Cam admits she's been in survival mode for the past five years. But it resulted in one of her most authentic projects to date.

All Things Light, her reflective new album out now via RCA Records, sees the country singer/songwriter embracing life's highs and lows. Cam started crafting All Things Light by herself during a period she describes as "insane"; as a new mom in the midst of a pandemic, she found creativity on her own.

"I went into the studio by myself a lot, because obviously nobody was sharing spaces," she tells GRAMMY.com of the early album process. "I tapped into something while I was by myself. I love collaborating, but to only be listening from my own gut and coming up with stuff, I had a whole new body of work coming to me."

All Things Light further displays Cam's songwriting depth while embracing a wider sonic landscape. While still rooted in country music, the album experiments with new sounds and genres taken from her life journey; elements of folk, rock and pop weave seamlessly throughout the 12-track project. She sings about life's unanswerable questions, trusting the universe, and ultimately finding her way.

As a result, All Things Light finds Cam surer of herself as a songwriter, a creative and a woman. "If I fall, I still sing and I know why," she confidently sings on the triumphant "Turns Out That I Am God"; elsewhere, she fully embraces her pop and dance side on tracks like "Wherever You Are" and "Pretty Girls." While topics of heartbreak and death ("Half Broke Heart," "Village" on 2015 debut Untamed) and deeply personal songs ("Redwood Tree," "Girl Like Me," on 2020 The Otherside) have been prevalent throughout her catalog, Cam sings them on All Things Light as a woman who has grown from life's obstacles — and throughout every track, her positive light shines through.

While working on the album, Cam got the opportunity to work on Beyoncé's COWBOY CARTER. Co-writing five tracks — "AMERIICAN REQUIEM," "PROTECTOR," "DAUGHTER," "TYRANT," and "AMEN" — her contributions not only earned Cam her first GRAMMY, but also further inspired her own project.

"It all came from the same wellspring," she says of the songs on All Things Light and COWBOY CARTER. "Creatively, it was an amazing time. You can tell from this subject matter on the album that it's a very heavy time. I definitely felt the weight of being a mom, and as a mom, you're the guide, and the protector, and the world builder. You're the one who explains what this whole thing is to your kid."

Cam's experiences with her 5-year-old daughter, Lucy, heavily inspired All Things Light. Living life fully is also at the heart of the project, as she witnessed loss within her immediate family, which she touches on in lead single "Alchemy": "From dust to flesh to bones to dust/ We are golden/ Call it a miracle/ I call it alchemy," she sings on the surprisingly upbeat track. Meanwhile, the old-timey "Slow Down" serves as a reminder to trust her gut when chasing a dream: "If you get a funny feeling/ That it's not your dream you're dreamin/ Slow down."

"A lot of these songs are facing the abyss and exploring deeper questions, and maybe not even having an answer, but guideposts for myself and her," Cam explains. "It's a deep, heavy meaning, and then some fun little dance-y vibes — it's everything I wanted in an album."

Below, Cam discusses All Things Light, her creative process, and how motherhood inspires her songwriting.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

All Things Light came from dealing with loss and motherhood during the pandemic. Did the songs help you get through the other side of that loss?

It's been a tough time, personally. In my immediate family, we've had a lot of loss and health stuff, and as difficult as it was, it was a wake-up call about what makes life worth living. It's spending time with people you love. All these songs and raising a kid needing these answers about [life's] big questions, it all showed up [while writing All Things Light]. I have to address things like that.

Even though you think motherhood is a happy creation time, the other side of the coin is, What does it all mean in the big picture? To me, singing is incredibly calming, and writing is super therapeutic and cathartic. These are things that I need to hear.

"Turns Out That I Am God," when I say, "I was busy waiting for someone to live my life," [it] is me being on autopilot and not examining this stuff. "Dreamt myself to the center of all things light" is when I first meditated. I've turned this constantly talking mind off, and inside my belly there's this peace. You get filled with this joy. It's there in me, it's there in the trees, it's there in everything. There's some sort of energy to the universe, and to me, I call that God, and that's realizing that that's in me.

Has your songwriting changed at all being a mother?

I'm really intentional. I don't have time to do anything that isn't important to me. I have to feel really drawn to or inspired by a concept that I commit to, because it's like, Okay, this is important to me. I want this to be out. Then I'll commit all the time that's necessary to make it great.

Obviously when Beyoncé calls, you show up.

It was such incredible divine timing, because I feel like this is something that was coming out of me, this type of music. I obviously love being experimental and pushing boundaries.

Getting a GRAMMY for being a part of that album that was very experimental and pushed a lot of boundaries and still was incredibly meaningful. I think people are going to be discovering the layers of what she did for years. It was so inspiring to see somebody commit and do that at such a high level. 

I think it's really easy to feel scared that if you do something outside of the norm or outside of the box, that it's gonna cost you — and maybe it will. But the point is, what are you doing this for? What matters is you're making great art. If anything, it made me feel super free and emboldened to just stick with it.

You'll forever be introduced as "GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter Cam" for working on Beyoncé's COWBOY CARTER. Have you fully processed that?

Honestly, it hasn't fully processed yet. It's pretty cool to have this statue that says my name, and COWBOY CARTER, and Beyoncé on it. 12-year-old me is like, No way! I get to go see the tour in Vegas, and I'm ready to bawl my eyes out, dance and cry, because it's so incredible.

Years ago, you mentioned that you write songs based on colors. Did you do that for All Things Light?

Definitely, yeah. I think that's one of the easiest ways to describe [songs], when you're trying to take something from a collective subconscious, then you have to try and communicate it with anyone else you're working with. I think that colors usually help me the most — or temperature, sometimes — of describing what it is.

"Alchemy" was your first solo release in four years. What color or temperature were you feeling when you wrote that song?

I started it with my longtime co-writer, Anders Mouridsen, and we were trying really hard to focus on melody. I was like, "Wow, this album is heavy. What if I try and not be heavy?" It still ended up being a death mantra. "From dust to flesh to bones to dust." It's a Buddhist meditation on death.

To me, that song, even though it's talking about death, and the single art is flowers growing out of me, in my mind your body decomposes and becomes something else, transformative. "We are golden" is the assurance. That whole process is beautiful, and can we see that in a positive light? So, to me, that one's this orangey, yellowy, golden-ish color.

I noticed Joni Mitchell has a writing credit on "Alchemy."

It's similar enough to "Woodstock," that song of hers, that I was like, "I want to reach out and make sure that this is good with them, because it's such an important thing to say." It was definitely insane to get approval from her and that team.

It's very Joni Mitchell inspired. She's such an inspiration to me. My mom always loved Joni Mitchell growing up, so we listened to a lot of that. She's one in a million.

How have you transformed in the past five years?

I think I went from a bit shellshocked with motherhood, to then trying to find my feet, and feeling a little bit underwater. At this point, I'm trying really hard to own that life is messy and it doesn't look how you think it's gonna look. That doesn't mean it isn't fantastic, and something that you get lessons out of, and you have heartache, and you have joy. The acceptance of it all and the surrender to it all. I don't think I've mastered it, but I think I'm trying to get better at reminding myself that that's why we're here.

Is there one song that best describes where you are in life right now?

Probably "Turns Out That I'm God." That and "Slow Down," I think those are my core thesis statements. This is my life happening, and it's my experience to enjoy or not enjoy, and it's up to me. That is a heavy and freeing thing at the same time.

The first lyric of the album is, "I was busy waiting for someone to live my life," and then the last lyric is from "We Always Do": "We'll think of something we always do." It's like radical optimism, in a relationship, or just humanity. I think we're gonna figure it out. The last lyric on the whole album is "try," and I like that a lot.

Tell me about writing "Turns Out That I'm God."

I listened to Alan Watts give a lecture. He's a philosopher, entertainer, from the '60s/'70s, and he brought a bunch of Eastern ideas to Westerners. Generally speaking, Westerners feel so separate from the world, like humans are alone and isolated. In general, a lot of Eastern philosophies and religions are integrated, and you're all part of one.

He did a thought experiment: We're all God, we've just forgotten. We could do anything we wanted and dream these beautiful dreams, and they would last for 75 years.

After so many nights, you're like, "Well, maybe I should throw in a little surprise, a little risk." After you try that, you're like, "Wow, that was something. I think I want to try more." You add more and more risk until you get to where you are now, and that's you living your life — where you don't know what's going to happen, and what a gift that is, and what a gift you've chosen to live like that. 

It's about how that makes you feel, when you hear that, [you think], "Maybe I've chosen to be here doing it this way." That was a relief for me when I heard that.

What has this album taught you about yourself and your career?

I got in really late to professional music, because I switched my career when I was 25. I was 29 and 30 and "Burning House" happened so fast. I want to keep meeting what my dream version of music can be, and I think I keep getting closer. I feel like I've landed on something this time. 

I love every single thing that's in this album. Every single piece, nothing was a compromise. Nothing was a decision made out of fear. It all was 100 percent what I wanted it to be. It feels very pure in that way. 

I feel really lucky that I get to keep making music and keep journeying forward to do it like this. It's always something new. It's never the same thing over and over again.

It was definitely a heavy, heavy run around. But then, having the COWBOY CARTER stuff happen… and 070 Shake, who I love, getting to sing and feature on her stuff [2024's "Never Let Us Fade"], I'm so proud of where [my career] is at. 

I know it's not culturally accepted to take your time making art, but I do, and I appreciate that people still want to hear what I've got to say. I'm proud of this album, and I think it's going to be a healing balm for a lot of people.