Lexi Aviles, better known by her stage name Love You Later, is making waves within the Nashville music community while simultaneously staking her claim among today’s long, diverse list of great female artists. She expertly crafts compelling pop hooks, while putting her own spin on modern synth pop in the same vein as Betty Who or Carly Rae Jepsen. Her lyrics are full of vivid imagery, and her accompanying visuals showcase her seemingly natural ability to excel at both audio and visual mediums. 

LYL grew up in Orange County, CA, and has been around the block a bit, but she currently resides in Nashville, TN where she has found her footing within the cities tight-knit songwriting community.

“Wherever I find my community and people that genuinely support me, that place feels like home to me,” she said. “I never felt intimidated being here because everyone is so welcoming and supportive. No one has your worst interest in mind… it’s very inclusive. I feel like I could walk up to any artist in a coffee shop and say hi. Everyone is just doing the same thing no matter where we’re at on the journey.” 

Her new song, “Keepintouch,” out now on all streaming platforms, is arguably her best yet, and most reflective of her admiration for Bleachers front man and pop music’s most sought-after megaproducer, Jack Antonoff.

LYL had high praise for Antonoff, whose resume is well-documented. “He’s able to make an anthem out of anything, “she said. “Writing with him would be really sick.”

“Keepintouch,” which echoes Antonoff’s work with Jepsen, sounds like the perfect summer song, but appearances can be deceiving. It is a shimmering, energetic pop song that will make you want to dance, but it would, likely, fit better as part of the soundtrack to a sad, introspective drive home from the beach than on the playlist for the backyard 4^th of July party (But by all means, use it for both. It’s still a bop, sad-girl vibes and all). The song focuses on processing loneliness and, perhaps inadvertently, keeping the people you love at bay when going through mental blocks.

“It happens in cycles,” she said. “Sometimes it’s really easy to just live life and move really fast and then hit the brakes really hard and realize, ‘Oh shoot, I haven’t seen any of my friends and all of these people have been trying to see me’. But I’m shutting them out. I feel like I just make up a lot of stuff in my head.” These sentiments are summed up in the songs poignant tag line; “I’m losing touch with everyone else, trying to keep in touch with myself.” She’s watching from the sidelines as those around her live life, and, in a Bella Swan circa “New Moon” moment, she realizes time is passing her by, fast, and that she needs to get back to herself, and quickly; “How is it already October? Can I get through to you? Just want to get through the night.”

While “Keepintouch” is certainly a progression, her past releases have all been consistent and original. “Harder On Myself” borrows slight instrumental cues from Khalid’s “Bad Luck” while the accompanying music video contains period piece-type costumes and aesthetics similar to Katy Perry’s “Hey Hey Hey,” and is, truly, a stellar track. She’s understated yet self-aware on “Brooklyn,” and the accompanying video for the track “Baseball” is cute but quirky and Billie Eilish-esque.

“I’ll be in the session writing the song, producing it out, and I can already visualize the colors of the song,” she said, on her music videos and other visuals. “Then, as the vision comes along and as the song comes along, I can feel the emotion. I know what themes and emotion I want to evoke when people see the visuals and that is what drives the production of it.”

In a time of sophisticated, strong, and multi-faceted female musicians such as Yola, Maggie Rogers, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, Lucy Dacus, and so many more headlining festivals, doing huge numbers, and, simply, just making great music, LYL continues to build herself up to those ranks.

“It’s about time,” she said on the current wave of female energy and content. “I think it’s all badass pop that is definitely breaking a lot of the rules. It’s really cool to see that, and it’s super inspiring.” She racks off a plethora of other names she’s listening to these days, like chloe moriondo, Claud, MUNA, etc., and talked about being able to separate listening to these artists as a fan vs as an artist.

“I’m the kind of person to soak things in,” she said. “Even if it’s not music. It could be any sort of art or anything that is undeniably inspiring to me. Live music in general… just getting to go to shows again has been great. With any true artist there’s something to take away as far as inspiration, because if you’re a true artist, you’re clearly doing something that is true to you, that is original. I just think seeing someone do their thing makes me want to do my thing. It’s like secondhand originality, or artistry. We’re all in the same club.”  

The name Love You Later is, at first glance, another pseudo-stage name with a deeper meaning, similar to alt-pop band Nightly, short for “night, love you.” However, LYL says the name has no hidden meaning or personal implications to it. “When I first started the project, when I was just writing the songs for what would eventually become Love You Later, it was just a lot of songs involving romance and love and relationships,” she said. “Then when it came time to figure out what I wanted to name my project, I knew I wanted it to be encapsulating of love but also how, in the past, my love life has been sort of complicated. It’s kind of left up to interpretation, but I would love the listener to connect in some way whether that be a way that they think I mean, or that they want it to mean.” 

LYL continues to advance her artistry and fine-tune her individual sound, and remains humble regarding her abilities and the strides she has taken. There is no doubt that she will soon be able to call all of the woman she admires and looks to for inspiration her peers.

You can stream “Keepintouch” here.

Follow Love You Later on social media here: 

Website / Instagram / Twitter / Tik Tok / Spotify