Lorde credits this neurological condition for helping her write her new album
Let’s get this out of the way — Lorde has revealed some of the new songs from her next album, and they’re all fantastic. Probably because she’s incredibly talented. Or, perhaps it’s the fact that Lorde has a condition called synesthesia. What is synesthesia, you may ask? Good question.
In short, it’s almost like a mix of senses. One example is if someone sees a color after someone else announces a number. Another example is if someone hears a sound after smelling a particular scent. For Lorde, the sounds she hears in her songs collaborate with a color, otherwise known as chromesthesia.
“From the moment I start something, I can see the finished song, even if it’s far-off and foggy,” she said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine.
Lorde also mentioned it once or twice on Twitter.
jack truly pushed me to a place i'd never been with this album i couldn't love him more for it this song freaked & grossed me out at first
— Lorde (@lorde) March 10, 2017
& i remember my synesthesia was really blaring in the session, this swirling combo of high school and recent and private and public memories
— Lorde (@lorde) March 10, 2017
It wasn’t just the songs she released — she actually credited the condition for helping her with all of Melodrama, which is due out in June.
According to her, each song was assigned a color.
“A song about partying would get a certain color,” she said, “but it might be a sad song, and that got its own color, too,” she continued.
While this might be the first time you’ve heard of it, Lorde isn’t the only musician that has opened up about the condition. Pharrell, Mary J. Blige, Kanye West, and Billy Joel have all hinted at it in the past. So it’s safe to say that she’s in good company. In fact, perhaps the condition — which many have throughout the entirety of their lives — helped inspire each of them to pursue music.
Once you get your hands on Melodrama, you can definitely thank Lorde for putting out such a stellar album — but perhaps you should thank synesthesia, too.
