this is the way i live;

Alessia Cara on Her First Album (and the Artwork Behind It)

To see more of Alessia’s photos, check out @alessiasmusic on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.

It’s 2002, and a young Canadian named Alessia Caracciolo is dancing and posing in front of the mirror to the beat of an untitled tune.

“I was being babysat by my aunt and she was really into dance music,” says the now 19-year-old singer known as Alessia Cara (@alessiasmusic). “So I dressed up in her clothes and was just dancing in the mirror to those songs, trying to be a performer. I always loved doing that stuff, but it’s such a cringeworthy video.”

Awkward or not, the clip is one of several static-y gems on Alessia’s feed that offer an unfiltered, pre-fame glimpse at what life was like before she signed to Def Jam and released her catchy, upbeat anti-social anthem “Here,” about a real-life encounter at a party she had no interest in being at. The track immediately won acclaim from critics and fans alike.

Now on the verge of releasing her debut record, Know-It-All, Alessia is ready to share more of that unbridled outlook with the world. While the record itself has greater versatility than her last effort, the EP Four Pink Walls (“There are slow songs, upbeat pop songs, more alternative sounding stuff,” she says), the new record won’t be a complete left turn.

“All of the songs on the EP are going to be on the album — it’s very much connected,” she says. Even the cover art is similar: a minimalist backdrop with Alessia rocking a red plaid shirt, jeans and boots. “I really wanted the album to be a continuation of what the EP is. So I thought me wearing the same thing would show that. It’s still me by a wall, but the wall color changes and my position evolves.”

In a way, the cover itself also matches Alessia’s approach to her career: Why make a big splash when the songs themselves stand on their own? Take “Seventeen,” a candid pop-heavy tune about wanting to grow up when you’re younger, then, as an adult, missing out on the magic you experienced as a child. The album itself takes its title from a line in the song: “I’m a know-it-all, I don’t know enough.” The phrase is supposed to be tongue-and-cheek. But after a year of touring and recording and sharing photos from around the world, Alessia knows exactly what lessons she has learned — and what to take with her on her next project.

“I think in the beginning I was kind of shy. I didn’t know how to say how I was feeling,” she says. “But as the album progressed, the last song I wrote for it, I did completely by myself — which was a huge step for me — and I wasn’t afraid to say what I needed to say on it.”

As she adds later, “I know how to do things now.”

the results: