Q&A: Alessia Cara Chooses Love
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY GIGI KANG ☆
LOVE & HYPERBOLE IS CARA’S FAVORITE PROJECT—that she has ever released. She describes it as the project that she feels most proud of. Released on Valentine’s Day, Love & Hyperbole is a delicate examination of all types of love.
It’s not just about heartbreak or the excitement of a new relationship—it’s about both. From devotion to distance, Cara’s intention with Love & Hyperbole is to use her personal experiences, with a hint of humor, to present a well-rounded picture of what it means to love and be loved.
This is achieved through her lyrics which play with contrasts. On “Left Alone,” she sings, “You pulled on my heartstrings, now you’re just on my nerves.” On “Garden Interlude,” she says, “We’re water and fire intertwined.”
Cara also grapples with self-love, learning to live with melancholy and growing out of it at the same time. In “Drive,” Cara sings, “Where do I go? / I’ve outgrown the face I wear / I’m getting over relying on tomorrow to get somewhere.” In the same song, she says, “I’ll cradle my desires like a child.” It becomes less about escaping, and more about accepting.
Similarly, on the album cover, Cara holds herself up. There are two of her on the cover with grasped hands and a delicate balance that could be easily broken just by letting go of herself. As a visual representation of the album, it communicates the choice to trust. It illustrates the vulnerability that comes with love, and the to take the chance.
Cara kicks off her Love & Hyperbole tour on April 6 in Boston and will continue through June.
I had the pleasure of attending a press conference hosted by Universal Music Group’s °1824 where Cara took questions. Read a snippet below.
LUNA: The visuals related to Love & Hyperbole have included vibrant shades of red. Sometimes they stand out against black, sometimes they’re integrated into theenvironment. How would you say these visuals relate to the themes of the album?
CARA: I have always related colors, shapes, and whole universes to every song and project of mine. I don’t know if that’s related to the thing I have called synesthesia—which always sounds fake (laughs). But it’s very true and real for me. I see colors when I hear sounds. That has always been a catalyst for how I want the different album worlds to look like. It has inspired a lot of the visuals because I have so many images in my mind.
For Love & Hyperbole, the obvious answer would be love. You know, we see the imagery of red for Valentine’s Day and things like that. But I also think the specific wine color that’s on the album cover felt very sophisticated and rich. It has a warmth to it with cool undertones, and I think the contrast between the warmth and the coolness were very indicative of what the album means to me. It’s all about contrast and how we need contrast in life. I think that’s what makes life beautiful—the negative and the positive working in tandem.
ECHO: Can you share how the theme of hyperbole translated into your storytelling while you were writing this album?
CARA: I think I was using hyperbole in a humorous way and allowing it to pacify some of the heavier emotions. “Run Run” is about me fearing that I’m going to sabotage something really great and potentially beautiful. I used a lot of humor to say that in a hyperbolic sense like this person is going to run away from me. A lot of the lyrics are hyperbolic in a way that helps soothe the sad feeling under the surface.
There’s the other side to it when you’re in love—in a positive way or feeling heartbreak—a lot of those things can feel very dramatic. Love can sometimes be super dramatic. Especially me, I’m a cancer. I’m a very emotional person. Sometimes things surrounding love can feel like the end of the world or the only thing that matters in the world. It feels larger than life in a weird way. So [with] hyperbole there are the exaggerated emotions I was truthfully feeling. I wasn’t exaggerating for artistic purposes. There are two sides to it—using [hyperbole] for humor to soothe the heavy parts, and being reflective of what I was really feeling.
BLAZE RADIO: You recently did some pop-up performances in cities like LA, NYC, and Toronto. How did those shows come about and what’s it like getting to perform in more intimate settings?
CARA: I was going to release [the album] in October, then I pushed it into February. Because there was such a long wait for the listeners and the people who were excited about the project, I wanted to do something in the meantime for them to be excited about and to enjoy. It was so fun to get to do that.
It felt like some of my days performing in little bars or little talent shows at school. It felt like going back to my roots. I love playing intimate shows like that because you get to see everybody’s faces and hear them singing along. You hear their voices and it’s really special.
WHOSE MELODY: With such a diverse audience, how do you balance staying true to your creative vision while also connecting with so many different listeners?
CARA: That’s always a tightrope that you have to teeter. On one hand, I love to be self-indulgent and I love to make whatever the hell I want to make because it’s fun to explore. But I’m also mindful of the fact that there are people listening to my music that look to me for understanding that there’s somebody who’s in the same boat as them. While I like to make my songs very personal and specific, I try to keep them universal enough that if somebody’s listening, they’re not just thinking of my life, they’re thinking of their life as well. I do think it’s the job of an artist, to some degree, to reflect the times and reflect the people that are listening.
