php artisan migrate - SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'laravel'@'localhost'

I want to set up and learn laravel following this course: https://laracasts.com/series/laravel-from-scratch-2017/episodes/4

When I try to use the command php artisan migrate I get this error:

[Illuminate\Database\QueryException]                                                                                                        
  SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'laravel'@'localhost' (using password: NO) (SQL: select * from information_schema.tables whe  
  re table_schema = laravel and table_name = migrations)

[PDOException]                                                                            
  SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'laravel'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

Tryied to look for answers, I figured I may make some changes in the .env file, but don't know what, nothing has worked so far.

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel
DB_USERNAME=laravel
DB_PASSWORD=

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 not a Mac OS X as in the video, so I wonder what should I do differently? Is there some mysql setting I did not make?

via MattSom