Doja Cat is breaking new ground with her upcoming album Vie, from working with Jack Antonoff for the first time to rapping about subjects that she never has before — such as “love-bombing” — on the project.
In an interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe posted Friday (Aug. 22), the hip-hop star opened up about how refreshing it’s been to try out new things on Vie, which is set to drop next month following a period of self-discovery for Doja.
“I’m working with Jack Antonoff and working with a person that’s new in my life,” she told the radio host. “And so it’s the grappling with talking about something personal and creating something fresh, and then getting to know someone new, and then all of these things fell together really naturally.”
“He’s just been such a wonderful person to work with,” she continued of the producer. “But yeah, I think it’s just been nice to play. I really played through the whole thing … I think what I wanted to do was play with my voice in ways that are a little bit less unconventional. And so I’m shrieking a little bit on this album, and that’s been a lot of fun.”
Doja has previously said that Vie will be majorly pop-influenced, meaning her team-up with Antonoff — who’s known for crafting hits with pop titans such as Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter — makes perfect sense. While she was working on the LP, the California native also says that she did a lot of work on herself through frequent therapy sessions re-examining certain things in her life — like the way her exes have treated her in the past.
“There’s other things outside of myself that were inspiring me to write about these things,” the Grammy winner told Lowe. “I had been in relationships that made me think about things in a different way, and I think naivety is a big part of this album too. I speak about rushing and love-bombing in a way.”
“I think sometimes people don’t know that they’re doing it or they do, but giving excessive compliments and gifts right off the bat, that sort of thing,” she added. “I thought that was a really fun thing to write about.”
The interview arrives on the same day that Doja — who was previously linked to actor Joseph Quinn and musician J. Cyrus — dropped lead Vie single “Jealous Type.” The track marks fans’ first taste of the follow-up to 2023’s Scarlet, with the new album slated for Sept. 26.
Watch Doja’s full Apple Music 1 episode below.