Psychology major senior Lauren Plevy (pictured above) focuses on producing electronic music. Plevy sings and uses an electronic keyboard on her EP, Honesty, with the help of the Ableton Live program. (Udeshi Seneviratne/Photo editor)
Music is meant to tell stories and spread joy. Psychology major senior Lauren Plevy hopes to do just that with her EP, Honesty.
On campus, Plevy is a member of the Spectrum Women’s Ensemble, but her love of music and her work as an independent artist stems from her parents.
“My parents raised me listening to a lot of classic rock like Queen, Squeeze, Led Zeppelin, the whole nine,” Plevy said. “From there, when I was about seven years old, they introduced me to School of Rock which was this rock camp program. There I learned how to play guitar and sing.”
Although she grew up listening to classic rock, Plevy eventually took an interest in electronic music.
“I started getting interested in electronic music when I was like 10 or 11. I started hearing different things. I had all the Now That’s What I Call Music CDs,” Plevy said. “All of those were electronically produced so I always had that interest in that sound.”
Plevy produces her music with her computer and uses other tools such as a keyboard and programs to assist her.
“I use my computer, an interface and a little keyboard that I used for my melodies and what not,” Plevy said. “I used a program called Ableton Live. Essentially, it’s amazing because all the possibilities of sound are in there.”
Plevy began producing her own electronic music about six years ago. In these six years, she spent time trying to discover her sound and show people that electronic music is a real genre of music.
“A lot of people don’t think electronic music is legit and they don’t find it to be a real genre of music, but it’s actually very difficult to do,” Plevy said. “I’ve been producing for six years now and I’m just now really starting to touch people with my music.”
Honesty features eight songs that Plevy explains were inspired by love, heartbreak and life.
“I was going through a breakup and, you know, like any music it’s inspired by love. When you’re being honest, it’s sometimes hard to play the line of being truthful and trying not to hurt the person you love very much,” Plevy said. “Then it’s also about just existing and what I go through in my everyday life. How it feels to be alive in a body, in human form which can be very confusing at times and anxiety inducing. But also, beautiful and just existing and being alive.”
Overall, Plevy wants her music to relay themes of living life’s experiences and becoming who you are.
“You’re always becoming. You never stop becoming who you are, and you just continue to become a better version of yourself,” Plevy said. “I think that’s what [the album] was encapsulating the most, just going through these things and experiences.”
In addition to producing music, Plevy works in Vincent Markowski's Behavioral Neurotoxicology lab in Bailey Hall. Although she wants to focus on graduating, she plans to create more music in the future.
“I want to make a much larger project that can have an even bigger story,” Plevy said. “I think for the mean time I’m going to try and graduate and continue to work on music and see where it goes because I really enjoy it.”
Plevy feels that any artist making music should throw caution to the wind, have fun and try not to be too serious.
“The best things come out of experimentation so anyone that’s learning to make music, or electronic music for that matter, just go for it. Have fun and see what you find because it’s really fun,” Plevy said. “I think we run into trouble when we get really serious about our work and our art, but it doesn’t have to be so serious.”
Plevy’s EP Honesty can be found on SoundCloud or Spotify.