There’s a lot going on in “I Forgot,” one of two ambitious new songs Cara Delevingne releases today via Warner Records, officially launching her music career as a major-label artist. The track veers between unadorned balladry and wild blasts of hyperpop distortion, and as Delevingne recorded it with collaborator BJ Burton (Charli XCX, Bon Iver), the model/actress/musician was thinking about how the public only knows her “through a phone or on a billboard or in a magazine or something,” she says. “There was this thing of wanting it to feel like the real me was breaking through the phone, trying to break out of this version of myself that people had known or had preconceived or whatever. Which is why having those moments of purity break through that industrial, processed sound felt really good.”
The song, released alongside the trip-hoppy “Out of My Head,” is also about getting used to how intense life has felt since Delevingne got sober circa 2022, “that kind of arid, raw feeling you get, exposed and unmedicated, just living life for the first time as a sober person,” she says. “You feel like the danger-seeking behavior or the rebellion is a part of you, but underneath it all is actually this little kid and this innocence. Rediscovering that felt scary. Also realizing that you’re not invincible and you can’t continue living a life where you don’t put your health first, whether that be mental or physical.”
Sobriety was an “amazing catalyst” for Delevingne to finally pursue the music career that had always been lurking in the background for her. Her debut album, recorded with Burton, drops on Warner in late summer, and she’s heading out on tour starting in June for a six-month run, with some shows already sold out. “There was this part of me that always thought I was gonna do it,” she says. “I just knew I was going to be a bit older and have that experience under my belt and have that point of view, that belief in yourself.”
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She’s been singing, writing songs, and playing drums and guitar nearly her whole life. Among the breadcrumbs leading here: She wrote and recorded a song on the soundtrack for her 2017 movie Valerian, popped up as a guest vocalist on her friend Fiona Apple‘s Fetch the Bolt Cutters, sang on St. Vincent’s “Pills,” and scored a songwriting credit on Dijon’s Baby last year.
On Delevingne’s upcoming album, Apple repays the favor, co-writing the lyrics to the club-ready track “Need It.” “We were writing things down on Post-it notes and sending them to each other, which is really funny, because we could have just been texting these lyrics,” she says. “I wanted to do a song that honored her — honored her impact for me as a person and as an artist. I think without the experience of going in the studio with her, I’d never have felt like I could be myself, a bit like a kid, and not have to act like I know what I’m doing or perform or change myself.”
Blair Brown*As a teenager, Delevingne signed a deal with Simon Fuller’s 19 Management, which wanted to turn her into a standard-edition pop star, an idea she ultimately rejected. “They wanted to push me into being an artist that was curated or designed by the people in charge, I think, at that point,” she says. “That just wasn’t ever something I was interested in for music. My favorite music has to come from the places you maybe don’t even want to look at sometimes. And even if it’s harder to get to that, that was gonna be the only route I wanted to take. But I just had to be patient with myself, be gentle, let it happen, let it grow. It’s like a tree. It doesn’t happen fast, for sure.”
“Out of My Head,” meanwhile, which bursts into drum-and-bass madness halfway through, was originally titled “Talking Heads,” but Delevingne didn’t want people to think it was a reference to the band. “It was inspired by the visual idea of being at a dinner where everyone’s just talking, but no one’s saying the truth,” she says. “And that kind of human condition of sometimes people would rather save face when you know that someone’s having an affair, and someone’s got a drug problem — like, no one’s saying the real words. So that’s where that came from.”
The two songs are also part of a new short film directed by Severance cinematographer and director Jessica Lee Gagné. “I always wanted to do a double video, which I didn’t tell Jessica at the time,” Delevingne says. “But I was lucky that she had the exact same idea.” The film is full of wild, pricey-looking visual effects: “My taste levels are a little bit expensive for a new artist,” she adds with a laugh. “But I’m dealing with that myself.”
Coming soon is a more conventionally poppy single, the infectious “Crazy Baby,” which sounds like a hit. “I really didn’t want it to be a single, weirdly,” says Delevingne, who wrote it for her partner, British musician Minke. “I thought it was too obvious… But I love that song… My partner, who I’ve been with throughout this process, who’s been incredibly supportive, I was doing it to piss her off, in the sense that she hates grand gestures and she’s a very private person. The lyrics are basically like, ‘I’m sorry, but this is a love song. Get over it.’ In a cute way.”
Delevingne wasn’t sure that he would sign with a major label for her music, which she describes as “leaning more left and feeling like it probably would’ve been coming out through an indie. I was skeptical and scared, and I was worried about who the partner was gonna be.” Aaron Bay-Schuck, CEO/co-chairman of Warner Records Group, won her over by showing faith in her music in its early stages. “Cara is an absolute force of nature,” Bay-Schuck says in a statement. “I think that’s evident to anyone who has seen her model or act, or follows her on socials, but when it comes to music, she is on another level. Every element of her artistry, from her vocals, to her songwriting, to her musicianship and natural sensibilities as a producer, are on full display with this album.”
Adds Delevingne, “I wanted this kind of music to feel like pop music in the sense of just getting it to the most ears. If anyone can hear it and feel something, that’s all I want.”
Linda Ramone and John Travolta Sean Sabhasaigh/Getty Images
