From New York's diverse music scene, singer-songwriter and recording artist Luca Lowe delivers a double dose of introspective pop with her latest singles, "Stonefruit" and "My Bluff."
The emerging artist is gaining serious traction with her honest storytelling and captivating melodies. Lowe's music dives deep into the messy reality of navigating your twenties, tackling themes of change, friendship, and love with raw emotion and catchy hooks.
In her latest releases, Luca Lowe continues to explore the complexities of young adulthood. "My Bluff" and "Stonefruit" are two distinct yet complementary snapshots of life in your twenties—and it's the perfect portrayal of Lowe's versatility as a songwriter.
Hitting play on "My Bluff," the song opens with sweet keys alongside Luca Lowe's gentle, lush vocals, expressing the moment she realized someone special caught her bluff. From the get-go, we can tell that Luca has a knack for telling chilling, relatable stories that make listeners lean in closer. But alongside the song's tender instrumentals and faint background vocals, she makes the listening experience irresistible.
And then comes the smooth-sailing Sunday groove of "Stonefruit," perhaps one of the sweetest summer songs we've heard this year. Luca Lowe's harmonies in the intro lock us in for the ride, guided by the tender bass licks and alluring production, balanced out with Luca's heavenly vocals that yearn for someone's presence.
It's a hypnotizing song that's bound to put this young artist on the map.
Experience the bittersweet journey of young adulthood with Luca Lowe's "Stonefruit" and "My Bluff," now available on all digital streaming platforms.
Welcome to Buzz, Luca! We can't get enough of your immersive new singles, "Stonefruit" and "My Bluff." What inspired you to release these two tracks together?
Initially, I just liked the way they sounded together. But after repeatedly listening to them side by side, I started to uncover their similarities. I wrote each song within a day in the studio, though with different producers and months apart. To me, their stories are two sides of the same coin. “My Bluff” is about somebody romanticizing parts of you that you don't necessarily like, and I used “Stonefruit” to try out a flirtatious personality. The voice I invented for “Stonefruit” felt like the very facade I wanted to dismantle in “My Bluff.” Ultimately they are both lonely songs about feeling perceived.
Both "Stonefruit" and "My Bluff" touch on different aspects of relationships. What experiences inspired you to write about them?
The songs are based on quite different romantic experiences. “My Bluff” was written after I did something I shouldn’t have and was losing sleep over it. I went from my sleepless night straight to the studio with Botaii. The writing emerged out of this fever pitch of guilt, self-loathing, and confusion. I was using the song to unearth why I had done what I did. In writing the song, I could finally articulate this frustration I had been feeling: that a lot of people around me were drawn to me for something that I didn't like in myself.
“Stonefruit” came less of from an experience and more of a mood. I was visiting a friend in Toronto from New York City to write and record. It was about the stifling New York heat, the chaos in the City in the summer and the desire to be met in my withdrawn exhaustion.
Where did you want to take "Stonefruit" and "My Bluff" in terms of production and sound? Can you tell us about your creative process in the studio? On “My Bluff,”
I came up with the idea that I wanted to make something that felt like a choir. I resonate more with songs that are sonically low, usually with a lot of 808s and vocal clarity.
I typically have two different approaches in the studio. These two songs came from the first approach, where a producer is sitting up by the monitor, or the piano or synth, or whatever, I'm sitting behind them on a couch, or a bed, or the floor. As they're building out their sections I am writing melody and lyrics over it. It feels like the best crossword of all time.
The second approach is that I come in with something written and I help find the shape with whoever I’m working with. At times, this is far more challenging because I start with an intention, and it’s practically a coincidence that my producer shares that same vision. When it does click, it's really fun because I get to see a song that started on just my piano or guitar transform into this huge, fleshed-out piece. With either approach, when something is working, it really feels like we are uncovering something that already exists rather than creating something with endless possibilities.
"Stonefruit" captures a very specific feeling of summer in New York. How does the city influence your songwriting?
The place is so overstimulating that it gives me a lot of material to work with. Every emotion is heightened in the City. I love the constant influx of information, and writing is my way to synthesize that at the end of the day. Because New York is relentlessly chaotic, I’m forced to carve out time and be more intentional about when I write, which has been really good for me. A lot of the songwriters I most admire also spent prolific periods of their career in New York: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Ella Fitzgerald, Carole King, Lana Del Ray, and Samia. And they all come from a storytelling tradition of songwriting that I aspire to.
While I love New York, I kind of hate it in the summer. Everything feels labored and sweaty. It makes me want to throw my hands up and hope that things come to me. The production of “Stonefruit” mirrors that humid lethargy.
What was your goal with "Stonefruit" and "My Bluff" in terms of the listener's experience? What did you want them to feel and take away?
For better or for worse, this is something that I rarely think about. A lot of (if not all) the music I write is to help me work through something. It’s incredibly cathartic to pull these feelings and thoughts out of my head and then be able to listen back to them; it really calms the chatter in my head. I often have trouble talking about things I’m going through, especially romantically, but ever since I was in middle school, once I’ve written a song about it, I can let go a little bit. I always assume that a lot of my emotions and reactions are singular, but now that I’ve begun to share my music, I feel incredibly lucky and surprised when someone tells me that one of my songs struck a chord with them, too.
With “My Bluff,” in particular, I had to sift through a lot of emotions to get to the root of the problem. I had to sort past all of the guilt to really understand what resentment led me to my actions. In the end, feeling like the person you're dating is projecting something onto you was a really lonely feeling. I hope this song provides company in those moments.
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