Jessica Lowndes Releasing “Strange Little Game”

Photography: Lia Hansen

Markos Papadatos interviewed actress and singer Jessica Lowndes (“90210”) about her new single “Strange Little Game,” which was just released, and the inspiration behind the song. Lowndes co-wrote the song with Aaron Edwards and Corey Walles. The music video was directed by Jules Petterson.

Why did you call it “Strange Little Game”?

"Because nobody really agrees to it, but everybody plays anyway," she noted. "The game is modern relationships, honestly. The mixed signals, the checking stories, the waiting for replies, pretending not to care while secretly caring too much. Everyone is performing a version of themselves online."

"I just wanted to capture this weird emotional reality we live in now," Lowndes added. "If listeners take anything from it, I hope it’s that real connection matters more than silent observation. Sometimes you have to stop watching people’s lives and actually step into them."

Why do you think this song is resonating so much with people?

"Because everyone recognizes it from both sides," she explained. "Everybody’s watched someone a little too closely and everybody’s also felt watched without being acknowledged."

"It’s become a normal part of how people connect now," she continued, "even if nobody really talks about it."

Your chorus, “You don’t follow, you just watch my story…” so many of us can relate to that. What sparked it?

"That line came from realizing how different connection feels now," Lowndes shared. "People can know everything about your life without ever really knowing you. They watch quietly from a distance… your stories, your late night posts, your day-to-day moments."

"I noticed how people can keep tabs on you without any real-life connection to you," she said. "They don’t follow, they don’t like anything, they don’t reach out… but they’re still there, watching everything."

"There’s no real conversation happening," she emphasized. "It’s intimacy without closeness. That lyric was my way of describing how social media can feel like a silent audience instead of actual human connection. That feeling felt really modern to me."

Also, the line “2 AM eyes on every frame”? Why did you choose that time?

"Because nothing good or casual is happening at 2 AM," she remarked. "If someone’s watching your stories then, it feels personal in a way they’d probably deny during the day. It’s quiet attention. It’s a small detail but it says a lot."

There’s this idea in the song of being watched but not engaged with. Why does that stand out to you?

"Because it creates this weird illusion of closeness," she explained. "You can feel seen without ever really being acknowledged and those are two completely different things, even if they look identical through a screen."

"At the same time," Lowndes added, "people start building versions of you in their heads, projecting their assumptions onto you and quietly judging someone they don’t actually know."

Do you think the song is more about connection or disconnection?

"Both," she stated. "That’s the strange part. It looks and feels like connection. You’re visible, they’re watching but it behaves like distance. That tension is really what the song lives in."

The title “Strange Little Game” really stands out. What does it mean to you?

"It’s about that weird dynamic where attention exists without honesty," she said. "Where someone can feel close to you just by watching you, but never actually step into your real life. It’s strange because everyone’s involved in it but nobody really agrees on the rules."

"That’s what a lot of connections feel like now," she noted. "You can see someone’s whole life through stories… what they’re doing, where they are, who they’re with but still not actually know anything about them."

"At the same time," she added, "you can be the one doing the watching too. It goes both ways."

Is there a personal story or connection behind this song?

"The idea originally stemmed from this strange experience I had where someone had been watching and liking my stories for years," she confessed.

"Always there in the background, always up to date with my life but we never actually talked beyond the occasional DM and they didn’t even follow me," Lowndes recalled. "So there was this weird sense of familiarity that existed entirely through silent observation."

"Then when we finally met in person, they acted like they didn’t even know my name," she said. "And that disconnect was confusing… like I’d been part of a game I didn’t even realize I was in. A game I didn’t ask to be part of."

"But the coolest part is that the song was born out of that confusion and it stopped being about one person entirely," she continued. "The more I wrote, the more it started echoing through different people and situations… all these blurred lines between being seen and being known."

"I feel like a lot of people are going to listen and think, 'Wait… is this about me?', which is kind of funny," she said with a laugh. "That’s basically the point though."

"Everyone’s both the watcher and the watched," she concluded. "I might get a couple extra story views… or a few new suspicious burner accounts, who knows."

If you had to describe “Strange Little Game” in one sentence, what would it be?

“'Strange Little Game' is about people who feel like they know you through a screen but don’t know you in real life, and how confusing that gap can be."

“Strange Little Game” is available on Spotify

To learn more about Jessica Lowndes and her single “Strange Little Game,” follow her on Instagram.

Photography: Lia Hansen