Lorde is back. The New Zealand pop queen just released her new single “Solar Power,” the title track to her upcoming album and her first new music since 2017’s Melodrama. And in a new interview with Zane Lowe’s New Music Daily radio show on Apple Music 1, she discusses the origins of the song, revealing that she wrote it while staying with her Instagram friend and onetime interviewee Cazzie David (daughter of Larry):

I was on Martha’s Vineyard with my good friend, Cazzie staying at her house. We had just been for a big swim all day. My hair was wet and when I came back into my room, I had made a little Yamaha DX keyboard, and I just started singing and kind of figuring this thing out. I was like, what is this? It almost felt like a “Rock DJ” to me, the Robbie Williams song. I was like, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I love it. And then I just put it away and like had a paddle board, I think, but it really was such a natural, like joyful extension of an awesome day. And then I think I took it back into, into the city to Jack [Antonoff]’s and, you know, we had all the windows open. It was summer. And when we just followed it through. I sampled cicadas on my phone for the last few summers. I was like, it has to have the cicadas in it. I really wanted to capture, there’s something so specific about the New Zealand summer.

Lorde also notes the song’s similarity to Primal Scream:

I had never heard Primal Scream in my life. I’d been told to check them out. I wrote the song on the piano and then we realized like, this is, it sounds a lot like “Loaded.” It’s just one of those crazy things that like, they just were the spiritual forebears of the song. I reached out to Bobby and he was so lovely about it. And he was like, you know, these things happen. You caught a vibe that we caught years ago. And he gave us his blessing. So let the record state “Loaded” is 100%, the original blueprint for this, but we arrived at it organically. And I’m glad we did.

And she talks about Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, who both sing backing vocals on “Solar Power”:

I love those girls so much. They killed it on the song. I was like, who are my most like God tier female vocalists friends that could be on this. And they both just crushed. It was such a pleasure for me to have them. So talented, so cool, and I’ve never had any other voices on my songs. This is the first time people were singing with me. I just knew it had to be a gang. You know, I’ve got a couple of amazing male musicians on it as well from New Zealand, James Milne and Marlon Williams. And I just, yeah, it was like this record more than any that I’ve made isn’t just about me, you know, it’s my friends and my family and my country. And I knew it wasn’t just, the sentiments were not just mine alone to deliver. So yeah, it’s everything I hoped it would be in terms of having other people on it. It’s fun not to be alone. Finally.

As far as the whole leak situation goes… “I mean, listen, I love it,” Lorde says. “Kids are insane. I love it. I respect it. I love how hungry they are. Tonight is the solar eclipse, you know, you got to follow the vibes.”