion is inspired by “a mix of an old Hollywood actress who plays really glamorous roles but is a bit more scandalous and gritty in her personal life, [and] a bit of’ 90s supermodel elements, but also embodying a reptilian/bug/cartoon character/alien/human hybrid.” (I bet this last sentence is a mouthful, if you attempt to read it aloud.)

And her visuals? Be prepared for another ad hoc definition. Loone is inspired by a “nostalgiacore, vintage Valentine’s Day advertisement, cartoon character” mixed with “foodcore cookbook aesthetics,” which are very pleasing to the artist’s eye and help her view food artistically. Going hand in hand with this concept, the idea of consumption and “you are what you eat” are central in Loone’s music.

So what makes Eat It Up different from her previous, entirely self-produced efforts? Besides investing much more money, time, and resources into it, Loone’s debut album is the first project the artist took so seriously, producing it with a professional mic and equipment. It includes songs she wrote at the age of 18, when she still couldn’t even dream of what was about to come.

If everything Loone put out before could be considered a very intense prologue (“a kid with a vision practicing my craft”), Eat It Up is just the beginning — the actual chapter one.
“These [previous] projects are [...] mixtapes and EPs that I love dearly, but Eat It Up is my debut album,” she concludes.

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