You’re drunk, and you want to text your ex but there’s no service in the Dutch bar. You take solace in an empty bathroom stall, and pull out your phone. In the morning, you’ll see a note from last night and realize you just wrote a single. Then you’ll send that to your ex and thank them for the inspiration. This is how 21-year-old Lea Neu set about writing ‘Messy’, and many of the other songs, off her debut EP, Nostalgia.

Neu finally dropped the seven-track album in the last weeks of September, even though the plan was to release it last March. When asked about the late release, Neu spoke of the timing not feeling right at the beginning of quarantine, after being sent home from school and the country going into lockdown. The release date was pushed to June, when everyone thought the virus would be gone and summer would be normal. However, Neu decided to push the release once again, not because of the presence of COVID, but after the death of George Floyd. Neu believed it wasn’t the right time for her to promote Nostalgia saying, “[I] wanted to allow people to spread resources and use their platform for [change],” she said.

After settling into a life of hybrid classes and masked interactions, it felt like the best time for the long-time coming release.

Nostalgia has been completed for about a year now, and Neu said listening to the EP is “literally nostalgic”. She composed the song, ‘Bloodless Heart’, when she was just sixteen years old. It wasn’t until after the 2018 release of her first single ‘Cobwebs’ that Neu started to work with her producer, RUNNER, on Nostalgia. Two years later and the duo put out the perfect music for the season change and colder months.

“I spin, I'm dizzy, I fall down into the leaves” Neu sings in the EP opener, ‘Dizzy’. The line encapsulates the whirlwind of emotion and vulnerability that Neu captures in Nostalgia. From track to track, she creates a story of love, loss and the growth that comes along with it. A natural songwriter who has been writing since the age of 12 gives Neu the ability to capture a feeling and moment in her lyrics.

“Real life experience inspires me. My best songs come from real life and I write in the moment.”

Whether that be inside a bar bathroom or elsewhere in this world, the whole song comes to Neu and she’ll immediately “know it is a single.”

“Sometimes even with songs I won’t release, I still always know the order and how things will be produced,” explains Neu.

Despite the ease with which she writes, Neu admits that her creativity comes in waves and there are often periods of being uninspired. With songs based on real life, it is hard to write when there is nothing going on. “[It] affected the creative process; nothing to write about, nothing to work on, no inspiration… [I] didn’t want to draw on the pandemic,” Neu said about quarantine. For some artists, quarantine has been the break they needed to create something new; from surprise albums like Taylor Swift’s folklore to Charli XCX’s how i’m feeling now, there has been a whole wave of pandemic art being released. But no one seems to be talking about the other side, where artists like Neu find themselves stuck and unimaginative.

“One consistent thing is that I’ll go through periods of being very creative then not creative at all; I try not to force it and let it come as it comes.”

As seen with Nostalgia, a project five years in the making, Neu prefers to really feel something and understand the moment rather than just write about anything and everything. And while the pandemic has been draining, Neu was quick to adapt and find ways to keep herself creating.

“I’ve started to press record on voice memo and just sing for five minutes with my guitar before bed. Sometimes, something good comes out; sometimes not. But now, I have something creative to draw from when I’m in the mood.”

That’s everything she needs: a melody and herself. At the end of the day, Neu attributes some inspiration to her ex-boyfriends, however, she draws the most influence from herself and her emotions throughout a relationship. “In general I’m not a very emotional person, but I channel it into my songs where I can be dramatic,” Neu said.

The dramatics can be felt throughout Nostalgia. From her experiences with mental health to the troubles and pressures within a relationship, Neu places her listeners in scenes of intense emotion.

“You keep persisting; I’m resisting but it’s hopeless, I fear. You’ll never let me break out of here,” Neu sings in ‘Bloodless Heart’.

“Gin tastes like texting you,” she bops in ‘Messy’.

“Thought you made me better but now I’m fine,” she croons in ‘Heatsmoke’.

Nostalgia reminds everyone what it’s like to be in love and young, and how our experiences in high school can define a moment for us.

“I wish the EP was released two years ago,” Neu said. “Hopefully, [new music] won’t take as long.”

Nostalgia might have come out only weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean Neu hasn’t been thinking about her second release. “Being back in Boston and being with friends has been nice. [The pandemic] has been a refresher, a time where [artists] have to relearn [their] passions.” While Neu isn’t sure on the exact timeline of a new release, she did say that her writing has gone in two distinct and different directions. “One is very Charli XCX, electric pop songs; the other songs are more garage band rock like Avril. It’s a race to see what gets done first.”

When asked about long term plans, Neu said that music has and will always be in her life. However, in the past, she has struggled with it being her whole identity. For Neu, her songwriting isn’t about fame or money, it is a creative outlet. Although she plans to continue singing and songwriting, it isn’t the only dream she has. She looks forward to continuing her education and eventually going into social work. She also has a small embroidery business.

Listen to Nostalgia here:

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The Dizzy, Messy, & Nostalgic Life of Lea Neu