Lil Luner
For Villa Park artist Lil Luner, making music isn’t just about numbers, attention, or where a song might take him. At its core, creating is about growth. The 25-year-old artist, currently sitting around 600 monthly Spotify listeners, grew up naturally gravitating toward both rock and rap. Over time, artists like Lil Peep and XXXTentacion showed him how those worlds could exist together and helped push him toward making music of his own.
“I’ve always gravitated towards rock and rap music growing up, but Lil Peep and X definitely influenced me into creating music,” Luner said.
That influence can still be felt in the artists he looks toward today. He names David Bowie, Lil Peep, XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD among his biggest inspirations — a lineup that reflects the mix of individuality, vulnerability and genre-blending that surrounds his own creative direction. But being an artist comes with two completely different sides.
“Being in the music scene definitely has its ups and downs,” Luner said. “Sometimes I feel like a rockstar and the coolest mf on the planet. Other days I feel hopeless and worn out. I know I’m not the only one that feels this way.”
For Luner, having the right people around him has helped make those lows easier to work through. Support matters, especially in a space where confidence can change from one day to the next.Even with those ups and downs, he’s thinking long-term.
Within the next five years, one of Luner’s biggest goals is to release an album that he produced entirely himself. It’s a natural extension of the mindset behind his music — becoming more independent, learning more of the process and continuing to create whether or not anyone is watching. That same idea shapes the message he wants to leave with the next generation.
“My message for the youth would be to never stop creating,” he said. “Practice any art — music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting or writing — not for fortune or fame, but to experience becoming.”
In a music industry where artists are constantly pushed to think about streams, followers and attention, Lil Luner’s perspective brings things back to something simpler. Sometimes the most important part of creating isn’t what comes from the art. It’s who you become while making it.