If you’ve been paying attention to the live music landscape, a clear trend of late is the resurgence of the pop-punk/emo/scene sub-genres which took off with the launch of festivals like When We Were Young and All Your Friends.
While this renewed interest has brought bands back together, it’s also highlighted some artists that have been around the entire time. Such is the case for Marianas Trench, playing the NAC on Friday, Nov. 22. The Vancouver band were radio and MuchMusic staples, Canadian pop-punk pillars alongside scene contemporaries like Simple Plan, cementing their place in CanRock royalty with a string of over a dozen platinum singles over the mid 2000s and 2010s.
The resurgence in the scene has also provided a platform for new artists influenced by these groundbreakers, taking the genre forward into a new generation. One such artist, Toronto’s L0L0, is opening for Marianas Trench on their tour, exposing her catchy songs to a whole new audience, much like her performance at the All Your Friends festival had her opening for Billy Talent and Mayday Parade.
Getting her start through TikTok with buzz-generating covers, she released her first label EP overkill in 2021, and followed that up quickly with debbie downer in 2022. Those appetizers set the stage for her main course, her debut full-length album Falling For Robots, and Wishing I Was One which came out this past summer. Meanwhile, she’s toured with everyone from New Found Glory to Waterparks to Boys Like Girls.
We caught up with her and chatted about her influences, her appearance on a new compilation album, and her first Canadian tour.
Apt613: You shared the stage with some notable names this summer at the All Your Friends festival. And now you’re on Disney’s A Whole New Sound album with them. How does it feel when you’re looking at the liner notes and on there with some of these greats?
L0L0: It’s like an imposter syndrome moment. It’s pretty crazy. One of my friends in LA just sent me a picture—they were driving and there’s a big billboard with Simple Plan, Boys Like Girls, and L0L0. It’s so crazy because I’ve been obsessed with Disney since I was a little kid. I loved going to Disney World and Disneyland—we’re a big Disney family. So that was just so cool. As a child, I dreamed of being a Disney star child. So I feel like this kind of scratched the itch of being a Disney star.
Also, the coolness of being on it with all the bands that I grew up listening to. So it was just like a double whammy in that sense of “holy shit, what is going on?” Yeah, it’s probably one of the coolest things of my career, for me.
And of all the songs, you get one of the most iconic in “Let It Go.”
Oh my god, I know! My first choice was “Part of Your World” by The Little Mermaid. But someone took it. I was like “Who took it? I’ll kill them!” And then it was, of course, New Found Glory, who are my favourite people in the world. If anyone is gonna sing the song I wanted, it’s you guys. So I sang one of the songs. When I was on tour with them, they sang “Let It Go” every night in their set. Jordan from New Found Glory would put on this Elsa cosplay with a wig and everything. So I decided “I’m going to take their song now.”
Speaking of big names, you’re about to launch your first cross-Canada tour, opening for Marianas Trench.
I’ve never toured Canada, which is insane because I’ve toured most places, all of Europe and the US, so it’s weird that I haven’t toured my own country. I think it’s about time, and I’m very excited. Marianas Trench is someone I also grew up listening to, so that was another moment. I’ve been lucky to have a lot of ‘pinch me’ moments in my career, specific things to me like I loved Simple Plan and got to sing with them, love Marianas Trench and go on tour with them.
You’ve toured Europe a few times, and yet you’ve never been to Ottawa!
Yeah. I mean, I went on a school trip in grade eight, but yeah, besides that, I’m very excited! I need to represent the Canadians. Like “I am one of you!”
.gif)