The title for Dora Jar’s latest North American tour was Behind the Curtain, and there could not be a more appropriate name. Jar’s debut album No Way to Relax When You Are on Fire, which was just released in September, is an invitation to the peculiar, engrossing world of a pop songwriter fully embracing both her childlike wonder and assertively eccentric vision. Peer behind the curtain into the mind of an artist whose vision is mysterious enough to be alluring, but focused enough to remain cohesive. 

As beguiling as this new body of work is, there’s a brazen playfulness throughout the album, especially on “Smoke Out the Window,” “Puppet,” and “She Loves Me.” Delicate vocals and gentle guitar picking get swept up in lush arrangements and unpredictable production.

“I think from the start of making music and building projects I’ve enjoyed thinking about it like a fun house where I want every room to be radically different but all part of the same house,” she explains. Thinking about songwriting “like a video game,” Jar builds upon her ideas like a challenge to pass to the next level. 

She doesn’t read music, but as a guitarist, it’s all about filling the blank space with whatever the moment calls for and going by feeling rather than technicality only. This doesn’t mean that she’s settling for simplicity though. Using unique tunings, chord progressions, and left-field arrangements, Jar has crafted a beautiful, spirited, and haunting exhibition of her mind’s endless imagination. 

Jar cites classic children’s movies like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomstricks that combine live action with colorful, cartoonlike animation as important visual references. “I feel like all the visuals… they’re a feeling more than something I’m put a lot of intellectual thought into, but I think it’s just a visceral symbol,” she states.

For the songs’ visualizers, she’s set against strikingly colorful skies and facial expressions that don’t give away what she’s feeling. The sky motif, a nod to Mary Poppins, represents the ever-changing nature of emotions. It’s what Dora Jar excels at: making something seemingly simple into a mysterious, deeper perspective both sonically and thematically.

No matter how lighthearted and sweet the atmosphere is, there’s always a gradual realization that not everything is what it seems. The album’s first track “This Is Why” begins with a twinkling of whimsical guitar chords and Jar’s soft, gentle voice luring listeners into a lullaby with a hint of sadness below the surface as she sings: “Who am I? Who are you? Even when I turn around I’m still looking forward. I can see you in the back of my mind.” In “Puppet,” the jaunty beginning gives way to a metaphorical dark fairy tale of a puppet “hanging on by a thread.” 

The juxtaposition of the childlike playfulness and darker themes reveals the parallels to the complexities of being an artist- wanting the feeling to shine through, but not exposing every detail about personal experiences. “I think there’s a lot of contradictions in being an artist where you want to share so much, but then you’re afraid to be seen,” Jar remarks. “I think I’m just getting more comfortable with being in the mystery and sharing from that place and not feeling a need to have it all making sense and put on a platter for people to like, easily understand.” 

The mystery is only more enticing. Jar explains that the best part of music is that “there’s infinite ways to feel one emotion and a certain quirk and evoke so many different things.” By evoking a feeling but not referencing a particular scenario or experience, everyone can adapt the themes and lyrics in their own way and develop their own unique connections. 

Explaining what she hopes people take away from No Way to Relax When You Are on Fire, Jar says she wants listeners to “feel courageous and open” and “like the strange parts of them are the best parts.” Let’s hope Dora Jar keeps embracing the strangeness.