The world of Kelsey Lu’s sophomore album, So Help Me God, is rich—not only sonically, threaded as it is with their characteristic lyricism (from the opening track, “Reaper”: “Can’t take a sin from a sinning man / It’s not my burden, it’s in your hands / You are the reaper left to decide / What you want, baby? I’m not your guide”), but also visually, using film and visual art to build out its storytelling.

To mark its release, the 35-year old spoke to Vogue this week about collaborating with Kim Gordon, “Liza Minnelli wigs,” and taking musical inspiration from Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Vogue: What’s been the biggest difference for you between releasing Blood seven years ago and putting So Help Me God out now?

Kelsey Lu: I feel like I’ve grown so much into myself in terms of knowing what I want and don’t want, and building my intuition, and also probably [having] less toxic relationships than I had at that time—as well as less of a toxic relationship with myself.

There are some amazing featured artists on this album. What was it like working with Kamasi Washington and Kim Gordon?

Yeah, it was great. I met Kim Gordon back in 2017 when she saw me perform in LA. She came up to me afterwards, and then years later, when I was recording the album in LA with Eve Rossman, I went to see her play at Zebulon and I went up to her being like, “Do you remember me?” And she did! I asked her to come in the studio, and she did. She connected to this cello composition that I made that is not on the album fully; it’s in the film, and it’s in some of the visuals that I’ve been putting out, but it was a cello composition that I made one day when I was really frustrated in the studio. I was not happy with the day, and then I just made this really nicely boisterous cello track, and when she came through, I was playing her songs in my album. Each artist featured, Kamasi and Kim and Sampha, I have such a history with them. I also have Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, who does the strings on “Better Than That,” and my sister playing violin. They’re all tethered to memory, in a way. I met Sampha when I was recording Blood; he was my gateway into London. One of my first shows in London was on a split bill with Kamasi and Sampha, and it’s so nice to have it all come together.

I have to ask you about “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” which I’m obsessed with. What’s your relationship with the 2019 film?

It came out right before the pandemic, and I watched it when I was locked down on an island. I was living with my girlfriend at the time, and it was one of those new pandemic relationships. I was starting to try to write the new album, but a lot of things were feeling really ruptured and incomplete, and even though I was in this relationship, there were other things that I was longing for and that I felt torn about.

When I watched that movie, I was so moved by it emotionally that it inspired me to make something with the sense of longing that it gave me. I usually kind of make things that are already pretty cinematic, and it just inspired me. I watched it by myself the first time, and then I was like, “You gotta watch this with me,” and then I watched it again. I watched it three times in a row. [Laughs.]

What has performing in LA and New York been like for you recently?

It’s been pretty surreal. I mean, playing at the Blue Note was pretty iconic. It was a very bucket-list kind of vibe, and it was also really fun because I had a different look for each show, and there were two shows a night.

What were the looks?

There were a lot of gowns; Diotima gowns, sparkles, a Liza Minnelli wig. It was also just fun connecting with fans again, because when you’re performing songs that nobody’s ever heard before, everyone is so present and, like, so eager and ready for the album to come out. The performance that I did in Venice, for example, was an entire installation that took over the entire top floor of the Palazzo Diedo and completely filled it with soil, and underneath the soil there were these charcoal paper works that were being activated as we were performing. We had three different musicians and a dancer, Josh Johnson, and we were all moving in and amongst one another in the space, and the audience was also actively participating in the performance as well. That one was like a dream. I wish I could do that for every show…

Probably hard to arrange, huh?

I think my new rider for each show is going to be a bag of dirt. [Laughs.]

This conversation has been edited and condensed.