Victoria Canal talks new album 'Slowly, It Dawns,' flying in a helicopter with Tom Cruise and more

Singer-songwriter Victoria Canal calls her upcoming album, “Slowly, It Dawns,” her most ambitious work to date, with the record reflecting her artistic journey and life.

“That’s the only way I know how to write really,” Canal said in a recent Zoom call from East London. “It mirrors my mid 20s, discovering, sort of reckoning with body image and then discovering my sexuality and then questioning my place in the world and what everybody thinks of me. I think it’s all sort of emblematic of the messiness that is being in your 20s.”

Just announced Friday, her debut album is set for a Jan. 17 release date, with some of those songs set to be played on Sept. 30, when Canal opens for Sammy Rae & the Friends at Stage AE in Pittsburgh.

The three singles so far — “June Baby,” “California Sober” and “Cake,” which just dropped Friday — span one day in Canal’s life.

“It’s all like the story of me going out on a night out, discovering myself,” she said, “and then the different existential questions and realizations that come with each of those chapters.”

Canal has self-released three EPs and another on Parlophone Records, and her debut album on Parlophone/Elektra embraces her sensuality more so than in the past.

“My last EP, I spoke pretty outwardly about my experience with body dysmorphia and body image,” she said. “So it’s been like many years of reckoning with the body that I have and therefore the next phase beyond that acceptance is expression of sensuality and exploring intimacy in different forms and sexuality, etc., so it just feels like the natural next chapter to self-discovery.”

The album aims to be an experiment, as well.

“I think I’m always aiming for the art to be the truest expression in the moment, but for this in particular, not only is it true for me, but also it’s a real experiment. I’m just trying things out, and I’m trying things on and seeing what works for me and ‘California Sober’ is definitely the first time that I’ve had pretty sexy lyrical content in a song,” she said. “And I can’t say that I can commit to the bit for the rest of my career. I’m naturally a pretty actually shy, kind of wholesome person.

“So it’s funny because I feel like I’m playing a character a little bit, even though it’s kind of like the fantasy version of me that can be a sexy girl and assume the ‘Charlie’s Angel’ role. And that’s fun for me, but it’s definitely an experiment. I’m still a little bit like, oh, I’m nervous to sing that or to show my mom or whatever, you know what I mean? But I try to make it so that it’s all true, but it’s more so I’m just trying to hold my own art lightly. I think up until this point I’ve been pretty serious about my music, and I always want to take the craft seriously, but I also want to hold it lightly. And it’s like both of those things at once, so I’m allowing myself to be a bit freer about what I talk about and not just talk about heavy things all the time, lyrically in my music.”

Admitting to being a little scared about the potential reaction, Canal said she wasn’t sure if this is what her audience wants from her.

“If they expect to cry at my show, will they still like it if I’m like, hey, let’s get sexy and dance around and whatever?” she said. “I just hope that the fans that signed up for ‘swan song’ and ‘She Walks In’ and songs that are heavier about those things like grief and body image, blah, blah, blah, I hope that they are also cool with the lighter, summery stuff.”

As the rising 26-year-old’s music career gains steam, Canal said she’s focusing on getting to do what she loves.

“It’s interesting. If I think too much about momentum or anything, I either feel extremely overwhelmed or underwhelmed and it’s all comparative to either where I thought I would be or where it depends on the person I’m talking to,” she said. “I’m either famous now or I’m a struggling artist. And it’s like the more that I base my identity on how I’m defined in where I am by the industry, I think it’s just not very helpful for my art’s sake. I just want to be creative and be surrounded by people I love and be able to support the people that are helping me.”

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While the varying perspectives on her level of fame exists, there’s no doubt she had a run-in with one of Hollywood’s elite earlier this summer. In July, Canal got a helicopter ride to the “Twisters” movie premiere in London from actor Tom Cruise, after meeting earlier at the Glastonbury Festival.

“It is funny to say the only time I’ve been on a helicopter in my life was when Tom Cruise was flying it,” she said.

Canal described being in the headlines for the ride with Cruise as “a sort of alternate universe.”

“People only see a fraction of my life, and that’s just like a very awesome part, but it’s also just one small moment. But, yeah, it’s been wild. I literally don’t know how Tom does it because he’s in the headlines all the time, but he’s been famous for so long that I just think at this point it’s just like another day to him. Whereas for me it’s like my first time,” she said with a laugh. “And it’s just been a really funny thing. He wasn’t even aware that we got papped, and it was like, Tom, I got papped for the first time when we were in your chopper the other day. And he’s like, ‘That was your first time?’ He’s like, ‘Your first time? That’s crazy.’ So it’s just like a completely different life experience.

Alongside the paparazzi photos came rumors the two were dating, which Canal had to deny.

“Yeah, it’s insane,” she said with another laugh. “The poor guy. I was looking into it after that came out. It’s just so random. How often do people think that he’s dating someone when he’s not? I was looking at it, and it’s just like he’s been photographed with people once, and then there’s a whole slew of (rumors), but I just seem to be one of the only people that’s addressed it, mostly because I’m Gen Z, and I’m also not an actor.

“I find that actors don’t really like address stuff as much as singer-songwriters and musicians do. … It was just really funny.”

Besides meeting Cruise, Canal has performed with Coldplay at the Glastonbury fest and met Bruce Springsteen and Michael J. Fox already this year.

“It is a weird one, especially because I didn’t grow up in the industry at all. I grew up in Madrid, among other places, with a Spanish dad and American mom,” she said. “Nobody was in the entertainment industry. But, yeah, I weirdly find myself around a lot of public people. But what I realized is we’re all artists doing the same thing. It’s just that some people, their face is more familiar to the wider public, but making a song is the same process, whether you’re in Coldplay or whether you’re in your parent’s basement. It’s still like picking up an instrument and writing things down.”

Canal, who has a limb difference due to being born without her right forearm and hand from amniotic band syndrome, grew frustrated with headlines at the time that identified her solely as a “one-armed pianist.”

“I do play piano. I do have one arm, but that’s not my job or identifier. I’m a singer-songwriter, and I am multicultural, and I’m queer and I have won this, that and the other thing,” Canal said. “And it’s just funny that people will identify or attach to this one thing without much consideration of the full picture. I do understand it. I do understand why it happens, but it doesn’t mean that I’m just going to continue to be cool with not even having my name mentioned in the thing, because it’s sort of dehumanizing.

“And also I just think as a person with a disability, it’s important for me to speak about my experience on my own terms. And I think it’s really common for journalists and media outlets to commodify and reduce someone’s disability to clickbait, you know? So I’m not ashamed of the fact that I have one arm. It’s just that I want to talk about it in the way that empowers me and doesn’t reduce me.”

As Canal moves forward, she’s hoping to be defined by her music, rather than just one characteristic of her life.

“I never want to compare myself to Stevie Wonder in any way because he’s like Stevie Wonder, but I always kind of relate it to someone like him where you know him for his music, you know him for his craft. You don’t say like blind singer,” she said. “You recognize him because he’s excellent at his craft, and he happens to be blind. It’s almost just like it’s a part of him, but no one really focuses on that anymore. And I’m starting to feel that shift now.

“Actually, I did say it online, but that is the one really funny and helpful part about the Tom headline stuff was that it was literally the first time that I was just referred to as singer-songwriter Victoria Canal. And then if people find out that I have one arm after that, then great. They know that about me, but it’s not the leading thing. I don’t know. It was funny to see that shift. I just never in my life would have anticipated that it would be under the premise of dating rumors with an old-school movie hero.”