Noah Cyrus

Noah Cyrus is a force of nature. The release of her debut album is something I can only imagine as incredibly overwhelming in the best way. But with the recent loss of her Grandmother, I ask her how she’s been in the run-up to the album.

“I’ve been better, and I’ve been worse. My Grandma passed about a week before my Grandma on my mother’s side, two-year anniversary of her passing. So it’s all a bit painful right now. I am just internalising it all, but I actually feel like I have a lot of surrounding peace around the situation, which I am incredibly grateful for. I’ve definitely been attempting to heal while hurting. But personally, I’m also very good.” As she sits with her dogs, Noah explains how she’s been In Nashville for the past month alongside family members, spending quality time with her Grandmother for the last few weeks of her life. Being in Nashville, as a city, however, was a change, Something she’s missed as she readjusts to LA life. As she simultaneously balances the polar opposites of grief and massive success, she opens up to me about the regret she’s felt surrounding loss, specifically her Grandmother on her mother’s side. “At the time in 2020, I wasn’t mentally there or capable of showing up for many of the people I love due to my complete self-isolation. We didn’t get to see each other for about six months because of COVID.” Pausing for a moment before continuing, she explains, “I also feel like, as a granddaughter, I could have picked up the phone more and done many things differently.” Having spoken about her struggles with drugs with Rolling Stone, Noah expresses more of the emotional side when addressing recovery and how she sometimes feels unhappy when facing memories. “When I woke up from everything, later in 2020/ early 2021, my mind was much clearer from coming off the pills; I was so unhappy with how I had communicated with everybody. So this time, I really wanted to do things the right way. I wanted to say my goodbyes and have that quality time I knew I’d never get back,” she explains. “I’m so grateful and happy that I could consciously make that decision for myself this time.”
Having experienced and witnessed the difficulties of relying on substances, I think it is somewhat understandable. The End of Everything singer clearly knows where her feelings lie from the problems she’s experienced. “The shame and guilt that I feel is something I work on daily from the mistakes I’ve made throughout that period, or even just in my life.” As she moves towards one of the most significant moments in her life, the release of her debut album, Noah dissects the moments of grief she feels at this moment in time and the new perspective she intends to take. “I’m going through a period right now where I’m feeling a lot of grief, guilt, and shame from some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past,” I question what she’s just said, noting that it’s ok to feel everything under the sun even if others don’t, “I was also very young. And I’m still very young. I’m only 22. So I like seeing it, as I’ll probably make many more mistakes. And that’s ok.”


For Noah, the release of The Hardest Part has been a long time in the making. It’s an album that speaks so openly about her experiences with mental health, Something she’s been so honest about, poignantly addressing these parts of life with fans online. As an album, it’s incredibly well thought through from every instrument, melody and lyric that delves so deeply into the life she’s experienced.

“I wrote many songs about a lot of what I’ve lost in my past. In some of the songs like ‘I Burned LA Down,’ “My Side of the Bed,” and “Noah (Stand still)’, I was able to write from a clear space that I’d entered from coming off of drugs. While the other half where I was in this alternative state of mind and a pretty toxic relationship,” it’s a relationship she’s written about throughout the album with some of the songs in her pocket since being signed to her label from 16 years old. It seems she’s lived a lot of life since her debut single, with an album that you can only assume had some role in helping her heal. “I wrote a lot of new material that helped me heal. But I would say the most healing part would be the production side of it with Mike Crossey and PJ Hart”. Spending the best part of 2 years writing with PJ Hart and Mike Crossey has been a key space in which Noah has been able to heal. It’s apparent its been a safe space where she felt inspired to create and record organic music. Its styling, you can tell, has come from both her, Mike, and PJ Hart. And a routine she’s craved, having left behind a difficult yet crucial year, as she moves towards a new life following sobriety. “I had a hard time finding balance and figuring out what my new life would look like without that. So feeling purposeful, working towards an end goal, which is making music for me to be able to share who I am with the world, has been my drive towards healing.”