Healing with Alina Baraz
Her debut full-length album, It Was Divine, arrives today. On the project, Baraz is determined and vulnerable, tackling the challenges in her life with a renewed vigor. With impressive collaborators from Smino to Nas, It Was Divine stands as Baraz’s most complete and vulnerable body of work.
office spoke to Baraz about It Was Divine, songwriting’s therapeutic properties, and how loss can teach lessons about love.
Can you talk a bit about your early relationship with music?
My parents are from Russia, so music was very different for me growing up. My only influence was on the piano because they were both classically trained. My brother was obsessed with rap and hip hop so those were my two influences growing up. I didn't really know American bands until I went to grade school. I knew my whole life I would be in this career. I didn't know when, but I knew I would figure it out.
You've got The Color of You and Urban Flora under your belt. Why are you separating this new project as your debut album?
I really don't care what anyone calls it. I consider it my full-length. I've always really done seven, eight, nine tracks. I've never really done this many. I let go of perfection, I let go of it trying to be so constructed. This is just me purely trying to heal, grow, and nourish what I know. It's been one of the most special experiences, writing this.
What pushed you to the point where you decided to release what's in your heart without worrying about the perfection?
Over time I've grown as a person, as an artist. Now, this is my third time working on a project and I just wanted to heal. It just naturally came out this way. I had to let go of structure for a minute, and I had to let go of that personality trait of mine to just perfect something so much. I just truly wanted to heal. That's what I wanted out of this.
A lot of your music is very therapeutic to your fans. Is it therapeutic for you as well?
The healing process is writing it. At this point it's purely for the fans. It heals me to have love from fans, but my healing process is me actually getting it out. It's different to think about it in your head than physically seeing it on a paper. That's where I heal.
Can you tell me about the guests on the new project?
They all came super naturally. I was super excited to work with Khalid again—he's one of my favorite people to work with. Nas is an absolute dream and I'm still blown away; it does not feel real. 6LACK and Smino—I love what they did.
What should fans expect from this album?
It's definitely something new and old. For me as a creator and an artist the thought of having to create something that's already been done by me is dreadful. I never want to do that. I would expect to hear old sounds, new sounds. Some are in the middle—some are not.
Can you talk a bit about how the track "Endlessly" came about?
It was one of the more recent tracks I did. I was listening to a lot of D'Angelo, I was listening to a lot of Radiohead and I feel like when I listen to that track I can clearly hear who I was listening to at that point. I was super influenced and inspired.
It sounds like you have a very eclectic taste in music.
I just made a playlist actually on my Spotify. I feel like there's a lot of 90s influence. Before and after every session we always listen to Erykah Badu who is my balance. She grounds me.
A lot of the artists I've spoken to love making music but the process of putting out an album can be very draining—do you feel that way or does the process inspire you?
The process definitely inspires me. I've been pretty depleted after making an album [previously]. But after this one, I'm still so hungry and in this weird, uncertain time, it's left me completely energized. I can totally see that, though. In the marketing aspect, creating the visuals, finalizing your tracklist, getting all your press done—that's probably the most draining, but not enough to even complain a single bit about it.
How has the pandemic impacted your process as an artist?
It has completely affected it just because I'm so used to having an engineer, so it's been hard to record, but there's so many tools. My friend just put me on to a website where I can listen to the session in real time and it can be a virtual session—it's just new.
On some of the recent singles you've been putting out, when you confront the topic of love, you seem so much more confident and comfortable. What have you learned about love?
I think it's just dealing with the same shit for three years in a relationship. I've learned a lot now. I'm just more confident as a woman, as an artist, as a creator. I've experienced so much and I think—I hate to say it—but the loss is what taught me love. I think, like I wrote: what's love without a flaw? It's one of my favorite lines because I learned so much about the imperfections. I've always romanticized love and I guess I was just naive.
Speaking more about the themes that run through your music; I love the song "Trust." What does trust mean to you?
I feel like I began to trust myself more when I wrote that song. I've always struggled with trusting someone and on that song I just chose to trust someone. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I think it just comes with time.
What are you doing to stay sane while quarantining?
I haven't been singing, but I've been water coloring which I've never done before. I do that every day now. I do weird shit all day. I'm in Ohio, so there's so much forest and I'll just get lost. Then I get back. Then my day starts again.
