Dua Lipa's "Houdini" is finally here and iHeartRadio Canada's Shannon Burns had an opportunity to catch up with her and discuss this psychedelic new era that she's been teasing.
Asked why "Houdini" was the right song to re-introduce herself following the massive success of 2020's Future Nostalgia, Lipa says, "I felt like it was a really fun kickoff point for the rest of the record. I also feel like all of the other songs on the album are quite different, but they have a very psychedelic throughline overall. ‘Houdini’ has so much electronic variety, but at the same time also has interesting instrumentation and feels very organic as well. And that was something I really wanted to convey with the song and with the album."
The forthcoming album may have a strong psychedelic influence to it, but Lipa promises she didn't abandon her pop sound while exploring new ones.
"I think pop music is something that I love, something that I feel comes quite naturally to me," she explains. "So I think the interesting thing is experimenting and diving deeper. I think naturally my melodies are more pop-leaning, and so I was really trying to push the boundaries and change them up and make them a little bit different. But at the same time that will be what it is at its core but the psychedelic influences are really prevelant, and that’s what makes it different."
Co-written and produced by "core collaborator" Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Lipa says she became an even bigger fan of his after spending time together in the studio.
"It was really amazing [working with Kevin]. As an artist I’m such fan of his work, his albums, his music, everything that he’s done," she says. "And as a person, getting to know him, I’m an even bigger fan now because he’s just incredible, besides being an absolute musical genius."
And while she says working with Parker was a dream of hers, she knew it wasn't automatic that the two of them would spark creatively.
"I always had it on my dream moodboard," she says. "Like, ‘I really wanna work with Kevin Parker, and I don’t really know if it’s gonna work or it’s gonna be something,’ because you never really know until you get into a room with someone, but it really, really clicked.
As for getting inked to celebrate this next album of hers, Lipa says she might forgo that tradition and find a new way to celebrate it.
"I’m not gonna get a new tattoo," she says. "I think Future Nostalgia was a really big landmark, and also an album that gave me a lot of confidence. Maybe I’ll get like a tour tattoo later on down the line. But this one, I think if I just started getting lots of words all over my body… I think I can commemorate this new album differently."
Watch the full interview below.