Lorde is back with new music.
The Grammy-winning pop star, 28, released her new single “What Was That” and its music video on April 24, and she opened up about what was going on in her life during the song’s creation in a note shared to her website.
Setting the scene, Lorde recalled a period in “late 2023” when she was “back in New York,” experiencing a “deep breakup” and “stopping birth control.”
“Every meal a battle,” she detailed. “Flashbacks and waves. Feeling grief’s vortex and letting it take me. Opening my mouth and recording what fell out.”
Lorde. Thistle Brown
“What Was That” was written by Lorde and Jim-E Stack and produced by the pair with Dan Nigro. The song features guitar by Andrew Aged, assistance from Koby Berman and Jack Manning, mixing by Spike Stent and mastering by Chris Gehringer.
Concluding the note, she further detailed the creative process: “Jimmy shouting in the background. A thousang hours of audio embroidery. Dan telling us where the Moog bass should go. Andrew giving it teeth. The night we finally got the drums right. The sound of my rebirth.”
The song is upbeat and fused with electronic elements in its production alongside lyrics about reminiscing on a relationship that was once flourishing but has since ended.
“MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up / We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that? / I remember sayin’ then, ‘This is the best cigarette of my life’ / Well, I want you just like that,” sings Lorde on the chorus. “Indio haze, we’re in a sandstorm and it knocks me out / I didn’t know then that you’d never be enough, oh / Since l was seventeen, I gave you everything / Now, we wake from a dream, well, baby, what was that?”
Lorde “What Was That” single artwork. Thistle Brown
Lorde’s music video for “What Was That” is a simple clip featuring the New Zealand native walking and biking around New York City before concluding with her joining a sea of fans in Washington Square Park on April 22 — after an initial event was shut down by police.
Hours after telling fans to show up to the location for a 7 p.m. pop-up event, she wrote on her Instagram Stories, “Omg @thepark the cops are shutting us down. I am truly Amazed by how many of you showed up !!! But they’re telling me you gotta disperse … I’m so sorry.”
At the time, a spokesperson for the NYPD told PEOPLE, “Officers were alerted of an unscheduled event inside the park. Sound and park permits are required to have a concert in a New York City Park, and the individuals were not in possession of either. Organizers of the event were informed they could not perform, and they left the location.”
Lorde in March 2024. Victor Boyko/Getty
However, the permit issue did not prevent the pop-up in the end, per Vulture. Lorde’s collaborator, singer-songwriter and producer Blood Orange, real name Dev Hynes, appeared and played her new single on a handheld radio at 8 p.m.
Lorde then later re-appeared at approximately 9:30 p.m. local time to dance and perform the new song to remaining park dwellers, according to the outlet.
“You guys are so amazing,” she told the crowd, as captured by several fans’ videos. “I love you so much.”
