A Note from the Author

“Elevator” is a song that’s at the heart of Wavelength. 

Lillian writes the lyrics after a devastating run-in with her ex-girlfriend. It’s the first time they’ve spoken since they broke up at the start of senior year, and Lillian’s spiraling when Sasha finds her after the encounter.

 Sasha’s a new friend who Lillian is starting to have flickers of feelings for, caught up in the ways the two of them already understand each other. Sasha offers her exactly what she needs in that moment: their headphones, and music to ground her.

Later that night, Lillian sends Sasha a voice note of “Elevator.” It’s a door cracked open to becoming closer. And a more vulnerable way of writing songs than Sasha has experienced as a teenage pop star. Lillian mixes her heartbreak with the spaces around her and turns it into something that the other characters, the listeners, and the readers can feel too.

The sensation that everything is moving too fast.

Desperately needing something to hold on to.

Wavelength is full of cascading moments of joy and hurt and triumph and falling in love for the first time and the second time. Things are getting blown wide open and put back together differently than before. Feelings start intimate and become anthemic.

That’s “Elevator.” It begins in my brain, in Lillian’s. It goes from notebook to voice note to full song, and now with the brilliant help of some of my favorite people who also happen to be incredible musicians, it’s out in the world.

I hope it’s a good thing for you to hold on to when it all feels like it’s spinning.