I feel like I get asked this question a lot
. And my answer is always that I'm just an
over sharer. Like I have no issue telling every
single person every traumatic thing that's ever happened to me
. Hey, I'm Lauren Spencer Smith. And you're
watching Billboard News. Hey, everybody. It's with
Billboard News and I'm so excited. We have singer
songwriter, my sweet friend Lauren Spencer Smith here.
Now had your fingers crossed. I interviewed you back
in the day, like right when fingers crossed came
out and now we have this incredible journey that we're
here to talk about your debut album. Congratulations.
So mirror. Tell me a bit about the concept
behind it. The idea of your bathroom mirror being
a constant through the ups and downs in your life
. I mean, like, initially when I first
wanted to title the album, I wanted it to
be something about reflecting everything that's on the album is
like a personal experience to me. And then throughout
realizing like no one had been by my side other
than my mirror, seeing every cry sesh, happy
sesh, like came back from the first date with
my boyfriend and looked myself in the mirror and was
so excited. Like it's the only thing in my
life that was the constant throughout the roller coaster of
emotions that I had to go through to write the
album. But it just felt so fitting to call
it mirror. I have to try and take a
step back and view from someone else's perspective. It's
hard, but I just have to focus on not
losing myself in the mirror though. I feel like
there are some songs that is so nice to see
that you're really working through healing, through the trauma
. Do it again, is one of them that
I think is so special that you're coming to the
conclusion that OK, this happened, all these awful
things happen. But if I were to go back
, this is who made me who I am.
Yeah, I, when I first started writing the
album, I would never have imagined that I was
going to end the album with that title. I
definitely think it was just something I randomly started thinking
of one day like, wow, I literally would
not be where I am today if everything didn't happen
to me. And as much as sometimes I still
look back being very annoyed and sad that things like
that happen to me, it just has made me
who I am. It's the reason I've written all
the songs. Um But I remember just one day
thinking to myself, oh, I think I should
thank the person who hurt me honestly because they've kind
of given me this trajectory of a career at this
point and it kind of just flowed from there.
Yeah. It's a funny thing that you always see
that with artists like Adele, for example, who's
like, yeah, I mean, thanks to that
guy who ruined my life because I wouldn't have all
these incredible songs without it. Taylor Swift's another one
that's like that too in the moment. So sad
. And you're never gonna get over it. And
then like two years later you realize it was the
best thing that ever happened to you. I also
want to talk about that part because I've been seeing
all these adorable Tik Toks reels of people getting engaged
, people getting married to this song. How does
it feel now you're in love as well? How
does it feel to share that love with everybody else
through that song? I also definitely never thought I
was gonna write a love song in my life either
or have one on my album. So it's very
weird full circle to see all these people making happy
videos to my music and not the opposite. Um
But it's so amazing. I'm such a lover of
love and other people's relationships and all different types and
kinds of love. So it's really, really amazing
to see people like renewing their vows or getting engaged
or actually using it as their wedding song is just
unbelievable. Was there any video that stood out to
you that you saw? I feel like there's so
many, we actually flew somewhere to sing at somebody's
wedding. No one will get you home. Oh
my God. Did you know? And I feel
like that was like the best moment for me that
it was like actually somebody's first dance. There's a
lot of first dance videos that I've seen and I
save them all. I send them to my mom
. I'm like, so excited over it. What
are some of the lessons you've learned throughout this journey
of making a debut album and exploring yourself? I
mean, you're so young. So you're still going
through life transitions as well. I feel like just
being honest with myself, like there was a lot
of songs that I wrote that even like, didn't
make the album were ones that did that I felt
like maybe I didn't want to share or I shouldn't
write about it or maybe I shouldn't like, see
that he had daddy issues in the song. And
like throughout songwriting I've just realized to say whatever I
want and like, it doesn't have to have a
bad intention to it. It's just something that I
wanna say in a song and just allowing myself to
be honest in all of my songs and really be
true to myself. It's cathartic. Yeah. And
also you're going on tour. Congratulations. And you're
starting toward the same day the album comes out how
have you been feeling? Leading up to it?
I'm a little scared. I'm very, very excited
. I've never toured an actual like cohesive body of
work that I'm proud of. So I'm very excited
to be just performing songs that I love. Um
But I'm definitely, definitely just a little bit scared
. I don't wanna like sing a wrong note or
fall on stage in heels like that kind of thing
. Congratulations on your debut album. You deserve it
so much and thank you so much for speaking with
me today. Thank you so much.