Trusting you’ll be okay: Alessia Cara on Love & Hyperbole

From her triple-platinum 2015 debut single “Here” to winning Best New Artist at the 2018 Grammy Awards to releasing music for several hit films, Alessia Cara has been a staple of pop music for 10 years. In her fourth studio album, Love & Hyperbole, Cara shows listeners the growth she’s made in the last decade–as both a musician and a person.

“I’ve grown a lot …. You can hopefully hear that evolution sonically and lyrically,” said Cara of her career. “But also just on a human level, I’ve definitely grown a ton, and I’ve learned a lot in my now 10 years of doing this.”

In a press conference with about 80 journalists sponsored by Universal Music Group’s culture marketing and creative strategy team °1824, Cara spoke in depth about Love & Hyperbole. She emphasized how the production process of this album was unlike anything she had previously done.

“I had the chance to record 90 percent of this album live … that just felt really cool and different,” said Cara. “Getting to do that this time around and make the music I’ve always wanted to make in the way I’ve always wanted to make it just felt super exciting …. There’s nothing quite like it–just a bunch of people jamming. I feel like that’s how music is supposed to be.”

The themes explored in Love & Hyperbole may also seem new to veteran fans. Cara dives into more mature subjects like impermanence and death, which are topics she feels she can give justice to now that she’s older.

“I talk about that in a really open way–things that I’m scared of–and the fact that life passes so quickly,” said Cara. “It really takes just getting older to be more conscious of that. I’m the youngest I’ll ever be, but also the oldest I’ve ever been, so I do feel that really heavily.”

While certain aspects of the album seem darker than her earlier music, Cara takes a more positive approach to themes she’s already heavily explored in her career, such as love. She has said she wants Love & Hyperbole to feel “softer and more romantic” than her previous work, and that meant channeling more positive emotions during her creative process.

“It’s the first time that I’ve just written about love in a happy, free way without inhibitions or fear of anything. It’s just like a love letter,” said Cara of her song “Fire.”

“To find inspiration in happiness can be challenging, especially when you’ve done things a certain way for so long. I’ve always gathered inspiration from pain and things that didn’t feel so good,” said Cara. “I felt like I needed a break from talking about too many sad things. … I’m glad I challenged myself and pushed myself to write from a different place because I feel like the outcome is really good. It just feels fresh and happy.”

Cara had to trust herself in order to take the risks she knew were necessary to make Love & Hyperbole the best it could be. The album cover features two versions of Cara holding each other's hands and falling backwards in opposite directions, a visual she says symbolizes the self-trust she has learned to embrace.

“I think that so much of love, and life in general, is not so much trusting that the thing is gonna work out, but rather, trusting that you’ll be okay if it doesn’t,” said Cara.

There is a clear sense of duality in Love & Hyperbole. From the exploration of darker themes and new positive perspectives to the visual of two Cara’s on the cover, down to the name of the album itself, Cara wants listeners to lean into that duality and accept that it is essential to our lives.

“You cannot have love and joy without really knowing loss and pain,” said Cara. “I hope that people just take the fact that if you are going through a period of time that’s really difficult and really hard, I hope you see that you can reshape that instead of pushing it away. … You will get on the other side of it, and you will learn to build around it.”