Allie X on Exploring New Territory and Enduring Illness to Create Girl with No Face Album

“I really have this fundamental belief that if it hurts, it’s working,” the Canada-born performer tells PEOPLE in an interview about her new album

The road to Allie X’s third album Girl with No Face was not without its challenges.

Since the Canada-born singer-songwriter released her last album Cape God in early 2020, she’s weathered a global pandemic and a relapse of an autoimmune illness she’s dealt with for more than 20 years. The extended period of forced downtime, however, led her to take on the challenging task of self-producing an album for the first time — Girl with No Face, a raw and thrilling body of alt-pop music that lets fans into Allie’s head.

“I’ve been really conceptual in the past,” the musician, 38, whose full name is Alexandra Hughes, tells PEOPLE. “This time, it’s like the Magic School Bus went down my throat, and you were in my guts.”