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MusicTranscript
00:00 The last time I think I surprised myself was probably recently in my latest LA sessions.
00:05 I made this song and I was like, "Damn.
00:07 How do I do it?" I write this stuff. I structure this. I know I come up with a tone. I'm telling
00:16 the engineer, "Make my voice like this." I'm trying to hear, "I really saw me, baby. Saw me."
00:22 That's really my motivation, is just being the best to you.
00:27 The reason why I chose to title my project "Almost There" is because it's really just a whole
00:32 storyline that I'm doing. The first project was "I Can't Wait" and then "Almost There" because
00:37 I felt like all last year, I kept saying, "I'm almost there. I'm almost there." Trying to do
00:43 these certain type of videos, these certain budgets, these certain things that I'm like,
00:47 "Oh, I just can't wait. I'm almost there." I just kept saying that. It was like, "Boom,
00:51 that's the title. Almost There." In the process of that, it was also me focusing on making this
00:56 like a trilogy. "I Can't Wait," "Almost There," EP, and then the album. It'll cycle that all in.
01:03 Just a part of telling the story. Whenever you hear a song, I feel like there's a certain energy
01:07 attached to it. You can feel like, "Give no fuck." You can feel the, "Ahh." That day, I just woke up
01:13 feeling like Buttercup. I felt like, "Oh, fuck. What the fuck should I say?" I think I just pretty
01:20 much combined that color feeling into energy. That energy creates a character. You know what I mean?
01:25 I just turned into this character in the booth. Then I matched my tone of how I feel with my voice.
01:30 It comes a whole combo. Most days, I feel like that's the aura I give. When you listen to my
01:37 music, if Pink had a sound, it would be that. Baby Pink, to be exact.
01:40 The process of "Almost There" is a little tricky because last year was really hard for me.
01:46 My voice was messed up. I had to have vocal cord surgery. I was on tour most of the time.
01:52 I had a lot of shows that I needed to finish out. At the time, I was putting together "Almost
01:56 There." The time expansion that I had between those songs were all over the place. I felt at
02:02 first that I was rushing just to get something done for other people. I had to put my foot down
02:06 and say, "No. For now, I'm not ready." It could be a lot better. I just said, "I'm being very
02:13 strategic and very intentional with everything that I do with my art. I'm very serious about
02:17 this." I learned in that time to stand on what I believe in and just don't listen to other people.
02:25 I have to bet on myself. I got told, "You're going to lose this if we don't do this. You're
02:28 going to lose that." I believed in myself and I believed in what I was doing. Actually,
02:33 it worked out even better. Everything they said I wasn't going to happen, I ended up getting it
02:38 anyway. In the two months where I couldn't talk, it seemed like I was getting the most
02:43 opportunities at that time. I'm like, "Why am I getting all these opportunities when I can't
02:48 do anything?" I was really hurt about not being able to do the Thundercat tour.
02:52 I was so excited because at that point, initially, I was supposed to be able,
02:58 I was supposed to be healed. I remember going to the office and she checks my core. She's like,
03:03 "They're healing well," but she was like, "You're not ready." Unless you want to risk messing it up
03:09 again and have to not talk another two months. I remember I cried in the office because I just was
03:14 like, I hadn't dropped anything all year. I felt like I'm like, "I don't want to lose them. I've
03:19 worked so hard." It was a tough time. That was tough. Not being able to talk in the process of
03:25 trying to make a project happen, going through a signing, going through even trying to...
03:31 We went and we worked out. We rerouted this whole tour of Thundercat with me not talking.
03:37 I'm literally on a dry erase board and just happened to really get in touch with myself and
03:43 say, "Calm down." It's very hard to do that and not be able to talk and try to get your point across
03:48 and be the boss. That was a time for me, but I think that taught me how to be more calm and how
03:54 to just take a step back and breathe and you can get what you need to say out without so many words.
04:03 That was really hard, but it was also funny though too. Every time I would let people know
04:08 that I couldn't talk, they'd start to whisper. I'm like, "I can hear you still. I just can't talk."
04:12 I actually kind of enjoyed not talking. I'm like, "Well." It gave me an excuse not to talk to people.
04:19 They'd come up to me, I'm like... And they think I'm being funny. I'm like, "No, seriously, I can't
04:24 talk." It felt like all of that stuff that happened to me played a story and it played a part of this
04:30 journey. I feel like I had to go through that. The first time I heard myself on the mic was doing the
04:36 Cave episode with Kenny. That was the first time I even made anything in months, three or four
04:41 months. I was a nervous wreck. I think even after that, just going to the studio with my new voice
04:48 and being like, "Oh." Because at times I wanted to yell, but the doctor was like, "You can't yell
04:53 yet." I just have to use different techniques. Actually thinking about caring for my cords
04:58 more so than I usually had to was very different studio time. Or just not being able to do
05:04 eight-hour sessions because I could feel my cords getting fatigued. But it was actually
05:09 interesting because I got in the studio with Glock and we went on tour. But this session was so fun.
05:15 It wasn't like we just sat there and wrote. We were literally just having fun and he came out
05:19 the booth and I'm going in. It was like we were competing. So it was really fun. These collabs
05:23 are really fun and genuine. I think even just making these new songs, like Shimon, well no,
05:29 Bonnet is kind of new. But Bonnet was just crazy because that was after I did I Can't Wait and I
05:33 was just still in Super Saiyan mode. I don't know. I think I was different in the head space because
05:37 I was like, "Nah, I got to come out swinging." So these last few songs I've been making...
05:41 That's all. I can't even say it right now. Y'all better drop like Ken. Okay, I'm sorry.
05:53 The process of Bonnet took really a year because Farron and I, we met and we made a treatment for
05:58 Bonnet and we tried to do the video. It didn't have the budget. So we kept all year. It was like,
06:04 "Oh, I can't wait. We're almost there. We're almost there." And we stuck to it. We're like,
06:09 "Nah, we're going to keep this treatment and we're going to wait until we get the budget.
06:12 And until we get the budget, we're not doing this video because this song deserves this."
06:16 And that's how we got Bonnet. I think us coming together and
06:21 collabing on our childhood dreams and just everything was like, "We've always wanted this."
06:26 I don't know. It's just... I don't want to get emotional. But after we did Bonnet, I definitely
06:35 cried. I'm like, "Oh my gosh. Y'all understand. We talked about this every day all last year."
06:39 It was getting to the point where I felt like my anxiety was about to be like...
06:42 It was like, "I can't wait. Oh my gosh, we're almost there." And I just felt like when I met
06:48 him, I was like, "See? He gets me." And I get him. And I always kept saying, "If I could just find
06:55 somebody to just put my ideas and put them on steroids or make them actually make more sense
06:59 to people." Because me, I don't really care if you get it or not. It's like, "Bitch, I think it's
07:04 cute, so I'm putting it on." You can get it or you don't, but he can break it down and make it make
07:08 sense. Or somebody that doesn't watch anime, he can make that make sense. So y'all just should be
07:13 very afraid because me and him, the ideas are our ideas. And it's not going to stop. It's only
07:19 going to get better. The bigger budget we get, we get some good budgets. I think that they're...
07:23 Seeing the reaction, they're trusting our vision. And so they're more willing like,
07:28 "Okay, we're going to let y'all do your thing." We're like, "Told you."
07:32 So with my own toy that I'm headlining, the ideas that I have, they're hilarious. I'm going to just
07:41 say one. Steve Harvey suit. That's all I'm going to say. I've been thinking about this for a while
07:49 because I'm like, "I don't want to do a regular show where people just perform and that's it."
07:52 I want to do an experience. I feel like because I talk to my supporters a lot online, I want them to
07:58 be really engaged with this show. I want to feel like this is our thing. This isn't for nobody
08:04 else but us in this room. Yeah, but it's definitely not going to be a traditional show. I'm going to
08:07 say that right now. They're probably going to be like, "What the fuck?" But in a good way.
08:11 I have all these activities lined up. I'm a Gemini. My body itches to just switch up.
08:18 I'm a Gemini nigga flip-flop. That's what you want from me. I was like, "I hope you weren't
08:24 expecting anything normal." I'm so opposite of that. Just putting this tour together, I'm like,
08:30 all last year, we talked about that. I'm like, "Can't wait to have my own." That's what the fans
08:34 wanted. It's like, "Here it is." I'm really excited. Last year, I was still trying to put
08:40 a team together. I feel like I have a really solid foundation and team right now. I'm just like,
08:44 everybody that I have, they get it and they can add on to it. I love it because these guys have
08:52 their own style, but we can meet in the middle. I'm just so glad that everybody has their own
08:58 little swag. It's like, "Yeah, we can do that. Then we could also." I'm like,
09:02 "Duh, that's even better." Making Tia Crenn better is just amazing. Bitch, I'm just excited.
09:11 This shit about to be lit. Yeah, that's all I can say. I'm sorry.
09:15 (whooshing)