How Lorde grew up with ‘Solar Power’, and why she unplugged from social media to write her ‘battle-worn’ third album – interview

Aug 27 , 2021

Lorde’s “Solar Power” was informed by a wiser and, well, sunnier outlook. Photo: YouTube

After her hiatus, Lorde has featured in Vogue and on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and was nicknamed ‘Lorde of the Wings’ by Twitter users after her Hot Ones appearance

The Grammy Award-winning pop star collaborated with Taylor Swift’s producer for her third album, which was inspired by 90s singers, growing up … and walks in the park

Behold the glory of Lorde.

Since emerging from a roughly four-year hiatus in June with her luminous, psychedelic single Solar Power, the two-time Grammy winner has been omnipresent online: spawning memes with the song’s cheeky cover art and music video, thoughtfully answering “73 Questions” for Vogue, and getting delightfully day drunk with late-night host Seth Meyers. Her appearance on the web series Hot Ones – wherein host Sean Evans interviews celebrities as they eat increasingly spicy hot wings – went viral, as she calmly sampled the hottest wings on deck without breaking a sweat, earning the title “the Lorde of the Wings” from Twitter users.

Lorde in the music video Solar Power. Photo: @eliesaaabs/Twitter

“I feel like it should’ve been a couple levels [hotter],” jokes the singer (real name: Ella Yelich-O’Connor), curled up by a window on a recent Zoom call. Travelling stateside from her native New Zealand to promote new album “Solar Power”, out now, “it’s such a different mode for me, coming from being at home to wearing make-up all the time and being on camera. But I’m enjoying myself. Full pop star mode has been activated.”

“Solar Power” marks Lorde’s third album and her first since 2017’s “Melodrama”, a Grammy nominee for album of the year. While “Melodrama” mined heartbreak and teenage revelry for its pulsing pop anthems, her latest 12-song effort is a decidedly mellower affair. Once again collaborating with producer du jour Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift, St. Vincent), her influences ranged from classic rock greats The Eagles and The Mamas & the Papas, to pop/R&B artists from her youth, including Natasha Bedingfield, TLC and All Saints.

Their music “sounds so sunshiny and so outdoors”, says Lorde, 24. And coming off an exhaustive world tour in 2018, she was in dire need of both those things.

Lorde performs at Good Morning America’s summer concert series at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, New York City, on August 20. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

“I was tired after ‘Melodrama,’ ” Lorde admits. “It was a very intense album and I felt I’d given it my all. I needed to just go and slow down at home, and I very much did that.”

She started writing “Solar Power” in early 2019. In the meantime, she cooked, walked, gardened and “doubled down” on spending time with family and friends whom she’d missed on the road. She also unplugged from social media and blocked Google on her phone, choosing to jot things down so she can only search them on her laptop later on.

“If you told me the thing that’s going to be really inspiring is going for a walk in the park by your house every day for a year, I would have been like ‘No, no, no, I’m not gonna write an album about that,’” Lorde says. “But I did. So [the music] sort of comes from places that are difficult to pinpoint. I didn’t really feel any pressure to make it happen.”

Singer Lorde greets attendees as she performs on ABC’s Good Morning America show in Central Park in New York City, on August 20. Photo: Reuters

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