On Tour With Lindsey Lomis and the Making of the Universe EP

Emerging pop singer Lindsey Lomis is quickly on her way to becoming one of the industry's elites.

The Nashville native has one of the most refreshing voices of this generation, taking inspiration from pop-soul greats Adele and Amy Winehouse while simultaneously distinguishing her way through signature runs and her soft, sultry tone. But what sets Lindsey apart is her understanding of music's power at the young age of 20—it's not about dominating charts but connecting with others in a way that feels true.

After a stint on Joshua Bassett's recent Complicated Tour, Lindsey takes the next step with her latest EP, Universe, out today (April 14). This five-track project sees Lindsey at her most raw, surfacing her insecurities in love and coming to terms with betrayal. It's a level of authenticity new (but freeing) to Lindsey, as she reveals to Sweety High: "This feels like the beginning of really discovering myself. I'm being open with people and discussing real situations happening in my life."

Ahead of Universe's release, Lindsey sat down with us to discuss the new music and touring with Joshua Bassett. Continue reading to hear her favorite memories from the Complicated Tour, how her latest EP compares to her previous projects and her musical influences growing up.

Sweety High: How are you feeling coming off your live shows in support of Joshua Bassett on the Complicated Tour? Have you discovered anything new about yourself or your relationship with music over the past few weeks?

Lindsey Lomis: It's been such a high the past month. I feel like my sense of time is so skewed now, but the tour has been so fun.

(Photo Credit: MC Saunders)

This is definitely the biggest tour I've ever done. It's the first one where I have a whole band, get off my guitar, jump around and put on a whole show. I learned a lot. I thought I was going to be awkward, but I shook off the nerves of any judgment and realized it doesn't matter what I look like. I just wanted to have fun! I've been fake performing in my room since I was a little kid, so I imagined that.

My favorite part of the process of making music is performing it and being able to meet and build a connection with the people who are listening. I feel the most gratitude for everything I get to do while I'm on tour.

 

SH: Do you have any fun memories from tour?

LL: Oh my gosh. There's so many.

This is my first tour without my parents. We have a whole Sprinter van, I have a tour manager now and my whole team is all women. We're like a friend group.

There was an insane moment that happened early on—I wasn't there, but it's just a crazy situation. On our off day, I flew from LA while the band was driving our van. They got caught in a blizzard in California! It was unexpected. I felt so bad. Seattle was our next show, and they drove the entire day after the blizzard to get there in time but missed it by a few hours.

(Photo Credit: MC Saunders)

I still had to play the show. It obviously was not what any of us would have intended, but it created a special moment with the crowd. They were very sweet to me, given the circumstances. It also brought me closer to Josh's crew because I had no one on my team with me. I ended up becoming really close friends with Natalie, his photographer.

I feel so grateful for the people that I'm doing this with, and the fact that we all really get each other and became comfortable with one another really fast.

 

Also read about: 19 Lyrics From Joshua Bassett's Sad Songs in a Hotel Room to Use as Instagram Captions

 

SH: With that said, I'm curious—what does preparing for a show look like for you, especially in a situation like that where things unexpectedly don't go to plan?

LL: This is my first time performing with a backing track. I've never done that before. I'll be honest, I was anti-tracks for a long time. The second I really figured out how they worked, I became so interested. Now, I get to have my harmony stacks with all these textures and parts of the songs that bring so much energy and make them what they are in the recordings. Getting to play the real music with it is so much fun.

It was a big adjustment working with [my team] and the band [for the backing tracks]. We had a music director leading up to the tour and a week straight of rehearsals. We mapped out the setlist order, the transitions from song to song, where I wanted to speak and create those intimate moments in the show. It's a short set since I'm the opener, so it was about fitting everything I knew I wanted into that set time.

(Photo Credit: Neil Shukla)

It was really important that I was able to place my old songs for people to connect with and also focus on my new music. I feel like the way we did it is so perfect that it feels like a real show, even though it was super short. It has all the dynamics: sentimental connection… there's a moment to rock out and a time to show off.

The past shows I've done have been me and my guitar. So, when it comes to rehearsing, I just had to force myself to sit down and ask, "What am I going to do?" It's a lot quicker because some of the songs I wrote on my guitar. I don't have to rehearse them in the same way I had to during this tour.

Overall, it was a much longer process. In situations like [Seattle], it was unfortunate that I didn't have my band, but I've been playing on my guitar since I was 12. It's not like I've never done that, you know? I was nervous because I hadn't done an acoustic set in a while, but that's what comes naturally to me, and it created a special moment. One thing about tours is that no matter what happens, you're going to make it work.

 

SH: For someone whose first introduction to you will be through Universe, what do you hope the EP tells them about you?

LL: Honestly, I hope that this project is a lot of people's first introduction to my music because Universe is the most vulnerable I've ever been in my lyrics. This EP is about storytelling, and I hadn't gone into that role too much.

I've been releasing music since I was 12. There's a lot of life I've lived since then. My last project, I started writing the day after I graduated high school. Even since then, which was two years ago, I was an entirely different person.

Universe has the confidence that my past music didn't, though I'm still figuring myself out. I'm grateful for all those different points of my career, but this feels like the beginning of really discovering myself. I'm being open with people and discussing real situations happening in my life.

 

Also read about: Shuba Learns Not to Fall for a Pretty Face With 'Hot Girls'

 

SH: 12 years old? That's a long time. How do you think about music differently almost 10 years later?

LL: So much of it is different, but a lot of it is instinctually the same.

I remember when I was 12, the first song that I wrote was about a book we read in English class. We had to make a project using iMovie, and I decided to write a song and put it in the background of the video. It was about a girl whose mom gets diagnosed with cancer and how she dealt with that. Really, a dark and deep struggle. At that age, I hadn't lived a lot, so I looked for inspiration in other places, like movies, or a little fragment of something that happen to me that I could make dramatic.

That was the first song I released where I got to take on those heavy emotions for a second and tried to understand different perspectives that weren't mine. I ended up speaking to support groups of cancer survivors, and I got to see how deep of an effect music has on people.

 

Also read about: Rowan Drake Confronts His Own Selfishness After a Breakup in 'Part of You'

 

SH: This EP has been described as a fusion of pop and soul. Since you've had such a long history with music, where did you get your first taste of that genre? Who are the artists that influenced your vocal style?

LL: I've always been drawn to soulful vocals. A big one for me when I was young was Adele. Amy Winehouse was also huge for me.

When I really started singing and playing guitar, it was Tori Kelly who inspired me to the max. The fact that she wrote her own songs and played guitar. She was a part of the entire process. A huge inspiration for me. At the same time as my Tori Kelly phase, I got into Cage the Elephant and Twenty One Pilots.

 

SH: They all take a very honest approach to music, which I can see in your music as well. On Universe, there are very difficult emotions discussed in the lyrics, like heartbreak, yearning and insecurity on "Bad News / Good News." Where do you find the courage to be vulnerable and authentic within your music?

LL: At this point, I can't imagine myself doing anything else. I'm so close with the people that I'm creating music with. They're basically my therapists. It comes from a place of love, so we're going to create exactly what I need to get off my chest.

The courage to actually release those songs comes from stuff like this tour. I was playing "Bad News / Good News" and "Universe" on this tour, and people would come up to me after the show and say, "I relate to this." That's what makes it so worth it.

A lot of my favorite artists I feel connected and inspired by because they're so authentic in their music. You feel like they're speaking to you and the situation you're going through. That's the beauty of music. I think it's something that comes with the maturity and the confidence that you gain throughout life.

 

SH: What can listeners expect next after Universe?

LL: More shows. I've talked about how much I loved touring. Even more music. You didn't hear it from me, but you did! [Laughs].

 

SH: Is there anything else you want to add before you hop off?

LL: I'm super grateful and excited for everything. I've never been more excited about a project and even the music following this that I feel connect. I'm excited to see what people think and just let it be.

 

Interested in learning more about Lindsey Lomis' experience on the Complicated Tour? Look HERE to see her exclusive tour diary of the past few weeks.