Pop Star Ariana and the Rose Talks Dance-Pop Revial, Lonely Hearts Club LP | PEOPLE.com

2022-07-29 14:19:27 By : Ms. Molly He

Ariana and the Rose is ready to ascend from indie act to mainstream star.

On Friday, the Brooklyn-based pop singer released her debut album Lonely Hearts Club, an impressive dance LP packed with hummable hooks and empowering lyrics that her foremothers (like Madonna, Robyn and Kylie Minogue) would be proud of.

Ahead of the album drop, PEOPLE caught up with the star (real name: Ariana DiLorenzo) about her journey as an independent artist, predicting the dance-pop revival and finding viral fame on TikTok.

I wrote the whole thing in the pandemic. I was just in my apartment by myself and didn't have anything to do, and I was writing as a coping mechanism, just as a release at the end of the day. And those songs are what ended up ultimately being the record. So I had written the whole thing on piano. I think the first idea I had actually was the chorus of "Lonely Hearts Club" — that was the first thing that I wrote — and the second song we wrote was "Every Body." I knew even from the onset that I wanted it to be slightly dancier, I knew I wanted it to have some house tinge in it. I wanted to explore all the different kinds of definitions of what dance music is inside of this record; then some things are pure pop.

100 percent. Throughout history, when things get hard, house music has a resurgence. It was of zero surprise to me when Beyoncé put out that song. I was like, "Duh, of course." Obviously, me being an independent artist, we had to start a few years back to get it all going. But it's been a really nice validation to see it trickling in to be like, "Okay, I trusted my instincts when I was making the album." I wanted to make something for when the world was open. Thank God we're in a place where we can be together, dance, sweat and cry it out. But we were all inside. I feel like everybody was ready to go out, and I wanted to make the soundtrack for that.

I'm a huge Madonna fan. I am a big Goldfrapp fan. Robyn is my sun, moon and stars. I love generally women dance music makers, like Kylie Minogue. And I think our view on that dance-pop has changed, especially in the nostalgia moment that we're having. You look back at even Britney and people are like, hold on, this music is incredible — Blackout was an incredible record. Everyone treated "pop" music like it was this dirty word for a long time. That was a big thing when I very first started making music when I was growing up. But I always just loved pop stars that made music that you could dance to, but that had substance. Just because they were on a dance floor doesn't mean they weren't giving you substance; that's always something I come back to and strive to put into my own music.

The first clubs I ever went to were gay clubs. The first thing I ever did was cover myself in glitter and dance at a club in New York underage to Madonna, to all of the best of the best. That was what I fell in love with — music as an experience, not just in your headphones. Music became religious when it was shared with people, and I think that pop music really does that. When you look at girls like Rihanna and Gaga, they gave you a world: They were giving you a pop hit, they were giving you a look. I love theater, and I think that pop music at its best is this grandiose theater that allows people to step inside of it. People just want to feel like they're a part of something, and I think that pop music really does that for people.

It's a literal and a figurative place. It's a club, it's a community for everybody to be a part of. And then it's a physical club for you to go and dance, sweat and cry it out in. It's the best nights that you have out that you stumble upon, that you don't even mean to have. That's what I want the Lonely Hearts Club to feel like.

I knew, even when I was 11, I was like, "I'm going to move to New York City." I grew up on Long Island and moved to the city when I was 13 to go to a performing arts high school, and it shaped my whole life, my whole perspective. I was immediately around artistic people, people from all different walks of life, a part of this community of misfits and weirdos. New York is a city that people come to be themselves, and that's a really cool thing.

It's actually so funny. I am dating someone. I have a boyfriend very recently, only the last few months. It feels almost full-circle that I would be re-entering a relationship because I was single for a very long time, which is obviously what inspired "F--- Boy." I was coming out of a relationship right before COVID and spent all of COVID really doing therapy, really digging in. Writing an album while dealing with past traumas and things was so cathartic, but it was wonderful because I was constantly being like, "Okay, this is my experience but what's the universal experience?"

Never in a million years. It's not music, but it's this weird side step from it that's really actually very close to the core of who I am and what my music is about. I'd like to think that, if you see one of those videos or listen to a song — whichever way you get introduced to me first —  if you see the other thing, hear the other thing and then buy a ticket to the show, you feel it's all one thing, like, "Wow, she really is on the internet the way she is in life."

Ultimately, whether you're on a label or not, finding your home, finding your audience is the dream for anybody. I would rather mean everything to 100,000 people than have millions of people feel lukewarm about me. I think that finding the people that understand your messaging and also that my music touches… I make it for me, but the final piece of anything is to give it to your audience, to play shows.

I would say that's always been my benchmark for success: selling tickets and playing rooms. And in pop music, with independent artists, I think it's the most gatekeeping. We've seen in rap and R&B where independent artists can find homes and ultimately cross over to the mainstream — I would love to be able to do that and set a precedent for that. And I just come back to, if you find your people, they will rally for you the way you rally for them. That's really all I'm ever trying to do.