One of the major life events that happened and became a huge inspiration for the record was the loss of Alicia’s dog Mezzi, her best friend of thirteen years. “Mezzi travelled with me and recorded with me - I’d write, and she’d be next to me. She was fully an extension of me.”

The passing of Mezzi left her in a state of flux, wondering how to cope with losing the friend who’d been by her side every day. Tracks such as ‘Days Move Slow’ and ‘A Wonderful Life’ were born through this attempt to move through the grief and are some of the most heart-wrenchingly irresistible tracks Alicia has ever created. The former, ‘Days Move Slow’, is a slice of punchy, 90s-esque alt-pop that fizzes with a restless energy as Alicia contemplates whether there is an afterlife.

‘A Wonderful Life’ is slower and cinematic, swelling with emotion as Alicia’s signature yowl roams between heartbreak and hope. Reader, try and listen to this track without bawling your eyes out.

Another major milestone explored in ‘Lucky For You’ is Alicia’s journey to sobriety, as explored in passionate opener ‘All I Do’ which sees her roaring “I’ll never get fucked up again.”

“When you stop drinking, as far as realising who your real friends are, everything really comes to the surface. You wonder who you can see sober, or in the afternoon, or not at 1am in the bar. Who remains after the party is done? It can be very isolating. Another big part of it that was stressful for me was driving back past all the places that triggered every memory, all the memories that built up to the moment when I decided this absolutely can’t happen anymore.

As someone who makes a living through being so creatively honest, it’s important for Alicia to continue to be open in her music, particularly in a society that still tends to romanticise alcohol and substance abuse in music.

“It’s a dangerous thought process to perpetuate in our society that people need that in order to make good art. It all feeds back into mental health: I had a voice in my head that was so paranoid that nothing I made would be good anymore. A lot of what I wrote came from the guilt and shame that I would have from drinking; drinking fed into my depression times a million. I feel like everything I do now with writing is so much better, and the process is so much more enjoyable now that I’m tuned in.”

Each Bully album cycle feels like we find Alicia working through a new stage of metamorphosis in her life. As well as dealing with grief and sobriety, she explains that she has been learning to live with bad ADHD that was untreated for a long time. “I’m still learning about the relationship of that and the emotional regulation of the things I struggled with,” she pauses before adding with a shrug: “I guess I really do lay it all out on the table, but why not!

“I feel really good right now. There are a lot of things I still have to work on and remind myself of - the medication stuff was so trial and error for so long, but I feel like I’m at a good place with all of it.”■

Taken from the June 2023 edition of Upset. Bully’s album ‘Lucky For You’ is out 2nd June.