Photo: Julian Klincewicz Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story The cover of Empress Of ’s fifth album, Dream House, is a cinematic, sun-drenched image of the musician stepping through the doorway of a suburban home, caught between shadow and light as an intense, blinding sunburst flares directly above the entrance. There’s an air of mystery to it, but also a sense of hopefulness: She’s a woman on the threshold (quite literally) of a new beginning.
But it’s a new beginning with a heartbreaking backstory. In January 2025, the artist behind the project, Lorely Rodriguez, saw her childhood home in Altadena completely destroyed by the Eaton Fire. In the aftermath of the blaze, she and her mom set about rebuilding—and slowly, after many months of grieving the possessions and previous self that had been lost, Rodriguez began writing music again.
Photo: Julian Klincewicz While Dream House doesn’t shy away from the pain of that experience, it’s also imbued with optimism: the cathartic club pulse of the Cecile Believe -featuring “SYW,” the tender, unguarded intimacy of “Missing Out On,” even the snatches of birdsong and construction drilling that are scattered across the interlude tracks. It all culminates in the final track, “Dream House,” as she opens up the door and lets the light in, figuring out in real time what it truly means to feel at home.
Here, Empress Of talks to Vogue about the record’s long gestation period, her excitement around performing it live, and why making Dream House proved to be a therapeutic process for both herself and her mom.
Vogue: You’ve been rolling out this record for a little while—the first single dropped back in March. Was there a reason you wanted to take things slow?
Empress Of: Yeah, I have. It’s been quite a long stretch. “Blasting Through the Speakers” [released in October 2025] was the initial idea, and then as the record evolved, and I was building the house and getting on the other side of this crazy journey, it became something else, and so I didn’t put that song on the record. But it’s been good. I’m excited. And it’s still evolving—like, we’re still building the house. So it’s just been a bizarre journey, making a record and building a house at the same time. I’m turning in masters while we’re pouring concrete—literally building two things at the same time.
Tell me a bit more about the evolution. I read it was going to just be an EP at the beginning, and then you felt it deserved a bigger treatment?
Yeah, it was an EP, but in a way, I always felt like it was going to be an album. But we wanted to just... Everything’s just been so in-the-moment. I had the EP pretty much done, and then me and my team were listening to it, and they were like, “This is an album.” When I decided to make it an album, I really got to expand. I got to tell my story more deeply. The EP was, “My house burned down, and I’m sad,” and now, the album is me weaving my mom’s story in there, weaving in what home is, that desire to feel like I belong in a room. My favorite part of the record is the end, when you can hear my mom’s footsteps and then she’s like, “Welcome to the house,” and it goes into the title track of the album. Every time I play it for someone, I can just feel like they got a glimpse of what the last year was like.
Did you write “Dream House” in the immediate aftermath of the fires?
No. I was actually making covers, which is weird for me. Music is my passion, but making music at that time fel…