Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, welcome the inside the studio and I heart radio.
Speaker 1: My name is Jordan runt Dog. But enough about me.
Speaker 1: My guest today became a hero in his Dutch homeland
Speaker 1: when he won the Eurovision Song Contest. In The winning
Speaker 1: entry was his soulful piano ballad Arcade, inspired by a
Speaker 1: devastating personal loss. Almost two years after triumphing at Eurovision,
Speaker 1: the song blew up again thanks to TikTok, and his
Speaker 1: career has gone global ever since. In fact, he made
Speaker 1: his American Network TV debut just minutes before we spoke.
Speaker 1: Last November, he released his debut LP small Town Boy.
Speaker 1: It's a great acclaim and now we're gonna see what
Speaker 1: he has coming next. I'm so happy to welcome Duncan Lawrence. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Thanks. Yeah, I'm good. I
Speaker 1: just did the Today Show and we had the whole
Speaker 1: recordings and everything, and it's almost at the end of
Speaker 1: the day here, so yeah, and I'm fine. Me. How
Speaker 1: are you? Oh? Wow, I'm great. Wait that you had
Speaker 1: a much more exciting day than me. How how everything go?
Speaker 1: Where are you right now? Are you in the actually? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So it's a big time difference here. So I had
Speaker 1: my whole day already done, and it's just it was
Speaker 1: such an amazing day to be able to record for
Speaker 1: a US TV for the first time. It was my
Speaker 1: first performance ever and I had a great time doing it.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. Oh that's awesome out Congratulations, I mean
Speaker 1: so many things congratulate you for. I mean just the
Speaker 1: success of Arcade. It's amazing. It must be strange for
Speaker 1: you in a way because the song wins Eurovision back
Speaker 1: in When did you realize it was blowing up all
Speaker 1: over again? That was crazy. It was actually a couple
Speaker 1: of months ago. I got this message from my manager
Speaker 1: and he was saying, I think you should have a
Speaker 1: look at what's happening on TikTok because ourcade is blowing up.
Speaker 1: And a lot of Harry Potter fans were using the
Speaker 1: song to recreate scenes from the movies to kind of
Speaker 1: make Malfoy in Hermione, which are like sworn enemies and
Speaker 1: the movies fall in love with each other, and then
Speaker 1: they used loving You was Losing Game under that as
Speaker 1: a tech ran. So it was so fun to watch that.
Speaker 1: But ever to just spread so so far, like it
Speaker 1: reached other digital platforms and just like social media and
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it really has blown up. Can you tell
Speaker 1: me a little bit about where the song came from
Speaker 1: for you, what inspired it? I wrote Arcade actually a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, um, when I was studying at
Speaker 1: the Rock Academy, and I always wrote songs because I
Speaker 1: always tried to turn something negative into something positive by
Speaker 1: taking a negative story and turning it to a song.
Speaker 1: Because I was bullied when I was younger a lot,
Speaker 1: So I took all that negativity home and I locked
Speaker 1: myself up in my room and created songs out of that.
Speaker 1: But on this particular day, a friend of the family
Speaker 1: passed away and she was madly in love with the
Speaker 1: love of her life, but they had split up a
Speaker 1: few years before, unfortunately, and she kept waiting for him
Speaker 1: to say goodbye. She kept staring at the door while
Speaker 1: she was passing away. So that was such a tragic
Speaker 1: story to me that I was like, if I can
Speaker 1: turn all that negativity from being bullied and everything into songs,
Speaker 1: that I can also turn this unanswered love into a song.
Speaker 1: And years later I did, and I kind of combined
Speaker 1: my story as a small time boy going to a
Speaker 1: big city chasing my dreams with her story and that's
Speaker 1: how Arcade came to be. How does it feel for
Speaker 1: you knowing that that this song that came from such
Speaker 1: a personal private place for you and your family, friend
Speaker 1: and your childhood bedroom is now resonating with literally millions
Speaker 1: of people look across the globe. How does that feel?
Speaker 1: What is that like for you? That's so crazy because
Speaker 1: I did your Vision the Your Vision Song contest with
Speaker 1: this song, so I kind of thought like, well, it's
Speaker 1: had his life and it's good and it's it's it's
Speaker 1: served a great purpose, I mean, like we want. But
Speaker 1: now looking at Arcade and seeing where it's going and
Speaker 1: how it's growing every single day, it's just insane to watch,
Speaker 1: especially as this small town boy from this tiniest country,
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, it's just so to see that this is
Speaker 1: possible and that if you work hard and you keep
Speaker 1: dreaming and you keep focusing on what you do. And
Speaker 1: with me, it was putting music first always. You you
Speaker 1: can go somewhere, You can go places, even if it's quarantine,
Speaker 1: you can still you know, music can travel without boundaries,
Speaker 1: and it's so cool and especially in these times, to
Speaker 1: be able to connect with people since we can tour
Speaker 1: or gig or go anywhere you mentioned quarantine. Have you
Speaker 1: been been feeling productive and staying productive during during lockdown?
Speaker 1: Have you've been writing a lot? Yes, I've been writing constantly.
Speaker 1: I've lived together with my fiance and he's a songwriter too,
Speaker 1: so we write every single day. Like every time I
Speaker 1: come downstairs, I hear him playing the piano or the guitar,
Speaker 1: and then you know, hear him saying or it's the
Speaker 1: other way around. We we write constantly, and I actually
Speaker 1: finished my first album during lockdown. That's gonna be such
Speaker 1: a great way to bond I mean, to have that
Speaker 1: connection with somebody, to make music with them. What were
Speaker 1: you Were you friends before and then did you start
Speaker 1: making music or did you start making music? We met
Speaker 1: each other in l A last year, right before lockdown,
Speaker 1: and then I took the last plane possible back from
Speaker 1: the Netherlands to l A when lockdown was introduced, and
Speaker 1: then I spent my days at his place in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and that's how we were like, well, we're both songwriters,
Speaker 1: let's try to write a song. And it was amazing.
Speaker 1: Congratulations one of the one of the few good things
Speaker 1: that come up. I'm so so happy for you. But yeah, yeah, luckily. Yes.
Speaker 1: You mentioned when you first started writing music, taking sort
Speaker 1: of the pain of school and adolescents that so many
Speaker 1: people unfortunately go through, and wanting to make something beautiful
Speaker 1: out of it. What were some people that that sort
Speaker 1: of pointed you in that direction? Did you have any
Speaker 1: any influences at that age, like people musicians you were
Speaker 1: listening to, or people in your life, to teachers or
Speaker 1: something like that. Definitely, Like I had a couple of
Speaker 1: artists that I was like listening NonStop to. One of
Speaker 1: them was Nirvana. I'm always I've always been drawn to
Speaker 1: Kurt Cobain's story and just his mentality, this way of songwriting,
Speaker 1: and just it was so grunge, and I loved it.
Speaker 1: Amy Winehouse, which to me was kind of the grungy
Speaker 1: version of soul, kind of London grungy version of soul.
Speaker 1: I thought she was amazing and such a great artist,
Speaker 1: but such a tragic story too. I'm always I've always
Speaker 1: been drawn to tragic stories, but also snow Patrol YouTube.
Speaker 1: My father used to listen to a lot of YouTube.
Speaker 1: My grandparents used to listen to a lot of Elvis Presley,
Speaker 1: so he's definitely one of my heroes. And yeah, the
Speaker 1: list goes on and on. Fleetwood mag I can talk
Speaker 1: to you about music for hours. I love USIC hearing
Speaker 1: your voice. It's so motive and passionate. Did you do
Speaker 1: any theater as a kid, like musical theater. I used
Speaker 1: to do theater, but I couldn't dance. I could act,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't dance. Like I was like a little
Speaker 1: bit of a like a chubby Harry Potter, with like
Speaker 1: room between my teeth and like a lot of freckles,
Speaker 1: and the only thing that was missing was here. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was. You know, maybe that was the
Speaker 1: reason why I was bullied a lot too, because I
Speaker 1: kind of dressed a little weird and I kind of
Speaker 1: acted a little weird. I made music. I locked myself
Speaker 1: up in my room to write songs. So thinking back,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, maybe you isolated yourself a lot. You
Speaker 1: were just yourself exactly. That's what it was. And I'm
Speaker 1: really happy that I did actually, and that I sticked
Speaker 1: to what I knew and believed in. But at this
Speaker 1: certain age, I think because I locked myself up so much,
Speaker 1: my mom decided me to put me on like theater class,
Speaker 1: and I sucked at dancing and like all those things,
Speaker 1: but I liked acting, but above all, I loved music.
Speaker 1: What was it like for me? Witting your vision must
Speaker 1: have just been such a life changing experience that I
Speaker 1: cannot even imagine. How did your life change of that?
Speaker 1: My life changed like completely, like one d degrees. It
Speaker 1: was just a turn, like it was so crazy because
Speaker 1: before that, I was a songwriter and I wrote songs
Speaker 1: for others, and I was just kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: collecting my my own songs, trying to create a sound,
Speaker 1: trying to create stories that I wanted to put out
Speaker 1: into the world, and Arcade has always been on my
Speaker 1: mind as the first single I wanted to put out.
Speaker 1: But on a specific day, I got a call from
Speaker 1: my old voice coach because I did the voice when
Speaker 1: I was like seventeen, and she said, hey, you added
Speaker 1: this song Arcade to the draw box that we still share.
Speaker 1: Did you want me to listen to it? And I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, that's why I put it in a drawbox.
Speaker 1: And she listened to it and she said, I think
Speaker 1: we should send this to your vision and I said, well,
Speaker 1: good look, because only famous people make it to your
Speaker 1: a vision like it would be a dream come true,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I'll ever make it. And then
Speaker 1: she said, I think you'll make it. As she was right,
Speaker 1: and that's how it happened. Wow, that is incredible. What
Speaker 1: is it about that song that you feel makes it
Speaker 1: resonate with so many people? Is there? Can you articulate? Why?
Speaker 1: Is it just just one of those things one of
Speaker 1: those magic things? That's always the most difficult question people
Speaker 1: ask me, because I always believe that, like the power
Speaker 1: of a song is because of the listeners, and it's
Speaker 1: because like the biggest part is because of the listeners
Speaker 1: the way they interpreted it. So I wish I could just,
Speaker 1: you know, watch the listeners heads, like have a look
Speaker 1: inside their hats to know what it is, because that
Speaker 1: would reveal a great secret I think in songwriting for me,
Speaker 1: very helpful. But I hope it's just the story that
Speaker 1: is in there and the story that I'm trying to
Speaker 1: tell in respect to my friend who passed away, And
Speaker 1: I hope that that, you know, resonates through that song
Speaker 1: and that people get inspired and maybe feel like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going through the same things. And if that small boy,
Speaker 1: the small town boy is doing it and he's killing
Speaker 1: it and he's chasing his streams, then I can do
Speaker 1: it too, even though I have a heartbreak right now
Speaker 1: or I'm going through this heart face of life. Um.
Speaker 1: I hope that's what they connect to and that's why,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe this personal story that is in there
Speaker 1: becomes something universal. Your album called small Town Boy, there's
Speaker 1: so many great songs on. One of my favorites, a
Speaker 1: sort of sort of the inverse of Arcade in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, Sleeping on the Phone, which is, yeah,
Speaker 1: a song that rings true for anyone who's ever been
Speaker 1: in a long distance relationship. Can you can tell me
Speaker 1: a little more about that, Yeah, Sleeping on the Phone
Speaker 1: is my favorite too. I love that trick and it's
Speaker 1: it's because that was actually the first trick I wrote
Speaker 1: with Jordans, my fiance. That was the like what I
Speaker 1: just told you, like when we were in l A
Speaker 1: and I traveled with the last plane to the US
Speaker 1: right before a lockdown hit. We wrote this song because
Speaker 1: we knew I was going to travel back to the
Speaker 1: Netherlands because I had to do the an alternative show
Speaker 1: for your Vision, So it was kind of it wasn't
Speaker 1: your vision twenty twenty, but they did this alternative life
Speaker 1: show and we knew we got we're going to miss
Speaker 1: each other. So we wrote this song together kind of
Speaker 1: as a reminder to each other that we've we've always
Speaker 1: got each other's back and we're always there for each
Speaker 1: other no matter the time difference or what time it is.
Speaker 1: Let's just talk until we're sleeping on the phone. And
Speaker 1: it really helped, I think both of us through through
Speaker 1: that quarantine lockdown time without each other, and it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: That's really incredible. I can't mean, I'm somebody who who
Speaker 1: loves music with with all their heart, but it's never
Speaker 1: been able to actually write a song. So whenever I
Speaker 1: talk to people about how they write, to me, it
Speaker 1: sounds like it just sounds like sorcery. I don't really
Speaker 1: understand it when when when you in Jordan are writing together,
Speaker 1: I mean, do you feel that you get to know
Speaker 1: each other on a deeper level? I mean that there
Speaker 1: ever times when you've had like a disagreement earlier and
Speaker 1: somehow you end up working it out through the songwriting session.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't recall that, but I do think, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we definitely get to know each other more and more, especially,
Speaker 1: you know, because we're so open to each other and
Speaker 1: when it comes to write songs, because you have to
Speaker 1: be if you want to write an honest story and
Speaker 1: in the shape of a song, you have to be
Speaker 1: open and tell everything. So yeah, we talked about everything,
Speaker 1: even previous relationships and you know, things that hurt us,
Speaker 1: sort of things that made us happy, or just those
Speaker 1: small daily things that we're both kind of looking forward
Speaker 1: to write songs. It's basically we got to know each other.
Speaker 1: I think the best through writing songs with each other.
Speaker 1: That was so wonderful. What is next for you? I
Speaker 1: know you just released your album in the fall. What
Speaker 1: are you working on now? I'm working on a lot
Speaker 1: of new music in the studio NonStop. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: we can do that, that we're able to just work
Speaker 1: and go to the studio and record things and write
Speaker 1: new music. So yeah, that's what we're constantly doing. I'm
Speaker 1: constantly moving back and forth from our house to the
Speaker 1: studio and to our house to the studio and just
Speaker 1: you know, writing a lot of new songs and recording
Speaker 1: in a lot of new things which are actually coming
Speaker 1: out this year. Even so it's all coming very soon.
Speaker 1: That's so great. You can be back in the studio
Speaker 1: now too. I know that, Yeah, home studio situation isn't
Speaker 1: always the same thing from what I hear. I know,
Speaker 1: like it's been wonderful to have some time at home,
Speaker 1: of course, and everyone kind of thought that at the beginning,
Speaker 1: But I think now everyone is kind of at that
Speaker 1: point where we're like, Okay, all is this going to take?
Speaker 1: Because I really just want to have my normal life back.
Speaker 1: But it's all for a good reason, of course. But yeah,
Speaker 1: being able just to be in a room with instruments
Speaker 1: and just somewhere else than these four white walls is amazing.
Speaker 1: What did you Obviously, the last year has been tough
Speaker 1: for everyone for so many different reasons. What what did
Speaker 1: you do? Is just to stay grounded when you wanted
Speaker 1: to just sort of escape and feel good for a
Speaker 1: little bit. Did you do yoga? Did you run? Did
Speaker 1: you watch a bunch of things on Netflix? What did
Speaker 1: you like to do to kind of just just zone
Speaker 1: out for a little while. I actually started producing myself,
Speaker 1: so I produced Sleeping on the Phone for example, myself
Speaker 1: during lockdown, and I always kind of looked over the
Speaker 1: shoulders of other producers kind of you know, looked what
Speaker 1: they were doing, and I knew kind of how to
Speaker 1: do things, but I had to learn a lot before
Speaker 1: I could actually produce my own whole track myself. But
Speaker 1: I did. I did it, and I'm so happy with it.
Speaker 1: So I spend a lot of time in quarantine learning
Speaker 1: how to make sounds, produce sounds, you know, get the
Speaker 1: right e Q, everything, all the little producer details. And
Speaker 1: I started picking up the guitar again, and I started
Speaker 1: going to the like there's a gym here that just
Speaker 1: trains outside, which is amazing because that's allowed again. So
Speaker 1: I'm just focusing on my mind my body, because there
Speaker 1: were times in Lockdown where I was like so anxious
Speaker 1: about what was going to happen and what what was
Speaker 1: going to happen with the world and how we were
Speaker 1: going to get through this and stuff. It's just, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been a hard time, but I'm glad
Speaker 1: that it kind of looks like there's this light at
Speaker 1: the end of it all and things are getting better.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean that it sounds
Speaker 1: like you've had an incredibly productive time. I mean, most
Speaker 1: people I know, it's like, all right, I taught myself
Speaker 1: to make banana bread. That's it. You you learn how
Speaker 1: to that's amazing. So I wish I would have learned
Speaker 1: how to make banana bread because my cooking skills are horrible,
Speaker 1: Like I cannot even bake a bake an act like
Speaker 1: it's it's horrible. I mean, banana bread is about the
Speaker 1: only thing that I actually can make now, So no,
Speaker 1: don't worry, You're not alone. I screwed it up, like
Speaker 1: I screwed it up a bunch of times where the
Speaker 1: banana bread was like kick style, like it was crunchy
Speaker 1: and so hard that you can't even like take a
Speaker 1: bite off this. So no, I would never, never, never
Speaker 1: tried to bait that again. Gosh, that's that's so exciting.
Speaker 1: It's such a great year ahead of you. I gotta
Speaker 1: ask I'm sure you get ask us all the time.
Speaker 1: Any dream collaborators, people you you really want to work with.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of dream collaborators, but one person
Speaker 1: that's always been on the top of my list is
Speaker 1: Noah Cirus. I hope one day we can write something
Speaker 1: together because I love love her. Miley sirius to I've
Speaker 1: been a big fan ever since I was Young. What
Speaker 1: I love about Noah Starrs is that she has such
Speaker 1: a singer songwrite if vibe over her, but still is
Speaker 1: so poppy and really combines those three worlds almost of pop,
Speaker 1: country and singer songwriter music, and it's just so magical
Speaker 1: the way she does that and the way she looks
Speaker 1: and everything about her is just so magical. So I
Speaker 1: would be honored to one day work together with her,
Speaker 1: if if one day that is possible. Other collapse are
Speaker 1: like Troy Syvan, same like, same feeling I have for Noah,
Speaker 1: same for him. He's incredible. Yeah, So who know who else?
Speaker 1: Ellie X, Sam Smith. The list goes on and on.
Speaker 1: It's manifest put it out there, Visualize Smith, Noah's ires
Speaker 1: Alley Accident, the whole list. Look And it's been so
Speaker 1: great talking you, my my, my last question, and it's
Speaker 1: been the question that I've been asking everybody I've been
Speaker 1: speaking to the last year, and hopefully don't have to
Speaker 1: ask it much longer. If you could snap your fingers
Speaker 1: and have everything go back to normal, whatever your definition
Speaker 1: of normal is, call it, call it what would be
Speaker 1: the first thing that you would do? Places you travel, people,
Speaker 1: you hug, things, you go go out to a restaurant
Speaker 1: and eat. Yeah, I think I would have this huge
Speaker 1: barbecue in the backyard with my whole family and friends
Speaker 1: and just everyone has to hug each other before they
Speaker 1: come in. Everyone has to like kiss each other three
Speaker 1: times on the cheeks, because we do that here in Holland.
Speaker 1: Week he took three times and just like you know,
Speaker 1: share love, touch each other like whenever you want, stay
Speaker 1: close to each other, eat nice food, to have nice music, drinks.
Speaker 1: Very European if you asked me to do. But it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be my back to normal dream. And another
Speaker 1: dream would be just to travel again and to be
Speaker 1: able to perform again, but also to be able to
Speaker 1: visit l A America to meet my my family that,
Speaker 1: you know, just everything. I want it all. I want
Speaker 1: everything to be normal again. Let's manifest that to I
Speaker 1: think it's I think it's on its way. I think
Speaker 1: so too. Thank you so much for taking the time
Speaker 1: of day. It's been been such Thank you, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside
Speaker 1: the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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