Alina Baraz On Her Music Inspiration and Making Her Upcoming Album

During the month of June, Teen Vogue is celebrating rising music stars who transcend genres. Through in-depth profiles, we're highlighting artists who make songs our readers should know and will love.

Name: Alina Baraz
Age: 25
Hometown: Cleveland, OH

Before Alina Baraz was “Buzzin’” with her infectious grooves, she was contemplating whether or not to even pursue a career as a recording artist.

“One of my best friends at the time was the only girl who knew I could sing,” Alina tells Teen Vogue of her beginnings. “She said, ‘You have to do this today or else it’s never gonna happen.’” Alina, then 19, promptly went home and told her mother. “I said, ‘Hey I can sing, can we move to California?’”

That’s all it took, says Alina. “She literally quit her job of 12 years and sold her house that she worked her ass off for after her divorce.”

Once she moved to Los Angeles, Alina began recording songs off of 8-track beats and uploading her music to SoundCloud, where electronic producer Galimatias first heard her music. Then, without even having a face-to-face meeting, they forged a connection and began sending music back and forth through Facebook. Soon Alina's first album, Urban Flora, was born.

Big risks yield big rewards: Alina not only grabbed her first gold plaque in 2017 with “Fantasy,” but hit critical acclaim with the aforementioned “Buzzin.’" Her second project, The Color Of You, in 2018, fanned the flames for what’s to come for the Russian-American, a project dedicated solely to one person.

“It’s definitely a love interest, so that’s obviously a range of emotions,” she says. While the release will detail the highs and lows of that specific love, it’s more about how she’s feeling — and not the other way around. “A lot of it is internal,” Alina adds, “more trying to understand myself and not trying to understand them.”

The intensely personal work is slated for release this year, though it may be hard for her to part with the project. “It’s like a whole-ass child,” she says with a laugh. “It’s hard to leave it, but it’s also the most freeing thing in the world.”

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue