BEST FIT: I read they were the first band you ever saw?

DORA JAR: Yes but it wasn't a Foo Fighters gig; they were playing at the Bridge School benefit concert, which was the first music experience I ever had

You were four? How do you even remember this?

Because it changed my life. It was the moment when I knew I had to play guitar, and it was the moment that my sister and I bonded over music for the first time. Because we were so in love with David Grohl, we just were like: “This is our husband”

It was so distinct: It was raining; the sound of the acoustic guitars – because they played unplugged – it was echoing and bouncing off of this gigantic audience. It was like 15,000 people at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Northern California.

We were sitting behind the stage, because every kid who went to the Bridge School got to be right there behind the performers and see the audience, and it was a very unique way to be at my first concert with the perspective that we were on stage and we were literally able to be seen. It made it very easy for me to visualise being a performer, which in that moment, I decided that that's what I wanted to do.

I listened to Foo Fighters non stop. I would listen on the boombox CD player, going to sleep – I would fall asleep to “All My Life” on repeat. I remember it has that duh-duh duh-duh-duh intro, and you kind of get lost in it. You don't know when the song is going to start and it’s such a cool, intense moment of tension. Because I'd listened to it so many times, I knew exactly when he would start singing, and I’d count it – 5-6-7-8, and my mom was like, how did you know?! I was five years old!

I didn't really connect the dots to Nirvana until later. I knew that Dave was the drummer, and I could sort of see that Kurt had a huge influence on his writing and melodies but it was such a separate thing. Kurt is so… all encompassing, like you just are in his world when you're in his world!

You went out with them on that last tour didn’t you?

I've loved them since I was probably 19, so it was very cool to play with them. Their show was so theatrical and exciting, and the pacing of it was very well done and intentional.

It was kind of eerie and they really milked this tension for a while, and then they come out with all the hits in the second half of the show – but it was so much fun to see it up close every single night.

I chose the song “Yeah I Know” because before I went on tour with them, I had a few sessions with George – he's become such a sweet friend and we share music together. I told him when I met him that it was my favourite 1975 song, and he said it was his favourite 1975 song, and that solidified us… like, 'Okay, we can follow whatever impulses we have in the studio today, because we have a similar taste.'

It’s kind of a deep cut though

I know! I have so many favourites and I couldn't tell if I was going to pick “Love It if we Made It” or “Give Yourself A Try”, because those are also my favourites.

They got such a push back from the music press here at the start, because so much of what they were doing was overtly referencing their influences

They put it in the context of today though… because I feel like when people hold themselves back from referencing, they end up doing it anyway, but it's not intentional. It's so intentional when they do it and it's skilful and it changes the game again and again.

How does it feel to have people writing about your music?

I don't think anyone does it well. First of all, I should never have to give an explanation about a song before a press release. Why am I doing that? Do your job. Listen to the song and listen to the rest of my discography. Figure it out.

They wanted me to write-up on “The Explorer” - what does this mean? Listen to the song and maybe see what my name is and connect the dots! Why are you a writer if you're not going to do research? I want people to be a bit more ruthless when they’re investigating my music, and I feel like that could help me get a bit more aggressive with my exploration too.

I find that Adrienne Lenker comes up constantly in any conversations I have about songwriting with younger artists

Oh, my God, she's like Paul Simon to me… her lyrical playfulness, strange rhyme schemes, and almost rapper mentality is so addictive. I could listen to anything she's done, always forever. But this song I chose in particular because I was listening to it while driving from New York City to Buffalo, New York on my way to open for Billie Eilish for the first time. So that song defined that moment for me.

It was freezing winter, February, and everything was white. We're were going upstate and seeing some weird Trump flags – it gets kind of weird up there – and I just had this song. I felt like I was in a snow globe. I was very nervous. I couldn't even eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I'd made!

How different were the audiences between playing with people like Billie and Gracie, and doing The 1975 shows?

The 1975’s audience was not primarily young girls or a feminine crowd. With young girls, or a more femine crowd, there’s something so explosively magical about it, because they're tuned into every single detail. They're not too cool for school.

They're actually there to celebrate, sing and have an open heart. Not that The 1975 fans don't have that – they're just a little bit older and maybe didn't care about the opener as much. And I get it – I've been in that position too.

This was the first album you bought, wasn’t it?

I chose it because of the cover. I didn’t know about them other than “Hey Ya!” of course. I was on a mission to memorise everything. I memorised so much of this album, and I felt so proud of it.

I would do it all the time in my room…. [proceeds to recite lines from “ATLiens”]…. “Cause I'm cooler than a polar bear's toenails….” [and “Jazzy Belle”]: “… love her like Egyptian / Want a description? / My royal highness / So many plusses when I bust that there can′t be no minus / Went from yelling crickets and crow / Bitches and hoes to queen thangs / Over the years I been up on my toes and yes I seen thangs…. And coming right back like boomerangs when you throw ′em / With these old ghetto poems, thinking it's better for 'em.”

The flow is absurd. I've never heard words strung in that way. It just taught me flow, that whole album.

I met Marcus outside my apartment in Boston in the rain, and then we became friends. This was way before any of us had put music out. I was 18, and maybe he was probably 20.

We became fast friends, we talked on the phone for years, we lost touch a couple years ago for a little bit, then I started putting music out, and he started putting out music, and I can't even tell you how proud I am of him.

I feel like I'm constantly bragging about my friend Marcus; he's always done this style of music. He’s evolved so much, but stayed true to his idiosyncrasies and his impulses and has never once tried to do it in whatever way was trending at whatever point in time.

I listen to him all the time, and it feels really cool to have known someone and always know that they were going do what they're doing now.

We would manifest together on the phone. I was living in Poland, he was working at Barnes and Noble in Baltimore, and we'd be dreaming about what our shows would look three years before I'd ever released a song. So anyway, that's my boy!