Now a Decade Into Her Career, Alessia Cara Says Things Feel 'Brand New Again' (Exclusive)
The Grammy winner talks new single "Dead Man," working with John Mayer and creating her fourth LP, which she calls a "collection of all the things that I love"
Alessia Cara released her new single, "Dead Man," on Friday, July 19
The Grammy winner plans to put out her fourth studio album in the fall, which she describes as a "collection of all the things that I love," even featuring an appearance by John Mayer
“I feel like I'm still kind of processing my whole life and all the beautiful things I've had the chance to do," she tells PEOPLE
Alessia Cara’s music has always been inspired by all that surrounds her. It’s been that way for 10 years now. And while her latest single is no different, she has a few new surroundings to thank for where she’s headed on her soon-to-come fourth album.
In the nearly three years since Cara released her last LP In the Meantime, the Grammy winner has discovered some new hobbies to keep her busy aside from writing. There’s been cooking a little more, reading tarot cards, watching the near-entirety of The Sopranos and perhaps her latest personal favorite: collecting perfumes.
“I go to every department store, every perfume store, every niche perfume store, and I just smell the perfumes all day, every day and just unnecessarily buy them,” Cara tells PEOPLE the day after her 28th birthday.
“I don't wear them, they don't smell good on me, but I just feel the need to purchase these scents and just have them around. It does help with music too, I think it makes you just, I don't know, inspires you in different ways," she adds. "...I feel like music is very much about all five senses, smells and sights and I feel like everything engulfs you in a world."
Alex Loucas
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While the Mississauga, Canada native may mainly see her perfume collection as a hobby of sorts, whatever she’s been smelling over the last few months has clearly worked in her favor creatively. On Friday, July 19, Cara released “Dead Man,” the lead single to her soon-to-come fourth studio album with production from Mike Elizondo. It’s a song she describes as a “jam” with a jazzy touch, an in-your-face horn section and the feeling of “all the music that I loved growing up.” There’s splashes of her favorite material from the ‘50s and ‘60s, a “little bit” of 2000s, and it of course features Cara’s distinct , always-commanding vocals.
“Dead Man,” which is based on the “familiar feeling” of talking to somebody when they’re “just not there” in a relationship, is written from what Cara describes as a “hindsight perspective.” This songwriting process, she admits, was somewhat new to her.
“I wasn't actually within the feelings while I was writing them, which is very uncommon for me because usually I write very in the moment,” she says. “I had written most of the album and I was just trying to think of what the through line is, what the story of this album was going to be. And I had a lot of very happy, fulfilling love songs about being in a healthy space. But I didn't have that beginning. How did I get there? And I think through writing this album, I realized you can't really feel true love without feeling some sort of loss.”
Alex Loucas
Alessia Cara's 'Dead Man' single coverThe album itself, which Cara has yet to reveal the title of, is set to arrive in the fall. She says it’s not a jazz album by any means, but rather “feels like a collection of all the things that I love." And she loves a lot of music. Over the last few years, she’s tapped into some music from the ‘60s and ‘70s, African funk, bossa nova, and primarily what she described as material created in “eras before my time” — the Lijadu Sisters, Billy Joel and some old Red Hot Chili Peppers records.
Recorded between late 2021 and the top of 2024, Cara’s new album process started “very slow,” when she was “in a little bit of a rut lyrically and conceptually.”
“I wrongfully felt like I said everything that I needed to say, and I was just stuck on what to say. I was actually in a good place, and I don't really tend to write well when I'm in a good place because you don't really need to vent when you're happy, I guess. So I was like, ‘What do I do? I've never been a writer from this perspective.’ So I had to readjust my mindset and readjust the way that I approached songwriting, which is kind of a fun exercise and a fun challenge because you have to, I don't know, put yourself in a different position or exercise a different muscle that you don't typically exercise,” she says.
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Cara also has some old pals join her on the project, too — including a certain soloist who she’s covered, and duetted with, in the past. During one song in particular that's yet to be released, Cara features a minute-long John Mayer guitar solo, something she calls “one of the coolest things I’ve been able to make happen in my life.”
“Basically as soon as I wrote the song, there was that space in the bridge and I was going to write words to it. But I just instantly thought of him, it just felt like a song that would suit him so well,” Cara says.
“So I just shot my shot, honestly. I just wrote the text. I threw my phone. And I was like, ‘Oh, I don't even want to see what he says.’ We were freaking out, and he was so generous. And we went into the studio together shortly after, a couple of days after. And he played this incredible, incredible solo, and I got to just watch him as a wide-eyed child, and it was one of the coolest things ever, and it made the song everything. So I am so grateful for that.”
Now working with a “songwriting inspiration” and “guitar hero” of hers, Cara has come a long way from when she released her first music — and initially signed with Def Jam — at 18. After a Grammy win, several world tours and finding a base of fans that have been just as excited as she is for the new material, when asked if she’d ever believe at the beginning of it all that she’d reach a fourth album, Cara admits: “I don't know that I still believe it.”
“I feel like I'm still kind of processing my whole life and all the beautiful things I've had the chance to do. And the fact that I've been granted the privilege and ability to put out another piece of music and people still care, that's a very, very privileged thing, and I feel really blessed to be able to do that,” she says.
“To some degree, funnily enough, it kind of feels the same because it feels like it's been just long enough and the industry has changed just enough that I'm coming into it now in a completely different way," Cara adds, comparing putting out music then vs. now. "And it feels brand new again, and I feel like a new person, and I feel like a new artist in some way. So on some level it feels kind of the same, a little bit just as nerve-racking. But also, I am going into it with 10 years of experience, 10 years of growth. And it feels like a very emotionally fulfilling thing to be back as well, even though it's just as scary.”
Ahead of the release of her new single, Cara got admittedly emotional as she reflected on the supporters who've been “consistently there for me in all the ups and downs of my life.” After all, they’re about to see a “brand new” side of her.
“Even when I was hiding away and scared to put anything out or scared to be seen by anybody, they just were still so patiently there and just being so supportive in every phase of my life,” she says. “And it's really crazy that they're still here. I feel very connected to them and very excited to be back.”
"Dead Man" is out now via Def Jam.
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