Lauv Joins Forces With Conan Gray For New Single “Fake”

Today, Platinum-certified independent singer, songwriter, producer, and pop visionary Lauv joins forces with rising global pop superstar Conan Gray on new single “Fake.” The single, which mark’s Conan’s first ever collaboration, also cover’s Apple Music’s New Music Daily playlist. The music video, directed by Jason Lester (Madison Beer, Galantis, Quinn XCII), sees Lauv and Conan struggling to remain authentically themselves while being shuttled through increasingly more outrageous pop star settings. The US broadcast premiere of the video is on MTV Live, mtvU and at the Times Square Viacom billboard. Watch HERE!

BUY/STREAM “FAKE” HERE

Lauv said, “we wrote Fake the first time I met Conan and it’s one of my fav songs ever. I hope you love it.”

Conan added, “Lauv and I wrote Fake while we were just hanging and ranting about those two faced people everybody knows. Those people who say one thing and do the other, people who constantly talk trash about their own friends. We wanted to make something fun you can scream in the car to, a song to flip a bird at those types of people."

This past Saturday, Lauv, in conjunction with his Blue Boy Foundation, hosted Breaking Modern Loneliness: Conversations on Mental Health. The series of virtual discussions were set up to strengthen mental health awareness for World Mental Health Day on October 10th. The discussions were comprised of panelists from around the world. Each panel was moderated by a representative from active organizations supporting mental health and community needs including, The Minds Foundation, Jack.org, and Ad Council. 

This past summer, Lauv surprise released the Without You EP, which featured 4 tracks that were all written and produced during quarantine with Amy Allen (Halsey, Selena Gomez), DallasK (Fifth Harmony) and Johnny Simpson (Christina Aguilera, Ava Max), among others. In conjunction, Lauv also released the quarantine made video for  tracks “Dishes” (HERE), as well as “Lose Somebody” (HERE). The EP has surpassed over 50 million streams since its release. 

BUY/ STREAM WITHOUT YOU

Lauv’s debut album ~how i'm feeling~ released in March as a Top 20 album in 10 territories, including #9 in UK and #5 in AU, with over 2 billion streams on the album to date. 

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ABOUT CONAN GRAY:

Growing up in the small town of Georgetown, TX, at 12-years-old, hope came in the form of songwriting and forming a direct connection with people on the internet. In 2018, his song “Idle Town, cooked up with a cheap mic taped to a lamp, took off. 

Conan engaged with listeners through consistent contact and content on YouTube and social media as they watched him further hone his talents as a writer, performer, musician, and artist on social media.

YouTube especially offered a window into his world. He posted everything from drawings and photographs to personal moments. Along the way, he honed his craft, sharing the music discovery process with viewers too. Starting at the age of 12-years-old, he shot, edited, and uploaded every video by himself. As his fanbase grew, so did his fearlessness as he opened up more in the Vlogs and the songs, paving the way for a lasting connection. A musical artist uniquely broadcasting his personal development in this fashion, he endeared millions as they watched him blossom.

Conan Gray’s debut album, Kid Krow, claimed the “biggest new artist debut of 2020” and #1 Pop Album upon release. Recently he received rave reviews from Taylor Swift and Sir Elton John himself saying Conan is “the only person in the American Spotify Top 50 to actually write the song without anybody else” and “Conan you inspire me.”   Billboard, Forbes, HITS, and OnesToWatch have shortlisted him for a possible “Best New Artist” nominee for the 2021 GRAMMY® Awards and both Billboard and Forbes named Kid Krow as one of “The Best Albums of 2020 (So Far).” He was named MTV Push Artist, Apple Up Next Artist, VEVO DSCVR, and YouTube Artist On The Rise and received critical acclaim from Paper, E! News, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Forbes, Billboard, People Magazine, Fader, V Magazine and more. He has opened up for Panic! At the Disco, sold out all of his US & European tour dates and made his TV debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Fake Single ArtFake Single ArtConan Gray: PC-Jasper SoloffConan Gray: PC-Jasper Soloff
Lauv & Conan Gray: PC-Jasper SoloffLauv & Conan Gray: PC-Jasper SoloffLauv: PC-Jasper SoloffLauv: PC-Jasper Soloff
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https://www.lauvsongs.com
https://www.conangray.com

Samantha Pickard

President, Strut Entertainment

About Lauv

For more than five years, Lauv has quietly and steadily become one of pop’s brightest rising stars. He has released his music completely independently with billions of streams to his name. He has written for some of the biggest stars in the world, performed on late night talk shows, played stadiums opening for Ed Sheeran, and sold out shows in 21 countries as a headliner. And he has done all of this without releasing an album.

That’s about to change, though, when Lauv’s official debut, ~how i'm feeling~, comes out in March 2020. A 21-song tour de force, the project marks a breakthrough, a real moment of arrival, from a young singer/songwriter/producer who Rolling Stone called “Pop’s Up-and-Coming Heartbreak King.” 

“This is the first time I’m showing the world different aspects of myself as an artist,” says Lauv. “At first I was a hopeless romantic—my songs were all about one relationship, one girl. This is so much bigger. The whole concept is born out of an existential, quarter-life crisis. I’m dealing with who I was supposed to be, what people expect from me—I’m learning to embrace all the aspects of my identity.”

Before Ari Leff became Lauv, he was just another Gen Z teenager trying to get his music noticed on Myspace. From his earliest efforts, his songs addressed his own experiences navigating the sometimes positive, often negatively distorted lens of social media. His music has come to serve as anthems for the millions of teenagers and twenty-somethings who share the same fears and insecurities. 

Accepting and celebrating the multiple facets of ourselves, the different personalities we carry with us, is a theme throughout ~how i'm feeling~ —even extending to the cover art, which displays six different “Little Lauvs” (each with its own color, representing one aspect of himself). It’s like a one-man boy band: there’s the class clown, the hopeless romantic, the existentialist, the fuckboy, positive and spicy Lauv.

Lauv has been open about his own struggles with anxiety and depression, and has taken action on the issue with his Blue Boy Foundation, which supports programs that help young people feel more comfortable reaching out for help with their mental health. He launched the “My Blue Thoughts” initiative, a community building mechanism for fans to anonymously write down or record whatever is on their mind, as a way to engage with people around the world who may be having similar experiences. Lauv is also donating 100% of the proceeds from his single “Sad Forever” to mental health charities, raising over $150,000 to date, as well as contributing $1 from each ticket sold from his world tour.  

Lauv first gained attention in 2015 when his Soundcloud single “The Other” went viral, peaking at number three on blog aggregator Hype Machine and hitting Spotify’s Global Top 100 before eventually being certified Gold. After concentrating on working with other artists, Lauv hit again with 2017’s “I Like Me Better,” which reached #7 at Top 40 and #2 at Hot AC and was certified 3X Multi-Platinum in the US and platinum in 12 other countries. “i’’m so tired...” Lauv’s duet with Troye Sivan, has also been certified Gold, with over 500 million streams worldwide.

After his songs were gathered up into the I met you when I was 18 playlist in 2018, Lauv was ranked as number one on Billboard's Emerging Artists chart for more than three months. And all of this was achieved without the support of a major label: He garnered the most spins by an independent artist on Top 40 and Hot AC radio in 2018, and held down the #1 and #2 most streamed pop songs by an independent artist in 2019.

Along the way, Lauv—who majored in music technology at New York University, and interned at the famed Jungle City Studios—developed a signature sound, a spare, percolating, keyboard-based electro-pop that mirrored his honest and vulnerable lyrics. But he doesn’t think of himself as having an identifiable style.

“I get surprised when people say that a song ‘sounds so Lauv’,” he says. “I don’t know what that means. I never thought about having a specific sound. What I do is usually more minimal, not a huge wall of sound, but then I add whatever interesting rhythmic or sonic elements.”

He points to “Drugs & the Internet,” a song written during a struggle with depression which became the opening track on ~how i'm feeling~, as a turning point in his writing. “That song was so different for me,” he says, “and it’s when I realized there’s so much more I want to say besides talking about love. 

“I used to look at everything really romantically,” he continues. “Like ‘all my songs have to literally be about my own life!” But as I keep writing more, I’ve really opened up to the idea that a song can be about capturing a feeling.”

A key part of Lauv’s triumphant rise has been his collaborations with other artists, both as a writer and a performing partner. He co-wrote hits including Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato’s Platinum-certified smash “No Promises” and “Boys” for Charli XCX. In addition to the duet with Troye Sivan, he released “There’s No Way” with Julia Michaels and, most recently, “fuck, i’m lonely,” with British singer Anne-Marie, which was featured on the soundtrack for the third season of 13 Reasons Why and quickly shot to more than 200 million streams. Also in 2019, he co-wrote “Imperfections,” a single for pop icon Celine Dion. (“It was crazy that she wanted something with my sound,” he says, “it goes to show that a lot of things in music can be so unexpected, and you can’t necessarily pin people down.”)

These creative partnerships have continued to shape Lauv’s perspective on making music. “With everybody I’ve worked with,” he says, “whether or not a song ultimately comes out of it or not, each situation shows me something new about the process of creation and how different artists work. With Ed Sheeran, I saw that it’s very much still about the song, where others get more involved in the visual world and the aesthetics.”

In today’s stream-driven, single-focused music world, you might wonder why a young pop artist needs to bother making an album. But even with platinum plaques already on his walls, Lauv believes that it’s still important to make a larger musical statement and reveal more of himself. “A lot of internet culture is pushing people to have a brand and stick to it,” he says. “But people are so much more complex than that. I was definitely intimidated making this album, though—fans are used to a certain side of me, so will people vibe with it and accept something different?

“But even just for my own mental health,” he continues, “I needed to do what I want to do, to grow as an artist without being cornered into any one sound or style. And if they’re along for the ride, then that’s great, too.” With millions of fans already on board for his music and his message, and a sound that’s built for a stadium-size audience, it’s sure shaping up to be a wild ride.

Contact

www.lauvsongs.com