Dua Lipa has opened up about working with her dream collaborator Kevin Parker on her new single, “Houdini,” and several other “really fun songs” for her upcoming psychedelia-inspired album in a new interview with triple j. She also called his band’s 2015 album, Currents, one of her favorite albums of all time.
“In terms of things that I’m obsessed with, Currents has been the soundtrack to my life,” Lipa said. “It’s one of my favorite albums ever ever ever. [It] was kind of like the gateway drug for me into Tame Impala. It completely changed my life and so it was very, very cool to be able to collaborate with him this way.”
Lipa also elaborated on how she’s always “admired” Parker as an artist. “I’ve always looked up to [him] as someone that I’m really inspired by and [he] has always been on my dream board of people to work with,” she said, before describing their natural musical chemistry. “It kind of took us both by surprise how well we just gelled in the studio and how well it worked and how fun it was to collaborate with each other. We’ve made some really fun songs.”
However, the pop star was sure to emphasize the importance of contributions from “Houdini” co-producer Danny L Harle, as well Tobias Jesso Jr. and her longtime collaborator Caroline Ailin (the latter two also have credits on the single). “One thing I have to say about the project as a whole even though there’s someone like Kevin — who’s incredible — is there’s Danny Harle who also worked on it, Tobias Jesso Jr., and Caroline Ailin,” she stated. “Everyone has such a unique artistic vision, and when we came together, we wanted to create something that could live on its own.”
In a separate interview with iHeartRadio, Lipa compared the sound of her currently untitled album compared to her new single. “All other songs on the album are quite different, but they do have a very psychedelic throughline overall,” she explained. “‘Houdini’ has so much electronic variety, but at same time it has a lot of interesting instrumentation and feels very organic as well… that’s something I really wanted to convey on the album.”
Earlier this year, Lipa made her feature film debut in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and also contributed to the soundtrack with Song of the Week “Dance the Night.” Find out why we also named “Houdini” as Song of the Week.