What doeS the title of the album No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire mean to you?

I sometimes feel like I am on fire, and I am full of action, and I just keep going, and I can’t relax (like right now). Sometimes that feels really good, and sometimes it’s very crazy.

Where do you find inspiration for aesthetics for your fashion, album cover, and tour visually?

I like colors, and I love old movies that have both cartoon and live action in them, like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I like textures, like paper, and I like wearing paper, like the paper bag princess. For some of the visualizers on the album, I like potato sacks, and I like Fantasia 2000. I’ve been listening to Rhapsody Blue a lot. It’s 17 minutes long, and it’s amazing all the way through.

You’re on the behind the curtain tour at the moment. What has is it been playing your new tracks in front of an audience and how have your shows evolved from the start of your career to now?

It’s so fun playing live, and I wish I could do it all the time. I think they keep getting more energetic. Even on this tour, we are seven shows in, and the shows change so much the more we get to do it. It’s all about being in the moment and letting the audience, sort of, lead us to new, exciting places.

Are there any pieces of literature that have inspired your work?

Definitely! What comes to mind is a book that Julie Andrews wrote, called Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. I don’t know if anyone has read it. It’s a children’s book, a chapter book. It’s about a scientist who is studying DNA and the imagination. He finds three children to basically test this imagination machine on, and they travel to an alternate dimension and confront these beings. That really opened me up to science and how the imagination and science connect. How I don’t really understand a lot of physics, but when I think about it, my imagination fills in the gaps to be open to learning new things like string theory and the fourth dimension. So that book really changed my life.

How would you like people to feel listening to the album?

I would like anyone who listens to it to feel courageous, and open, and dancy. Like the strange parts of them are the best parts of them.

You have previously discussed feeling imposter syndrome. Have you overcome those feelings?

I think there are a lot of contradictions in being an artist, where you want to share so much, and then you're afraid to be seen. I feel like the only thing I can do is do music, and then sometimes I’ll feel very unsure of what it is I’m even saying, and it’s hard to trust the mystery. I think I’m just getting more comfortable in being in the mystery, and sharing from that place, and not feeling the need to have it all making sense, and being on a platter for people to easily understand. I think my nature is a bit confusing, and I feel confused a lot of the time, but I feel braver now to share from that place.

How does meditation influence your music creation process?

Well, I haven’t meditated in 10 weeks, cause I’ve been on the road, and I’m very disheveled and stinky. Maybe if I meditated this morning, I would have much more articulate answers for all your questions. When I am in the phase where I am tapping into the void, I tend to have a lot of funny images come up in my mind. It (meditation) helps me trust the process more.

You mentioned your sister Lueza has cerebral palsy. She made you realize how important accesSibility is at concerts. How are you making your shows more accessible?

There are always people making sure there are seating areas, and just the other night, in Chicago, there was an adorable girl who was in a walker, and she was right up front. I think raising awareness helps the fans know that if they see someone who has special needs, to make way for them to have the best experience possible, making sure everyone has that same value when you’re all in it together. I was also really inspired by Disneyland’s accessibility, and how much they prioritize my sister's needs. We got to skip the line, and she loved roller coasters much more than I did, so that was very meaningful.

Was there a moment interacting with fans during one of your performances that was particularly meaningful to you?

I feel like evey night there’s something different. I love to be able to have shows this size where I have the feeling I can see everyone’s face. Really be there watching people feel every song. I really like looking out at the crowd during “Debbie Darling.” I feel like people are giving so much of their heart back. And then just hi after the shows is so fun.

What is the significance of the album cover and what inspired the background?

The cover is directly from the Mary Poppins scene where Mary Poppins takes her umbrella and pokes the black chimney smoke with the umbrella to create a staircase and they walk up it. That sticks out to me because in the creation of this album, I was very oobsessed with contradictions in myself. Smoke as a staircase is a big contradiction. Something that lifts but is not grounded and you would fall right through. Smoke is from fire and that connected. I feel like all the visuals their a feeling more than something I put a lot of intelectual thought into. It’s just a visural symbol I think.

Would you ever want to try out musical theater?

Yeah, I want to write a musical one day when I’m 40.

At what point in the writting process did the visuals and aesthetic come into play?

Sky seems to come up a lot. I decided to center most of the visualizers in this floaty sky background. I had a lot of help from Haley Appell and our stylist, Keyan. Basically, what I told Keyan was I wanted to wear paper, and I wanted to wrap my boots in things like potato sacks, and tap into really basic textures and leather. It kind of all happened in one day. We had a little brainstorm and went for it because these things are on a tight schedule.

What feeling do you want your album cover and music to evoke?

I’m someone who has very fast-changing emotions. Like my inner weather is super temporal. I feel like watching the sky change is a source of comfort for me, cause it reminds me that everything will change what I’m feeling. I also want to capture all those little infinities. I think the ever-changing nature of everything, and how I ask who I am a lot in these songs. The real answer is ever-changing, so that’s another that the sky evokes, and the visuals too.

Your album title There is No Way To Relax When You are on Fire echoes coming of age themes. What advice would you give to someone on this journey?

Fire can sometimes feel like anger, but I think always underneath anger is some kind of universal sadness that can help our hearts open, and we can ultimately get out of our own heads and connect to each other. We realize that we are all struggling, so I guess the advice is like to let the feeling and the heart go through its natural course, and lead you through whatever grief and sadness, and let it show something meaningful. Be patient for that.

What is your songwriting process like regarding lyrics?

I think a lot of my inspiration comes from walking, and just seeing the world pass by. The lyric “you look like a witch” came from, there’s like these metal pipe things in New York City that, I don’t know what they are for, but they have these certain pointy hats that look like witches, and I just thought it was funny, so it found its way into the song. I like things that make me chuckle, and mixing that in was something very sincere. I feel like the witch sometimes.

Can you talk about the instrumental arrangements you have in your songs?

It’s kind of like a video game. Like when you keep dying, and you realize how to do the jump. You just keep doing it over and over again, until you pass the level. I like finding guitar parts that are interesting to me. I don’t usually write a song to the first chord progression I play when I sit down. I like it to be a little bit of a challenge. For "Ragdoll," I was sitting on my couch for a while. I found the melody, and I was playing it so slowly, but I was obsessed with it and kept playing it. I would wake up early in the morning and play it. Eventually, I could play it without messing up, and I wrote a melody over it. Basically, I want to find something that feels like a fun challenge. I’m still getting better at playing it live. It’s still not perfect, but that's kind of exciting.

Thank you Dora Jar for giving us a glimpse behind your project! To keep up with her work follow her on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/dorajar_/?hl=en

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