Lorde says she’s not “hiding from myself” anymore on new album, ‘Virgin’
Lorde has opened up about the process behind her new album, Virgin, and the ethos of self-improvement she has carried out since her 2021 release, Solar Power.
In a new interview with Document Journal, the singer discussed finding her creative edge with friend, multimedia artist and filmmaker Martine Syms. She told Syms that her “biggest goal” on the new record was to ensure “I’m not going to put anything out until I’m in my body the way I know I’m supposed to be, to be able to do my work.”
“That’s all I did the last four years, basically,” Lorde continued in the interview. “This album is a byproduct of that process of fully coming into my body and feeling the fullness of my power. It’s cool to be back in that place of, like, the portal opening and the weight. I’m myself.”
Lorde was candid about her newfound self-expression: “I’m not hiding from myself. I’m not stealing from myself. I often would think about not eating very much as I felt like every bite of food I had was stolen. I was like, hang on, this has gotten weird.“
On the viral Charli XCX remix, which featured Lorde, the New Zealand musician deep-dived into her toxic relationship with food and her body. Lyrics include: “I was so lost in my head/And scared to be in your pictures/’Cause for the last couple years/I’ve been at war with my body/I tried to starve myself thinner/And then I gained all the weight back.”
However, she revealed that things were beginning to look up. She said, “To be out on stage at Coachella, I had this feeling of like, you know, your first day of middle school, [when] you’re like, this is a sick outfit, I love my outfit so much.” Lorde was a special guest at Charli’s first Coachella set.
In the attempt to come into the “fullness” of her power, Lorde has also previously noted how Charli XCX has helped her. “I really suffer from this thing of not feeling my own power… and the [Girl, So Confusing] remix just started me up and I was like, ‘No, no, people are listening and they care and your words carry real weight’,” Lorde said on Radio 1.
Lorde elaborated on her relationship with Charli in the new interview, noting that “that whole group is so cool. It was good to encounter them last year because through watching Charli and hanging out with her, I saw how, yes, we’ve got a job to do, but it also has to be fun.”
So far, Lorde has teased Virgin with the release of lead single ‘What Was That’ produced by Jim-E Stack, accompained with a music video, a performance that was shut down by police for overcrowding, and a soft blue album cover.
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