Alessia Cara interview: “I don’t get invited to parties anymore – people think I’m miserable!”

Since Alessia Cara unleashed her debut single Here - an ode to awkward wallflower types - on the world, it's become, ironically, an anti-social party anthem.

But the story of the Toronto-born, 19-year-old's rise isn't as fast as you might think. Since the age of 13, she's been posting covers of everything from Adele, The Neighbourhood and Justin Timberlake online, and garnering a dedicated and sizeable fanbase along the way.  

With her debut album Know-It-All out this week, we sat down with Alessia to find out more about the woman behind the anthem of a new generation.

Hello Alessia! You’ve recently flown in from Toronto, where you were being interviewed by journalists in your family home. That must have been pretty strange?

I was fine about it but my mum was really stressed out about the whole thing – she was like, ‘clean your room, clean your room!’ It was awesome actually because I love being at home and being in my own bed and sheets. My mum’s cooking and hugs are also the best – I miss those.

Your song Here has been a hit just about everywhere at this point, and it's been labeled as a bit of an anti-social anthem. Are people generally a bit wary of you now?

A little bit, actually. I’m not sure if it’s so much wary – people have just stopped inviting me to parties because they think I’m miserable! People think I’m this real anti-social pessimist but if you listen to the lyrics, I say sorry if I seem that way…

Here is a great song, but doesn't sound like an obvious worldwide hit on first listen. Were you always confident about its chances?

I always had a feeling about it, even when we had the demo of it, which really wasn’t that great to be honest. When you have a gut feeling, you just know. I remember when I first played it to my friends and family and I didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for. There wasn’t a mutual ‘A-ha, this is the song!’ moment – it was a bit frustrating at first that no-one else except me thought this song was big. It wasn’t until further down the line and it had been produced a bit more that people took to it.

How different was the first incarnation of Here?

So different. And it changed a lot. I’d play to you now if I had it! Even when we were finished with it, my team weren’t sure if it was going to make it on to radio, let alone pop radio. I guess by some universal fate thing, it turned into what it was. Obviously I never knew it would be this big, but I had a good feeling about it.

You started your music career by posting songs on YouTube and 13, and you’re now 19. How has the journey panned out for you in those intervening years?

I started posting songs on YouTube when I was 13. It took three years to get noticed by my production company, then another two years to make songs and get signed, then one year to finish the songs and release the single. It’s felt like a long process to me, but I get that to the general public, I’ve sorta come out of nowhere.

Lyrically Here it fits in well with your album Know-It-All, but musically it’s quite different from the rest of it…

I know what you mean, though we didn’t try to make it that way – that’s just the way it turned out. I love experimenting with sounds. don’t think I really have a distinct sound  - maybe I never will, I don't know – and the album is so everywhere, I guess Here is just one aspect of my influences.

What song(s) do you listen back to on the album and think, 'bloody hell that's a great track'?

I’m obviously proud of all of it, but I particularly like Four Pink Walls for lots of reasons. It’s the first song I wrote on my own by myself in the studio, and when the producer came in I kind of dictated what was happening, which was a big moment for me because I didn’t think I could do that. I also had the concept of the song for a long time, of sitting in my room staring at the walls and my life changing, but I wasn’t sure for ages how I was going to extend that idea over three minutes! In the end I tried to make it more visual. Hopefully it still makes sense.

Can you sum up Know-it-all in Emojis for us please?

The alien, obviously, which I guess stands for rebellion. The blue heart, because there’s some self-acceptance in there, and also the rock-on symbol for empowerment.

The album was released in America last October; have you been working on any new music since then?

I haven’t but I’m dying to get back into creative mode. I’ve done little bits here and there – usually me waking up in the middle of the night recording creepy mumblings of melodies. Most of them are recorded on a plane, and I can’t even hear what I was singing when I listen back, so yeah – it’s going well…

Back in your YouTube days, you embraced covering proper pop songs like Jessie J's Price Tag as much as popular rock and soul songs. Who, in your eyes, is the best popstar in the world right now? 

That’s hard… pop is so general right now! Taylor’s 1989 album is still such a great body of work - I can’t really fault it. I also love Troye Sivan’s project. He’s pop, but he’s involved in this new wave of shifting what pop means. It’s his own style and I love it. Unfortunately when a lot of people think of pop, they think of something that has no depth to it, but pop music out there these days has a lot of meaning to it, and it’s still catchy.

Going back, do you remember the first album you ever bought?

The first album I bought was Black Eyed Peas’ Elephunk. I was obsessed with them – they were so eclectic and funky. They were hip-hop mixed with pop, and they were crazy and cool. I’m so ready for Fergie’s new album.

Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? What was it about?

I remember when I was nine I was in a band – and I say band very, very loosely. The band was called The Lilacs and it was me and my cousins and I wrote this song called Let Me Be Your Friend, and it was horrible. It was basically me saying ‘I’ll be there for you’. For some reason I wrote it on a typewriter, and I still have the paper! I hope it never sees the light of day.

What song would you want played at your funeral?

What’s something funny? I’m thinking Black Eyed Peas… maybe Let’s Get It Started? Or the whole of Elephunk… on repeat!

Alessia Cara's debut album Know-It-All is out now.