(SOUNDBITE OF LUBALIN SONG, "SOMETHING TO PROVE")
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Musician Lubalin's latest album, "Haha, No Worries" touches on ambition, doubt, shame and heartbreak...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMETHING TO PROVE")
LUBALIN: (Singing) Under the surface like an itch (vocalizing).
RASCOE: ...All wrapped up in urgent, phrenetic bass and drums.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMETHING TO PROVE")
LUBALIN: (Singing) All right. All right, all right, are you ready now? All of my life, I've been waiting on you. I've been waiting on you. Are you ready now?
RASCOE: But the Montreal artist, who prefers to be known by his stage name, became internet-famous after setting some of the internet's most absurd dramas to music. And boy, did he blow up on TikTok.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INTERNET DRAMA PART 7 (DO YOU WASH YOUR LEGS?)")
LUBALIN: (Singing) Be honest. Do you wash your legs when you take a shower? Nothing worse than a greasy knee pit. I wouldn't...
RASCOE: We asked him what inspired him to put things like an argument over whether legs need washing - and remember that one? - to some pretty dramatic music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INTERNET DRAMA PART 7 (DO YOU WASH YOUR LEGS?)")
LUBALIN: (Singing) Y'all really don't wash your legs? Life is short but, but it ain't that short. I don't...
Honestly, it actually started as just me looking for a way to apply my skills, my talents, to something that I felt could get a few views on TikTok, and it was just one of the ideas that I tried that ended up working much better than I ever expected.
RASCOE: But your deadpan musical delivery of this online drama - it led to over three million followers on TikTok, and, you know, you got lots of attention from people, even like Jimmy Fallon. Were you worried that kind of being known as the funny song guy might stop people from taking your other music seriously?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INTERNET DRAMA PART 2 (SHE STOLE MY BROCCOLI)")
LUBALIN: (Singing) She stole my broccoli casserole recipe eight years ago and claimed it was hers. She claimed it was hers.
I'm obviously, like, incredibly grateful for the attention that I got from that and also for, like, what those pieces mean to people, like the messages that I get about people laughing with their family through hard times. But at some point, I kind of realized, like, OK, if I keep going down this path, people are going to keep referring to me as the TikTok guy. So they're on pause for now while I focus on my - what I call my less funny music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INTERNET DRAMA PART 2 (SHE STOLE MY BROCCOLI)")
LUBALIN: (Singing) Oh, careful who your friends are.
RASCOE: Talk to us about the title of the album, "Haha, No Worries," because that can give the perspective of someone who actually is probably worrying a lot and trying to sound chill (laughter).
LUBALIN: Yes.
RASCOE: So talk to me about that.
LUBALIN: So first, I got to give credit to my partner, HotGlueGone. She's the queen of naming things, and she came up with that title. It's the best thing in the world. I think it really, to me, captures this kind of surface level of, like, it's all good, you know?
RASCOE: Yeah.
LUBALIN: I'm a very, like, conflict-averse person myself, so, like, it really resonates with me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU KNOW ME")
LUBALIN: (Singing) You know me. I'm still pulling rabbits out of hats. You know I had to buff up all the stats.
RASCOE: There's a song, "You Know Me," that you write about never being satisfied, kind of moving at a frantic pace and not knowing what to do with a minute, you know, if you had a minute to yourself. But you perform that in this kind of laid-back tone of yours. Like, talk to us about what's behind that song and in that dichotomy.
LUBALIN: Yeah. That's one of my favorites. It really poured out of me. Sometimes, you've got to fight with them, and - but that one kind of came very naturally. And I'm always at odds with my own kind of ambitions...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU KNOW ME")
LUBALIN: (Singing) No matter what I'm doing it's just not enough. The way it hurts inside, it's just like when you fall in love. It's not enough to have it all. I want it all at once. Oh, that's all it was? You know me.
...Or trying to understand them. Like, I'm always - I still don't think I've ever been fully able to be honest with myself about what I actually want. And sometimes, I feel like it's selfish or greedy or - I don't know. Like, you know, why does it have to be that I make art and I want people to listen to it? And what does this all mean, you know? - because I love exploring. I love the art side. I love the part where I'm alone and figuring things out, and I love also working with cool people. But then there's always this need to, like, publish and to get bigger and the numbers, and, like, I'm addicted to the metrics and everything.
RASCOE: It's a way - it's validation...
LUBALIN: Yes. Yes.
RASCOE: ...Which everyone is looking for in some form or another, right?
LUBALIN: I think so. Yeah.
RASCOE: You know, I hear drum and bass in songs like "Something To Prove," as well as, like, some indie rock in songs like "Pale Blue Dot." And some of your vocalizations - like, they kind of sound a little like Southern hip-hop.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRUST ISSUES")
LUBALIN: (Singing) OK, trust issues. Sorry if I never really trusted you. Sorry if I'm always in a rush with you. Sometimes I feel like I'm too much for you.
RASCOE: Is there a particular genre that you turn to for inspiration?
LUBALIN: I have a lot of FOMO, and so I bounce around from genre to genre all the time. And actually, for this album, part of what I wanted to do was try to hone in on one sound and try to go deep on one thing. I think in the end, I went deep on probably two things that - maybe three, I don't know.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRUST ISSUES")
LUBALIN: (Singing) There I go. I think you know, yeah. I think you know you make me nervous. I think you do it on purpose.
I think in the end, it was more interesting. But, yeah, like, I don't know, like, the drums from drum and bass and that frantic energy, that sense of motion - like, I really love when things feel like they're moving. But yeah, I don't know. I can't help it. I can't help but, like, bounce around from thing to thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOG")
LUBALIN: (Singing) Losing all control. Oh, I don't know how to find peace. Oh...
RASCOE: Throughout the album, you kind of get this relatable anxiety, like, "Trust Issues," you know, "Bullet Time," "Turning Blue." Is creating these songs, like, therapeutic for you?
LUBALIN: Yeah. I think there are certain things that are just hard to talk about - right? - hard to bring up. And I think a lot of the music that I make is kind of just trying to express something.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOG")
LUBALIN: (Singing) I don't know how to find it. (Vocalizing). I don't know how to find it.
There's this feeling of, like, well, if I could find the perfect combination of words and notes, then you would understand exactly how I feel. And I think that's, like, what I'm in pursuit of.
RASCOE: What do you hope that listeners will come away from this album with, and how do you hope that they'll come to get to know you as an artist?
LUBALIN: That's always, like, an interesting question 'cause, like, what I hope they get from it is whatever they need or whatever it can best provide them, I guess, is the most convoluted answer. One thing that I thought was interesting was on "Pale Blue dot," there's this - the opening line was, when I was a kid, I told all the other kids I was an alien.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PALE BLUE DOT")
LUBALIN: (Singing) Don't know if I convinced anyone else, but I said it so much, think I convinced myself.
And I thought this was a unique experience. But I - then, like, suddenly in the comments on Facebook and YouTube and whatever, people are kind of all realizing, like, oh, my God, I thought I was the only one, but I also kind of had this similar experience of either thinking I was an alien or telling kids I was an alien. And so we kind of just, like, collectively realized that we weren't alone in this experience that kind of inherently is about feeling alone. So I'm always surprised at what people end up getting from the music.
RASCOE: That's Lubalin. His new album, "Haha, No Worries," is out now. Thank you so much for speaking with us today.
LUBALIN: Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PALE BLUE DOT")
LUBALIN: (Singing) This little feeling of feeling so little, it's all I've... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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