'I Want To See How Far I Can Go With It': Lewis Love On His Rapid Rise To Fame And The Viral Success Of 'Lovesick'

It goes without saying that a lot can happen in a year, but for Ballarat's own Lewis Love, he knows as well as anyone just how much can happen in the span of six months.

Cast your mind back to April 11th, and that's the date that most music-lovers found themselves being introduced to Love, who issued his debut single Can't See The Sky. 

Inspired by the heartbreak of an ex-partner, anticipation was high even before its release, with a teaser clip of the track being viewed more than a million times on social media.

This itself was a testament to Love's hard work, with the 19-year-old having decided to sell his ​​Honda Civic to afford a one-way ticket to Los Angeles to embark upon a musical career. His gamble was a successful one, and after signing to Hallwood Media, Love began formally releasing his work.

Since then, it's been a whirlwind rise to fame for the young musician, who not only has myriad live appearances on the books for festivals and major supports, but released his debut album, Lovesick, back in July.

As he chats with The Music, Love is softly spoken and succinct in his responses, but the joy he feels for the positive reception his debut record has received is palpable. "I couldn't ask for a better reception, to be honest," he says.

"I'm super grateful for everything and putting it out has changed my life. I'm really, really just ecstatic with it."

Released on July 18, the eight-track record clocks in at just under 17 minutes, and by some standards may even be considered an EP. Regardless of the classification, it's a project which Love claims had formally been in the works for around a year.

"It was just random late nights or scraps of demos," he muses. "It was lots of sudden bursts of inspiration and it all kind of shaped into something eventually.

"That's probably about the time everything was recorded. Maybe something was started a year ago and it didn't get finished until the deadline, because sometimes you can't get a song right until you figure out what it is, and that can take a long time."

For Love, there's an undeniable importance about making a strong impact when it comes to a debut album. While his rise has been swift, he's been spending his time ensuring that Lovesick is the best recorded version of himself.

"I definitely wanted to make a statement," he asserts. "I wanted it to be more than just delivered a bunch of songs kind of slapped together.

"I kind of wanted to say, 'This is where I'm at, this is my sound, this is my life right now,'" he adds. "I think listeners can hear that kind of heartbreak, the yearning, and the raw emotion that's in there, so I feel like I succeeded in making that statement."

To listen to Lovesick is to hear a record that is written with a genuine love of the country music genre. Though Love will note that country was indeed a formative influence on his work, his follow-up record will feature some more "modern elements," in line with how he was also influenced by the likes of pop, rock, and hip hop while growing up. "I think that's why my sound leans country, but it's not boxed in," he suggests.

However, while Lovesick is the result of years spent immersed within country music, it's also representative of Love's own journey and how his myriad musical experiences have combined to form a singular snapshot of a young musician operating at his current peak – while hinting at how that will evolve in the years to come.

"It's like I feel like every song I've written, and every show I've played up to now, shaped Lovesick," he says. "It's probably the clearest picture of who I am as an artist and, and everything I've learned and experienced over the past couple of years."

While Love had previously described Lovesick as an album about "intimacy and romance," it's tracks like My Little Lover and Whiskey Tears that showcase his ability to craft heart-on-his-sleeve tracks that are as impactful as they are affecting. 

In fact, that's more or less what Love feels his first album says about him at the current moment in time.

"Lovesick probably shows off the rawness and the openness, I suppose, of what I'm trying to do," he offers. "I'm trying to be intimate, I'm trying to be transparent and I feel like there's not a lot of male artists opening up that much and being as heartfelt and to-the-point as I maybe was on that record."

Indeed, that's an important part of Love's approach to his craft, and something that he credits for the success of the album amongst his fanbase. "I think having a genuine feel about the album is part of the reason why people are connecting to it," he says. "I feel like having that intimacy and transparency is also a huge part of it, of course."

This intimacy and transparency is also on full display on cuts such as Glasshouse – an album track which Love singles out as one of his favourites at the current time.

"[Glasshouse] definitely pushes me vocally, and it opened up a new lane of songwriting that I want to chase further," he explains. "Raw storytelling, but still with big hooks. 

"I think that the second album is going to be a bit of a surprise for a lot of people," he teases. "I think I'm going to push myself in a lot of directions that are new to the listener, and even new to me. So I'm excited for that."

When it comes to the key to Love's success, there's no magic ingredient he can look back upon. While he thanks the support of friends and family who supported him since he was "playing pub gigs and no one knew my name," it's the modern landscape that he credits for helping push his profile out into the world, namechecking the likes of TikTok and his brush with virality.

"Having a couple viral videos is probably the most significant thing to get me to where I am because  you get such a huge exposure to such a wide audience that you just can't without it," he says. "It's just ridiculous how many people can see a video if it goes viral."

While the numbers are certainly ridiculous when it comes to TikTok, the numbers are equally astronomical over on Spotify. Just over a month on from its release, Love shared that Lovesick had already been streamed over a million times. 

Now, those numbers just keep on climbing, with Can't See The Sky and Whiskey Tears boasting a combined total of over a million streams by themselves.

As Love explains, much of his success couldn't have been possible without the support of Spotify.

"They've been massive," he confirms. "They've sort of been the bridge between me and people that I thought I'd never even be able to reach.

"To see listeners popping up in places that I've never even been to is crazy, and the support of me on playlists is huge; that changes everything, I feel like it takes you to another level. 

"They sort of champion me in that space and work with me from the ground up and show that they want to work with me from the ground up, which I think is huge," he adds. "So I couldn't be more grateful."

When it comes to those marketplaces where his music has been well-received, Love points to Sri Lanka as an unexpected home to at least a small group of listeners. Needless to say, it's a long way from his home of Ballarat, a location he agrees likely had a solid influence on the sound of his music.

"It can be hard to pinpoint, but Ballarat is an interesting one," he says. "It's cold. Um, it's a bit gritty, it can be a bit rough, and there's not much of a music industry here at all. 

"You have to carve your own lane, I guess, and that probably gave me hunger because there's not many musicians here that are trying to break and become stars.

"It's kind of unheard of here," he adds. "So I feel like that gave me the hunger to think, 'I'm going to be the first to do it.' To me, that hunger is everything."

Of course, there have been plenty of amazing musicians to have hailed from Ballarat over the years. In fact, Love himself gives a shout out to The Dead Salesmen for being influences on his own work, though it's clear that he's likely going to be one of the city's biggest musical exports in recent memory.

That exporting has seen him play plenty of shows in the past year alone, with plenty more big ones set to come.

While he'll be appearing at the Sydney and Melbourne editions of the Ridin' Hearts Festival, and Victoria's Queenscliff Music Festival, Love will also bring his sounds to Brisbane as support for Waylon Wyatt alongside a national run of dates accompanying the Zac Brown Band.

For any musician, it might feel like a daunting task to be on such high-profile platforms, but for Love, it's all part of his journey to reach the greatest heights he can.

"I'm feeling confident about the shows," he says. "I feel like I've been waiting for this for a long time, to really prove myself. Obviously there's nerves that come with it and it's my biggest test, but I feel like I just want to go out there and give it my all.

"So I'm ready for it. I want to see how far I can go with it."

Lewis Love's Lovesick is out now via Hallwood Media. This feature has been published in partnership with Spotify's Turn Up Aus - the next-generation evolution of Spotify Australia’s music DNA, as they continue their 13-year commitment to championing local music.