Lilyisthatyou is planting the seeds of a new era on “Money Can’t Buy Happiness”

For Lily Davies, better known as Lilyisthatyou, pop music has always been the language through which she best expresses herself. The Toronto-born songwriter first broke through in 2021 when her defiantly sex-positive debut single "FMRN" exploded on TikTok, amassing more than a million views in 24 hours. The viral moment quickly led to a major-label deal with Warner Records despite only having released one song at the time, but five years later, now based in Los Angeles and completely independent, she's entering what feels like her most self-assured and cohesive chapter yet. "I'm still able to resonate with so many people, despite being independent. Nobody really cares unless you care...you are waking up every day and choosing to do this incredibly hard thing of putting yourself out there,” Davies explains.

That evolution is woven throughout From the Garden I Grew, her forthcoming EP arriving 21 August. While previous releases often found Davies slipping into different personas — including Lilith, an alter ego she describes as "the girl that steps on stage that can do anything in heels” — she sees both this record and its predecessor, Dirt on My Hands, as something far more direct. "This release is just Lilyisthatyou," she says. "An honest, very, very raw, honest, confident...pretty heartbreaking at times, person."

Her latest single, "Money Can't Buy Happiness," continues that honesty, albeit wrapped inside one of the year's most addictive pop hooks. The idea arrived during a studio session with Swedish producer Albin Tengblad, whose work spans the likes of BANKS and Keke Palmer, and songwriter Amara after Davies jokingly confessed she desperately wanted a $350,000 crocodile Birkin bag. "At the time I was dating this guy who just wanted to spoil me all day long," she laughs. "I was telling Amara how I wanted a crocodile Birkin really badly and how they're $350,000. But would we actually be happy if we met somebody that could get us the crocodile Birkin?"

Rather than offering a simple answer, Davies intentionally built the song around opposing interpretations. "What's so interesting to me about this song is how many different meanings there are," she explains. "'Money can't buy happiness, but I'm pretty happy right now' can mean, 'I just got this new bag, and I'm so happy.' But then there's also the interpretation...'I don't have a lot of money right now, but what do I care? I'm actually pretty happy right now.' There's contradictory meanings that I leave up to the fans to decide what resonates with them more."

That tension reflects Davies' own perspective after experiencing both viral fame and the realities of rebuilding her career on her own terms. "I've definitely been able to create wealth for myself, and I'm so grateful that art has given me the ability to do that. But I think I've always seen, like a lot of people do, money as an overarching objective so I can support myself, my family, and friends," she says. "Whether we accept it or not, maybe happiness isn't the right word for what money can buy, but the security and freedom to know that you're not working paycheque to paycheque is definitely the happiness that so many of us are in pursuit of."

Davies describes herself as someone who still struggles to openly discuss her insecurities, instead processing them through songwriting. “My music is my armour,” she explains. “I’m the most avoidant [person] ever…let me make a song about it, and then I’ll send you the song, and you’ll know how I feel.” Raised on dance music and festival culture, she's never been drawn to writing traditional ballads. "I grew up listening to a lot of dance music. I was just always drawn into that fast pace, never-ending beat. It didn't really matter what I was singing over it, as long as it had that energy." Her upbeat approach to pop often disguises some of her most introspective ideas, as heard on "Money Can't Buy Happiness," while embracing the notion that growth is rarely graceful. "The only thing I can do in the face of my imperfections is create," she says. "I can never understand anything by trying to pick it apart. It's so much easier for me to just write about it, sing about it, rap about it. Make jokes about it."

Her vulnerable outlook has naturally shaped the community surrounding her music. Her fans, known as "The Garden", grew into the name after the first night of her debut headlining tour in 2024, kicking off in Boston. Audience members came together, surprising her on-stage as they offered up rows of flowers from the crowd, pre-planned through a fan group chat. The gesture has since become a staple of her live shows and one that Davies doesn’t take for granted. As Davies puts it: "I was able to look out at this garden every night on tour during emotional points of my set. So it’s a name they claimed for themselves, whether or not my fans even realize that. I’m glad because the name feels so natural to me — with my name being Lily — and I think a lot about how a flower doesn't know it's a flower…we don't even know what we're turning into and I think that relates to our community,” she reflects. “We don't even know the hue that our petals are going to be months from now, but we've gotten through the hard part, and we’ve gone through the dirt." With "Money Can't Buy Happiness", Davies may embrace luxury, but underneath its surface is an artist far more interested in growth and how it often arrives before we even realize we're blooming.