For Lil Lotus, life has largely felt like one giant nosebleed—being drained by the people around him, solitude and his internal demons. “This whole experience has been me being drained my whole life. Now that I'm getting older, I'm trying to figure out, how do I fix these things?” That concept also informed Lil Lotus’ sophomore album aptly titled Nosebleeder, due December 1st via Epitaph Records—an album produced by Matt Malpass (Blink 182, Travis Barker, MGK, nothing,nowhere.) and Mike Pepe (Taking Back Sunday, Charlotte Sands) that traverses themes like friendship, addiction, mental health and toxic relationships. Lotus, born John Elias Villagran III, grew up in Texas in a Christian household where he was only able to listen to certain types of music. But after stealing an iPod from school, he was drawn deeply to the rock world—Mars Volta, Saosin, Underoath, Paramore and Linkin Park. It was those bands that inspired Lotus to start creating his own music. At 14 age, Lotus began casually jamming out with his friends before he started playing in bands like the alt-hip-hop group Boyfriendz and the post-hardcore band If I Die First. In 2016, he began focusing more on his solo work, which turned into Lil Lotus. After releasing a string of singles and EPs, Lotus shared his debut album Errør Bøy in 2021, which featured Travis Barker and lil aaron. Nosebleeder marks a new era for Lil Lotus. The title track on his forthcoming album is perhaps the centerpiece of the record, detailing the redundancy of the vicious partying experience and endless benders in LA culture. “Nosebleeder, I taste the cocaine on your tongue,” he sings over anxious guitar riffs. On the raw, Armor For Sleep-inflected “What a Time to Be Alive,” Lotus further explores the complexities of addiction and the double-edged sword of being medicated. “Sometimes it feels like, ‘Is medicine helping me, or is it just to keep me from feeling anything at all?’” “Ghost,” a metalcore screamo-tinged track that features Alexis Monroe, explores the weight of betrayal in friendships. “We just took this like, ‘You're dead to me,’ approach, but that one definitely is on the heavier side.” Throughout the album, Lotus digs deep into the complexities of his relationships. “Blame Me For Everything,” which features Mod Sun, tackles the frustrating feeling of not being able to do anything right in a relationship. “Loving you is social suicide / you’re a bad habit,” he says with a biting lilt over raucous drums. “It's just like if you ever felt like you can't do anything right, and you're just sitting there and you're just like, "I'm doing everything completely wrong according to you or the world or my parents," or anything, it's like just waiting until the morning for you to put all that happened today on me.” Similarly, in “Everything You Hate About Me,” Lotus focuses on being clouded by something negative in a relationship that ultimately detracts from seeing the positive. The chorus explodes with layers of sarcasm and resentment that have been building up: “You can add it to the list of things that you hate about me.” “There's always like two sides to each situation, and you might feel somebody's like, ‘You're doing all this wrong, you're doing all this wrong,’ but it's like, ‘I've been doing this for you, and you're just disregarding everything else that I've done for you.’” “How's It Feel to Feel Nothing” taps into the exhaustion of an on-and-off relationship. “It's just like, ‘How many times are we going to do this? Did we not learn the first time? We always end up here, what are we learning?’” The screamo-meets-emo “Play Dead” taps into the pettiness of trying to fend off someone who keeps pursuing you when you aren’t interested. “When Life Gives You Lemons” is a sassy number about an unmanageable partner and the chaos they bring to a relationship. “Halley's Comet” is a downtempo, one-sided wistful anthem about missing someone who doesn’t miss you. “I miss you, I miss you, I miss you/ I hate you, I hate you,” he seethes. Lotus showcases his singular storytelling skills in “She’s A Vampire” and “Missouri.” The cinematic “She's A Vampire” was penned with Twilight in mind. “I wrote it with this movie mentality of like this guy meets girl, girl's acting weird and he doesn't understand why, and she keeps dipping off to hang out with these people at night that are so important to her. She's actually meeting up with her coven to do vampire shit.” The bouncy pop-punk “Missouri” is a twist on the epithet “misery loves company” but plays off of the idea of what would happen if they got married. One of the purest moments of the record comes on “Shooting Star” which captures the experience of two people watching a rare phenomenon while on the beach. With Nosebleeder, Lotus hopes his experiences resonate with his listeners. “I feel like a lot of songs are just me singing universally in the hope that somebody connects to the topics.
Locked in their “producer dungeon” warehouse, sophie meiers pours over three EPs they’ve spent the past two years materializing. Looking over 50 tabs pulled up on their search browser, they switch between internet archives and anthologies of symbols, back into Ableton while their notebook lays sprawled in front of them. They’ve reached the final stretch of their overambitious, immersive project they abstractedly call their “portals”. Three EP’s — each encapsulating its own unique sound, story, and world. Leave behind the present moment, and step into the first portal: shine__space. Drenched in chrome and reflecting blue and purple light, shine__space is reminiscent of a metallic, synthetic dreamscape. sophie describes this project as the “gateway, the space outside of the house, past the windows and the sky”. Sonically, the project revolves around cutting sequenced synths, arpeggiators, and resampled audio — vocal chops reminiscent of a digital age. “When I listen to music, I see and experience vivid imagery — sounds have smells, environments, and textures to me.” This is one of the main inspirations behind their portals — to be able to take the elaborate visions in their imagination into the real world. shine__space is threaded with surreal, euphoric stories that suspend you in an anodized environment — inviting you to observe these preserved moments through an out-of-body experience. The character that belongs to this world is a demi-human android — emblazoned with bright blue and purple hair, sculptures, and textiles. Join them to experience a glossy, dreamlike vision leading through the first portal. After exploring the gateway, spark__space transports listeners from the surreal glossy world of shine__space into a world of flesh and blood. spark__space is the warmth, the organic matter, the worldly. sophie says that in reference to the project being a “house”, spark__space is “the structure, the building, the living room”. It feels like flushed cheeks, comforting fabrics, and delirious longing. Opposed to the synthetic sound of shine__space, spark__space is quite the opposite. Saturated guitars, hazy baselines, and cushiony vocals blanket the organic production with a sense of untouched honesty. “I think that what makes these songs so special is that they are not trying to be anything — they are not over thought or edited — just exactly how I felt in that given moment”. The songwriting explores the nuances of mundane human experiences: the feeling of lust, attachment, devotion, and change. sophie says: “If the character for shine__space is a posthuman reflection of myself, spark__space is the most stripped back, primal version of who I am. Open, vulnerable, material.” As the project winds to a close, you will find yourself at the end of a long, narrow hall — where a stairwell leads from the comfort of the flame into a darker, shrouded basement. You hesitantly follow the dimly lit path down the stairway, now entering the crawl__space. crawl__space is the place where your secrets go to hide — the underbelly beneath the dreamlike world of shine__space and the organic environment of spark__space. sophie says they’ve always been fascinated with the mysteries concealed behind day-to-day life. “I want to talk about the parts of humans’ lives that we don’t begin to admit to ourselves — dirtiness, sickness, struggle, immorality, perversion.” crawl__space embodies the muck and grime inside of us all — confessions of obsession, self-destruction, and violent fairy tales. crawl__space is the final piece of their three-part immersive world. The EP centers around distorted guitars, crushed drums, and haunting vocals. These traits collide with morbid lyrics, invoking a palpable world with their descriptive storytelling. The character for crawl__space is a macabre expression of themselves with a slight fascination with destruction. Expressed with muted colors and textures, disheveled clothing, and stark contrast, the character explores the eerie beauty of the things we find “disgusting”. The project winds down with a somber lullaby, guiding you to the end of the basement where you find a window shaped like you. Outside of music, sophie is almost equally obsessed with a myriad of topics: visual art, CGI, quantum mechanics, and philosophy. They are constantly searching for the little things that tie together the greater tapestry of our lives. “Things become so much more interesting when you realize that everything you learn can relate back to any subject,” they explain. “To be able to capture a moment with sound is — in itself — magic. Vivid stories can be etched into airwaves forever. Music is a universal language — the ability to freeze time. It’s an exploration of the meaning of human mortality.” They currently spend their time continuing to explore the possibilities within art, music, and technology — and how their convergence can change the way we see and experience the world. “If you think about it, the possibilities are literally endless. Things are changing so rapidly as we explore this new terrain of what it means to make and share art. I’m so excited to evolve with our technology and see things we could have never imagined seeing in our lifetimes.” Buckle in, and step into the first doorway of this alternate universe. It’s everything you never imagined. Hailing from a small mountain town in Colorado, sophie meiers became obsessed with music at a young age, propelled by the myriad of resources that the internet holds. They left home at 15, paving their own way through creative ingenuity and a DIY mindset that carries into their art and work ethic. Existing on a plane all their own, LA-based artist sophie meiers (they/them) has created a surrealist alternate universe for their art to live, melding their passions for writing, visual artistry, and producing with an aesthetic uniquely their own. Their experimental production, sultry vocals, and lyrical honesty have garnered them 700K monthly listeners, with their talents recognized and celebrated by The FADER, PAPER Magazine, Billboard, Consequence, i-D, Lyrical Lemonade and more.