Lava La Rue is defying industry slop

This story is originally published in Huck 84: It Starts With Us – The 20^th Anniversary Issue. Order your copy now or join Club Huck+ to make sure you never miss an issue.

Lava La Rue doesn’t want to talk about new music, not really. Instead, perched at a London bus stop with glitchy wired headphones, to a background of buzzy city chatter, Lava’s stories are a little different. They recall their in-store signing and performance at London’s historic community-led venue The Camberwell Society, how a revved up night out with friends led to a fresh-minded music session; a trip to Japan to clear their mind, and how their hands-on approach has allowed them to back their next chapter. ​“I could over-intellectualise it but, honestly, sometimes, it’s like last night, we were hanging with some rock musicians and it was really fun. We picked up the bass, listening to Gang of Four and you’re thinking ​‘this song slaps’ and thinking how [Andy Gill] played this riff and you end up making a song,” Lava says, explaining their process. ​“It’s so very varied, but it really is the subject of how I’m feeling in the moment – the music and the genre manifest because of that.”

Back from a recent trip to LA and a couple weeks out from celebrating the release of new music – they tell me stories of revisiting their process, what it takes to break even as a modern artist, and bringing everything back to doing things your own way, even down to the roll out of their latest single ​‘Prince Of Bologna’. ​“I have people coming to me saying, ​‘I’d like to do this video’ and yeah, sure, you’re a professional, great. But, I actually think it’s better when it’s some random 19-year-old doing all my visuals instead of an established person. Do you know what I mean?” they explain. While most artists strive for perfect industry savvy campaigns, Lava is backing themself and their inner team, keen to build a crafted image from the ground up, even if it means leading with smaller budgets: ​“The one good thing about modern technology and the internet is that you can put yourself out there. You might be heavily up against it all. Someone can pay for that to get pushed and have all the pluggers and all that kind of stuff, but you still can do it.”

Inspiration, for Lava La Rue, isn’t run of the mill stuff. ​“It’s funny because the things I’ll be listening to doesn’t necessarily always translate,” they say. ​“Or it does in terms of storytelling, delivery or campiness; I’m kind of in the moment.” The soundtrack that informed their new EP, Do You Know Everything aka D.Y.K.E, includes a lot of The Witches and The Cramps, but that’s not all. ​“We had just supported [Swedish post-punk bad] Viagra Boys doing a DJ set for BBC’s 6 Music Festival. We had a bit of a bender with their lead singer Sebastian Murphy and me and the band were still hungover the next day – I think that whole experience kind of informed the songs we wrote and what we were making.” 

• Read next: Inside the Los Angeles scene kid revival

Making impromptu tunes is one method to their DIY design, which also spun inspiration for their motorik-embossed single ​‘Prince Of Bologna’. Written and co-produced with Tomasso Medica of Husky Loops, the track bridges witty internet-ready vocal stims like ​“I am Cher Lloyd by Cher Lloyd”, and taps into different thoughts carouselling around the brain. Packed with off-beat snippets of conversations, it rolls out a new turn with each artist-laden reference.

“The whole song and every line is like a collection of conversations that I’ve overheard while being in the back of the pub at The George Tavern and hearing funny debates or topics that are always up for debate,” they reflect. ​“Almost every line for line are pub chat topics to me, and one of them is like: ​‘Your favourite footballer accepted an OBE or MBE from the King; would you still rate them?’ Stuff like that. Sometimes a really anti-establishment artist might accept that award, and then it’s just another thing that’s up for debate, isn’t it?” 

While the new single sets its own style, Lava’s wider experimental sound taps into how they reconnect with communities and people ​“by going out partying, living a hedonistic life and being in the scene again”. Consideration and curated world-building sits at the forefront of their work, making music shaped by impactful personal experiences. ​“When I make music, it’s about subjects of what’s going on around me and what’s happening, but there are some things that I try to be really intentional about,” they say.

As with classic writers like Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, the 19^th century ​“father of the Japanese short story” who prioritised character depth over a traditional narrative, Lava’s new ambitions reject a typical beginning-middle-end arc. ​“Sometimes the storytelling is really fun if it’s these bizarre vignettes of sayings or conversations; some of those films are the best films. Richard Linklater’s [Dazed & Confused, School of Rock] first-ever film is amazing. It was just a series of conversations while walking through summer in Texas,” Lava says. ​“You follow one character, and they’re having a conversation, then another character walks by, and you pick up their conversation. That’s the whole movie, and it’s one of the best low-budget movies ever.” The concise, considered narrative of Lava La Rue rumbles through their new slate of music, transcending past typical pre chorus-meets-chorus set ups, but rather something more disciplined, tapping into community spaces and underground spontaneity. 

• Read next: Ahilya Bamroo is Gen Z India’s authentic ambassador

“I have an appreciation for scripts where they don’t spell out storylines or plots,” they say firmly. ​“When I was making ​‘Prince of Bologna’, I wanted to try a different Star Wars formula of storytelling, which wasn’t so obvious or linear.” As the creeping tide of ​“Netflixification” and AI ​“creatives” in music (aka overproduced, functional chart tracks with a flimsy beginning to end structure), it’s a relief to witness artists such as Lava stick to their own roots. So, since the release of Starface, their 2024 album via Dirty Hit, how has this London-born musician ensured they remain a step ahead of the slopification of music? ​“That’s a good question. I’m trying to think of a way to put that quite concisely. I purposely decided to spend two years after releasing my record making sure that I don’t release another one where I’m saying the same thing as the last. I have been doing things to grow as a human,” they say. Pausing was an attempt to reclaim a sense of identity, outside of being a musician.

After wrapping up dates touring with Remi Wolf in America, Lava La Rue jetted off to Japan and took much-needed time out, before reconnecting with the grassroots scene they came up through. ​“After playing outdoor arenas with 5,000 to 6,000 capacity in America, I was dying to play The Windmill again and George Tavern and just my local pubs. I miss that.” they say.

It’s no surprise that being a touring in-campaign artist can be costly. Now, with topics of AI and industry plants always being bandied around, Lava is proving that you can do promo and tours entirely on your terms. ​“I definitely am doing things in a hands-on way. There was so much stuff that I used to pay for to tour. I remember the same Remi Wolf tour I was on. Rachel Chinouriri was supposed to be on that tour, and she was like ​‘I simply can’t afford it.’ Mind you, she’s with a major label, and I knew that she had way more touring budget than I would have had to go on that tour,” they say. ​“I [knew] I was going to do this so unbelievably DIY and cheap. Scrap the van, scrap the tour bus, scrap that and let’s just go. It’s going to be three people in a car and we’re going to drive around America and that is the difference. You can do the same thing but do you need all these extra assets? Unless you’re making a shitload, you’re not going to make any money anyway.”

Connection, for them, was found in hedonism – parties, jumping into plans with mates and taking whatever comes next. ​“It’s mad how much you can get out of touch with when you are finally able to make cool music for your full-time career, even internationally. It’s really sick doing festivals, TV gigs or whatever, but it’s such a different world preparing for a Jools Holland performance as it is to do a live exhibition gig with your DIY mates in South London,” they laugh. ​“Recently, I had a full ​‘Prince of Bologna’ 7‑inch vinyl physical release party at Dash the Henge in Camberwell and it was amazing. It was exactly what I was doing when I was falling in love with being a creative. My band and I were up until 1am, DIYing, making these Lava La Rue track jackets, and signing the physical releases and then hanging them up around the shop, making prints and getting covered in paint and, later, practising the set with all of our amplifiers and our equipment. You have to do that stuff to feel connected with what’s happening around you.”

• Read next: How the Home Counties took over UK rap

The process, then, can feel as monumental as the outcome. Looking back, Lava La Rue unpicks how they have been able to journey towards a much more stable creative process, one that nourishes, rather than one that punishes. ​“Going into my first record deal, I didn’t even put much thought into it. I just thought the moment you know your team gets bigger, you have a budget and that’s the goal. It’s a good thing if you can be more removed from it. It’s a good thing if you can have a social media person and people to do all the things that you know you don’t want to have to think about,” they say. ​“So you can just get in the studio and focus on making the music good, which are all things that I had on the first record, and it was cool. It was still very collaborative. I definitely had a huge sense of creative control.”

For Lava, sticking to their terms remains the crux of their current projects. While awards and industry praise might be complimentary, it’s not a defining factor for them. ​“Some people I know smash out festivals and can fill out venues, and have no online presence,” they continue. ​“I know people who are considered in the highest regard will maybe never win an award – The Cure only won their first Grammy last year. For me, this year, I’ve been asking what I want to do and what I enjoy doing. I don’t want to do socials at all. I don’t even want to touch my Instagram. Everybody has to figure out how they feel in terms of that. For me, it was finding people who I trust and I’ve learned that it doesn’t always have to be in the industry. I started out working with mates.”

Lava isn’t too fussed about plugging their latest EP: ​“We don’t have to talk about that. I mean, yeah, the EP is cool. ​‘Scratches’ was a wicked song, yada yada yada,” they say frankly. ​“To be honest, I’m working on an album right now. I can’t say too much about this record more than I’m writing again and I think everything that the EP was, is a sort of taste or an introduction with the people around me.”

• Read next: The people fighting back against an AI future

The momentum, then, that Lava has feels palpable and creatively nourishing. As we talk about the moving chess pieces of industry, music and film, a thought springs to their mind. ​“Sometimes, I feel like we’re in a time where people really are overanalysing everything in every aspect. I’m someone who believes in figuring yourself out, figuring out your own identity, understanding yourself.

“It’s so interesting seeing a generation being able to have words for maybe saying ​‘I’m neurodivergent’ or ​‘this person is a nepo baby’, or ​‘this person is an industry plant or a narcissist’,” they say. ​“Everyone has all these buzzwords for so many things and there’s such intense analysis. I think some of the best things are created without over-analysis. We’re in a mixture of overintellectualism mixed with underintellectualism and slop, basically. It’s created this chaotic cesspit where some people are forgetting to live and remembering to have a good time in whatever time we have left in this mental world.” Grounding in good music, makeshift sets and getting stuck in with a gang of friends and checking out a cheap show can lead to some of the most memorable moments. So, as slop sloshes across screens and every film becomes a prequel of a prequel, Lava offers some hearty, much-needed advice – go out, have fun. 

“It’s almost like we’re watching the fall of an empire, which is like what we’re seeing in real time with America, with the film and music industry. It means that we’ve got figure out what the next thing is now. You can only do that by just instinctively doing and feeling what’s right because it’s in the ether,” they continue. ​“We can talk about how fun things are for ages, but at the end of the day we need to just focus on the navigation of what makes us feel good and gives us a sense of relief in these dark times. It’s about where our morals lie, and don’t think too much about anything else.”

Do You Know Everything is out now. 

Z. Raza-Sheikh is a freelance journalist. See more of their work on their website.

Huck 84: It Starts With Us is out now. Sign up to Club Huck+ to make sure you never miss another issue.

Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram and join Club Huck’s mailing list for more from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture.