LP

“I recognized that I had a vibrato which was kind of embarrassing so I didn’t really sing out too much when I was little until my mom said, well, I was in the back of a car singing along to a song and she turned it down and was like,

“What is that?” And I was like, “Really? You like that?” So then I started singing out a little more and then just kept going.”

LP lost her mom (opera singer) to cancer when she was a teenager and that’s when she decided to move to New York City from Huntington and pursue her dreams of being a singer.

In the summer of 2016, LP had a wild change of fate. An older song of LP went viral in Greece before spreading around the world. A few years and a pandemic later, LP is a global superstar with streaming figures in the billions.

 

It all started with LP and their friend Alicia Godsberg who have been wrting songs together.

After fronting different styles, the two started playing as Lionfish, in 1995 in New York City. They took the name L.P. after their zodiac signs, Leo (Alicia’s) and Pisces (LP’s).

In that point something special happened, LP adopted their personal nickname LP.

“I remember when I moved to New York somebody asked if they could call me LP and I was like ‘Yeah sure.’

You can’t really choose your nickname. It sort of just stuck. I liked it and I identify with it the most now.”

 

Their first two records Heart Shaped Scar in 2001 under the license from Koch Records (their first record deal) and

Suburban Sprawl&Alcohol in 2004 under the license from Lightswitch Records released under the name of her band: ‘L.P.’

On the record Suburban Sprawl&Alcohol, she collaborated with songwriter and music producer Linda Perry.

“Wasted”, from this album, was the theme song for the second and third season of The N’s show South of Nowhere.

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In 2006, LP sparked a bidding war amongst major music labels, eventually being signed by L.A. Reid to his Island Def Jam Music Group record label, part of the Universal Music Group. However, due to artistic differences they left the contract.

LP signed with SoBe Entertainment in 2007, an independent record label. During that time LP still writing for themself, was planning releasing another album (in January 2009). There are few interviews from that time, where we see them in the studio talking about their upcoming plans. The debut single, “Good With You” was available on iTunes.

In 2008 SoBe even released a videoclip of two new LP songs mixed into one,

'Good with you/Cling to me'. However as this studio also didn’t exactly knew what to do with LP (wtf!?), they decided to keep them as a songwriter for other artists. That’s the time when LP took a break from writing for themself.

“I got signed to two different major labels back to back but literally never played live in those next three years”.

One of their first songs that came to other artist was “Love Will Keep You Up All Night”.

They had written it while still at Island Def Jam Music Group with Billy Mann, and it was released in late 2007 on the Backstreet Boys album, Unbreakable.

 

Around 2009, LP started writing songs for other artists, working extensively on the Heidi Montag album, Superficial.

She co-wrote the single, 'More Is More', as well as the album tracks, 'Twisted', 'Hey Boy', and 'Love It or Leave It'.

They co-wrote other tracks for and with Montag, such as the Cathy Dennis co-write, 'Look How I’m Doin', 'I Do This' and 'Who’s That Girl'. A song they wrote with Alexander Kronlund,

'Standing Where You Left Me', was released on Erik Hassle’s debut UK album, Pieces.

They landed their first major breakthrough as a songwriter, co-writing Rihanna’s song, 'Cheers (Drink to That)', featured on Rihanna’s fifth studio album Loud, released on November 12, 2010. 'Cheers' features a vocal hook performed by LP (taken from Avril Lavigne’s 'I’m with You').

 

LP’s major label songwriting breakthroughs continued, as she co-wrote 'Beautiful People', performed by

Christina Aguilera. The song is featured on the Burlesque: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album.

In June 2011, LP co-wrote 'Afraid to Sleep' which was performed by NBC’s The Voice finalist Vicci Martinez.

 

In September 2009 they discovered ukulele,  so crucial for LP’s next phase as an artist, though she didn’t realized it back then. In October 2009, MTV’s The Hills featured LP’s song 'Damage Is Done' and it was released on iTunes.

In August 2010, it was announced that LP had signed with RedOne’s record label, 2101 Records.

In 2010, after they relocated from New York to Los Angeles, LP received an unexpected invitation to perform a few covers at a club (Bardot), which resulted in a weekly residency and a forum in which they could blow off steam after spending long days songwriting.

“A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to play this club after someone got sick. It actually turned into a whole thing and I started getting fans. That’s when I began playing the ukulele and enjoying music again, and when I set on my little tear of writing for myself.”

 

Following a record deal signed with Warner Bros. Records in September 2011, LP recorded a song titled 'Into the Wild', which was prominently used in a Citibank TV commercial in the end of 2011.

 

In April 2012, LP released their first major label album 'Into the Wild: Live at EastWest Studios', a five-song live extended play, and started touring extensively including festivals such as SXSW, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, Tropfest as well as Tokyo’s Sonic Boom and London’s Hyde Park.

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In 2012, they became the first female Martin Guitar Ambassador.

Over the following two years, they completed the recording of her third album that included collaborations with Billy Steinberg, Isabella “Machine” Summers (from Florence and the Machine), Josh Alexander, Claude Kelly, Justyn Pilbrow, Carl Ryden and Rob Kleiner.

The album was produced by Rob Cavallo, Warner Bros. Records’ chairman and producer.

On April 1, 2014, it was announced that LP’s third full-length studio album would be titled 'Forever for Now', and was released on June 3, 2014.

The album was promoted by the lead single 'Night Like This'.

Following the album, a second single 'Someday' was released in June 2014 in Canada. On September 16, 2014, a music video for 'Tokyo Sunrise' officially premiered on Time magazine’s website.

2014/2015 was a changing time for LP as a person and artist, they had storms in her personal and professional life.

Again, they were dropped by Warner Bros., even though they played for them ‘Lost on you’, ‘Muddy Waters’ and ‘Strange’.

Thankfully they were signed by Vagrant Records, who kept them float and kept them mind occupied.

In September 2015, the song 'Muddy Waters', the first single from LP’s upcoming fourth studio album, was released.

In June 2016, this song was featured in the violent and emotionally charged closing scene of the season four finale of Netflix’s original series Orange Is The New Black.

In November 2015, the second single, titled 'Lost on You', was also released, while LP held a residency at the No Vacancy club. Both songs originate from a collaboration with Mike Del Rio.

'Lost on you' is the song that made LP an European phenomenon.

In early 2016 they were signed by a small Greek label, followed by Italian and Polish, (amongst few others), who sold her songs to European radio stations and that’s how LP was finally recognized as an artist, at least in Europe, though USA is catching up.

An EP titled Death Valley was released on June 17, 2016.

EP was followed by LP titled ‘Lost on you‘, released on 9th December 2016 in several European countries and Canada.

In the USA “Lost On You” album was released on the 5th of May 2017.

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Discography

Love Lines - 2023

7th studio album

29,09.2023

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Churches - 2021

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6th studio album

03.12.21

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Live in Moscow - 2020

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29.05.20

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Heart to Mouth

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5th studio album

07.12.2018

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Lost On You (album) - 2017

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4th studio album

05.05.17

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Forever for Now - 2014

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3th studio album

03.06.14

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Suburban Sprawl&Alcohol - 2004

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2nd studio album

29.06.04

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Heart-Shaped Scar - 2001

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1st studio album

2001

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