was 15 when
she fi rst started to fl ex her creative
muscle as a songwriter; less than three
years later, she was a Def Jam artist.
Impressive? Absolutely. Enviable? We’re
talking Def Jam here! But signifi cant
as it may be, it was just one step on a
steep climb that continues to this day.
Cara and her team came heavy
with “Here” as her debut single in April
2015. Devoted fans who’ve followed
her since her YouTube cover days
would balk at the idea of her “com-
ing out of nowhere” with the moody
alternative R&B anthem for introverts,
but to most people, that’s exactly what
it felt like. Unconventional, compelling,
and catchy as hell, “Here” drips with
a sure-footed swagger that belies its
status as a “breakout single” – especially
one from a teenager best known for
belting acoustic covers from her subur-
ban bedroom.
The song got its formal release
alongside a few others on the Four Pink
Walls EP in August 2015, but the real
impact came via her debut LP Know-It-
All at the end of that year. In addition
to the songs on Four Pink Walls, the
album included larger-than-(real)-life
anthem “Wild Things” and the emotion-
al, empowering “Scars to Your Beautiful,”
which became singles two and three,
respectively.
The collection seamlessly stitches
together an array of infl uences, from
Lauryn Hill to Destiny’s Child to Drake,
and put a pretty big spotlight around
an exciting emerging star. Outlets
including Exclaim! and Now in her
native Canada joined global giants
like Billboard, NME, and Rolling Stone in
heralding the eff ort, making it clear this
wasn’t a fl eeting, fl ash-in-the-pan taste
of success.
What’s particularly stunning is
that Cara – who, again, had only been
writing songs for a few years at that
point – is the primary writer on all 10 of
Know-It-All’s tracks. She had some help,
with proven hitmakers like Pop & Oak,
Sebastian Kole, Kuya, and Malay lending
their writing and production prowess
to the project; however, she’s the an-
Cara
chor of it all, and that was and remains
central to her artistic identity.
“Being a young artist in the pop
world, it’s a challenge to maintain the
integrity of being the sole writer on
stuff ,” Cara tells Canadian Musician – and
specifi cally, she means young female
artist. “First of all, people never believe
you [laughs]. Like, when you’re a young
girl in this world, it’s so crazy; I feel like
I’m constantly having to prove myself,
and people are always like, ‘Well, who’s
actually behind this?’”
That’s especially stymying consid-
ering it was her compositions that sent
Def Jam to her door as a teenager; that
had her debut LP reaching platinum
status in both Canada and the U.S.; that
netted her a Grammy for god’s sake.
That’s not proof enough?
Ironically, it sometimes seemed
like the opposite for a young star
still fi nding her footing. Know-It-All
and its subsequent string of early
achievements – including the Moana
soundtrack and collaboration with
Zedd on the smash “Stay” – set one
hell of a high bar, and the music
industry machine has a notoriously
low tolerance for anything but upward
trajectories.
“If something isn’t as successful
as the last thing, it’s like, ‘She needs
other writers,’” Cara recalls from personal
experience. “Everyone’s quick to jump
to ‘the solution,’ which is, ‘She needs
other people doing it for her,’ but I think
that’s what made me so adamant about
continuing to grow as a songwriter and
strengthening that skill.”
She did just that with her highly-
anticipated sophomore outing, 2018’s
The Pains of Growing. Once again, Cara
has the main writing credit on all 15
off erings, but this time, that includes
several as the sole writer, and even
some as the sole producer.
“I think I’m a lot more independent
now in the way that I write, and just in
my overall sound and music in general.
I can rely on myself now with writing
and producing,” the artist muses. “But
I’m still developing, and that’s going
to be an everlasting process; it’s just
constantly changing and evolving.”
Its cliché to say, especially for such
a young artist, but The Pains of Growing
is a notably more mature eff ort, and
major tastemakers like Pitchfork and
Rolling Stone said as much when giving
it an even more favourable review that
its predecessor. That’s largely because
it takes the same building blocks as
Know-It-All but constructs something
more complex and, ultimately, more
captivating. The music is more dynamic,
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