Some stories begin with a clear ending in mind. For Angel Lord, The Masquerade emerged in a much more natural way, taking shape through songs that were written from real experiences of heartbreak, despair, deception and the struggle to find a way forward. What began in 2023 as a collection of ideas eventually developed into a five-track EP with a deeper emotional narrative, one that moves through darkness before arriving at a place of hope.
At the heart of The Masquerade is the idea that our own minds can sometimes become places we feel trapped inside. “Trapped In Wonderland” turns a familiar world of imagination and escape into something darker, while “Painful” transforms the aftermath of betrayal and victim blaming into an intensely personal piece of art. Across the project, Angel Lord does not shy away from difficult emotions, but the story is ultimately about perseverance and the possibility of healing.
The closing track, “Don’t Let Me Go,” leaves listeners with a message that even the deepest pain does not have to be permanent. As Angel Lord prepares to close the Masquerade era and step into the next chapter of her artistic journey, the EP stands as both a reflection of where she has been and a statement about where she hopes her music can take others.
We spoke with Angel Lord about the unexpected evolution of The Masquerade, turning painful experiences into songwriting, the importance of vulnerability, finding hope after heartbreak, and the kind of artist she hopes to become.
You describe The Masquerade as being as much a story as it is an EP. When you were developing the project, did you already know the emotional destination you wanted the listener to reach, or did the story reveal itself gradually as each song came together?
It was definitely not written that way. The Masquerade wasn’t even called The Masquerade when I started working on it actually back in 2023. I had been bouncing between working on Trapped In Wonderland and Masquerade while writing the other songs on this EP, knowing I wanted it to be a 5 track project, and I think it was after I wrote Villain and was working on an early draft of Painful that I realized I sort of wrote this story through the songs about despair and heartbreak and started to sort of shape the idea of the Masquerade EP and this narrative of someone being just beaten down and broken and as you go through the EP you not only learn why but I wanted it to end on this sort of hopeful echo that things can get better and you can use the pains and experiences of the past to help others going through something similar, which is why I wrote Don’t Let Me Go and made it the finally.
“Trapped In Wonderland” opens the EP inside the experience of depression and feeling imprisoned within your own mind. Why did you choose Wonderland, a world normally associated with imagination and escape, as the setting for such a painful psychological experience?
I like when people take something known and established and sort of twist it on its head forcing you to see it from a different perspective. Whether or not you like to believe Alice truly went to Wonderland or simply dreamed of it, the insinuation that it was born of her own imagination still lingers heavily in the story. Imagination is a powerful thing but it’s not always this pure and hopeful source. The idea that someone’s mind, someone’s Wonderland, may be more dark and depressing is something I think a lot of people can relate to and unfortunately you can’t leave your own mind, such Trapped In Wonderland was born.
Across the EP, themes of fakeness, lies, victim blaming and heartbreak gradually lead toward reclaiming power. Was there a particular point in your own life when you realised that surviving what happened to you was no longer enough and that you needed to reclaim your own narrative?
Oh yeah. Painful is the biggest example of this out of the EP. Painful is a song not only born out of pain and heartbreak but also a little bit of pettiness. When I found out that my ex cheated on me it was the worst night of my life, bleeding into just a horrible haze of a depressing few days. Anytime I even mentioned that I was heartbroken, not even what had happened, I would receive paragraphs of text messages trying to make me feel guilty for talking about it. I was left alone during a time of horrible confusion and pain, constantly learning new layers of lies and deception and every time I tried to talk about it, receiving messages from someone who would yell at me and try to make me feel guilty for talking about it. So Painful was born. If I can’t talk about it, I might as well turn it into art for my EP.
There is a significant emotional shift between being trapped in your own mind and eventually finding the strength to move forward. When sequencing the five songs, how important was it to preserve that progression, and were there moments when you deliberately chose not to make the emotional journey too easy or predictable?
I don’t know about not making things easy or predictable since these are songs about my real life restructured into the story the Masquerade EP came to be but I definitely knew I wanted the EP to end on a happy note as I think it’s important to highlight that things can and do get better even after going through things so horrible that make your own mind feel like a hellscape. The sort of story and progression just came naturally as I wrote songs. I think if I started this with the intention of I’m going to write an EP and it’s going to be a story from the beginning the EP would have looked and sounded very different. I’m not sure if songs like Trapped In Wonderland would have been made but since I went at this through this organic lens of I want to write five songs based off of my life and through that process gave life to this, I think, very relatable story of pain and sorrow and perseverance because it comes from a very real place and very real experiences.
“Don’t Let Me Go” closes the project with hope and perseverance. After taking listeners through depression, pain, blame and heartbreak, what did you feel needed to be said at the end, and why was hope the emotion you ultimately wanted to leave behind?
Because when you’re drowning it’s hard to see the surface while you’re struggling for air. I think it’s important to hear these songs, to connect with them if you can and then realize there’s an end to the pain, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Because the songs are based on your own life, there must be a complicated balance between honesty and vulnerability. When you write about experiences that still carry emotional weight, how do you decide what belongs in the song, what should remain private, and when a painful memory has become something you are ready to share publicly?
I think that more depends on the song and what I’m writing about. There are things I’ve chosen not to talk about or keep private either because it takes away or weighs down the overall lyrics of the song or because I’ve simply chosen it is not something I want out there.
Your previous releases “Trapped In Wonderland,” “Masquerade” and “Villain” have helped introduce different pieces of this world before the complete EP arrives. Looking back at those songs now, do you hear them differently because you know the larger story they have become part of, and was there anything about the completed project that surprised you?
I see those three songs more as the puzzle pieces or the building blocks of the Masquerade EP so without them the Masquerade EP would be incomplete. The only song that was sort of released before The Masquerade EP became the The Masquerade EP is Trapped In Wonderland but I always knew that it was the first piece of this project I was building. I think the thing that surprised me the most was the evolution this project went on. Starting out this EP was going to be called Reflections with the only song on it that carried its way through was actually Masquerade but through me challenging myself to write different songs and tackle different things in my song writing The Masquerade EP was born and I can not imagine a different first project or me being as proud of it as I am now.
You are still at an early stage of your journey, but you are already turning personal experiences into a defined artistic world with its own themes, characters and emotional identity. As Angel Lord continues to evolve, what kind of artist do you ultimately want to become, and what do you hope people will remember about the person behind the songs years from now?
Oh wow ending this interview with a heavy hitter. I don’t know if I have an answer to that fully yet, I think as I sort of wrap up this EP and start to close the Masquerade era for me I’m starting to look back on the past two years and figure out what I want to bring into this next chapter as an artist. I’ve learned so much from when I started this journey back in 2024 and have grown so much from the start of this that I know that I want this next era to be a bit different. I think I want people if and when they think of me or of the artist Angel Lord in the future as an artist that resonated with them and that inspired them even if I did things a bit differently and maybe worked a little outside the box. I want to be an artist that inspires people even if I’m only loved by a few people and is able to help others find their own way.
