Exploring the World of ‘BUZZKILL’ With Lyn Lapid
On April 15, °1824 invited Blue Hawk Records and other publications to sit down with Lyn Lapid and discuss her debut album, BUZZKILL, due out April 25 via Mercury Records. A talent that started through internet exposure, Lapid chose to focus on her struggles with connections and relationships in Los Angeles for her new release while putting her own unique and comical spin on the idea.
Very early on in the conference, Lapid stressed the way that social media has affected her career. Starting out as a musician in her bedroom, Lapid posted videos to YouTube and TikTok, where she was able to find her fan base. She posted a capella versions of her song "Producer Man" on TikTok, where the videos blew up and catapulted her into the beginnings of stardom and social media fame. Lapid shared with the attendees that her authenticity and passion for her music was the reason that so many people connected with her, and she continues to use social media to keep this connection.
The album, BUZZKILL, runs with themes of loneliness, belonging, self-acceptance, and relationships, evident in every song on the album and in the visual releases. The attendees were able to view an album trailer, which showed the ideas of being at a party with no one to talk to and being the last one called to hang out, aided with dialogue that presented the themes of the album on a silver platter. Lapid thinks that because most people have experienced this at one point in their life, all audiences will be able to relate to her level of storytelling and what she has to say. "I had only felt like a buzzkill with the wrong people", she said, stressing that the way to move on from situations like this is to let go of wanting to be liked by everyone in the room.
Lapid pointed out tracks such as "it doesn't kill me anymore", "death wish", and "buzzkill" as standouts on the album because of the way that they handle these ideas. Lapid experimented heavily with vocal production and instrumentation on this album, choosing to focus on primary instruments during the recording of the album so that it would sound as full as possible in a live setting. She also used her lyrics to develop these ideas and make the songs stand out through her use of comedy, especially on the track "buzzkill" in her words, which opens the album and sets the scene for the listener. However, not all of the songs were comedic. Tracks like "floater friend" and "backup plan" were especially emotional for her to write and forced her to be vulnerable and open with both her co-writers and her audience, which she feels is important to connect with her fans.
Much of the album follows Lapid and her struggle with acclimating to a new environment after moving from the East Coast to the West Coast. She grew up in a very small town and struggled to connect with a new, large group of people and keep in touch with old friends at the same time. One of the demos that she posted to a private account from the sessions for this album was found by a friend from home, who reached out and wanted to talk about the way Lapid was feeling, strengthening their bond. She said, however, that many of her friends lost touch with her after the move, or even before, because of their relationships, which is something she vowed to another friend to never do. The song "death wish" is about this experience of losing a friend to a relationship, where she says that she has a sort of "death wish" for her friend's partner because she misses their friendship before their partner took over their life. "Platonic relationships are just as important in my life as romantic relationships," she said.
Lapid embarks on her first world tour, the BUZZKILL World Tour, on May 6, where she is getting her first opportunity to connect and visit with fans in Europe, where she is planning to learn some of the language from each stop on the tour to be able to understand their culture as much as she can. She is focused on the idea of community with this tour, as she loves playing shows where she can meet fans and hear their stories firsthand, and they can experience her stories through music. As mentioned before, she also made sure that the music would translate accurately to the stage, so she is excited to have the fans experience the album the way it was meant to be heard. You can catch Lyn Lapid on tour through this summer in the US, and you can find her on Instagram @_lynlapid and on TikTok @lynlapid.