Powerhouse musician and LGBTQ+ activist LP joins WTOP before rocking The Anthem in DC

Their cutting-edge pop-rock stylings have made them an icon of the LGBTQ+ community.

On Tuesday, LP rocks The Anthem in D.C. for the “Love Lines” tour, named after their new album that dropped in September.

“We’re playing that whole album, which feels really good,” LP told WTOP.

“There’s just a freshness, like a freedom to it somehow. There’s always kind of a looking within vibe, but this one in particular it feels more so than usual, but there’s also something really easy about it. I mean, it’s the first record I’ve ever written single. … You’ll definitely hear some ‘Lost on You’ for sure, but we’re rotating in all kinds of songs. … I sprinkle in the hits.”

Born in Brooklyn in 1981, LP grew up in a nonmusical family and had to chart their own path.

“My mom listened to opera and my dad didn’t really care, he liked oldies channels like Elvis, Johnny Cash and stuff like that, but his musical opinion did not matter TBH,” LP said.

“As a result, I’m not one of those people who wakes up and listens to music. Maybe because I have music in my head already, but I don’t put on music until later in the day, so I would not say I come from a family that was jacked about music. [My dad] didn’t believe in doing music.”

Instead, LP’s music career launched with the help of David Lowery of the rock band Cracker, who featured LP on the band’s fourth album “Gentleman’s Blues” (1998) in the hidden track “Cinderella.”

“He had a tour manager that wanted to be my manager at the time and he loved my voice, I started singing some backup, then he asked me to co-write a song he had started called ‘Cinderella,’” LP said. “I went out like a little mascot on their tour and it got me going, then I got a record deal and I asked him to produced it — and he did.”

After Lowery produced LP’s debut album “Heart-Shaped Scar” (2001), LP next ventured off on their own to record their second album “Suburban Sprawl & Alcohol” (2004).

“I realized very early on that I didn’t really want to embark on the ‘white girl blues singer’ thing,” LP said. “I was fascinated with songwriting the most. I had a really hard time picturing myself getting somewhere as an artist, I’ll be honest, because I don’t look the way I’m supposed to or act the way I’m supposed to — and I don’t want to.”

Instead, LP initially focused on writing pop songs for other world-famous artists, including Cher, Rihanna, the Backstreet Boys, Leona Lewis, Mylène Farmer, Céline Dion and Christina Aguilera.

“I was like, yo, this is cool!” LP said. “I could be on the low-key tip like, ‘Hey, what do you do for a living?’ ‘I write songs for people.’ ‘Oh, sick. Like for who?’ ‘For these people.’ I really liked the subtly of that. … Then I got signed to these new managers. … [One] was Rihanna’s manager from the beginning before Jay-Z and Roc Nation took her over in 2010. … He was like, ‘We think you’re not done being an artist, so it would be great if you kept writing for you.’”

LP wrote their third album “Forever for Now” (2014), featuring the song “Into the Wild.”

“That’s when I really found myself as an artist,” LP said.

“‘Into the Wild’ kind of embarked me on being an artist again. I went into a three-year stint with Warner Brothers. At the end of that stint, when everybody that believed in me got fired or left, I had ‘Lost on You’ and a couple of other songs on that record that had been [scrapped]. I played the new people at Warner Bros. ‘Lost on You,’ ‘Strange’ and ‘Muddy Waters’ and they dropped me.”

LP found a new home for these songs by signing with the label Vagrant for their fourth album “Lost on You” (2016). The title track remains a powerhouse sonic experience (listen below), catapulting LP to three more successful albums with “Heart to Mouth” (2018), “Churches” (2021) and the aforementioned “Love Lines” (2023).

Along the way, LP has found unlikely success in countries that are not always LGBTQ-friendly in Eastern Europe and Latin America. They filmed the video for “Dayglow” in Czechia to advocate for marriage equality there, while in Russia, oligarchs have come to LP’s shows to stand side-by-side with LGBTQ+ teens not yet out in the open.

“I just believe in people,” LP said. “Religion and governments, I don’t believe in either of them. I believe in people. I think when you come up to me, my energy says just that. I’m about love and connection with people through that and I don’t really have time for a bunch of dudes that think they own the land or people or anything. … You don’t own s—.”

Through it all, LP remains defiant of anyone who wants to tell others what to do.

“It might sound like I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, you bet your a — I’ve got a chip on my shoulder!” LP said.

“It’s for a reason. It’s inspiring to me and I just keep going. I have respect for myself for keeping going and I would implore anybody to do the same because it feels good at the end of the day. No one’s going to come to your house and pull a guitar out of your hand. Just keep going and writing and believing that you can do it, because you can.”

Listen to the full conversation on the podcast below: