A promising young singer-songwriter, this Columbia native is teasing her next project

Lyn Lapid, a budding Filipina American singer-songwriter, appreciates any chance she gets to come home to Columbia from Los Angeles, where she’s pursuing her dream.

When visiting from Los Angeles, the 23-year-old settles into the calming atmosphere of her suburban childhood neighborhood. She replaces the noise of Los Angeles traffic with the quiet moments — birds chirping and the wind rustling in the trees — and familiar eats.

In the early days of the pandemic, Lapid posted a series of ukulele cover songs to TikTok that went viral. She then made videos of her original work, including “Producer Man” and “In My Mind,” that viewers flocked to.

She’s amassed millions of followers across major social media platforms, including nearly 5 million on TikTok, and was signed by Republic Records, then transferred to Mercury Records, whose artists include Post Malone and Noah Kahan.

In a recent video interview, when Lapid squeezed in a few days at home, the Atholton High School graduate talked about her new music and her favorite spots to grab a bite when she’s home. This followed her July TikTok video in which she jumped on the viral hometown trend, telling viewers, “can’t always be LA or NYC, someone’s gotta hold it down in Howard County Maryland.”

Lapid, who dropped her debut album “BUZZKILL” in April 2025, is back in the studio, with something new in store soon. Last month, she released the first single “one good thing,” off her upcoming second album. After doing this interview, she teased what appears to be a new song on her social media Monday.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Let’s start with your connection to Howard County. What are things you really miss about home?

I definitely have my go-to restaurants that I cycle through every time I’m back. There’s a lot of Asian food spots that I love to go to with my family, even if I’m just here for a couple days. There’s Pho Van in Catonsville, Dok Khao Thai in Columbia, and then I always typically go to Akira Ramen in Columbia as well, next to the Columbia Mall, and then I go to Urban Hot Pot, also in that little strip.

Shifting to your music journey, what is your earliest memory with music?

My parents always had me involved in music, one way or another. I remember when I was like 6 years old, back in my childhood home in Elkridge, my mom would set up the karaoke machine and have me sing, and she’d record it for my family members. I was also involved in my school orchestra growing up. And then, I think it was for either my 14th or 15th birthday, I got a ukulele, so I learned how to play, and then, when I was 16 years old, I got my first guitar. So I’ve always been involved with music one way or another.

Your song “Producer Man” blew up in 2020. Was it being stuck inside during the pandemic, not being able to go to school and doing virtual school, that started you gravitating toward songwriting?

I think it was exactly that, the fact that when everything was kind of shut down I had so much more free time, and it was funny because I wasn’t allowed to have social media during that time. So I hid my social media from my parents. I was really bored and would try out singing covers online and then also posting songwriting for fun as well.

Can you walk me through the song, “one good thing,” that you released last month? From what I was reading, it seems that maybe you were experiencing burnout from songwriting. How did you work through that, and how are you showcasing that in the song?

I had written that song about a year ago, when I was going through a pretty heavy burnout with creating in general, and I think that I really just needed to restructure my relationship with creating and making music. I love it and will love it forever, and I know that this is something that I’m meant to do for a really, really long time. And I want to be able to make sure that I can have the stamina for it. I’m realizing with writing that song, and also just writing all the songs for this next project, that less is more in terms of how I choose to express myself.

What kind of vulnerabilities are you putting into your music that are resonating with your fans?

I guess all of them. I feel like I have this rule for myself that I can say whatever I want in my music, whether it’s sad, happy, angry, mean. I use music as a way to process my emotions, as do a lot of artists, and I think that honesty and authenticity is what I would guess is what a lot of people resonate with.

Typically, a lot of my fans are around my age, if not maybe a little bit younger. I think writing about my life experiences: growing up, making friends, losing friends, getting into relationships, getting out of them, moving to new cities and feeling lonely, feeling happy sometimes, I think people really enjoy having someone to relate to, or having something to relate to.

You released a new single that is being tied to your new era. What are you teasing, kicking off?

Recently I’ve been teasing my next album and releasing singles from it. This next project feels really refreshing because it’s just me. It feels like me and nothing more or extra of it, as if I need anything more for it to be interesting.

I have been really enjoying doing small, intimate pop-up shows in Los Angeles when I’m there, and my goal is to have a hometown one, a little intimate jam session in Columbia somewhere. My top priority one day, and I’m crossing my fingers that this happens soon, is to be able to play the All Things Go DC Festival at Merriweather. The Merriweather stage is the stage I graduated on, so I think it’d be a really full-circle moment to be able to do that one day.