Interview: Alessia Cara on her new album, "Love & Hyperbole!"

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alessia Cara is back with her highly anticipated album, Love & Hyperbole, a stunning collection of heartfelt storytelling and soul-stirring melodies. Known for her deeply personal lyrics and unmistakable voice, Alessia once again delivers an album filled with vulnerability, growth, and raw emotion. From soaring ballads to introspective anthems, Love & Hyperbole is a reflection of love, self-discovery, and everything in between. We had the honor of speaking with Alessia to dive into the stories behind the songs, her creative evolution, and what this new chapter means to her! 

Which track feels most personal to you, and why?

Oh man, this is always a hard question to answer. I’m sure every artist says this, but every song's super personal. But there's one song on the album called “Fire” that I’m hoping to put out soon. Or I guess it’ll be out in three days. That, to me, is the first time I've ever written a love song without any sort of fear attached to it or any sort of negativity around it. I always feel like when I go to write love songs, there's always an angle of melancholy or fear. I always have to put a negative spin on it because that's just how my brain works. I always tend to get a little bit negative sometimes when it comes to love and the outcomes of love. But I think this song feels super personal to me because it's the first time I've just written about love in a happy, free way without ambitions or fear of anything. It's just like a love letter, and that feels very open. I find it a lot easier to write about all the negative stuff I go through, but it's a lot more scary for me to talk about being in love in a lighter sense. I don't know how to explain it. It just feels more naked or something. SO that song feels super personal; it's strictly just a love letter to somebody in my life. Yeah, there's no bells and whistles; that's just what it is. It feels scary but also very free and exciting. 

What was the easiest and hardest song to write on your new album?

Ouuu, the easiest and hardest song to write? Let me think. I would say that some of the easiest were “Obvious.” That was super easy; it felt like it just came out of me. Same with Fire; it is a very open, scary sort of song to write. It felt just very, i don't know, just those two songs just felt like they already kind of existed in a way. And I just caught them somehow. I don't know how to explain it. I know that sounds like all fluffy, weird artists, but it's true! I sometimes feel like certain songs, if not all songs, kind of exist already. So those two felt like that. Then, some of the songs that weren't necessarily hard but kind of took on different forms and new lives in the process, were probably “Slow Motion” and “Nighttime Thing.” Those songs I felt a little more, I don't know. We had to fine-tune them and evolve them a little more to get them to the place I wanted to get them to. So those are probably some of the more difficult ones to nail. 

Are there any new themes or experiences you’ve explored on this album that you haven’t before in your music?

For sure, yeah! A few different ones, I think you know again, on the topic of love, where there's a lot of new forms of love that I experienced. You know, experiencing a relationship in love that is very different from anything I've ever experienced before. Just this sense of security and comfort that's just let me feel so much more like myself, which I've never experienced. I've explored other topics in more detail that I’ve never really explored before. Not to be negative, but I explore impermanence and getting older, kind of death and things like that. They've always made me really afraid. I kind of talked about them in a super open way. Just things that I'm scared of and that life passes so quickly. I've never talked about it that specifically before and the sadness that I feel about that. I think it just takes getting older to be more conscious of that. Now, obviously, I'm the youngest I'll ever be, but the oldest I've ever been. So I feel that very heavily. Those topics are definitely things I dissect a lot.

You have a large range of fans, from those who first connected with "Here" 10 years ago to those enjoying the new songs from Love & Hyperbole now. What is one thing you want your long-term fans to know about your new album, and what is one thing you think newer fans should know?

OOOOO man! I guess I want the OG fans to know, which I hope that they do know just by listening to it, that I've grown a lot. I think if you hear all the albums, you can hopefully hear that evolution sonically and lyrically. But also just on a human experience level, like I've definitely grown a ton, and I've learned a lot in my 10 years of doing this. I hope that you just kind of hear the common thread and the growth a little bit. I guess new fans, I don’t know. I hope they listen to the old stuff and catch up, haha! So that we can make our family bigger. 

Your last album, Growing Pains, resonated with many young girls as we learned how to sit with ourselves—almost like being comfortable being alone. From your journey then to now, how have you navigated that narrative still? Has it changed for you?

It's strange because—and I always say this—I feel like on one side of it, I feel like the exact same person. The DNA of that album and who I was at the time is still very much there. I feel like that version could look at me now and recognize exactly who this is. On the other hand, I feel like I've also changed so much, too. So I think some of my earlier albums, like “Know It All” and “The Pains Of Growing,” even had this closed-off element. There was this heavy stubbornness and this view of the world that was a little closed off. I feel like I had this fire in me that was fueled by angst. I don't know how exactly to pinpoint it, but there was a lot of stuff in there that I think is just not there anymore. Now, when I look back, I just feel a lot softer than I used to be. I feel a lot more expanded in so many ways. That stubbornness is still there, but I feel like I just have a different view of the world and life. I use a lot of those negative traits about myself and harness them to reshape them into actually helping me in my life now. A lot of that stubbornness, I've used it for good. Those feelings of nostalgia, and those difficult emotions I was always feeling, I've used it to allow me to stay more present. I don't know. I've turned them somehow into things I feel more proud of. 

Thank you so much to Alessia for taking the time to answer our burning questions and thank you to her team for making this possible. Love & Hyperbole is out now on all streaming platforms, we highly suggest you give it a listen. It will not disappoint!