Tate McRae on her new album, new era and grappling with grown ...

Everything from her first secret pop-up show to her dream collab to how living in the public eye was on the agenda when Tate McRae met up with triple j Mornings' Lucy Smith for a yap.

Lucy and Tate sat down together the day after a big first for the Canadian artist - she was coming down from the high of playing unreleased music for her fans in a public pop-up.

"It was so fun, it was our first ever pop-up...ever," Tate McRae said.

"And it was the first time ever playing unreleased music for fans. We were so nervous. All of us dancers in the car like 'what if no-one is out there?' There could have been like two people but I was happy, it was fun."

With the surprise car park appearance came the big news of her next album, SO CLOSE TO WHAT.

"I know that I wanted to start this new era by premiering a new song at Madison Square Garden," she said.

"It was like my first big arena show as headlining it. So I was like 'I need to do something special for this moment'. I love New York so we did this whole dance - we learned it the day before - and it was this 2000s-esque, the music video was so pop for me. Everythat I've watched when I was younger in a bottle.

"And then 2 Hands, I honestly just love the song. It's my first time writing like a love-ish song. I think it's cool, I'm excited for fans to hear it. They've been waiting for years."

For this new era, Tate realised she wanted to communicate just how much she's grown up since she started dropping music in 2017 as a fresh-faced 14-year-old.

"I've also just experienced things for the first time as a girl, that I've always heard girls talk about but never actually felt it as a girl," she said.

"I feel like now I'm in my body and feeling what it feels like to be a woman for the first time, and that has really influenced my writing." 

"So a lot of these songs have like a very deep, emotional meaning for me. Because these are some of the emotions that I didn't even know existed. 

"Like, I've written about heartbreak before, I've written about love before, I've written about friendship break-ups - a lot of young, juvenile feelings and it felt like for the first time I'm like 'oh I feel like an adult' like I feel older for once."

One of the main new emotions and feelings she's been grappling with is existing as a woman in a deeply connected and online world.

"Honestly just being a woman on social media and having my body on there," she said.

"And putting out my art and seeing how people receive it has been really interesting. Also just being in the public eye, I feel like that's affected a lot of these songs. 

"I feel like for the first time I've also just figured out who I am as a person, officially, and know what my values are and what I want in life."

Fan access to artists through overwhelming spaces like social media has been a hot topic this year, and Tate recognised that she has a love-hate relationship with it.

"Some days, when I'm doing performances, I love it and I love to put on a show and have all eyes on me," she said.

"And some days it's the most terrifying this ever. I am a 21-year-old girl who has insecurities and thinking the exact same thing you are. So it's always weird when you have someone like talking about your body online and talking about your face and picking it apart, because you're just like 'I am a person. I'm just a girl.' 

"I'm just a girl going through all the exact feelings that you are so the fact that you're talking about it is, I dunno, it's just that constant conversation of 'why are we talking about women's bodies?' and the video is talking about a woman's body. It's just... very interesting sometimes."

Check out Tate McRae's whole chat with Lucy Smith below.