LP (Laura Pergolizzi): Woman on a mission

Since the worldwide success of “Lost On You”, all eyes have been locked in the figure of Laura Pergolizzi. But there, behind the remarkable mega-hit, lies a phenomenal artist that fought her way out of the underground scene, K.O’d an unsurprisingly misogynistic industry and that still finds the time to fight for all the right causes.

Laura Pergolizzi, better known as LP, is one of the most interesting and talented artists of her generation. Without any help form the big fishes of the music industry, she built a very successful career around two basic pillars: confidence in her art and perseverance when the times weren’t a-changing as nowadays. Her personal story isn’t exactly a fairytale and the path that she decided to take wasn’t the easiest one, two things that must not be ignored when talking about the commercial success that LP has gained –in the middle of the tour with her new album, ‘From Heart To Mouth’– since the breakout of her worldwide mega hit, the very nostalgic and tremendously powerful “Lost On You”. Defining her sound isn’t an easy task: indie pop, classic pop, alternative rock, hard rock…It’s even more difficult to analize her magnificient voice, but we can give it a try: a bit of Bob Dylan’s style, the emotional range and presence of Roy Orbison and the epical magnitude of a first level soprano, just to mention three items.

Icon of the LGBT Community and referent of the #MeToo Movement, LP has the correct (and very sincere) answer for every question. Big time defender of the underground and independent scene, she talked with us, amongst lots of topics, about her days as a songwriter for some of the biggest names in pop music, the (not so) hidden traps that lie beneath the streaming platforms, the vital role of female artists in such a misogynic industry (and her personal experience), the day that Warner Music dropped her after listening to the song that nowadays has more than 2 million reproductions and streams and also took some time to reflect about the fight for the legalization of abortion and the possible sanction of the Female QUOTA Law in Argentina.

Let’s go back to the beginning. How do you remember those days? Do you still believe that society does not approve artistic careers in what refers to professional success?

LP: Yeah, you know, that’s a thing with…I’m not sure if I’m answering your question, so let me know about it (Laughs). I think as far as going into entertainment or the art or whatever, you know, what separates the woman from the girls and the men from the boys is really to know what you are doing it for. And asking yourself if art it is your passion or not, and I’ve always felt it that way. Of course you are hoping to succeed, because you know, you can only go so long without making money for a living. But I was looking up to start making a living as a songwriter and I was getting record deals continuously and by the time I was getting successful I already was it on my mind. For like ten years I was making a very good living as far as a songwriter and feeling not fulfilled and done, like “that’s it, I’m good” (Laughs) As a songwriter, whether I was the one that sang the songs or not, I was always trying to reach as many people as possible. That was my goal so I kept continuously writing songs to, uhm, feel like I was doing what needed to be done.

So, talking about being a songwriter: what is the difference between working for other artists and working only for you? How do you connect with the thoughts and necessities of another artist?

LP: (Laughs) I think, you know, to be honest it’s sometimes like you stick to some universal truth about things that mean or matter to you and hope that they also matter to that particular artist. Something about that, because I think that even if we haven’t been through something, we can relate with it and that’s why people listen up to break up songs or the reason why kids listen to certain music. I know a lot of children that love the song “Lost On You” and they are only six years old! You ask yourself why and it’s based on whatever it’s on their mind: their empathy, their compassion and their emotions…Those things trigger something in their soul that is not yet experienced, but they can relate to it as far as being human. Maybe they are like stuffed animal (Laughs) it’s like you are trying to relate to people in an emotional way and I think that never goes out of style and that is why I try to stick to that. From the bottom of my heart I hope that I can be able to connect with some of the artists that are looking to sing about stuff like that.

Talking about writing from the heart, I wanted to ask you about the beautiful concept that surrounds your last record ‘From Heart To Mouth’ (2019) and also about all those differences with its predecessor in what matters to textures, colours and atmospheres.

LP: Well, thank you! With this record, one of the things that I love the most about it in a personal way –even if it doesn’t matter to any other people– is that what I wanted to accomplish with it was to sound like myself. I didn’t want to sound like I was chasing “Lost On You” or anything else from my last record, you know what I mean? I feel like these songs, uhm, however they matter to you, they have their own life and their own emotional trajectory and all of that stuff. But I don’t think that you can listen to it and go like: “Oh, that’s trying to be Lost On You 2” (Laughs) And that’s what I wanted to really accomplish and I think I did it; I also feel like I grew as an artist, that it had pretty much, uhm, it felt like a whole record when I listened to it in its entirety. So it was meant to be together and, after having played it this whole year to audiences and seeing everyone singing each song, I feel like it was the right moment. It set me up for my next record of which I wouldn’t say I’m already done with, but I’m gonna wait and write a bunch of songs this fall to see where I land.

You mentioned “Lost On You” several times. What’s particular about this great song is that, even if it’s not a new one, it’s an enormous success. With all the pressure that this means: How do you work not fall into that formula again?

LP: That’s what I mean, you know (Laughs) I feel like I did that properly with this new record. I don’t know if you guys know the story down there, I’ve told it endless times, but I got dropped by my previous label after I played them that song. I was kind on this mayor label, I had put out a successful live EP and suddenly all the people changed and the ones that believed in me left and I was there with people that were scratching their heads and asking themselves “what do we do with this chick?”. So, the President of the label asked me to come in and play him the new stuff I had, so I played him “Lost On You” and “Muddy Waters” and I played him also a song called “Strange”. After it I was like, “there you go” and he was like: “Oh, these sound amazing!” and three weeks later I found out I was dropped (Laughs).

So to me, with “Lost On You” I was already, at that point it was like my fifth or sixth record deal and I was asking myself what was I going to do. Afterwards I immediately got signed into this label called Vagrant and they immediately got bumped like BMG, but they were a little indie label so I thought: “I’ll write songs for this people and put this little record out”. And then “Lost On You” started to explode, so I love to tell this story over and over again so I can beg other artists to keep on writing songs. After “Lost On You”, by the time it became a hit, I had written like thirty or forty more songs, I had no idea, I wasn’t sitting around saying “oh, you see, there it is!”. You never know with this things, so what I say to everyone is to write shit that means something to you and keep on writing. That’s your job as an artist, in general, if you are a painter you don’t paint only one picture and then you go straight to success (Laughs).

Yeah, you keep on trying until it gets there…

LP: Yes! Then, hopefully you don’t die before you get recognized, but to how many people did that happened? A lot of them (Laughs).

We are in an era in which success seems to be measured by all the times that a song of yours has been played on Spotify, etc. It really seems to be fucking important to the labels and the music agents. Do you think that this reign of streaming is more democratic or do you see it as another trap from the old music industry?

LP: At the risk of sounding like cynical and fucked up (laughs) I will say that it is another trap. But, you know, the record companies are sitting around, probably smoking cigars and going like “oh, thank God, we figured it out, holy shit, thank God. Listen, it’s not as much money as we were making on the eighties, but fuck it it’s still much better!” I think there’s an element of that for sure, because when I go and see an artist that is phenomenal and a lot bigger in terms of audience, I go to their Spotify account and they have fewer reproductions than an artist like me who has an indie thing going on.

I don’t know where I am with that, I don’t try to pay attention to that because it will fuck you up, but I think I’m just trying to be truthful. It can be a trap if we let it be a trap, you know, I think that it’s very typical not to pay attention to those numbers but, uhm, I guess that it’s the not so new hot thing. It has been building consistently, becoming a system where you miss out on a lot of things that are dope just because someone didn’t put you on enough playlists to get hundreds of thousands of reproductions. It’s a shame, I feel bad and then I don’t feel so bad, because I had to go through the same things and that makes you strong and it gives you more perspective as an artist. It’s what makes it not easy and from that comes better art.

Having a career that started from the underground, step by step, with a lot of patience and perseverance, what do you think about the importance of taking that (much harder) road instead of trying to be a one hit wonder powered by social media and algorithms for then to disappear in the short term?

LP: I feel like it’s a great thing to do, you know, I wouldn’t change my career for anything in the world. I was so freaking lucky, like I said earlier, my perspective is basically everything to me. I’m really appreciating my life in real time now. Not a show goes by that I feel it like an opportunity I have been given through this whole thing. I know how fragile and how rare it is to get there, in fact I’ve worked with a lot of young artists when I was just writing songs and 98% of them just came in thinking “hey, this is my life now”. And then I never heard of them or saw them again. That’s hard; you can’t help to feel that way about it, you gotta be hopeful.

It’s really rare to be able to do this consistently and I think anyone would take the long way if they saw possibility of succeeding. When you are not even 25 years old and ask yourself “well, now what?” and that’s definitely a hard pill to swallow. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, I think that everything feels better when you work really hard for it. Listen, it feels good when you have it too! You are like: “Holy shit! This is great!” (Laughs) but ultimately I believe that a lot of people agree on the fact that it’s nicer to have it last and feel that, on the road, you have built a strong fan base that you can count on to an extent. Personally, I feel like I can count on them because I’m gonna keep delivering more stuff to the best of my abilities.

I wanted to ask you about your role in the LGBTIQ community and in the #MeToo Movement, about your difficulties growing as a female artist in such a misogynistic industry and your thoughts about the fight for the legalization of abortion and the QUOTA Law for female artists in festivals here in Argentina.

LP: I’m definitely all in for everything you have just said about what’s going on in Argentina. I went through a lot of things, even though not as much like some of my friends in what refers to the #MeToo Movement and dealing with sexism in this industry. I mean, it has been like this since the beginning, but there’s too much to think about now, there’s a lot that is being talked about. Things are unraveling once and for all, I couldn’t be happier about it. The thing is, you know, I wanna make sure that it doesn’t overshadow the art; the biggest thing is equality, feminism, OG feminism, since the beginning, the fight for equal opportunities and equal salaries.

It’s going directly to bigger stages right now and it has to be that way, the world is changing regardless what anyone wants to say about it. I don’t care how many Trumps there are, they cannot control the fact that diversity is happening. He is never gonna control it, the cat is out of the fucking bag, no one can hold it bag. This thing is going and it’s gonna keep on going, so let it flow man. The violence that is happening, it’s all gonna happen anyway, so we have to keep up maintenance and don’t allow people to make it go back to where it was before. It’s gonna be really hard, the LGBT Community knows only too well how brutal this battle has been up to these days and now trans people are the ones that are hitting the hardest way possible.

It’s just a constant about awareness, to keep it up there so more people can see it; it’s all about visibility, awareness and community. It was really hard for me when I was coming up; you would never get to where you were going if you complained about these things. When I think backwards, I feel like it’s almost like having survived a violent childhood, which I also did. When you look back you say: “Holy shit, I can’t believe I had to deal with that”. And then you are out of it and you are a little stunned by it for some minutes, so when I think about all the things that didn’t happened for me for some reason, things that I didn’t dwelled on…This is the thing about being aware and cynical, but don’t allowing it to ruin you.

I think that’s the hardest part: to keep that flame of optimism and hope in you. That’s what I’ve always worked in and I feel that one of my greatest achievements in my life was not to let my flame go out because I was told I couldn’t do certain things or not believed in myself even if it got bitter. I’m aware, I can talk about it now and tell you “what the fuck happened?” and the answer is that it was really hard, it hurt me deeply too many times, but I’m lucky because I can still feel good about people, men, women, everybody and also be able to keep an open heart. It’s not an easy thing to do, but that’s the biggest thing I achieved. We have to be very careful, we have to avoid the separation between women and men because all of this. We have to battle through this difficult initial dialogue.

Let’s go with the last one: if you could take one artist, one record and one song to a deserted island, which ones would you choose?

LP: Oh my god! (Laughs) I think I’m gonna have to say: Rolling Stones, ‘Sticky Fingers’ man, I can’t live without that shit! (Laughs)