It isn’t always easy to find a place where you feel perfectly at home. For Lexi Aviles, the Southern California native behind Love You Later, “PCH Rollercoaster” is an ode to one of the places that feels most like home.
Aviles has since relocated to Nashville to pursue music and can’t see herself anywhere else. However, there’s a sentimentality around Southern California that has faded to the background but not completely. She frequented the PCH in her silver Volkswagen Jetta, and it became a sort of home for her. “I would use [the PCH] a lot of times instead of the interstate to get places, just because it’s such a pretty drive,” says Aviles. “A lot of times I would go to clear my head and to think about everything in the world, or if there was something I needed to be alone for, that’s the spot I would go to. I would drive up it and sometimes stop at certain spots or certain beaches or lookouts.”
Over the bridge of the song, Aviles praises the traffic, which she actually loved. It gave her time to slow down, think, and take in everything around her. Learning to slow down and live in the moment isn’t always easy, and sometimes that perfect pause at the top of a rollercoaster can be far more exhilarating than the rapid drop.
“PCH Rollercoaster” is a testament to the growth of Love You Later. Aviles’ first single “Lost in Los Angeles,” is a moody admission of feeling lost in the world. In “PCH Rollercoaster,” Aviles shares that she has found that sense of home, if only in a certain place, and has come one step closer to finding herself. “The beginning of Love You Later was a lot of heartbreak and a lot of learning about myself,” says Aviles. “I think that’s where a lot of the more introspective and sadder and deeper songs came out.” Love You Later’s April EP Blindfolded opened the door to a lighthearted dream-pop that bleeds into “PCH Rollercoaster.”
Over the last few months, Aviles has spent lockdown in Nashville and assisted in re-building the city after it was devastated by a tornado in February. In passing out water and snacks to workers and raising money for those who lost their homes, Aviles came to realize that despite her dreams of the PCH, Nashville has her heart. We can expect another single from Love You Later sometime this fall.
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