Lorde Reveals How She Feels About Her ‘Solar Power’ Album Now

Lorde’s artistic journey is full of ups and downs.

In a new interview on Jake Shane’s Therapuss podcast, the New Zealand singer-songwriter spoke about making 2021’s Solar Power album, which received mixed reviews from fans and critics, and how she feels about the project today.

The “What Was That” artist opened up about feeling a bit “overwhelmed” by the success of 2017’s Melodrama, for which she embarked on a major arena tour. “This thing that was my hobby that I did after school is now, like, my employment, and I employ all these other people,” she recalled. “It’s gotten too big. Like, I’m a kid.”

Lorde admitted to feeling “scared” at the time. “I was getting a little bit older. The new crop were coming in, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. I don’t know if I want to do this at this level,'” she said.

In order to reconnect with herself, the Grammy winner “went home to New Zealand” and “got a dog,” noting that she “had this moment of being like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do all of that. I’m going to be this girl who’s sort of off the map and really mysterious and even more distant.’”

She declared, “Solar Power came from a place of feeling very joyful and chill.”

The experience of touring the “endless hardcore music” of Melodrama on such a large scale felt “very intense” for Lorde. “I just wanted something that felt very light and easy after that,” she said of Solar Power.

Supported by singles including its title track, “Stoned at the Nail Salon,” “Mood Ring” and “Fallen Fruit,” Solar Power charted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart but didn’t produce any hits as big as “Royals” or “Green Light.”

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“I love Solar Power so much, and I truly needed to make it. I wouldn’t be here with another album if I hadn’t made Solar Power, but I think it showed me that you have no choice but to be who you’re supposed to be,” said Lorde.

“Me disappearing and being all wafty and on the beach,” she added, “I was like, ‘Actually, I don’t think this is me.’”

Ultimately, Lorde realized she’s “meant to make these bangers that f— us all up and just rip through a festival ground.”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to vibe out, and it was kind of sad for me ‘cause I love to vibe out,” she explained. “That is me to my core. In an alternate universe where I just lived in New Zealand and worked at an organic farm or something, that would be my vibe. But it’s not the life for me, I think, right now.”

Lorde’s upcoming album, Virgin, comes out Friday, June 27.