How Alessia Cara's New AlbumLove & HyperboleRepresents Her 'Trust in Myself' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Alessia Cara.Photo:Alex Loucas

Alex Loucas

ForAlessia Cara, releasing her new album almost feels like riding a bike again.

“It’s just a little more wobbly, and I’m more nervous because it’s been a longer time in between,” the Grammy winner, 28, tells PEOPLE over Zoom ahead of its release. “It feels like coming back for the first time in a weird way.”

“I really do feel like over the last three years I learned to open up my heart to love and trust in other people,” Cara says ofLove & Hyperboleand its visuals. “But it ultimately came back to trust in myself — and not so much trusting that everything’s going to work out all the time, but rather trusting that you will be OK if and when it doesn’t.”

“Not everything works out, it’s inevitable that things don’t go your way or you might be heartbroken,” she adds of the album’s message. “We’re not exempt from feeling pain. So I think it’s just that sentiment of ‘I’m going to be OK if it doesn’t go my way.'”

Love & Hyperbolehasn’t just required Cara to trust herself, but it’s also given her a chance to trust a few other folks with her vision, as part of Lenovo and Intel’sMade By campaignin partnership with Universal Music Group for Brands. For the team-up, Cara was partnered with creatives like Maris Jones, Gaia Maria and her brother Dario Caracciolo to make an album trailer and behind-the-scenes visuals that best represent the feelings of love, hyperbole and, of course, the album itself.

Ahead of the album release and upcoming tour,kicking off in April, Cara caught up with PEOPLE to discuss her latest partnership,Love & Hyperbole, the forthcoming 10th anniversary of her 2015 debutKnow It Alland the colors she sees in her new work as part of her synesthesia.

Alessia Cara attends an event at REPUBLIC Collective Studios in NYC to celebrate her ‘Made By’ campaign on Feb. 12, 2025.Bill Davila

Bill Davila

What about this partnership felt like a good fit for you in creating this album trailer?

They were just so open to me creating whatever I wanted. I got to use their really cool products that are super high-tech and really innovative and advanced. It just made the process really cool. I think what we landed on was this album trailer where we could announce the track list and give each song a little moment, a little mini world within itself, which you don’t really get to do as a pop artist. Only a couple songs usually get videos in today’s day and age.

There’s one part of the behind-the-scenes I found super neat, and you’ve spoken about it before, but you discuss your experience with synesthesia. What colors were you seeing as you were making this record?

I honestly used a lot of the colors I was seeing on the cover art, which is why there’s a lot of black and gray and this kind of wine, burgundy, reddish color. Every time I would write and finish a song, it would fall under that same world. It was just the charcoal grays, the dark shade and then this rich kind of warm red. It’s really nice to be able to use this weird little thing I have — that’s otherwise useless — in my job when it matters. For everything else, it doesn’t really have a purpose, but I definitely love to harness it when creating visuals.

Do you consider yourself to be hyperbolic in your everyday life? Do you use a lot of hyperboles in conversation?

I’m always speaking in hyperbole. Again, whether it’s in a humorous sense, which is mostly how I use it, but just in life for sure. I tend to be, I wouldn’t say a dramatic person, but I am a very sensitive, emotional person and a very anxious person. I think anxiety causes you to be hyperbolic all the time because again, just everything feels like it’s the end of the world.

When we spoke last year, you talked about starting this album around late 2021. Four years is a long time. Can you hear those years of your life when you listen to it now?

I definitely can. I really tried to make this album as chronological as possible too, so you can kind of hear that journey, for lack of a better word, throughout the whole thing. And definitely when I listen back front-to-back, I can hear exactly where I was at each point. I feel proud of myself. Once I listened to the whole thing, and I got to the end of it, I felt really proud of myself for getting myself out of those holes that I might’ve dug up for myself in a way that feels good. I’m at peace with a lot more than I was when I first started. So hopefully people can hear that the way that I can.

What’s been your favorite thing that you’ve learned about yourself as you’ve put the finishing touches on this album?

I learned to just put myself out there and not be afraid to maybe say something that might be a little scary. But also just even when it comes down to the writing process itself, I used to be such a shy writer where I would have to go into the producer’s studio with a song already done because I was so scared of trying an idea in front of them just to waste their time or something. I just always felt like I had to prove myself and prove that I was good. But with this album, I really let go, and I was able to just improvise in the room and just mumble things and say an idea that might be stupid and just throw a bunch of darts at the wall and see what comes. I learned to take that with me for the next few albums and just like, who cares? Just have fun with it and try things.

We’ve got a lot of different grooves and stylistic choices on the album, from “(Isn’t It) Obvious” to “Slow Motion.” But what would you say makes these songs feel whole as a unit?

I think that they feel like they belong in the same world musically, even though they’re all very different. I predominantly made this album live, which was super helpful in making it feel cohesive because all [the] sounds, there’s a person playing them and the textures there. All the little elements, I tried to really make them feel as cohesive as possible while also giving as much variety as I can. It feels like the most cohesive album I’ve made. I think the story helps tie it together too, putting it in some sort of chronological way from beginning to end.

November will mark the 10-year anniversary ofKnow It All. What does that album in particular mean to you now?

Those songs took me around the world. They have given me my life, and I’m so endlessly grateful to all the people involved in that project and to that album and those songs. And I really do love them and I love to sing them now again. For a while again, you get tired of them, but now I’m excited again to sing them because it just feels nostalgic, and I know people love them, and it makes people happy.

Is there a message that you’d give yourself 10 years ago about the journey you’ve been on since creatively?

There’s so much I would say. I think honestly I would just tell her to hold on because I had no idea what was coming — genuinelynoidea. And it was definitely a tornado whirlwind 10 years. So I would say, “Just hold on. The people you have around, keep them around,” which I’m thankful to have done.

As your catalog gets larger, as you continue to create records, does it get easier or more difficult to decide on setlists ahead of this tour?

I would say it definitely gets harder for sure. It’s because there’s more people to disappoint. Every album you put out and every song you cut out… Everyone’s going to have a different favorite, and then there’s always going to be someone upset their song didn’t get played. That part sucks because I want to play every single song. But I think we can always make little medleys work. The beauty of having a ton of songs is there’s only so many keys, only so many chords, and so we can kind of mash up different things.

What has been your favorite memory ofLove & Hyperboleso far? What moment has meant the most for you on this journey?

My goodness. There’s been so many things. I think it’s just the most gratifying thing ever to make a project that I absolutely love, with no sacrifices having to be made artistically. I think I’ve just aligned with each of the singles, too. I really just love them, and I can just speak about them so honestly because I really do feel so proudly about them. So I think it’s just like my creative dreams and what has been allowed to happen creatively aligning has been so special. And just seeing the reaction, seeing people who have waited for my new music for the last three years and been here for the last 10 years, still excited and still waiting for new things. It’s always the most special when you get to see them and hear what they think of these songs, and the fact that they like them is the best.

source: people.com