Lorde Discusses Her New Song ‘Solar Power’, Working With Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, and More in New Interview

    Lorde just returned with her new single ‘Solar Power’, the title track to the much-anticipated follow-up to 2017’s Melodrama. The New Zealand pop star offered some details on the album in a newsletter shortly after its release, and now she’s discussed the origins of ‘Solar Power’ in a new interview with Zane Lowe’s New Music Daily radio show on Apple Music 1. “I was on Martha’s Vineyard with my good friend, Cazzie, staying at her house,” Lorde explained. “We had just been for a big swim, all day. My hair was wet, and when I came back into my room, I had my a little Yamaha DX keyboard, and I just started singing… and kind of figuring this thing out.”

    She added: “I was like, what is this? It almost felt like ‘Rock DJ’ to me, the Robby Williams song. I was like, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I love it. And, then I just put it away and like had a paddle board, I think, but it really was such a natural, like joyful extension of an awesome day. And then I think I took it back into, into the city, to Jack [Antonoff]’s, and, you know, we had all the windows open. It was summer. And we just followed it through.”

    The singer also talked about working with Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, who provide background vocals on the song. “I love those girls so much,” she said. “They killed it on the song. I was like, who are my most, like, God-tier female vocalists friends that could be on this. And they both just crushed. It was such a pleasure for me to have them. So talented, so cool, and I’ve never had any other voices on my songs. This is the first, first time people were singing with me.”

    Addressing the song’s similarity to Primal Scream, she admitted: “I had never heard Primal Scream in my life. I’d been told to check them out. I wrote the song on the piano, and then we realized like, this is, this sounds a lot like ‘Loaded’. It’s one of those crazy things that like, they just were the spiritual forebears of the song. I reached out to Bobby [Gillespie], and he was so lovely about it. And he was like, You know, these things happen; you caught a vibe that we caught years ago. And he gave us his blessing. So let the record state ‘Loaded’ is 100%, the original blueprint for this, but we arrived at it organically. And I’m glad we did.”

    Watch the full interview below.

    Konstantinos Pappis
    Konstantinos Pappis
    Konstantinos Pappis is a writer, journalist, and music editor at Our Culture. His work has also appeared in Pitchfork, GIGsoup, and other publications. He currently lives in Athens, Greece.

    Arts in one place.

    All of our content is free, if you would like to subscribe to our newsletter or even make a small donation, click the button below.

    People are Reading