Lydia Halloway is a New York City based pop artist with remnants of Carly Rae Jepsen and Kylie Minogue in her addicting sound and wrote her debut EP “Never Meant to Hurt You” while recovering from a cancer surgery that left her unable to sing for months. "I remember '22' by Taylor Swift came on and I just started sobbing, knowing that turning 22 probably wouldn't be that way at all for me,” says Halloway, “And that's part of why I wanted to make this EP - it’s full of this music that you can really bounce to. I wanted to capture that feeling for myself". During her time of recovery, Lydia was able to teach herself production basics and dug into her inspirations to help her create creative, insightful music. Lydia's debut track “Off-the-chain superb” gained over 500,000 listeners in the first month of release and Earmilk stated that “Lydiacertainly left an impression on us” after premiering her debut video.
Lydia’s demos that detailed her experience blossomed into a collection of pop songs and she was able to showcase her ability to use emotion and distinct hooks in her writing. Lydia has been able to focus on refining her sound and lyrical power while playing late night open mic's and working with the underground scene producers in New York. Lydia is an artist to watch for with a new EP in the works and a brand new single ready to take over.
“Gold”, what a perfect name to describe this track that is full of shiny beats and sounds that really get the body moving and lyrics that stimulate an emotional response. I love the soft innocence of Lydia’s voice that grips the listener tightly and slides along the higher notes beautifully with her refined tone. The collaboration of funky tones that are scattered throughout “Gold” helped personally give me that image of the sunlight shining down, sparkling off the water at the beach on a hot summer day and I felt a rush of energy while listening to Lydia’s sweet vocals accompanied by the electric tones in this track.
The artwork for “Gold” is the image of an eye with a shimmer around the eye, almost like gold sparkling in the light and is a beautiful representation of the song. Lydia has used phenomenal talent when writing the meaningful, uplifting lyrics and compiling the various sounds in “Gold” and is an artist you should keep an eye out for as she is incredibly talented and her new release is just another taste of what she is capable of.
Listen to "Gold" here and get to know more about the artist in our interview below!
Hey Lydia! Pleasure to chat with you! Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you were first introduced to music?
I actually started out in classical ballet and was in a professional training program in New York throughout my childhood - so I really got into music first that way.
Then when I was around 13 I started writing my own songs on my piano at home and taught myself how to play guitar.
From an artist’s perspective, what was your favourite part of creating “Gold” and why?
I wrote this song when I was quite sick. I had been staying at my grandparents home in New England for a month or so trying to recover. I was writing a lot at that point, and this song came to me basically complete one afternoon when I was sitting on the floor in the living room with my dog. It was a pretty special moment because so many songs will usually fight you all the way. By the time I brought it to the studio, it was so polished and ready to go which made the whole process very easy and fun as well.
What is the meaning behind “Gold” and how does it differ from your other songs?
“Gold” is actually quite a bit more emotional compared to my first single, “Dancing To You,” even though it has a very energetic feel in terms of the music. It’s about the end of a relationship I didn’t handle well - I love how Lorde puts it in “Hard Feelings”: “when you’ve outgrown a lover, the whole world knows but you.” And I definitely did leave this person with very hard feelings towards me. I had a lot of guilt and confusion around that, so this song is about resetting that narrative within myself, while still holding some accountability.
How has your experience surviving cancer shaped who you are as an artist?
At the point when I was diagnosed, I was working on an EP I was so excited about. So when my doctor told me the surgery I needed might mean I would never be able to sing again, that was really difficult for me. Because I couldn’t sing for months after that while I tried to recover and get back to being healthy, I had a lot of time and space that we so rarely allow ourselves. I started to focus on producing and sketching out some ideas for writing and what I wanted to be writing about. That time period ended up being super rich for me creatively, and is really the genesis of everything I’m doing now.
Tell us what you’ve got planned for 2019!
I’m so excited for 2019. I have two more songs coming out, and I’ve also been testing out my live set for some smaller audiences around NYC. We’ll be planning some much bigger shows coming up, and I can’t wait for a chance to connect with all the people who have been getting to know me through my music. It’s going to feel amazing.
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