Today sees AURORA drop her surprise second album ‘Infections Of A Different Kind – ‘Step 1′. Watch our full video interview with AURORA discussing the record above.

Having amassed over 200 million streams and 500,000 sales of her acclaimed debut album ‘All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend’, today sees the Norwegian singer-songwriter release the first of a two-part album unannounced. ‘Step 2’ is set to follow either next year or in 2020.

“I’m really bad at building things up,” AURORA told NME. “I dropped hints of things in a subtle way, and I think a few people out there figured out the names. It’s all been very cryptic, but it’s just nice to have a surprise in life I think. We need more surprises – good surprises.”

“‘Step 1’ is a natural step after my first album, which was about looking into yourself, looking at all of it and accepting all of it. It’s easier to be numb, rather than in contact with your own emotions. That was my biggest mission back then – to make sure that we’re not afraid to feel, not afraid to cry, accepting our demons as part of evolving as a human.”

She continued: “This step is about moving on with that. I think that we are meant to really fight for each other, but I think it really prevents us having the capacity to see other people when we’re in pain. First you accept that life comes with pain, then you really work on it. I really want people to listen to this step and feel like they’re getting stronger.

“It’s quite empowering. Many of the songs are about people taking choices on behalf of themselves, about coming back for revenge. In my more delusional stories like ‘It Happened Quiet’ and ‘Churchyard’, the victim comes back to haunt the one that hurt them. It’s about the process in becoming a warrior, a true warrior for the world – but you have to work on your own stuff first.”

Preceded by previous launch singles ‘Queendom’ and ‘Forgotten Love’, AURORA says that the album largely deals with “accepting that you can be warrior, even if the world puts a box around you and labels you not as a warrior”.

“‘Queendom’ is about accepting our differences, about learning that we are all together in this – especially in this world where underdogs are in some places women, in some places men, children, animals or introverts or quiet people,” AURORA told NME. “They have so much to say, but we live in a world where no one has time to wait.”

“‘Forgotten Love’ is about moving on from the pain, and the good pain of the move. Moving on from a period of your life which was beautiful, but the memory of it was painful. If you lose someone or they die for instance, you carry them with you. It’s very heavy but it’s scary to let go, because it’s the only thing you have left.

“It’s so nice when it happens, when you remember to live. As Dumbledore said, ‘It does not do to dwell in dreams and forget to love’. He’s my favourite dude.”

Watch our full video interview with AURORA at the top of the page as she discusses fame, her fans, Sigrid, the upcoming tour, saving the world, and what to expect from ‘the next step’.

The tracklist for ‘Infections Of A Different Kind – Step 1’ is below

Queendom

Forgotten Love

Gentle Earthquakes

All Is Soft Inside

It Happened Quiet

Churchyard

Soft Universe

Infections Of A Different Kind

Aurora tour dates and tickets

Her upcoming UK tour dates are below. Tickets are available here.

Wednesday October 10 – MANCHESTER Academy 2

Thursday October 11 – LONDON O2 Forum