Brendan WalterAny way you look at it, Lorde is unusual: after all, not many 16-year-olds kids from New Zealand can create a world-beasting, critically-acclaimed, Grammy-winning album. The singer says she realizes that people think she’s kinda weird — “my face does weird things when it moves,” she says — but she’s OK with that.
In an interview with New Zealand’s Seven Sharp program, Lorde explained, “I guess I’ve always been a pretty ‘dance to the beat of my own drum’ type person. I was always that kid in the neighborhood who’d wear these crazy outfits…dancing to [music] walking down to the street.”
“That really is who I have been since I was a kid,” she added. “So for me, I just try to be as true to myself as I can because I know that I’m quite strange in a lot of ways. And it was never gonna work for me to fit into what it was that other people were doing.”
“So I just try and do whatever it is that feels like me,” she concluded. “And do it with as much integrity as I can and it usually feels pretty good.”
Lorde, who was born Ella Yelich-O’Connor, also explained that she keeps herself grounded by hanging out with the right people.
“I think that I have great family and great friends,” she said. “And I really try and put people around me who see me for me, and appreciate ‘Ella.’ And like things about me that aren’t the things that a lot of people like about me. So I think that helps keep you feeling pretty level.”
Lorde’s new album Melodrama comes out next month.
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