We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lovisa Lightning a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lovisa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

The Lightning Method is a method designed to grow instrumentalists and vocalists to help them reach new heights at a lightning speed while having fun during the process. It’s basically inspired and based on my own experience and needs 5 years ago as a singer and songwriter. I would come up with excuses not to practice or write music, typically blaming it on lack of time. At the same time I wasn’t fully enjoying doing music because of fear of judgment and failing. This all caused a lot of anxiety because I loved music and couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was like being unrequited in love.

During the 1 year long covid lock down in Los Angeles I could no longer blame the fact that I didn’t practice on lack of time. As I started to go deeper exploring my voice I found new timbres, tones, expressions and I was finally able to perform the different vocal techniques that I had been so resistant to learn. I was able to control my voice and sound on a new level and most importantly I was really enjoying the exercises that I had created for myself.
However, the key to going down the road of exploring my voice was an intense self-work course. I realized that the more I got to know myself on a deep level and the more I faced my fears and discovered my blocks, the more I enjoyed writing and performing music and the better I became as an artist.

After hearing a lot of people expressing being stuck in the limbo of loving the art while struggling with time, inspiration or fears I realized my exercises and experiences from life coaching combined could benefit others. That’s when I started drafting a plan that has now become the music program The Lightning Method, a music and life coaching program combined.

Lovisa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Swedish born and Belgian raised freelancing musician, voice actress, life & vocal coach and localization consultant. I studied performing arts and music production at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. This led me to the voice over and dubbing industry where I worked for 13 years as a voice actress, director, producer, creative director and client manager. With vocals being my main instrument I especially enjoyed immersing myself in the art of acting and directing voices and vocals for different languages.

I recently founded and started the Lightning Method program together with my husband Derrick Lightning who I also have a band with called Der2Lov performing in the Los Angeles area.
The Lightning Method is a method designed to grow as a musician and reach new heights at a lightning speed. It’s for vocalists and instrumentalists of all ages and levels. We are currently working with people in LA only but looking to expand to other territories as it’s possible to do the program virtually.

Our experiences is that people very often blame not pursuing an instrument, a music career or songs writing on lack of time or creative blocks while the actual issue typically is lack of priority, self belief and being in denial.Through experiencing different types of life and music coaching courses, we found that the key is to break through the blocks standing in the way of you enjoying and actually wanting to prioritize practicing. And if you think about it; the time we spend on hiding from the fact that we want to do something or on the anxiety of not pursuing something takes up much more time AND energy than we may admit to ourselves. That’s why we work with both parts as we believe that they go hand in hand, pursuing your instrument through new non-traditional exercises as we identify blocks and become masters at facing them.
The exercises applied in the Lightning Method were life changing for me and what got me up on stage again, making money from it and most importantly enjoying it. The self work is constant and by growing others and each other we grow ourselves which is why I love my job. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing others succeed in something they truly enjoy doing.

With the Lightning method program you also have access to our community orchestra called “The Last OrcheSTRAW” where we encourage people to share their music and talents regardless of age and level.
If you are interested in joining the Lightning Method or please send an email to [email protected] or DM to our instagram der2lov.music

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I saw my business partner for the first time in 2019 playing at my favorite music venues in Hollywood. I was very impressed with his courage as he would go out in the audience, stand on tables, put candles in his saxophone bell or run out to people on the streets when taking solos. The playfulness and joy he brought when playing was so contagious and the audience loved it! I was so inspired that I wrote a song to him, AND I recorded a memo that I sent to him which was an insanely scary thing for me to do at the time. He really liked my voice and shortly after we started our band Der2Lov (dare to love). The band name is a combination of our names. It also describes our journey; to surrender to fears, blocks and to each other as we got engaged when performing together at the venue where I first saw him one year later. We later released the song I wrote to him called “Thank You”, our first single, on our wedding day.

The experience that our journeys brought, the engagement in self-work and the love and joy we get from creating community and music was what laid the ground for The Lightning Method.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

For me personally a lesson I had to unlearn was that I can’t pursue and make a living of my dream and especially not at a later stage in life. I studied music and got burned out from the pressure I put on myself while caring for what others thought. I was the only female in my class at the Music Production bachelor program and while I am extremely grateful for having very supporting teachers and classmates there were people who openly expressed their opinions regarding women’s capability versus men’s when it came to songwriting and music production. I struggled to believe in myself and there is no way I could have done what I do today if it wasn’t for the experiences life brought since, the good and the bad.
I believe that you can do anything IF you, not your ego, but YOU actually believe in yourself. Separating those can be tricky and even more so separating yourself from what others think or may think. I get to work on that everyday in order to live and enjoy my dream. This is why I am so passionate about the Lighting Method and sharing it with others.

Lessons that we work on unlearning in the Lightning method are the things that hold us back from being our authentic childish selves.
The confidence with which a baby or a young child screams or expresses their feelings typically is lost as we get older and more self conscious. The same happens with our voices and ways of singing or expressing ourselves vocally. There’s so much we get for free if we learn to unlearn those patterns, we’ve done it before and we have it inside us, we just need to work with that inner child of ours.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/der2lov.music?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Der2Lov
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lovisa-blixt-lightning-0955477a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@der2lov

Image Credits
Michael Hack SummerShade Photography