Lauren Jauregui Explains How a Psychic Reading About Her Love Life Inspired New Single ‘Ego’ (Exclusive)

Lauren Jauregui is ushering in a new era.

The singer-songwriter, 29, released her new single “Ego,” the first offering from her long-awaited upcoming debut album, on Friday, Oct. 17. The alternative pop track finds her in a fresh sonic space, as she sings lyrics about searching for honesty amid a difficult point of a relationship.

However, don’t go searching for clues about which of Jauregui’s exes it’s about. “I think ‘Ego’ is more of a reflection of my participation in relationships than it is about a specific relationship because it’s very much written after the fact and applicable to many circumstances,” she tells PEOPLE.

Jauregui sings on the track about hoping one would “lay down your ego and say what you wanted.” But the perspective shifts halfway through, and she looks inward.

“I realized actually the reason I need to ask this of you over and over again and keep blaming you or your ego being the reason why we can’t connect, it’s actually my ego that even allows you to be here in the first place,” explains the Fifth Harmony member.

In the song’s second verse, Jauregui recalls a psychic telling her she’s a “maker of kings” in relationships, which can allow someone’s ego to get in the way of their connection.

“I was in Miami and lost, and I got a reading, and that reading told me a lot of things,” she recalls. “When it came to my love life, they were like, ‘So love life. I don’t know about this. You’re a king maker.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t like that,’ but it made for a great lyric.”

Since writing the track, Jauregui’s approach to love has shifted. “In this current iteration of my life, I’m really invested in pouring what I’ve poured into everyone else around me, into myself, and learning to love myself with the same grace that I love others and learning to love myself with the same passion,” she says.

“I think that that’s my relationship status currently, just me learning Lauren and letting her drive the situation,” adds the recent Dancing with the Stars alum.

Leaning in a more alternative direction for new music marks a shift for Jauregui, who’s previously created across genres including pop, dance, Latin and beyond. But the artist has gravitated toward rock music since she “was a tiny little girl listening to my dad play drums.”

For much of her life, Jauregui has been a fan of artists like Paramore, Fall Out Boy and Death Cab For Cutie, plus the rockier material of pop stars from Kelly Clarkson to Demi Lovato. “All of these people were a huge part of my essence growing up and just music taste in general,” she says.

“Energetically, it’s the vein that I’m in,” explains Jauregui of her sound. “I’ve done a lot of evolving and growing over the past four years, and also, in this world that we’re living in, I’m very observant. I’m very outspoken, and it definitely is reflected in the music.”