LØLØ, ‘Falling For Robots And Wishing I Was One’

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When LØLØ, born Lauren Mandel, moved from Toronto to Los Angeles, she found herself struggling to assimilate. She fell for people who weren’t quite as sensitive as her, leading to her wishing that she could be a heartless robot too. That’s the origin story for her debut album, ‘falling for robots and wishing I was one’, a collection of tracks about heartbreak, insensitive dudes and complicated feelings. With titles like ‘u turn me on (but u give me depression)’ and ‘thoughts from the shower’, LØLØ invites her fans to poke around her heart.

LØLØ has always been into music, starting out as a “theater kid” before becoming a Taylor Swift and John Mayer fan and picking up a guitar. When her guitar teacher suggested she write her own lyrics, LØLØ was at first nervous to bare her soul, but found she had a knack for writing songs. Since then, she’s never stopped, attracting a fanbase on TikTok and dropping three EPs: ‘Sweater Collection’, ‘overkill’ and ‘debbie downer’. 

As she wrote, the concept for ‘falling for robots…’ started to form. After hearing someone refer to her ex as “the fucking tin man” at a dinner, she started scribbling in her notes app and wrote ‘u & the tin man’, the closing track. She worked with producer Mike Robinson, teasing the record with other singles ‘omg’, ‘faceplant’, ‘hot girls in hell’ and ‘2 of us’. After realising that robots were present across a couple of her tracks, the album’s theme was set.

When we catch up with LØLØ to talk about all things “falling for robots”, she’s at home in LA relaxing before announcing a tour supporting JXDN: “I’m excited but also scared because there’s so much pressure riding on it. I was avoiding doing an album just like I’ve been avoiding doing a headline tour because it’s so much scarier. What if people don’t like it?”

THE SOUND

LØLØ’s early tracks were, by her own admission, “singer-songwriter meets country”. She started taking guitar lessons as a kid, and at the time, Taylor Swift was the biggest thing. “I feel like I was really basing my songwriting after her. Also Gavin DeGraw, who I was obsessed with, and John Mayer and Green Day,” she says. “Those were the main people whose songs I was learning when I first started learning guitar.” After that, she went through a “super poppy phase” and eventually landed on the “rocky songwriter thing”. She calls the sound on this record “pop with some rock elements and quirky writing.” It’s that blend of guitar, quirky, personal lyrics and attitude that her fans gravitate towards. 

THE LYRICS

“I try to say things that I would actually say in real life. I try to think of something unique,” says LØLØ of her lyrics. “I hate when a song is just boring. I really like the specifics, so I tried to dive deep into the details.” LØLØ started out her lyric-writing journey after her guitar teacher suggested she write her own songs from her diary. “I had the type of parents that would come into my room and look at my stuff, so I was so nervous about the diaries. I would write it out to feel better, but then I would rip it up into little pieces when I was done writing it,” says LØLØ. Her guitar teacher insisted, refusing to come to their next lesson if she didn’t write a song. She found that she loved it, and it changed her path. “My dream was to be on Broadway. I wanted to be Elphaba in “Wicked”, that was the goal,” she says. It’s lyrics like “How could you do this? You’re mean and you’re stupid” and “You should be crying/painfully dying” on ‘Hot Girls in Hell’ that LØLØ says get the biggest reaction. “People always comment on my things being like, you seem psychotic. You seem crazy. I’m like, I always thought I was so chill!” she laughs. “I’m very chill and easygoing, but when I write songs it’s almost like the most exaggerated version of myself. Letting it all out.The deepest inner workings of my brain are crazy, but I don’t always act that way.”

THE COLLABORATORS

LØLØ had a small team of collaborators on ‘falling for robots…’ who helped her to craft her debut. Producer Mike Robinson, from Nashville, produced every song except one. “Everything started with me and a guitar in my room, and I would bring in the idea. Sometimes he would change the chords, but he would send it out for drums or he would do the drums. He did all the guitars. He’s super talented,” she says. LØLØ also co-wrote some tracks with songwriter Marissa Maino, who LØLØ calls one of her closest friends. “A lot of the songs I actually wrote by myself on this one, which has been nice,” she says. Working with Marissa was an exciting change: “In the past I’ve always worked with men. Marissa is the first girl that I’ve collaborated with. It was just really comfortable to toss around ideas. It is really nice having a girl around, because I’m always the girl,” she says. That being said, she does like to have a male perspective: “I already am the girl perspective. It’s good to have someone to tell me that if a guy heard that he would think that kind of sounds pathetic.”

THE TITLE

‘u & the tin man’ was the first track that LØLØ knew she wanted to be on her album. “I thought it was really good. I was like, I want this to be part of a bigger thing,” she says. She wrote it three years ago but was saving it for the album, and then she found herself writing the track ‘i wish i was a robot’. “I was like, oh, that’s funny, I say robot in ‘tin man’ and in ‘i wish i was a robot’. There’s something here.” She was thinking about it for a while, “then it hit me that a lot of my songs are either falling for robots, or wishing I was one ie, falling for people that I feel like have no emotions, and I’m overly sensitive, and it hurts me in that way. Me being too emotional or falling for people that aren’t emotional at all.” Then it was set: “I was like, I think that could be a cool title for the album.”

THE ARTWORK

From the title, the artwork came easily. It features LØLØ in technicolor, dressed as Dorothy on the yellow brick road, putting a heart into a robot. “‘u & the tin man’ is such a strong, clear visual. I thought it would be cool if that was the album artwork and instead it’s a robot, but I’m punked-out Dorothy. I thought it’d be really fun,” she says. Justin Alexis, who has been doing LØLØ’s videos and artwork for years, designed the cover. They’ve worked together since the start of her career, so she’s glad they still get to work together. “It’s really cool that I’ve got to stick with him throughout this whole process. He comes with me on tour now and does my content so he’s super close to the project. He gets me, he’s so creative,” she says.”

THE FUTURE

LØLØ has had a whirlwind few years, but she’s not slowing down yet. She’s planning on touring through the summer and fall, first with JXDN with plans for a headline tour. At the same time, she’s always writing, getting ready to put together another body of work. “After the album, I’ve already started writing whatever the hell is going to be next. You work so hard on this body of work, and it’s not even out yet. I’m already like, what’s gonna be next, I need to outdo myself, which is kind of a scary thought,” she says “We should actually be able to chill and enjoy the moments. I’m gonna try to do that. But at the same time, I am always trying to outdo myself.”