INTERVIEW: Catch Up With Lulu Simon on Life and Her Latest Album, Muscle Memory

Lulu Simon and her music are not merely confined to the pop genre. Her creations embody the sound of daydreams and fairytales, highlighting some of our most complex inner emotions and desires.

Since her debut in 2018 with the single “Wasted,” Simon has been expanding her discography with wistful tracks such as “How to Be Alone,” “Strangers,” and “Being Alone is the Best”—establishing her distinct style. Within each lyric, Simon reflects upon her own life and exemplifies growth throughout her lived experiences.

She forms connections with her audience by reminiscing on events that pertain to our own lives. On October 7, she dropped her newest EP, Muscle Memory, with dance-pop tracks like “All In” and powerful ballads such as “Already The End.” Simon’s passion for music is evident in her pieces, and we cannot wait to witness what she has left in store.

GLITTER: Hi Lulu! Thank you for chatting with us again at Glitter, how have you been?

LULU: I’ve been good, how are you?

GLITTER: I’m good, thank you! Congradulations on your new music that came out this past summer, and the one that will be released on Friday!

LULU: Thank you!

GLITTER: I want to start with asking what the writing process was like for “Something”?

LULU: I actually started writing “Something,” I think in 2018 or 2019, something like that. I came up with the first verse and then I got totally stumped and I did not know where that song was gonna go, and I kind of left it alone for two years. And then it was last year, last April, I was on a walk, on my daily Hot Girl walk, and I just had an idea, it just hit me so fast and so hard—I was like, wait a minute, I think I know where this is gonna go, and I wrote it all in my head. And then I went back to the piano to see if it made sense all together, and luckily it did.

GLITTER: I really love your lyrics, they really speak to kind of like the most relatable experiences that we go through. I was wondering where do you find inspiration for these lyrics?

LULU: First of all, thank you! I don’t know, I guess just life, you know? I feel really lucky that songwriting is so therapeutic for me and that I am able to express myself and emote the way that I need to in order to not totally lose my mind. So yeah, I draw a lot of inspiration from life, I feel like, you know, I’m in my twenties so things are dramatic no matter what.

GLITTER: Definitely! I feel like you have constantly expressed that you have been destined to write songs, but I wonder if throughout this career path you have ever found any moments of frustration?

LULU: A hundred percent. I think it’s really difficult not to get discouraged because comparison is unavoidable. I feel it’s really hard not to look at someone else who is your age or younger than you, and to see their career excel in a way that yours isn’t. And to look at yourself and say, what am I doing wrong? It’s really hard. I think it’s really hard to not get discouraged, and it’s also hard not to feel like a commodity when you’re trying to got your art out there without compromising your artistic integrity. It’s a really fine line to balance I think.

GLITTER: Through these many difficult experiences, how do you find ways to cope? Or maybe some methods that help your relax or calm down when you are frustrated?

LULU: I think mostly I just have to fall back on my faith and myself. I was a sociology major in college, so I am not qualified for any job in the world. So, I think it’s really just falling back on that faith that this is what I love to do more than anything, and there’s nothing else I can do… write sociological papers I guess (chuckles).

GLITTER: You can definitely feel through your music that passion and that wistful and magical quality, and I wonder if you have ever imagined changing that persona or your style?

LULU: I haven’t actively thought about it. I think that there are times where, going back to feeling discouraged, I wonder if the way that I make music is not working for me? But, it’s not a performance. I’m not writing a song as a means to an end, I’m writing a song as a way to express myself as an emotional release. I think realistically as I get older and as I experience life more and as I hopefully mature, the way that I write and my perspective and point of view will probably shift. But, I think for now I can’t think about it too hard, I just have to let whatever is authentic to me come out and and just hope that other people like it and can relate.

GLITTER: As a fellow Pisces, and as someone who is overly emotional and really does overthink things in life, I really love listening to your music. It helps me relax and is a source to express myself, which makes me question whether or not you are planning to go on tour or have any performances any time soon?

LULU: I would love to go on tour! But I don’t think there is anything concrete set in motion yet. I don’t know, fingers crossed, hopefully in the New Year I’ll have some shows on the books.

GLITTER: I noticed in your “Something” music video and in past interviews that you have had a lot of references to frogs. How long has this obsession been going on for, and why frogs?

LULU: It honestly started in 2020 right when lockdown first happened. I was quarantining with my parents, and I have two brothers, and they were both in New York and I was not in New York—I was with my parents. I have never spent, I think it was three months, but I had never spent that much time, first of all, without my brothers and without people my own age around. At first I was like, okay this is gonna be great! I’m gonna write so many bangers; I have all the time in the world now to focus on my art. I did not do that. I started painting frogs and it was because I saw a picture of a frog on Instagram and it really just tickled me. I was like, this is a perfect creature, I need to paint it. And I’m not a painter at all, but I became really hyperfocused on painting frogs. I painted a frog a day for like two months. I think from there people seeing that I was painting frogs were like, “Oh that’s Lulu! She loves frogs!” And then all of the sudden every single gift that I was given was frog-related. So I was like, “Okay, I guess I’m just the frog lady now, that’s fine.” I think I got the ball rolling, but I really feel like the people around me took it to the level that it is at now.

GLITTER: So, I kind of want to shift to your upcoming EP, Muscle Memory. What gave you the idea to have this title?

LULU: There is actually a song on the EP called, “Already The End,” and there is a line in that song that says, “And if I reach for you, then it’s subconscious. I’d forgotten that we’d lost touch, and muscle memory means the break ain’t always clean.” I feel like this whole EP is really about coming to terms with relationships and how they shift and end, and that feeling of just a phantom limb where this person, these people, used to be in my life and now they’re not. The instinct I think when you love is to maintain the love: to reach out, to send memes or funny pictures or tweets, saying, “Oh, I was just watching this movie and it reminded me of you!” It’s a whole universe between people that is totally gone. I think that really encompasses all of the songs that are on the EP.

GLITTER: I think this ties really closely to one of Glitter‘s core messages, which is self-love. How do you think that you have been able to express this idea throughout your music?

LULU: I think that being able to recognize relationships that don’t serve you anymore, and being able to, like my other song, being able to be by yourself, being able to be alone, and feeling comfortable and at peace with yourself is something that I was really struggling with as I was writing all of this music. I felt like in writing these songs I was sort of reassuring myself that I can be alone and that it is better for me to be separate from these relationships even though there is still that instinctual gravitational pull to some degree. But I think as you get older it’s really difficult to sort of identify relationships that are hurting you instead of uplifting you, and being able to take care of yourself, and in distancing yourself from the people or the things that don’t serve you anymore is really important.

GLITTER: What do you think is next, and what do you have planned for a future step in your career?

LULU: I actually already have another EP in the works, so hopefully that gets finished up soon. I would love to go on tour. I would love to be a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, so if you have an in with RuPaul, drop him a line for me.

GLITTER: Thank you so much for taking time our of your day to talk with us! It was really nice to get this sneak peek on your upcoming music and we’ll definitely be looking forward to what’s next to come.

LULU: Thank you so much!