Alice Glass departed Crystal Castles back in 2014, but it has taken her the better part of a decade to finally release her debut solo LP, PREY//IV. However, the resulting album, which dropped in late January, reveals a new side of Glass, who has been public about her struggles with her former bandmate.

“I think just the freedom to write whatever I want, the way I want, is what’s most inspiring to me,” Glass explains. “Freedom seems like a challenge for most people. It is for me too sometimes. But when I write, I’m very unhinged. I should also say that being able to communicate more about my personal life in my music has helped me heal. There was a conscious effort to explore my suffering in these songs. Sometimes it can be damaging to go that deep but, for the most part, I think it’s helped me.”

According to Glass, making the record was a liberating experience, but it still came with its challenges. Glass suffered from chronic depression and anxiety while writing and recording the songs. The musician—who notes that her recent single “Fair Game,” written from the perspective of an abuser, was one of the most personal songs she’s made—had to really push herself to bring PREY//IV to life.

“I have complex post-traumatic stress disorder and finishing songs is really hard for me because they pull me so deeply into the depths of some very dark experiences,” Glass says. “Putting it out into the void forever, you start to feel like nothing seems worthy of anything at all anymore. It’s all ultimately pointless, but it keeps me alive and I hope that it helps some other young women and men who have gone through similar experiences.”

Glass decided to release the album via her own label, Eating Glass Records. It was another way for her to take control of her career. “I don’t want to have to entertain industry people or suits who have no concept of authenticity, beyond how they think they might manipulate it for profit,” she says. “I’m just over people who don’t give a shit about what I’m doing and then take all the money from it. The truth is: I’m not being paid properly, and, in some cases, not at all for the music that I made in the past.  I still have no idea why. I think all artists should own their own work.”

Going forward, Glass plans to release as much music as possible. And while she hopes to continuing creating solo tracks, she also might drop some anonymous side projects just for fun. After so many years of people making assumptions about her and her work, Glass is ready to showcase a new side of herself, which she hopes will connect with listeners.

“This music has more depth and is more emotionally mature than my music was in Crystal Castles,” she says. “My music now is more self-aware than my past music but, at the same time, it’s still super insular. It’s a world I’m bringing people inside of. It’s my world, but I also know that it is intensely relatable to a lot of other people. A lot of people need this.”