Lauv
Ari Staprans Leff (born August 8, 1994), known professionally as Lauv (/laʊv/[5]), is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for his breakout hit "I Like Me Better"; included on his compilation album I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist), which was released in 2018.[6][7] His debut album, How I'm Feeling, was released on March 6, 2020, and debuted at number 16 on the US Billboard 200. Lauv has also written songs for other artists such as "Boys" by Charli XCX and "No Promises" by Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato.
"Lost in the Light" redirects here. For the song by Bahamas, see Bahamas (musician).
Lauv
Ari Staprans Leff
Somersault Sunday (2008–2015)
August 8, 1994[1]
San Francisco, California, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
- record producer
- Vocals
- guitar
- piano
- drums
- viola
2008–present
Early life[edit]
Ari Staprans Leff was born in San Francisco, California. His father, Stuart Leff, is Jewish, and his mother, Silvija Staprāns, is Latvian. He spent his early childhood in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and then his family relocated to a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went to Radnor High School.[8] As a child, he was interested in music and took piano and viola lessons before learning how to play the guitar at the age of 11.[7] Leff studied guitar, recording, sound design, production, voice, and songwriting with Jason Brook Zimmerman, co-owner and founder of the music lesson organization, Traveling Musician.[9] He started writing songs in middle school, at around 14 years old.[10] Many of his songs during this period focused on heartbreak and breakups, despite at the time, never having had a girlfriend.[8] During his time in high school, he played in several bands and studied jazz before moving on to electronic music.[7] He was so "fully obsessed" in making music and playing shows that he had no interest to drink, or do drugs, or anything.[11] He has said that his sister, Aiva would drive him and his friends on tour, where they often played "to zero people".[12] His early musical influences were Owl City and Never Shout Never. He would listen to Owl City's Maybe I'm Dreaming and study the production style and the abstract lyrical themes that use "dreamy" and "whimsical" images to describe love.[13] He also adopted the artist name, Somersault Sunday, and published some songs and extended plays on his Myspace account.[11][14]
After graduating high school, Leff decided to pursue a behind-the-scenes role in music seeing that his career was not taking off. He chose to study music technology at New York University's Steinhardt School.[7][10] While at university, he studied abroad in Prague and was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity.[15] He spent two of his four years at NYU as a studio intern for Jungle City Studios, where artists such as Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Keys recorded.[8] During his junior year, he signed a publishing deal after the success of his song "The Other" but he decided to finish university and enjoy it having only a year left and because he was also feeling fortunate enough to be able to go there.[11]
Career[edit]
2008–2012: Early years and Somersault Sunday[edit]
Leff began writing music at an early age. When he was 12, he started his first rock duo with his best friend Mike Wagenheim, and by age 13, the two teens started a metal band. After starting to try and write music, Leff began experimenting with an acoustic guitar and some synth sounds. A few months later, he wrote his own solo acoustic song called Parting Ways.[16] Leff then formed his first solo music project, Somersault Sunday, when he was 14 years old on April 28, 2008. He started it first "as a side project, just for fun," but continued it after receiving enthusiastic online response.[17]
Somersault Sunday is an electro-infused pop rock solo-project. Under the Somersault Sunday project, he was able to release three extended plays namely, Parting Ways EP (2009), Intermission – EP (2010), and Phone Calls & Weekends (2010). Trevor Dahl of Cheat Codes (who was then making music under the moniker Plug in Stereo) featured on his track "Wishful Thinking" from the Intermission EP.[18] The Phone Calls & Weekends EP, was produced by Kevin Gates, who also mixed and produced some of the songs of Never Shout Never, The Ready Set, and the late Cady Groves. He posted his songs on MySpace along with some song covers, and kept close contact with his fans through the platform. He had a band playing with him during live shows and concerts. Leff was known for his basement concerts in his early middle and high school years He even won a coveted spot to perform during the 2011 Vans Warped Tour.[19]
2014–2016: Beginnings and Lost in the Light[edit]
Leff focused on writing and producing for other artists during college, straying from his personal songwriting style. During his second year, he stumbled upon an interview with Paul Simon, in which Simon described his songwriting approach as a process of uncovering his innermost buried feelings. The interview helped Leff to get in touch with the way he used to write.[20] Afterwards, Leff adopted the stage name Lauv, Latvian for "lion" (lauva), as a nod to his mother's heritage. His first name, Ari, means "lion" in Hebrew, and his zodiac sign is Leo.[15][10]
While getting over a break-up in fall of 2014, he co-wrote "The Other" with Michael Matosic.[8][15] Although he was focused on writing potential songs for other artists, he felt "The Other" worked better as his own song. It would be the first song he released under the name Lauv.[15] With "The Other", he also discovered his stripped-down electronic pop sound.[8] The song is a fusion of rhythm and blues and indie-pop with influence from jazz guitar. The song gained blog attention and, after he uploaded it to SoundCloud in 2015,[8] went viral, peaking at number three on blog aggregator Hype Machine,[15][21] and hitting the Global Top 100 on Spotify.[22]
After graduating from NYU, Lauv signed to the publishing company Prescription Songs.[22]
On September 25, 2015, Lauv released his debut EP, Lost in the Light, which featured "The Other".[23] Then, apart from releasing the single "Question" featuring Travis Mills in 2016, Lauv worked on writing and producing songs for other artists.
Most notably, he co-wrote and co-produced "No Promises" for Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato,[10] which reached number 7 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart.[24] In an interview with iHeartRadio, Lauv stated that he had been friends with Trevor Dahl from Cheat Codes since "back in the Myspace days."[25]
Personal life[edit]
Lauv resides in Los Angeles, California.[86] Leff dated pop musician Julia Michaels for 10 months in 2018, and they broke up in the end of that year.[12][87] Since 2020, he has been in a relationship with fellow singer-songwriter Sophie Cates.[88]
Leff has opened up about his mental health several times throughout his career.[89] As a result, Leff is known for donating proceeds from songs to mental health organizations in an effort to erase stigma surrounding mental health. Microsoft and Leff teamed up to release "My Blue Thoughts", a place for people struggling to share what they were going through and to let go of something weighing them down.[90]
His mother and his maternal grandparents are Latvian and Leff has frequently visited Latvia to visit relatives and spend summers in his grandfather's cottage in the seaside city of Jūrmala.[91][92]
In June 2023, Lauv came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ Community in a TikTok. In an interview that August with Out he clarified regarding his sexuality that "I don't really have any particular answers yet, other than it's something that I'm exploring in my music and exploring in my mind, and I'm going to be exploring in my life."[93][94]