INTERVIEW: Alessia Cara on her upcoming Australian tour and latest album: "For this album I was able to really write from a super open place of joy and excitement."

Interview: Jett Tattersall
Published: 1 May 2025

Alessia Cara became one of the defining artists of the mid 2010s. With massive hits such as ‘Here’, ‘Scars To Your Beautiful’ and ‘Stay’ (with Zedd), she became the first ever Canadian artist to win the Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards and has gone on to accumulate billions of global streams.

Earlier this year, she released her fourth studio album Love & Hyperbole, her first album in almost four years. Working with acclaimed producers including Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Joy Oladokun), Greg Kurstin (Paul McCartney, Adele), and Yakob (SZA, Lauv), the 14 tracks have a soundscape that fully embraces left of field pop, drawing on multiple sounds that feel comfortably familiar while also feeling fresh, quirky and endlessly fascinating.

Love & Hyperbole is a watermark album for Cara as it saw her gaining a new confidence in her songwriting as well as tackling a topic she had traditionally avoided - that of being in a place of true happiness.

“Before this album, I’d never written from a place of feeling content with everything happening in my life,” Cara says. “At first it was challenging to write about love in a positive way, but over time I started digging into the more complicated emotions that come with being in love. As I looked back on all the songs, I realised there’s a lot of hyperbole in my lyrics - and whether I’m using that hyperbole in a dramatic or humorous way, the entire project is about feeling very big feelings.” 

Those feelings range from celebrating the infatuation of new love, through to the crippling anxiety of feeling not good enough for the person that has fallen in love with you.

The opening track ‘Go Outside!’ a perky, bright pop track, sets the scene with lyrics that explore how Cara will never find happiness without making the first step herself - in this case getting out into the world. “I've been caring less and staring at my ceiling…How can I come back to earth when I can't go outside?” she sings.

The gentle ‘Left Alone’ and the gorgeous, trip hop-soul pop fusion of ‘Dead Man’ look at the resignation and frustration of when a relationship goes sour, with a clear contrast in mood. On ‘Left Alone’ Cara takes a more passive acceptance of the situation - ‘I’m much better on my own’ - while ‘Dead Man’ is angrier and forceful. ‘There's no easy way to say it / You're about to lose me now,’ she declares.

‘Run Run’ has an upbeat, pop-rock feel with almost angelic breaks in the music as Cara’s vocal takes centre stage, as she sings of feeling insecure in a new relationship. “What you doing with a girl like me?…Run as fast as you can from me baby,” she sings.

‘Nighttime Thing’ opens with lush strings before transforming into a bright and bubbly pop song which sees Cara realise this might actually be love - ‘I was thinking that you could think of leaving your toothbrush / I'm just saying there's no rush to go home’ - while the following guitar pop track ‘Feels Right’ continues that theme of realising this might be an important relationship and maybe it is best to just go with it without overthinking it.

The album ends on ‘Clearly’ which in many ways is the evolution of the themes in the opening track ‘Go Outside!’ A smooth, pared back pop song it looks at forgiveness and moving forward, realising life is too short for anger and regrets. ‘No, I don't hate you…We're on borrowed time and I don't wanna waste it’. The song ends with a beautiful 40 seconds of subdued vocals, a lone keyboard, swirling synths and the most calming sounds that feel like one big hug. It is a gorgeous way to end the album.

In support of the album, Cara is touring globally on her Love & Hyperbole tour, which will land in Australia on 6 May, with shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne., tickets are on sale now. The tour will then journey to North America and Europe before wrapping up in Quebec on 3 July.

Cara has always been an incredibly special performer since she first appeared on the music scene ten years ago, and continues to evolve into one of pop’s most captivating artists. Love & Hyperbole is a high point in her career and her Australian concerts are sure to be a magical experience. We recently caught up with her to chat all about her music and the upcoming shows.

Hi Alessia! it is genuinely so lovely to get this window of time with you, particularly exciting because you're on your way back to Australia. First of all, I was so excited when I heard Love & Hyperbole, particularly because that title is just all about the drama and I love the way you play with that, it's really fun. Because it is almost an album with the top down, how does it feel bringing that to the stage?
Thank you, first of all. That's a very interesting way to describe it. It definitely does feel like that. It feels very open. There’s a lot of drama, there a lot of openness. I felt sort of emotionally naked a little bit while writing it. And while that word hyperbole predominantly means an exaggeration of some sort, it was stemming from very real emotions. And I think sometimes when you're in the midst of the different realms of love, whether it be heartbreak, new love or fear surrounding love, everything can feel a lot bigger than it actually is. And sometimes things feel like either the end of the world or the only thing that matters in the world. So it was really exciting to write about those things that felt super honest and real to me, in a way that felt a little bit humorous or a little bit dramatic. I don't feel like I've written in this way before, especially the second half of the album which is about the more positive aspects of love. I don't typically write those kinds of love letters. A lot of my love songs in the past have been attached with some sort of melancholy, or there's always something negative attached to it. But I feel like for this album I was able to really write from a super open place of joy and excitement. It feels really nice to be able to express that, and find a new voice as a writer. It was interesting to strengthen that muscle that I hadn't really played with before.

I think that's really interesting, because writing from a place of hurt, while it's more painful, there's a catharsis. Whereas I imagine writing from a place of joy and contentment, that must be very exposing in the aspect of ‘oh God, if I say it out loud, it'll go away.’
Yes, I definitely feel that way. I was very much of that philosophy, especially starting this process, because I had never really written that way before. There is a sense of comfort that I feel when it comes to writing sad songs. I think it's very common for a lot of writers to get our inspiration from pain, because you don't really have to vent or get feelings out so much if they're not sad. If you're feeling okay, sometimes you don't feel the need to dig deeper or analyse those emotions. You kind of just want to be present and live them while they're happening. So it was interesting to sort of teach myself how to write from that voice and understand that I do deserve these things, and that if I do write about them, they're not gonna go away. I can enjoy and let those things into musical life, but also into my personal life, and learn to to enjoy them and indulge in them and not be so afraid of them. Simultaneously in my writing and in my life, I have grappled with this fear of letting in joy for the sake of not being hurt. I think there was a parallel that was happening in myself as a songwriter, and learning how to write in that way, and also just learning how to live my life in that way too. So this album is very much about that parallel journey.

I love that. I feel we're hearing little bits of different sounds in your composition. ‘Fire’ is one of my favourites on the album, and it's got this almost like nod to a country campfire. Talk to me a little bit about what you were looking for sonically when you were writing this, and also what you were listening to to pull those vibes into the album.
It's always been super tough for me to stay tethered to one sonic landscape for all of my projects. I do feel like this one is the most cohesive sonically, but it's hard for me to stay in one place, because I really just love so many different genres of music and so many different eras of music. There's so many that I could list, especially while listening to this album. Mainly I was going backward a lot to the 60s and 70s, a lot of singer songwriter stuff, like early Beatles, George Harrison's solo album, and Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. A lot of music that felt like a bunch of people in a room playing together. I really love that ‘Fire’ sounds that way, because it happened that way. It started from just me, [co-writers] John Levine and Jake Torrey in a room on a different instrument with a mic in the middle of the room. The vocals that you hear are actually the original demo vocals that came out as I was writing the song. So I'm glad that it comes across that way, because it definitely was how it was made. it's not very different from the original version, I really didn't want to touch it too much, because it just felt like it was special the way that it was. It reminded me of all my favourite music that I love from that era. So I’m super happy with that one.

It must be nerve wracking as hell to know when to stop ‘dabbling’ with a song and recognising when it is just right. I imagine that's taken years of confidence and work to be able to do that. You've been doing this for a decade now, how do you feel you've grown within the entertainment industry? Do you feel much more grounded, or have you always had that power to go, ‘this sounds right’.
I think I've always had the instincts, the thing that's changed is having the confidence to speak on my instincts and trust them enough to raise my hand and say, ‘I don't feel like this is right’. That's the thing that's changed. I've always had that voice inside and that intuition, and understood what felt right for me. Over time, you just have to learn how to trust yourself, and develop boundaries, but also push yourself at the same time. Those are the things that I've learned to do - trust that instinct and at the very least, not be afraid. To share an opinion as it comes up has taken a lot of work, especially being a young woman in the industry, it can be hard to take up space and to speak your mind sometimes. It’s been a really interesting challenge, and I've enjoyed pushing myself. I feel like now I'm at a place where I can definitely pick up those instincts quicker and not be so afraid to share them, whether they're right or wrong.

Can I ask how you've navigated that, and in that 10 years have you noticed a positive shift in the way the industry is operating now with young artists, and allowing their voices to be heard?
Yes and no. It's become a lot better in some ways, and strangely a little bit worse in others .With the element of social media and the fact that we have access to so many people's perception of us at all times, that was not nearly as much of a prominent thing was it is now when I started. I feel like new artists now, or any artist now, has a harder time in that regard, because we can just see what people think of us at such a rapid pace all the time. All the opinions are different, and it's very hard to form your own opinion about yourself when you just have all this input from everywhere.

But through other artists speaking up, and through times just changing, things within the industry seem to be a little bit better. Thankfully there's still a lot of great people that trust artists and a lot of younger people coming into executive roles, which has been super helpful. I have a lot more women on my team and at my label, which is awesome, because they understand the the women experience, and they're also around my age, so they understand the experience of being a young person in today's day and age. That's really important, and that has been a positive change. So it’s better and worse. Just like everything, it's a two sided coin all the time.

Across your career you’ve won Grammys, Juno, you've and had some incredible collaborations, you even have John Mayer on this album, you've had an incredible career of real fantasy moments. What is one of those moments that maybe a 12 year old Alessia would have completely freaked out over? What is the one that you still go, ‘Oh my God, that happened!’
Oh my gosh, honestly, there's so many things. The fact that I have a career at all is just so strange to me still. Like today, I flew on a plane to go to New York, and now I'm talking to someone who cares about my music in another part of the world. It's those little things, strangely, are the things that really trip me up the most, what my day to day has become. It's just things that I never thought I would ever do, ever.

But of course, you have your big ones. I've been doing acceptance speeches in my shower since I was a kid, thanking fake people, so the Grammy moment was a very pinch me moment. And the John Mayer one too, just the fact that he knows who I am, let alone liked my song enough to to jump on it, and just hearing his solo is crazy. It's just all these little things. My entire career has been just so wild to think about. I'm very grateful I've been doing it for 10 years now, and I'm just I can't believe that people still care. It's wild.

I think that's lovely. Can I ask you in, in amongst those acceptance speeches, who were those women, those female artists, for you growing up that you were like ‘everything you sing and do that is the coolest thing in the world’. Who are your sheroes?
Oh my gosh, I have so many. My first one that I can remember that has always been my number one is Amy Winehouse. I've seen every performance video of hers. I've heard every song a trillion times. I just remember watching her since I was nine or ten just being literally the coolest person I've ever seen. I just thought she was the coolest, and I still do. Just her songwriting, her voice, everything about her. I was just a kid and I couldn't relate to a lot of the themes that she was talking about in her music, but for some reason, I saw myself in her so much. I don't know what it was, maybe like the imperfections, but I always just thought she was so cool. I remember wanting to make people feel the way that she made me feel when she was on stage, so that's a huge one. Stevie Nicks is another one. I love her, I love Fleetwood Mac. She gives me that same feeling of just like she's like ethereal, I don't know, some people are just like they’re from another planet, you know? Joni Mitchell, as well, Hayley Williams from Paramore is another one. Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, I can list a million women who inspire me, but Amy is a big one

You will soon be here to tour this gorgeous, gorgeous album. Is there any song that you’re particular keen to get to the Australian ears?
Well, of course, all of them, definitely every song on this new album! There's so many, I've been rehearsing a bunch of them, and there's so many that feel so fun. A lot of the up tempo ones, like ‘Nighttime Thing’ and ‘Slow Motion’ feel super fun. They're really groovy and fun to play with the band. But also, ‘Fire’ is going to be a really nice moment I think. ‘Clearly’ as well, a lot of the big rock moments on the album are going to be super fun too. So I guess I've listed almost all of them in trying to pick my favourites! The up tempo ones and the the rock moments I think will be really fun.

You’re gonna sing all of it! That's what the audience want, there's nothing worse than when you go to a show and you don't get all the songs.
Exactly, it's tough. Four albums in, having to narrow down all the songs, it's been really tough to pick. So I hope that everybody's satisfied with the choices that I've made.

Love & Hyperbole is out now via DefJam. You can buy and stream here.
Follow Alessia Cara on Instagram and TikTok.

Love & Hyperbole Australian Tour
6 May - Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane
7 May - Roundhouse, Sydney
7 May - Palais Theatre, Melbourne