Shelter

"Alice Phoebe Lou’s fifth album sees her going through a second coming of age. Alice had just started writing what would become Shelter as she unexpectedly found herself without a place to call home, with the first few songs confronting her past and trying to make peace with the traumas instead of simply eviscerating them. “It was very isolating, lonely and weird,” she explains but ultimately Shelter is about “coming to that place within yourself and intentionally deciding that wherever you are, that is home and that is enough.”

‘Open My Door’ is a conversation between Alice’s younger self and who she is now while ‘Lose My Head’ is about wanting to be intimate with other people, but also needing to be yourself. “It’s about loving and wanting as well as the push and pull of passion,” she explains. Rather than a deep dive into those contradictions though, one of the most powerful moments of the song sees Alice just screaming “It feels like a purge,” she says.

Most songs on Shelter started with Alice sitting with her guitar, feeling the music and singing whatever came out. “Some of the things you say are completely weird but when you get into a flow, that stream of consciousness can be really enlightening,” she continues. As a result, songs like ‘Lose My Head’ feel like a spiritual, emotional release. And she wants to leave space for others to feel that catharsis. “I continually strive to show people the beauty of being vulnerable and feeling all their feelings,” she offers.

Despite the weird time Alice was going through, Shelter never feels too heavy, with the record championing healing yourself, confronting all the things you’ve been through and making peace with them. “It’s about nurturing your inner child and dealing with the painful human experiences that come from just existing. It’s about forgiving the world and forgiving yourself to create safety and a home within yourself,” she says. “I had to do that in order to not feel like everything was just fucking collapsing around me and you know what? It's been a really beautiful thing.”