Lyndsey Gunnulfsen grew up in
Lowell,
Massachusetts. She has spoken about her lifelong fascination with graveyards, death, and the occult, stating that this was the inspiration behind many of the paranormal and macabre themes in her song-writing. Spiritually, she has said she is "into astrology and life paths and weird energetics stuff". Gunn has stated that she has struggled with depression, and that this was a major inspiration for much of her song-writing. Gunn has also cited bands such as
Paramore,
Radiohead,
Florence and the Machine, and
The Weeknd as musical influences. Lynn Gunn is a graduate from Lowell High School. Participating in Battle of The Bands at the school with some classmates, she graduated in 2012, was originally going to attend MassArt but ultimately backed out to pursue PVRIS as a full-time project, prior to touring and signing to Rise Records, Gunn has spent some time working at Hot Topic and Guitar Center. In 2020, Gunn revealed that she has an autoimmune disease called
Ankylosing spondylitis, which she was diagnosed with in 2018. She was also diagnosed with
Crohn’s disease in October 2019.
Public image and LGBT activism Gunn is a prominent LGBT voice in the alternative music scene. She stated in an interview for
Rolling Stone that she first
came out as gay to her parents when she was 18, by leaving a letter under her mother's pillow before she went on tour. "First and foremost I want to be known as is an artist and creative before anything else," she explained in an interview with
Playboy. "I think my sexuality is the last thing to check off on that list." Gunn explained her decision to be vocal about her sexuality in an interview with
Newsbeat in 2015: "I never had someone to look up to and be like 'oh that person is OK and they're gay.' If I can be that for someone then it's why I'm open about it." Gunn was one of several artists invited by
GLAAD and
Billboard to talk about her coming-out story for
National Coming Out Day in 2017. Gunn cited her family's supportiveness while she was coming out and encouraged others to reach out for the support around them. Gunn presented the Icon Award to
Laura Jane Grace of the American punk rock band
Against Me! at the 2017
APMA Awards. ==Discography==