Dove Cameron is fresh off the release of her debut album, Alchemical: Volume 1, and the 27-year-old star sat down with Billboard‘s Rania Aniftos to discuss the inspiration behind the two-part project.
“I felt like I was writing the two halves in such different headspaces. The first half was really about the ending of something, and an entire year of my life, and the processing of that. There was a very stark sonic page turn when it came to the next musical phase that I stepped into,” she explains, noting that the upcoming part two is a lot more fun and “sexy.”
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However, Cameron also reveals that it was important for her to get vulnerable in her first release, including songs like “Sand,” one of the project’s standout tracks. “I always said that I never wanted to release any sad music or ballads, because I was really avoidant for a long time, like, ‘Everything’s happy! Everything’s so amazing!’ But I was not happy,” she says. “I decided if I was going to be a person, right? Your personhood and your life has to come before everything. If I was ever going to become the person I was going to be — and music is so important to me — I had to integrate what has happened so far and I have to write for me first and foremost.”
Watch Billboard‘s full interview with Dove Cameron above, in which she also talks about the unexpected success of “Boyfriend” and her days on the Disney Channel.