“So “Havana” is an idea that I had for a song title; a lot of my songs are more dark and emotional. [This is] more summer, upbeat, it’s very wind-your-waist tempo, if that makes sense?”

It’s mid-July and Camila Cabello – the Cuban-Mexican singer-songwriter who fled pop group Fifth Harmony last December – is on the phone from LA. Her upcoming Rollacoaster cover shoot is done, on screen her sort of namesake Camilla Thurlow still appears to be in with a chance on TV’s Love Island, and dancefloor filler “Crying in the Club” has already been topping playlists for a couple of months. Beyond the studio though, new cuts “Havana” and “OMG”, which arrived in tandem last week, are yet to reach anyone’s ears. “It’s really cool, I did it with Pharrell, it’s like a story of me falling in love with this bad boy from Havana.”

A month later, it’s clear which Camila is #winning. Produced by Frank Dukes and with a cameo from Young Thug – the aforementioned Williams bags a co-writer’s credit – “Havana” is, as suggested, a pretty cool track. 4,164,065 Youtube views (and counting) can’t be wrong, right? And that’s without proper visuals.

“It’s totally different,” Cabello discloses when questioning turns to the recording process, group versus solo: “In the group we would record songs for two weeks, it was a really fast process, like sometimes we’d do five songs in a day, it would just be like ‘alright you sing the verse, you sing that’, and then you just record it and that’s it, but this has been… Probably because I’ve had a chance to really like, write and make the songs, and be involved in every aspect of it from the production to the mixing. Definitely a lot more challenging but more fun, for sure.”

Due next month, Camila’s debut solo album The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving is the next conclusion of this new way of working, and the hook ups don’t stop with the Thug and Quavo (who appears on “OMG”): “Boys” singer and former Wonderbabe Charli XCX is also making an appearance. “She’s always been so nice to me,” Cabello confirms, “before I met her I think she tweeted about my song “Bad Things” and then she expressed that she really wanted to write with me. Obviously I’m such a huge fan of her, she’s an amazing writer.”

A self-proclaimed perfectionist who stresses over “every little detail”, we’re expecting big things come term time.

Like this? Catch Camila’s interview in full in the AW17 issue of Rollacoaster: coming soon.