Jorja Smith is getting ready to soar with the release of her second album, “Falling or Flying,” out Sept. 29. 

“‘Falling or Flying’ is me and how I felt making this album,” says Smith, at home in Walsall in the U.K., northwest of Birmingham, in the weeks leading up to its release.

“I don’t really have an in-between. I’m either up or down, obsessed or not, focused or not focused, happy or sad,” she adds. “With my career, you can feel like you’re falling or flying, and it’s very close sometimes. You can’t tell sometimes, and you feel like you’re in the deep end or not.”

The singer-songwriter recently moved back to her hometown after living in London for several years, where she launched her career with the release of her debut album, “Lost & Found,” in 2018. A Grammy nomination for best new artist followed a year later, along with a global makeup ambassadorship for Dior (she performed at the Dior-sponsored Guggenheim gala pre-party shortly after her album release). Smith has released several EPs in the years since, including the three-track “Be Right Back” in 2021, which she described at the time as an “in-between” release.  

“I came back to what I used to be like before I moved to London,” she says of her move home. “I just slowed down a bit.”

“Falling or Flying” marks a very different stage of life for Smith. Her debut was released when she was 21 and just starting out in the industry. Now she’s 26, and credits the past few years for a deepening of her songwriting process. 

“It’s another chapter of me,” she says, describing her new music as “older, more grown-up, bigger.”

“It sounds like growth, because that’s what I’ve done since ‘Lost & Found.’”

She worked with female producing duo DameDame — Smith has known one of them since childhood — and her new songs meld R&B with hints of reggae, hip-hop and jazz, a vehicle for complementing her commanding vocal presence. 

“I feel like the sound is definitely different,” says Smith.

“It’s just the fact that I’ve matured; I’m becoming more of a woman. [On ‘Lost & Found’] I talk about observations or make things up. I never had a boyfriend, but I’m writing songs about being in love,” she continues. “Whereas now I can write on subjects I’m actually going through. The difference is I’ve just experienced more experiences.”

While Smith’s profile has risen since her debut, she notes that the success and outside expectations haven’t impacted her approach. “That never affects my creativity; it doesn’t affect making music,” she says.

“But what it does affect is how I feel about myself, the fact that there’s more opinions on me, more eyes on me,” she adds. “People have a lot to say about what I look like, my body, all that, which I didn’t have before. But nothing ever affects the music. No matter what I go through, the music’s always there, that’s my thing, and I’ll lean into that.”

She’s released several tracks, with accompanying music videos, in the months leading up to the album. Smith notes that she tends to stay “offline” and retains a distance from all of the commentary — but a quick glimpse at the overwhelmingly positive comments below her recent videos makes it apparent that her fans are eager to hear (and see) more.

“I go off what my friends are telling me or what my parents or my manager say, and I’m hearing that people are enjoying it. My friends always tell me they’ll be driving and they’ll keep hearing little things being played in the park, or someone else is listening to it in a car,” she says. “This is why I like doing shows, because that’s when I can see how my music’s doing.” 

She has a mini-U.K. tour planned directly following the album release, and is in the early stages of organizing a more extensive tour for next year.

“I can’t wait to tour,” says Smith. “I like writing. I like being in the studio, or on stage,” she adds. “The whole album is about being in the moment.”