Moving to LA can be daunting, so many freeways, neighborhoods, and social scenes to navigate. For musician Jessy Lanza, that was all fodder for her new album called “Love Hallucination” (out July 28), which speaks to and of the Canadian transplant’s new SoCal home. Lanza moved to LA in 2022 with her artistic and life partner, Winston Case, who helped create the visuals for the album.
“I think that on this new album, I am more confident than I've ever been in my career with my art. And I think LA is an appropriate place to explore that because it is this city built on confidence and fantasy. So I think it all connects,” notes Lanza.
Case agrees, “It's everyone's hometown in their imagination because it's where we grew up seeing places [on TV and film]. So I always thought that there was a connection there in that, even though Jessy isn't from here, her whole life she's been viewing it.”
Being a newcomer to LA means learning to deal with LA driving, both in and out of the car. “I think that one of the songs from the record that reflects the move to LA the most is ‘Don't Leave Me Now,’ because it was inspired after we almost got run over by car,” Lanza reflects on her near-miss on Glendale Boulevard.
The video itself is pretty car-free, but the imagery is pure SoCal, palm trees feature prominently, as do utility vehicles and one looming cherry picker that moves Lanza gracefully about.
“The album cover came from the first day we moved here. There was someone fixing the power lines right by our house, and he just emerged right above the palm tree. And I just knew that I had to have that image of Jesse going above the palm tree,” shares Case of the visual theme that runs throughout all of the album’s artwork.
Lanza and Case moved here from other cities on a creative journey that was in no small way personal. So what is it like to let this artistic project out of their eastside house and into the world?
“I think what matters to Winston and I is that we both really feel good about what we're doing. And we really like working together. And if other people aren't seeing it the way that we do or, like, if, I don't know, it just goes out [to the world] that's fine. We had a lot of fun making it,” says Lanza. “That's what we always come back to: is that we really like to work together.”