The artist talks about growing up as a pop star and soaking in the natural world.

Lorde&rsquo;s latest album, Solar Power, is many things. Told using sweet harmonies, acoustic guitar strums, and introspective lyrics, it is a narration of her life as a pop star, an ode to the sun and the natural world, and an invitation to float away.&nbsp;
The much-awaited album comes four years after her last album, Melodrama. In the last few years, Lorde stepped away from the limelight, undergoing &ldquo;a transformation&rdquo; to make music.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve realized that I&rsquo;m always going to be someone who needs to retreat from being a pop star to make something,&rdquo; shares the artist in a press conference.
While living a more domestic life in New Zealand, the album was heavily inspired by her daily walks in the park and <a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/51215/1/lorde-announces-a-photo-book-documenting-her-trip-to-antarctica">a trip to Antarctica</a>.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I would wake up every morning and walk my dog, and through that little routine, I saw the seasons changing for the first time, and I saw the morning light every morning and evening light every night. I started to feel the magic of nature and the outside world, even just from going to a park,&rdquo; shares Lorde.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I went on a trip to Antarctica, and right around that trip, the name &lsquo;Solar Power&rsquo; literally just popped into my head.&rdquo;

What followed was a sun-worshipping record that roots itself in the natural world. Known to <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/lorde-opens-up-about-synesthesia-hit-music">see color together with music</a>, Lorde made tracks she sees as golden, like the sun, with speckles of blue and green, like the ocean.&nbsp;

To Lorde, nature and the outdoors has a particular sound. It&rsquo;s a sound that is &ldquo;light and free&rdquo;, one that makes the listener feel like floating away. She captures this through a combination of 60s and 70s Californian folk and early 2000s radio pop, the music of her youth.&nbsp;
Born in 1996, the 24-year-old pop star grew up in suburban New Zealand, but became a musical sensation at 16, after the release of her debut single Royals. Lorde delves into navigating this fame in many of her tracks.

Lorde - The Path (Official Audio)

The album starts with "The Path," where she is a &ldquo;teen millionaire having nightmares from the camera flash.&rdquo; And it ends with "Oceanic Feeling" where the artist is leaving her adolescent Pure Heroine days behind, singing &ldquo;now the cherry-black lipstick's gathering dust in a drawer, I don't need her anymore.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Lorde has grown up, and with her, so has her audience.&nbsp;
&ldquo;A lot of my listeners were the same age as me when my first song came out,&rdquo; the artist shares. &ldquo;So they&rsquo;ve really gone on a journey with me.&rdquo;
A coming-of-age album inspired by nature &ndash; it&rsquo;s quite the unique concept. But Solar Power proves that pop music doesn't need to be placed in a box. And neither should Lorde, a girl who is a memoirist, social critic, and musician &ndash; all at once.

Journey With Lorde through Solar Power

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