Her sixth studio albumAmidst the Chaos(released April 5) is a clarion call to the anxious.
And Ive thought about this a lot, what was it aboutWaitressthat changed me so much?
I had always worked really independently and, to be honest, really privately.
Credit: Shervin Lainez
I was so insular about the creative process.
You just cant be precious about any of the ideas, and you have to trust your team.
It was an interesting shift for me as an artist.But yeah, everything about my life has changed.
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I felt my artist profile shift so much, too, just in terms of…
I feel like Ive been invisible!
I dont see being on tour as the only mode of expression thats available to me.
It doesnt feel as heavy, in a way?
But I dont feel like Im chain-linked to it anymore.
It feels like something Igetto do as opposed tohaveto do.
I get to go tour this record I dont have to, but I want to.
Im not on the Hot 100.
Thats just not my world.
Thats something Ive always grappled with.
All these people that lived in a little bit of a different sphere.
I look to them as my lighthouses in certain ways.
Theyre north stars for me.
So youre saying werenotgoing to see you experiment with EDM?
But also, Im about to turn 40!
On the flip side, Ive always admired the particular way that you put hindsight into words.
And honestly, my eight years of therapy.
Letting the inflammation of a moment rest and then having a deeper perspective about it.
And thats therapy, thats reading about Buddhism, thats being almost 40.
Im not that interested in rehashing or holding onto grudges or being in the anger of things.
Like, I cant imagine evergiving up Manhattanfor someone.Mmm, yeah.
There are certainly songs that feel much farther away.
Like Gravity, for example.
I wrote that when I was 19.
So it feels like somebody elses life, in a way.
I can still relate to it.
But there are certain songs that definitely feel further away.
We surprise ourselves all the time.
Your album title,Amidst the Chaos whose chaos are we referring to?
A pause amidstyourchaos, or you amidst the chaos of everyone else?A little all of the above.
And the world actuallyison fire sometimes.
And Ive got love songs that are actually about the Obamas on the record!
Which song?Theres a song called If I Cant Have You thats a love song to the Obamas.
And we have to just, like, live anyway.
Thats a really hard thing to wrap your brain around.
I always think a lot about the next generation.
I have young nieces and I think about young women.
Its really challenging for them.
Its a scary time to have to grow up.
And so its trying to reinforce the idea that we can exist and we can cope amidst the chaos.
How closely aligned is the album you set out to write with the album you ended up writing?
My friends Emily King and Aaron Sterling, we wrote part of that Obama song together.
Its why it worked out perfectly.
There was this little breath.
What a turn of events, that starring inWaitressbecomes almost therapeutic for you rather than terrifying.Totally.
I cannot even believe that thats what that experience morphed into.
The schedule is absolutely grueling and totally brutal, but I always get filled up from being there.
I am so nourished by the Brooks-Atkinson and the people that are in it.
Im never regretful of having spent time there.
What non-musical arena are you looking ahead to next?
Were in casting for that now.
I sort of love that its a little bit under the radar because theres so much left to do.
Its very loosely related to my life.
Its about being a young woman in music and trying to find your voice.
And its kind of placed around the music and songwriting community of New York City.
That is alogline.Thats to give you a sense of what it hopefully will feel like.
Its been a grand adventure.
I just think its so easy to become small, especially at that age.
