BEABADOOBEE: Totally, and that's how I got into music for the first time. When I was younger and creating 'Beatopia', I wrote a lot of stories and a lot of poetry, and I think that's the best way that I like to learn. That's how my mum taught me a lot of things and I learn a lot from my own experiences in life. So I feel like it's worked out for me, and then if I sing songs about my life and tell stories, I think it makes everything more relatable to everyone.

FYI: You can find the booklet-style DIY 🍄 Beabadoobee 🦋 zine here (which includes a full Q&A transcript from our CDM x Beabadoobee Zine #52 cover story). BEABADOOBEE: I'm totally that bitch to be like: this means something. I try not to dwell on it or else I just go insane, but I honestly just can't help the fact that if you're dreaming about that shit, it probably means something. Everything is kind of linked to something in your brain. There was a moment when she was seven years-old that feels exactly like that. She tells me about an imaginary world that, as an unhappy child, she dreamed up to escape reality. Beatopia was a deeply intricate universe, with an alphabet, countries, cities: she made a poster which detailed this place in all its splendour. But one day in school, she returned to class after a violin lesson, and found her classmates laughing. They had found the poster; their teacher, meanwhile, did little to stop their ridicule, and even joined in. BEABADOOBEE: Not really... I guess I write a lot of music now, so I think it's just replaced that. And my poetry when I was younger was just so straightforward. CDM: I'm so proud of you for co-producing 'Beatopia' with Jacob! Are you excited to dabble more with production?BEABADOOBEE: At times, it's quite scary to face the truth. And for me, especially, I'm conditioned to just not face problems when they come to me and push them under the rug for so long. I mean, i.e. Beatopia. It's really hard because it's something that I just don't want to be my problem until it becomes a really big problem, if that makes sense?

BEABADOOBEE: I probably relate to that. It's so weird because all my dreams just kind of erase from my memory within 10 minutes, but in general, like in life, I feel like I'm always trying to find a home. And now that I've got a home, it's great, but I feel like I'm always trying to find a home and I wouldn't be surprised if my dreams are like that too. CDM: Narrative theory is based on the concept that storytelling is an important part of human culture, and that humans can share with each other their knowledge of experience through teachable moments in stories. Basically, that we can all learn together from each other's stories. I feel like narrative is a big part of the Beabadoobee world, and you've shared so many stories in song-form. Is there anything from your 'Beatopia' song-stories that you would like people to learn or take away? Beabadoobee can pinpoint the moments in her life that have proved pivotal; the events that represent a fork in the road, from which turning one way or the other might have led her on different, perhaps darker paths. One such turn might represent her “villain origin story”, as she, the comic book fan, puts it. CDM: How much of dreams do you think are messages from our unconscious self to our conscious selves? CDM: So, the flipside of narratives is that when we write these stories for ourselves, sometimes we have a tendency to cling tightly onto them to reinforce the ideas we have of ourselves - like how some people always paint themselves as a victim. Do you think it's important to sometimes look outside of your narratives you've written for yourself and break free from them?

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BEABADOOBEE: I was going through a lot of things during that... and that was kind of like the icing on the cake of feeling alienated, or just very out of place. It was almost an out-of-body experience, I didn't feel like myself at all, and I don't think seven-year-olds should ever have to feel that way as a normal feeling. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Urban legend says that if you drop a frog into boiling water, it will instantly leap out - but if you place a frog in a pot filled with pleasantly tepid water and then gradually heat it, the frog will not sense danger and remain in the water, unable to detect the gradual increase in temperature until it's too late. Similarly, life can be equally as complicated, with it being human nature to seek solace in familiar connections and nostalgia (regardless of the personal cost to yourself). As Kristi herself realised in the writing of this latest album: "I need time to grow and to exist." So, choose yourself. And if you’ve been looking for a sign, this is it: your feelings are valid and everything happens as it's meant to (even when you feel like screaming into a void and you've been crying all weekend). Beatopia is ready and waiting for you. It can be a home for us all. See you soon. CDM: You've told me previously that you really want to be a nursery school teacher, which is interesting in the context of what we just spoke about, as story-based learning is majorly important for children. BEABADOOBEE: I guess it's one of the most important things humans create. Memories are really lovely and really nostalgic, but I think it's important to make memories, instead of just dwelling in memories because I do find myself getting lost in them instead of focusing on the now and the future.