[Music]
hey taiwan i'm alessia carrara and i'm
chatting with joey on icrt fm 100.
hello ladies and gents and music
aficionados my name is joey you know and
today we have a very special guests
happens to be one of my favorites her
name is alessia cara welcome thank you
thank you for having me it's so good to
have you here today obviously the focus
of our conversation is gonna revolve
around the album in the meantime and
it's been out for a hot minute um i just
want to let you know that i'm still
tossing between two favorites it's
either lie to me or a box in the ocean
um yeah they're definitely two of my
favorites yeah i love both of them
they're like super different from each
other but they're both like groovy so
you like you like the groovy stuff i
like groovy stuff but of course i also
like this stuff that really gets to like
the nitty-gritty of emotional content
that is usually the focus of what you
write about so there are big promo
singles with mv's like sweet dream
best days but i want to start a
conversation today with a very special
song i'm sure every one of them is
special but this one shapeshifter was
recorded in a very special place for you
so can you talk about that yeah for sure
um so i yeah i got to write shapeshifter
in um this producer named salaam remy's
home
studio um which was conveniently enough
for me which was amazing because i'm a
huge fan of hers um the home that uh amy
winehouse wrote all of her music as well
so i mean that was like the coolest
experience ever i didn't even know that
until someone told me so it was like i
was like so in shock i know that he had
worked with her in the past i mean i'd
always wanted to work with salaam
because of his work with amy and you
know with other artists as well but amy
is like my number one and um i didn't
know until i got there and he was like
you know this is where you know we did
all this stuff together and i was like
my mind was blown it was so cool to be
in that environment you know where they
created such beautiful music so i was
very honored i totally think that your
music
and amy's music do resonate very well
and uh you know one of our favorite or
one of the most memorable lines from amy
from that back to black album was course
you go back to her and i go back to
black it's you know it's poignant it's
hopeless it's even vindictive and
sometimes your music has a just a hint
of that so how was she special to you in
that music writing session you kind of
said it like she had this like
intense like honesty in her music that
was like super unapologetic it was not
sparing of anybody's feelings not even
her own and um you know it kind of felt
like something that you shouldn't even
be hearing almost you know like it was
that personal and i you know for the
longest time held back a lot in my
writing like i was still honest but i
don't think i really got to the core of
it because i was either ashamed or
fearful of you know saying the thing
that i needed to say and honestly
shapeshifter it was the first song i
ended up writing for this album and um i
think kind of being in that environment
where she wrote all her music it really
kind of sparked something in me to to be
as honest as i really wanted to be
despite the fear despite you know
potentially hurting someone's feelings i
was like no you know what like my
feelings are hurt i need to talk about
this in the most honest way and i think
she like in a roundabout way inspired me
to to write that song you know because i
i just thought of her and i was like how
would she say this how would like she
would just be honest so i'm just gonna
be honest i'm not gonna sugarcoat it you
know yeah good and okay so we could talk
all about our love for amy but uh mostly
amy was well known for that one album
that picked up five awards and one night
back in 2008
and along the way there's been you know
very few artists who can do that one of
them who recently dropped a new album
and she also happens to write from that
darker place
from from pain her name is adele so i
wonder for you um do you do you resonate
or the alessia now do you resonate with
adele or amy moore oh
that's a difficult question because
they're both like i i listened to both
of their albums like growing up through
my life and i revisit them now and i
think it depends on i guess the place
that i'm in you know
um
because like 21 had this like sense of
confidence a little bit even though it
was extremely painful like she had this
sense of like like set fire to the rain
is like a song about like having the
strength to leave somebody and so i
think when i'm in a place of like
feeling a little bit more confident and
a little bit more uh i don't know like
understanding of myself then i resonate
more with adele but then when i'm in
those moments of feeling like a little
bit depressed or a little bit more uh
like what's the word like i don't know
more a little bit more heartbroken i'll
i'll put on amy when i want to just like
get in my fields you know but i mean
both of them are just like i get in my
feels with both i mean amy has confident
songs too so it kind of depends i guess
on the on the mood or the time in my
life okay okay okay so let's continue
with the tough questions this next one
okay which one do you like better
christmas or new years oh these are
excellent questions
ah
i'm gonna say
probably christmas because new year's
always makes me cry
secretly even if it's like a great time
because it's just like i always just
think like oh man another year is gone
like i have a huge i struggle a lot with
like getting older as you could tell and
so like
every year that goes by i'm like oh my
god i like sweat a bit more i'm like oh
my god another one down but it makes me
really sad so i'm gonna say christmas
because it's about giving and it's all
like nice and fluffy and uh new year's
is kind of like the reality check so i i
don't like new year's very much i
totally agree with you i mean i think if
we're comparing to musicians amy
winehouse would be like new year's and
adele will be like christmas like
there's always a bit of hopefulness
in that you know that's very true yeah
it's very true amy had a lot more
questions yes than answers which i kind
of end the same way it's like it's like
new year's eve right like you turn over
to the next year and the answer you need
to
well the question you need to answer is
like am i actually going to be a better
person and are my resolutions actually
going to be fulfilled and like there's
always a challenge ahead but christmas
is like magical stuff you know santa
claus you know reindeers napoleon slay
exactly so on december 1st you'll be
performing for a christmas special the
christmas in rockefeller center and then
on the fifth you're doing another one
the annual home for the holidays
you'll be performing a song that has
over the last three years since 2019
become more or less of a christmas
classic uh the song make it to christmas
uh you'll be performing your new single
your version of jingle bell rock with
amazon and you will be performing best
days which we want to talk about now
because this song as we were just
comparing christmas with new year's eve
this song is about that melancholy
that's um sad or empty feeling you get
from a new year's eve party right
yeah 100 i was actually going to mention
that earlier i mean yeah that stemmed
from
that that melancholic um thought that i
was having um one particular new years i
was like the new year is going into
2020. so i actually had no idea what was
ahead the real chaos and melancholy that
was gonna you know be in front of us but
i still was having my usual you know um
bouts of of sadness you know i think my
default tends to be sadness and
i kind of my brain always tends to go to
that melancholic place but especially in
the new year when
you know everything was like seemingly
going really well and i just had this
very like leaning thought and feeling
that you know nothing was ever gonna be
okay again with me you know and i i just
was looking at my life and being like
man i missed so many great moments
because i was just too sad or too
stressed you know and i'm just like what
if i never have a good day again and so
that song really came from a place of
hopelessness or at least fear of of
hopelessness you know um and there's
there's something really scary about
feeling like you have nothing left to
lose um
but i think in that also comes healing
if you do it the right way and you know
when you hit a rock bottom you're like
well there's nowhere else to go but just
to try to get better you know and that's
what happened so that song was kind of
like the catalyst for me getting the the
help that i really needed so i'm glad
that i wrote it alessia that's crazy you
wrote this before the pandemic hits
which means that the line that goes you
live and you die but the hardest pill to
swallow is the meantime is eerily
prophetic about what's happening in the
world i know it's crazy it's like i had
some weird
foresight i don't know if i was getting
some sort of intuitive feeling about
what was coming or maybe i was just i
don't know what was going on it was like
some weird energy but um yeah it's it's
very eerily uh
similar um to what ended up happening
you know just that whole song in general
even all of us like collectively having
to wonder like are our best days as a
community or our best days in general
like behind us you know because we
didn't know what was gonna happen so
yeah very early on point yeah very
strange crazy but okay so much like um
adele versus amy winehouse at least
there is a glimmer of hope after that
because the line after that if i
remember correctly is are the best days
just the ones that we survive right so
today we have let's see cara one last
question for you is uh how is cleo oh
she's the best she's so good i just saw
her today for the first time in a while
because i was traveling so it was it was
awesome to see her again she's like the
best she's such a pest someday she's
great and then other days she just does
what she wants today she she's doing
what she wants and she's so big now did
you think that she was going to get this
baby
honestly i wanted her to get even bigger
my dream is to have like a massive dog
yeah and so i was just hoping i was like
grow more grow more um but i i didn't
know how big she was going to be because
she was like the smallest in her litter
and like i didn't get her from a breeder
or anything so the person like didn't
know how big she was gonna be so we kind
of had no idea but um i definitely
didn't
expect i thought she was gonna be
smaller to be honest she's she's big and
her hair is like poofy makes her even
bigger which i love um yeah but it's
funny because my dad my dad i feel like
i um you know he kind of like
it's kind of all of our dog she's mine
but like you know when i'm gone my dad
watches her and he was always praying
for her to stay small and every time
he's like i think i don't think she'll
grow anymore and then she keeps growing
and he's like okay this time she's not
growing anymore she just keeps getting
bigger it's my favorite
he's not happy about it
it's the best and they're so good at
like telling if you're having a bad day
to come and comfort you to like you know
resonate with how you're feeling and be
one with you so enjoy your time with
cleo and we're going to enjoy our time
with the album in the meantime it's been
so nice to speak with you thank you so
much for spending time here with us
thank you thanks for taking the time
you've asked great questions
thank you i appreciate it
you