Alessia stated on Twitter that “feeling miserable and realizing it was okay to bask in it until I was ready to try happiness again” inspired her to write “Not Today:”

I wrote this song during a very weird, dark period in my life. I know it sounds very dramatic, but I was feeling a lot of feelings. I went through the end of a relationship, which was very difficult for me. So I was dealing with heard break, but then also just a bunch of inconvenient things that were happening at the very same time, that just put me in this space. I couldn’t function properly as a human, I just felt like I couldn’t do anything, I didn’t wanna get out of bed in the morning. I was just always crying. I remember I sat down in the pitch black, in the bathroom of my parents house, my house technically, and I just got my guitar and just tarted singing this song. It was almost like a nudge to myself, but also an acknowledgment of the fact that things do or will get better one day. Although I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, or I didn’t even know where to look for it, just the idea that there would one day be one is what helps me cope with things. ‘Cause you kind of have to believe that you’re gonna be okay.

I met John Levine in Toronto, he’s actually from there as well. So was kinda cool, we already had that bond, before I met him. And I remember, the first second I met him, I was like, “hey how are you?” And like a normal person would just be like; “good.” But he likes to be honest, like, “not so good.” I was like “man, first of all I love you for being so honest, and second of all, me either.” We just kind of bonded over the song, and the fact that we both weren’t okay at the time. I’m putting him on blast, but he’s good, he’s great. Yeah, so it was just nice, like that someone was that open and honest right off the bat, ‘cause no one ever does that. I felt really connected to him and really trusted him with the song for that reason.