Indie Rapper Dessa Talks Journey Toward New Album 'Bury the Lede': 'There Were No Steps Skipped' (Exclusive)

The Minneapolis indie singer-songwriter spoke with PEOPLE about 'Bury the Lede,' her first new LP in five years

Dessa believes that pop music shouldn’t have to be so simplified.

The Minneapolis-born indie rapper, singer-songwriter and DIY naysayer just dropped her new studio album Bury the Lede, and without even pressing play, it’s clear that she refuses to abide by the expectations held for pop songwriters.

“I think that, very often, it's like, ‘Oh, if it's pop music, the words have to be accessible,’” Dessa, 42, told PEOPLE ahead of the Friday album release. “And accessible means stupid. And I don't think that's true. I think that our common denominator is not nearly as low as the industry thinks it is. I don't. I think listeners and readers can be trusted with a f--- ton more — even in a pop chorus — than we tend to.”

Even if she doesn’t think the industry necessarily wants pop songs to be too elaborate, Dessa makes sure to trust her listeners with all she has to say.

The musician, and longtime member of hip-hop collective Doomtree, has long been an advocate for doing the unexpected over the last decade-plus — from writing poetry books and collaborating with neuroscientists and puppeteers, to even making sure her live shows have a fun twist every now and then (“Can we bring everybody up onto stage and I'll stand in the pit,” she recalls of one performance).

And on her new album, she doesn’t hold back from that unexpected side of herself.

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Take single “Hurricane Party” as an example. In the track — and its corresponding vibrant, grocery-store-based video  — Dessa (real name Dessa Wander) contemplates all that’s been going on in the world, specifically all that’s been blasted on the news.

“Nobody was taking breaks from the news for mental health; 10 years ago, that wasn't a thing. But I think we do have this constant catastrophic feed in our pockets that I think, that song primarily responds to it,” she tells PEOPLE.

“Now [there’s] the polarization of American politics, the rise of populism on a global scale. Climate threats from absolutely every direction left, right, center and above. I think that for me the metaphor, the allegory of the ‘Hurricane Party’ felt like, ‘Hey, all of this could well be true, approaching, looming and existential. And nonetheless, you got to have a Friday night on occasion because what is worth saving or surviving, if not…’”

Dessa’s new project arrives five years after her last neuroscience-inspired album, Chime, and gives fans something new to enjoy on those Friday nights when they need it. While there are plenty of tracks where Dessa’s straight rapping without the concern of sounding too “accessible,” she also taps into that fun pop side of things on cuts like “Tell Me Again,” and “Twelve to One” — both of which are reminders that the rising star is from a city that’s birthed some of the greatest pop stars of our time (and all time!).

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As Dessa tells PEOPLE, she started casually working on the project at some point in 2021 or 2022, alongside go-to producers Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson under the guise of an EP. But over time, Bury the Lede became an album, one that touches on the same themes she’s been fascinated with since she put out her first solo release in 2005.

“[My music has this] fascination with love and death, which are related because I think there's a particular kind of bravery to love in the shadow of mortality,” Dessa says of what to expect when pressing play. “To love knowing that you will lose… that is not a problem that I solve and move on from. That is a problem that solves me. I think that is the fundamental discomfort of the human condition.”

Bury the Lede sits at 11 songs, some of which Dessa is excited to showcase on tour, especially in her home city. In November, the musician returns to Minneapolis for a homecoming show, a month after her Bury the Lede Tour kicks off in Colorado. And these days, she’s proud to see just how far she’s come in the city.

“My early shows, I had a box of flyers. You're trying to get people to come to your shows. So you would wait until the show would end for an artist who you think sounds enough like you, that people could be compelled to checking out a new artist,” she recalled. “But I remember the first time playing this stage [in Minneapolis] and one dude was like, ‘Oh, yo that's…’ And you're hoping that you're going to be recognized as the artist, and he's like, ‘That's a flyer girl. I know her, she's the girl with flyers.’”

“And it's been a slow growth, but it's been honest and organic in that city,” Dessa laughs. "There were no steps skipped.”

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Dessa also doesn’t want to skip over any of the feelings that fans get when they play her new record back for the first time. And as she explains to PEOPLE, she has no expectations as to what they should take away from Bury the Lede.

“Because in some ways it's like, well it's like in a conversation I can't write your side too. You know what I mean? So just to make room for the fact that there are going to be experiences that people come to the music with that will determine which parts really resonate,” she says. "Which somebody who just got dumped is going to listen to a different set of songs more intensely, than somebody who is on their first trip on a train through Spain. Different songs are going to pop.”

Bury the Lede is out Friday via Doomtree Records.

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