-The album's out. -I know!
-Congratulations! -It's crazy. [ Laughs ]
-"In The Meantime" is the name of the album.
It's beautiful.
I was telling you, I love the unboxing intro,
and you told me that's you playing the drums on that?
-It is, yeah. Yeah, it's me playing the drums.
My friend John Levine was like, "You should play on this,"
and I was like, "OK." So I did.
So, I -- -It's fantastic.
I love it. -My drumming debut.
-I was complimenting the drums.
I go, "I like how it got faster."
And you're like, "Oh, actually, that's me."
-That's actually me. -Yeah.
-If The Roots ever need an extra...
-Yeah, we can always get in there.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah, sure.
-Always.
"Shapeshifter", you released --
it has an interesting story behind that.
Where did you record that?
-So, I recorded "Shapeshifter" --
well, for anyone who knows me personally, or even not --
I mean, I say this in every interview.
I love Amy Winehouse.
And so I was in this producer -- he's a legend.
I mean, not this producer -- he's Salaam Remi.
He's legendary, and I was in his house.
I had one day off in Miami to go and work with him,
and I went to go to his house,
and he has, like, a little home studio,
and he, like, played it down, whatever.
And then when we go there, he starts showing me
around his studio, and I knew that he was
a collaborator of Amy's,
but I didn't know that they had written, like,
all the music in that house. So he's showing me around.
He was like, "So this is where she wrote, like,
'Back to Black', and, like, this tree is where she wrote,
you know, 'Tears Dry'."
And I'm, like, trying to, like, act normal.
Like, "Yes, I'm up here. I'm up here."
-Yeah, we got you. -Wonderful, yeah. Yes.
-You were like, "What?!" -I was freaking out.
-Can I climb that tree and be right back?
Yeah! [ Laughs ] Yeah, literally.
I took a photo beside it, of course.
-You had to. -It was -- I'm like,
"This is the craziest thing."
I mean, not only do I love him,
which was, like, such a huge deal to work with him,
but then knowing that it was, like, in the environment
where they made those phenomenal,
you know, songs. -That's pretty cool.
It starts with nothing.
It's a blank piece of paper. -Yeah.
-And ends up being a song that we're all singing.
We all know all the words to.
-It's crazy. -It's just a bizarre thing.
It's so -- Well, it's such a talent.
Do you remember the first --
Do you remember the first time you were at a show
and someone was singing your words back to you?
-Yeah, actually. Funnily enough, it was in New York.
Yeah, I did a little show at the Knitting Factory.
It was like 200 people, maybe just under 200 people,
and it was, like, my first sold out show
and I was, like, freaking out. I'm like, "Wow."
Like, "I've made it. All these people are, like,
here to see me, and I sang "Here", my first song.
And they were, like, singing the words back,
and it was, like, such a bizarre thing
that people left whatever they were doing
in their day to, like, see me play.
And then also, like, that they knew the words.
It was, like, the craziest -- It was such a trip.
-That's so cool. -Such a cool -- yeah.
-And you know, you keep going up and up and up.
-Thank you. -I also get to hear your voice
on the -- is the "Blade Runner", the new show on Adult Swim?
-Yeah, yeah. "Black Lotus". It's crazy.
-Yes. That's going to be wild. -Yeah, so awesome!
Yeah, super exciting
-Because you've done soundtracks, but I mean,
to do the actual theme -- -Yeah, it's a lot of --
It's a lot of my voice.
I'm sorry. Anyone who doesn't like me
is gonna have to like, skip, skip. [ Laughs ]
-The tough thing is that we actually all love your voice.
-Oh, thank you. -So yeah, so yeah.
-Thanks! [ Laughs ]
-You're also actually in it as well.
-Yes, I am. Yeah. So they --
I guess they might have seen what I did with
"The Willoughbys", like, my first, like, you know,
animated debut, and they asked if I wanted to play a character.
So she's, like, a jazz singer robot woman.
Very different from Jane in "The Willoughbys".
Like, totally different things.
But yeah, they asked if I wanted to to play her,
and so I get to be on an episode which is so cool, too.
Yeah. -I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Alessia Cara in the new show
"Blade Runner: Black Lotus". Take a look at this.
♪♪
-You didn't run.
-Replicants don't live very long,
and sometimes I get impatient to see what happens next.
♪♪
-If life's so short,
why spend it singing about emotions you can't understand?
-What better use for a life than to explore
the essential mysteries?
♪♪
Isn't that why you do what you do?
-Yes!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Alessia Cara, everybody!
"Blade Runner: Black Lotus" will be on Adult Swim
later this fall, and Alessia's album,
"In The Meantime", is out now.