Lorde thinks pop music is "about the collective"

Lorde told Dazed: "I reread [Lois Lowry's] The Giver recently. I read it as a ten-year-old, and I reread it on the plane a couple of weeks ago and it really struck me. There's this figure in the community who feels all the pain that other people couldn't handle - absorbs it, holds it.

"Without being too f****** high-minded - I make pop music, I'm under no illusion - I think it's my job to get as close to these big, deep pains that we all feel as I can bear, and try and alchemise them into something that is beautiful and gives catharsis. I think about that a lot with my work."

Lorde's music is personal to her own experiences. However, the singer believes she also has a responsibility to her fans.

She said: "I don't really see it as being about me, although it is very personal. But that's why I find pop music so incredible, because it's about the collective."

Meanwhile, Lorde previously confessed that she felt "disconnected from [her] creativity" at the start of 2023.

The chart-topping star considered quitting the music business altogether two years ago, admitting that she was "not in a great way" at the time.

Speaking to BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders, she explained: "At the beginning of 2023 I was not in a great way on a lot of levels.

"I'd never felt more disconnected from my creativity."

Lorde admits that an eating disorder took over her life at the time, and that it stunted her musical creativity.

The Royals hitmaker shared: "All I was thinking about was trying to weigh as little as possible.

"Going to sleep thinking about food, waking up thinking about food and exercise - that was my creative pursuit."

Lorde released her latest album, Virgin, earlier this year, and she was deliberately brave in her approach to the project.

She said: "It was hard, it was scary. Some songs aren't easy.

"I made a lot of changes and really put my artistry front and centre and made that my full-time job and I got a lot of stuff out of the way."