3 days ago
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Marked by warm synthesizers and confessional lyrics, 18-year-old Nadia Loren’s “Do You Miss Me?” is as much a cinematic slice of alt-pop as it is a balm for the broken-hearted. A self-made singer-songwriter based in Rochester, Kent, Loren's new song is not only addictive in its melodies, but rooted in honesty.
“I woke up one day and I found out that my ex was dating someone new. It was that really typical feeling of, like, this is awful,” she says. “I was just so upset, so I came into the studio and started writing a song. I was wondering, did that person actually move on, or does a part of them still miss me? I feel like we all occasionally ask that question, and do we really even want to know? Because the truth might hurt too much.”
While Loren says the process of putting her feelings to paper was cathartic, the words still occasionally hit her where it hurts. “Even now, when I listen to it, when I sing it live, I still feel really emotional because it's just so exact to how I was feeling, and it still kind of breaks my heart. It's just really emotional writing.”
Though the song stems from a real breakup, Loren found inspiration in fictitious spaces, too. If the sound of those synths feels familiar, it’s intentional. “I was really thinking about Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks while we were making this song. I was thinking about the way she haunts the narrative and comparing that to how it feels after a breakup. You really feel like you're haunted by this person who used to be in your life.”
That Lynchian inspiration extends to the rest of Loren’s new EP Kiss & Drive. “For this EP, the focus was on building a David Lynch-esque world around the visuals. I really love the merging of cinema and music, and I have always been so obsessed with the way he tells his stories. Everything's so surreal. There's so many complex dualities. When you watch a David Lynch film, sometimes you just don't even know what was going on but it still feels so profound,” she says. “ I have a song on the EP called “Lost on the Highway” which was inspired by Lost Highway. I wrote it after watching that film, and it is actually based off of the feeling I got after watching it.”
Loren’s retro inspirations don’t stop with film. In the music videos for her latest songs, Loren channels nostalgia through shimmery blue eyeshadow, vibrant vintage dresses, and an aura reminiscent of style icons like Twiggy or Brigitte Bardot. “Style wise, I'm obsessed with Addison Rae. She’s definitely a massive inspiration to me. My ultimate inspiration ever is Lana Del Rey though, for everything. I just love her so much.”
White Kiss & Drive marks Loren’s debut, she’s already been making music for well over a decade. “There's videos of me from when I was six making my first song… The song was called, “I Wanna Shine Like a Star” so I've been writing ever since I was little. Eventually I started playing pubs locally and other local gigs and venues, anything I could really, and then I started posting on social media.” Loren thrived in the digital space. “I built a fan base through TikTok LIVE when I was 15. I found so many amazing people who just really connected with my songs. It was so nice to feel like people understood how I was feeling. Now we have fan group chats and everyone's made friends and talks so much. Seeing things like that just makes me so happy.”
Spurred on by the encouragement of her online community, Loren quickly began releasing acoustic, DIY songs before taking things offline. “Last year I started doing fan hangouts, which was when everything changed for me.” For Loren, seeing her digital community materialize felt surreal. “Everything just felt so real all of a sudden. When you get people in a room who know you and your music, it’s just such an insane feeling. Anytime it happens, I still don't believe it.”
Only a few months after those hangouts began, Loren sold out her first headline show and soon met her management team. “It feels like everything's changed in a really short amount of time, but I'm very grateful.”
English (US) · 