Singer-Songwriter LYVIA Talks New Music and What She's Learned So Far
Nottingham’s LYVIA has a way of making the street feel like a stage and the stage feel like the street. She built her voice in community studios and on pavements, turning spoken-word cadences into soulful pop that lands like a confidante’s aside—pithy, wry, and disarmingly direct. That mix has already carried her through sets at The Great Escape, Dot To Dot, and Reading & Leeds’ Chevron Stage, and onto tours supporting names as varied as Tinashe and Hybrid Minds.
This season marks her most deliberate step yet. After opening a three-part rollout with the EP Running Late and following with new single “Little White Lie,” LYVIA readies Part 2, Be Right There, arriving September 24. The project culminates on October 8 with the full mixtape Honey, I’m Home!, framing a return to the rooms, scenes, and people that shaped her—but with a sharper skill set and a bigger sonic footprint.
Now, the dedicated singer-songwriter is opening up to Stardust about her new music, what she’s learned, and more.
Considering that you went from crafting poems to pop music, what lessons or tendencies carried over, and what did you have to unlearn?
LYVIA: Lessons I carried over would probably be the way I rhyme, I love the way it sounds, and it comes really naturally to me because of the poetry. Something I had to unlearn would be trying to force loads of words into a song [laughs]. Sometimes with songwriting, specifically when writing hooks, I can have a tendency to give loads of detail, which is nice sometimes, but equally sometimes less is more.
On the performance side, your previous busking experiences must have offered you a great opportunity to work on connecting with audiences. What practices from that do you still find yourself embracing when you step into a studio or a festival stage?
LYVIA: I think that busking, etc., taught me that an audience likes to hear the story behind a song before you sing it to them, it helps them connect more. So I’ve deffo carried over my chatty nature to the big stage [laughs]. Sometimes I might even talk too much. I like to connect with my audience or listeners in the best way I can and really bring them into my world, whether that’s when recording or performing.
Your latest track, “Little White Lie,” feels both playful and pointed. What were some of your initial goals with the song?
LYVIA: Honestly, this song was never made to come out. I only wrote it to get the story off my chest; it was made for me. So, I didn’t have any goals for the song or themes, other than to get it off my chest. I think that’s why it’s so good, because it’s so honest.
As you piece together Honey, I’m Home!, what has the three-part rollout clarified about your sound or story?
LYVIA: That my music sounds best when I’m really vulnerable, and when I trust my own vision. I should trust myself more, and I will do so moving forward.
You’ve crossed lanes with Hybrid Minds, supported Tinashe, and seen remixes land. What’s the most surprising skill you picked up from collaborating outside your core sound that fed back into Honey, I’m Home!?
LYVIA: I love this question! The most surprising skill I’ve picked up from these collaborations would be that walking into these rooms feels much easier when you just come as yourself. People always told me that, and it’s something I knew before, but being part of the collaborations I have been part of, I’ve learnt how real it is. It’s easier to be yourself than it is to try and be anyone else, and it usually works out way better [laughs]. And that’s what I did on Honey, I’m Home!; just made music that felt good in my body and in my brain. Thinking about anyone else’s music when I’m locked in writing is just distracting for me.
You cite Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill alongside contemporaries like Kehlani and Destin Conrad as inspirations. What is it that typically draws you to an artist—or even a specific style of music?
LYVIA: The thing that draws me most to an artist would be someone who is very authentic. I think you can tell when somebody is honest about who they are, and when they do it with the level of confidence that someone like Amy Winehouse did or Kehlani does, it draws me in instantly.
