Join Audacy's Karen Carson back stage at Leading Ladies with Alessia Cara as they break down her music, inspirations, and more!
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00:00I'm Karen Carson at leading ladies in the Tara origin interview lounge with Alessia
00:08Cara. Welcome to the show. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Five Time Platinum.
00:14Five Juno Awards, and a Grammy and love and hyperbole. What a beautiful album. Oh, thank
00:22you. Thank you so much. So congratulations on that. This is your fourth. And I've noticed
00:27that you've touched on some really big life moments and some really emotion big emotions.
00:34Can you talk a little bit about how that all came together? Yeah, so I mean, this is the
00:38longest that I've taken to write an album. It took me about three ish years, give or
00:43take. So I mean, a lot can happen in that span of time. It was a very formative time
00:48for me, especially I think I was just going through a lot of different things. And so
00:52this album is sort of a chronological retelling of the last three years and a lot of big emotions
00:58came with that, you know, I was experiencing a lot of like, I don't know, feelings towards
01:03myself and my purpose as a human being, but also as an artist, and reshaping what all
01:08that means to me while simultaneously, you know, letting new love into my life, which
01:12was a very scary thing to do. And like, you know, letting enjoy and into my life, but
01:18also into my music and understanding like, how to how to how do I write about things
01:22that are happy, you know, because I am so used to writing about, you know, the big heavy
01:27emotions that feel not so great. And it was quicker. Yeah, it's easier. You know, I would
01:32say it's easier to vent when you're, you know, not happy, right? So when things are going
01:35well, it's you don't really need to vent all the time. So you did such a good job. Thank
01:39you. I tried. I tried my best. I love it. Thank you. Let's start with a song go outside.
01:43I know that's, it's, it's a heavy one, but it's a great one. And it's all about, you
01:49know, you felt closed off, you didn't, you just wanted to be, you know, everybody leave
01:53me alone type of thing. And I think so many people feel like that. Oh, yeah. So how did
01:58you get out of that? Um, it I think it just took a lot of time. I, you know, did a lot
02:04of therapy as well in the last couple years, which really helped. I don't know, I think
02:09just like learning how to, I mean, it sounds kind of cheesy, but really just like learn
02:14how to actually love myself and feel comfortable with who I was fully enough to understand
02:20that I deserve happiness and joy. And like those things are fun to experience, and they're
02:24necessary in life. You know, I think sometimes when you're feeling a little down, and you
02:28get kind of comfortable, you feel sort of comfortable in this like place, sometimes
02:33of sadness, and it's kind of hard to get out of that dark cloud. Because you just feel
02:36sort of safe there and comfortable there. And I just had to remind myself, like, this
02:40isn't a good place to be in. And there can be more. It's not just who you are, I think
02:43you can find joy and happiness, you have to like learn how to let those things in. So
02:47long story short, yeah, it took about three years to figure out how to do that. But I
02:52feel very happy. I feel extremely fulfilled and more comfortable with myself and with
02:57my life than I ever have before. So it's very nice.
03:00It all shows up on the album. When did you start songwriting? And did you have like a
03:06lot of musical influence growing up?
03:08Um, yes, I think I mean, I don't know if this is considered kind of later in life, I didn't
03:12really seriously start writing songs until my mid to late teens, I would say, which I
03:18feel like for a lot of other artists, I guess that's kind of late, because a lot of other
03:22artists I know, like kind of started like super, super young, but I didn't really get
03:26into songwriting until around then I would like kind of dabbled a little bit as a kid.
03:30But yeah, that's when I started taking it seriously. And then in terms of inspirations,
03:36I discovered Amy Winehouse when I was like 10 or something. And she was a huge influence
03:41on me. I loved her music immediately. I loved everything about her. So yeah, she was like
03:47my first the first artist I look to as like, Oh my god, I would love to do this one day.
03:51That's so cool. Yeah. She's awesome. She's Yeah.
03:54That's so great. You have so many different, I feel genres of music in like pop and soul
03:59and all kinds of you go the gamut, which I think is is really, really cool. And I did
04:07read that you were a John Mayer fan, you were influenced by his music. How did he get
04:12to be on the album playing guitar?
04:15Um, well, thankfully, I had his number. I was gonna say. Honestly, I did, which I wouldn't
04:23have otherwise. But I did this like show with him many years ago, he was doing like this,
04:27like dive bar tour. And he was having a few artists jump on stage with him. And he asked
04:31me to come on stage with him many years ago. So I had his number from then. And I never
04:36pulled that card, the will you be on my song card, because I was like, I have to keep it
04:40cool. I'm not just gonna I don't want to seem like I'm just like using him or asking all
04:43these favors. But as soon as I wrote obvious, I was like, he would be so good on the song.
04:47And so I kind of kept it in my back pocket for a while. And I was like, Do I ask Do I
04:51not? I'm not someone who typically asks for things like that. I don't really do a lot
04:55of features. So I was very nervous to ask him. But I was like, let me just try. And so
04:58I asked him and thankfully, he really liked it. And he was like, let's get in the studio
05:03and see what what comes. And I was like, Yes, please. So we did. Amazing. Yeah, he
05:08played like the most beautiful solo ever. It's amazing. I know. And that's really cool.
05:12He got to create together. Yeah, it wasn't done. And then he exactly. Yeah, like he he
05:18just Yeah, we got to go in the studio together. And I got to watch him play on it. It was
05:22so cool.
05:23Alessia. Tonight's all about women and empowerment. How do you feel about playing on
05:27stage with all these talented ladies?
05:30It feels amazing. It's so nice. I feel like it's my favorite thing to like be a part of
05:36an industry where I feel like so many women are doing so many incredible things, especially
05:39in the last few years, like you see so many women artists dominating and I love it. I
05:45love being around women. I love being around women creative. So it's like my perfect world.
05:51Well, we're so excited to see you and congratulations on love and hyperbole and
05:55your world tour. And thanks so much. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.