Camila Cabello: ‘I’m in a much better place right now in terms of anxiety and mental health’

Camila Cabello spoke on Apple Music 1 with Zane Lowe to promote her new album ‘Familia,’ which she described as a “life-changing experience.” She discusses rediscovering her love of lyrics, overcoming crippling anxiety and mental health issues to become the best she’s ever been, pursuing more female friendships and thriving socially, the power of therapy, the emotional toll of entering the industry at such a young age, and more with Apple Music.

Camila Cabello Opens Up To Apple Music About Her Life-Changing Experience Making “Familia” and Her Desire To Return To The Studio…

It was a life changing experience for me. I mean… maybe I felt like this in my other albums, I don’t remember. But it’s the first time I put out an album and been immediately just ready to go back in and keep writing. And I think it’s also my brain really associates it with fun and joy. Sometimes I feel like it can feel like you worked so hard and now I get to kind of rest, take some time off from the studio. And I think because it felt not like that for me, it just felt like fun and joyful and easy, I’m just like, I’m ready to go back in, hang out with my friends, and write about some more feelings that I’m having.

Camila Cabello talks about rediscovering her love of lyrics with Apple Music…

I think this album process made me so excited about… Kind of re-inspired me in terms of lyrics. Because I started off being really excited about the lyrics when I first started writing, then I was so into melodies and kind of was not as inspired by the lyrics. And then I rediscovered why I love lyrics, which is just the details of things and getting to really put words around. To put in a song, I wish that I could just chill and not have to leave this restaurant.

Camila Cabello Discusses Poetry-Inspired ‘Familia’ with Apple Music’s Sally Rooney…

I was reading a lot of Sally Rooney novels and got into a lot of poetry. I feel like I just tapped it, started to tap into it in this album, and I’m excited to keep kind of going into that further, is the details.

Camila Cabello Discusses Emotions and Stress as a 15-Year-Old Entering the Industry With Apple Music…

I think it’s like starting out when I was 15 and the toll that that kind of… Before you really know who you are, that that kind of external kind of pressure can take on your nervous system, it’s kind of like you’re always feeling like the most important thing is the next performance. The most important thing is… What felt like to me before, like getting through the performance and killing the performance. And I feel like that kind of leaves no space for you to be able to have feelings, especially at that age, when you feel like you don’t even have enough space to feel.

I think when you are a teenager, it is hard to expose to yourself. You do want to be confident, you’re in a girl group. People respond to you flipping your hair and being hot. And I think that carried over to even when I was a solo artist too, feeling like, oh, people expect this of me. And so it felt like people don’t want to hear about my anxiety and my intrusive obsessive thoughts. People don’t want to hear about that.

Camila Cabello Opens Up to Apple Music About Her Crippling Anxiety During the Making of ‘Familia’…

For a while, it was a couple months where I didn’t go back in the studio. I was just doing therapy. I was literally not functioning. I felt not able to work. And I found a therapist that everything they said really resonated with me. And part of that healing was going in the studio and being like, “I’m not going to do it if it’s not fun. It’s not going to be a performance. I can’t take it. Literally I won’t do it. It has to be something that helps me in feeling better and getting better because I can’t take this as a source of anxiety or stress. I just won’t do it.”

Camila Cabello tells Apple Music that her mental health is in good shape…

I’m in a much better place right now in terms of anxiety and mental health, like the best I’ve ever been. Like I’m great. I’m so great now.

Camila Cabello tells Apple Music that she is embracing therapy to help her get through a difficult time…

But at the beginning of this album I literally had… I was mentally… My anxiety became something that did not allow me to function, that isolated me. What I was looking for so desperately, whether it came in the from of me in the studio or not, was connection and being seen. And that’s why, for me, it was so important to be with people. Not forget about the music. I just was like, “I need to be able to trust and feel safe with the people that I’m making this music with. I need to be able to talk about these things. I need to be able to…” It really came down to, outside of being an artist, what we’re all looking for, which is connection with other people. And I think sometimes mental health stuff can make you isolate, and then that isolation makes your mental health a lot worse. And it’s kind of like this vicious cycle.

On ‘Familia,’ Camila Cabello talks to Apple Music about showcasing herself in her own skin…

I think with women this happens a lot… but it felt like you can take me being sexy and confident and sassy, but you can’t take me feeling weird in my own skin. Like it just doesn’t match up to the image that you have of me, or what you want from me. And I feel like I was working with people this time, especially Ricky and Scott, that really saw me as a whole person. And therefore, the music became like that…You know what I mean?

Camila Cabello Talks About Her Song “Weirdo” That Didn’t Make The Album On Apple Music…

I actually did a song that didn’t make it into the album, that it was called Weirdo. It was the before Psycho Freak. But as you can see, this was a common thread. And it was the same thing. It was like me being, I’m just a weirdo. I don’t get why you love me. Even I want to run from me. I know it’s a matter of time before you leave. Or whatever, stuff like that.

Camila Cabello Talks About Making New Friends and Female Friendships on Apple Music…

And then I’m obsessed with this concept of fractals, where it’s like that happened in the studio and then suddenly literally I, from one year to the next, made so many friends and so many real friendships. I had an intention to have more female friendships, and now I’m a thriving social butterfly.

Camila Cabello Tells Apple Music About “Boys Don’t Cry”…

I remember at that time writing it for the man in my life. I remember that being something that we’d talked about a lot, but it’s been really cool to see how other men in my life, like my dad, for example.Or, he’s my choreographer, but also one of my best friends, Calvin … How it just sparks up a conversation that I think is really beautiful and I keep seeing it in the men in my life, too,

Camila Cabello Opens Up to Apple Music About Publicly Voicing Her Vulnerabilities…

That was something that I used to do to myself, was invalidate my own experiences. Because I would be like, “Oh, nobody wants to hear that from me. Why am I so anxious? Why do I have crippling anxiety? Why do I whatever?” My life from the outside looks great… We’re humans. What I have experienced, what Normani has experienced, what everybody experiences is so much more than what you see on the surface level, what you see my life like from the outside.It is so much more, actually, responsible and better for people if artists are just like the voice of the vulnerabilities and the anxieties and all of that.