Lizzy McAlpine is a skilled storyteller who has become known for her candid and relatable songwriting in genres ranging from pop to indie folk. "As I’ve grown and evolved as a songwriter, I've been able to let the vulnerability shine through a little bit more and I’ve become less afraid of saying exactly what's on my mind," she says, speaking from Los Angeles over a Zoom call.
Apparently, listeners appreciate her honesty.
McAlpine has turned hundreds of millions of listeners into dedicated fans since the release of her first album, Give Me A Minute, in 2020. After introducing her sophomore album five seconds flat, her popularity seems to have skyrocketed . Her hit song "ceilings" peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reached 230 million streams and climbing on Spotify, was certified Gold, and inspired a TikTok challenge resulting in over 742,000 posts featuring a sped-up version of the song. She recently performed on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and signed with RCA Records. The second leg of her tour sold out immediately.
"Even though the experiences we all go through are universal, it can feel isolating when you’re in the moment," says the 23-year-old Philadelphia-born musician. "I hope that people can feel less alone and have an outlet to express their emotions that is healthy by listening to my songs."
With her soft but steady voice, McAlpine sings from a place where most of us feel least comfortable — a place of uncertainty, contradiction, and discovery — which is reflected in lines like "it's not that I hate you, I hate that it hurt" and "I was trying to be honest, but now I think I should've just lied." Instrumentally, five seconds flat is layered with electronic features, strings, guitar, piano, drums, and horns. But McAlpine doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into a style: "My albums are just a reflection of who I am at the time."
After completing a 27-show international tour on Sept. 11, McAlpine will head back into the studio to continue developing her third album — and to work toward new goals, including getting back to acting on stage or screen ("I'll literally take anything. I miss it so much"), building a world around her upcoming album through visuals and fan experiences, and buying a house. But first, she discussed her recent career highlights with GRAMMY.com.
On "Ceilings" Going Viral And Writing Songs That Connect
I was definitely surprised. I don't expect any of my songs to have viral moments. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen, and I'm not going to chase it or try to make it happen. Also, this wasn't a single, it was just on the album, and so I definitely wasn't expecting this song to resonate as much as it did with people.
I try to just write about things that have happened to me. Apparently, it's universal — I’ve gone through things that everyone seems to go through, and I put them into words. I think about my feelings all the time. I journal all the time; I have to write about a feeling until I understand it. That’s part of what songwriting is, for me, too. It's writing about things that I don't understand until I understand them. And I feel like a lot of people connect to that.
I'm not having any crazy experiences that no one else has ever had in their life before. I just tend to find ways to talk about these things that I experienced, [which are] sometimes feelings that are hard to put into words, and in ways that not a lot of people have talked about. I think people connect to the realness and the honesty.
[Noticing the "ceilings" TikTok trend] was a gradual thing for me. I can't remember which video I saw first, but I saw the sped-up sound getting a little bit of traction on TikTok, and then I started seeing the videos, and it snowballed from there. I wasn't expecting it. It was wild.
On Her "Tonight Show" Performance And Building A Lasting Career
I've done the late night talk show world before, but this was the first talk show experience that I had in at least a year. I had so much fun. I get nervous before I perform anywhere; it doesn't matter who's watching. But I wasn't that nervous at all. Jimmy was so nice. We did the bit, we filmed it. And then at the end, he was like, "Let me know if you want to listen to the mixes back. We want to make sure that you like it." It was just fun to be there and be on the set and perform the song for an actual audience.
I wouldn't say that was the turning point in being more widely recognized. I can't pinpoint one exact moment where it started changing, but it's always been a gradual, uphill kind of growth, which is what I want. I'm not chasing the overnight success thing. I want a long lasting career. And so I'm trying to build it gradually and with intention. That was one step on the path.
On The Joys And Challenges Of Headlining A Sold-Out Tour
At first, I was fully convinced that all the tickets had been bought by bots or scammers or something, and that there was no way they sold out that fast. I was only convinced when I walked onstage at the first show and saw actual people in the audience. It was surreal.
Especially since this is the second leg of the five seconds flat tour, we wanted to make it different from the first tour, so if people are coming for a second time, they're not getting the same thing. And we also wanted to level it up production-wise, because we have the means to do that now. We have a whole set. We have walls and a couch. We have lighting. It basically feels like a living room, which was my design and I really wanted to make it feel homey and intimate because that's my vibe. I interact with the furniture and the lamps, and I move around the set. I'm pretty sure last tour just had a rug onstage — and that was it. But that's all we could afford. It’s starting to feel like an actual production now.
There are a lot of challenging parts of touring for me. My cup is already pretty empty — I don't have a lot of social energy. The traveling takes more out of it, and then the performing takes even more out of it, so that at the end of the day, every day, I have nothing left. Sometimes it's easy once I'm on stage to go into that mode of performing. But it is hard on my mind and my body afterward.
So it's hard, but there are obviously fun moments. I love my team so much. My band and the crew are so kind and so fun to be around. My favorite moments on the tour so far have been with them.
On Signing With A Major Label And Embarking On A New Record
In tandem with the tour being a level up this time around, this also feels like the right time to go to a major label. I had thought about it right before five seconds flat came out but I wanted to hold out a little longer. That album didn't seem like the right album to take to a major. It was a gut thing. And now it feels like I am on the edge of something and this decision to sign with RCA is definitely pushing me towards that.
I want to do and accomplish a lot of things in my life and my career. This is a step towards all of those goals. I was ready to take that step.
I am working on my third record, and it's taken a long time, but it's finally on its way. All my albums are going to sound different because I'm always going to be a different person when I'm making them. Who I am now is leaning more towards ’70s-inspired sounds like Elliott Smith and the Smiths and those types of artists. A big inspiration for this album is Andy Shauf — his music is incredible. Just like ’70s-sounding, live, more raw and less tuned and perfected. I want the next album to feel more authentic. Not that my stuff before hasn't sounded authentic, but I'm leaning more towards a less clean, less polished sound.
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