Khalid’s New ‘Sincere’ Album, “Young, Dumb & Broke” Nostalgia, Dream Tyla Collab | Billboard News
After not releasing an album for half a decade, Khalid is back and better than ever with his third studio album ‘Sincere.’ He discusses how he knew it was time to release ‘Sincere,’ recalls the nostalgia of his early hits like “Young Dumb & Broke” and “Location,” and explains how his songwriting inspiration is sporadic and often a feeling in the moment. He also shares how his intuition guides his music, his dream collaboration with Tyla, and more!
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00:00Mean, I'm not afraid to say it
00:01But I love listening to my music because it's like my own personal journal entries that I get to look back
00:10Hey, what's up? It's Khalid here and you're watching billboard news
00:16Hey everybody, I'm Rania niftos with billboard news and I could not be more excited
00:21I have one of my favorite artists here in the studio today. We have Khaleed
00:25Everybody
00:27Happy to be here. I'm so happy to have you
00:30And like what a special time in your career right now. You're about to release your third studio album sincere
00:36This is the one that I have been waiting five years for it to come out
00:40I feel like this is the one full of music that I've been harboring over the past half decade
00:46Just for the perfect moment and I feel like no moment is more perfect
00:55I
00:56Where do you feel that you are in your growth the journey that you're like, I feel comfortable with this
01:00I met a random person a year ago in South Africa
01:05Actually, and I had a conversation with him and he shook my hand and looked me in my eyes
01:10And he told me he was like next year is gonna be one of the biggest years that you've had in your career so far
01:15He's like 2024 Wow
01:18crazy real story half of the album wasn't even like
01:23Fully mixed half of the album isn't even fully produced. There's like seven tracks
01:28I don't even know what's coming on the album and like I took his words for the truth
01:33And I've been chasing that ever since and it's like finally here. We are and I agree
01:39It's like I was touched by an angel
01:46I mean who is the Khalid I think that you want to introduce with sincere
01:51I mean, I feel like the title says it all yeah you and all your aspects exactly when I debuted I was 17 years old
01:57I had no true sense of self writing not even from my experiences
02:02but I feel like this album is exactly that I took it back to basics and I
02:09Approached this as if I was debuting as an artist all over again
02:13So it's like I'm coming right back to the start of my journey
02:17But this time with more insight and more knowledge you're releasing ground
02:25As part of ground you had this quote in your post that was as beautiful as the top may seem
02:30I'm so happy to embrace the ground that I walk on what inspired that notion because I feel like so many of us
02:38Need to hear something like that because we're so caught up in the attachment the goal, you know, I love the dream
02:44It's it's all about the dream
02:46but when I looked at
02:48When I first came into this industry, it's the moments that led up to the dream coming true
02:54That I really wish I could relive those moments feeling the first for the very first time
02:59Meeting my favorite artists for the very first time having those conversations with them for the very first time my first time performing in LA
03:06My first time accepting a Billboard Music Award my first time everything. Yeah, it's it's something
03:12There's something so beautiful about those firsts and I feel like with this journey, there's still many firsts left to come for sure
03:19It's only the beginning in so many ways and about the creative process of the album something that I found really interesting that you mentioned
03:25Was that the songs came throughout the years?
03:28How do you choose a song to go on the album that I guess represents that time but still represents you now, you know
03:35Yes, and I'm sure other artists can relate to this
03:38you record
03:39Hundreds of songs before a project comes out but for me when I'm thinking about picking these songs for for an album
03:46which songs
03:49Immediately when I recorded them made me feel something when I left the room
03:52Which songs did I play on my ride home from the studio on?
03:57Repeat before I got home and those are the ones that I keep in this pile of okay
04:01This is this pile of selects. I'm like, okay
04:05But which one still makes me feel something now when I listen to it and that's the one I'm keeping that and that's the one
04:11I'm putting them out makes sense because those are the keys I think of all of your favorite songs
04:15They're the ones that you revisit after years and they still like hurt or they still make you feel amazing or all that stuff
04:21And I love that you can apply that to your own situation
04:25I mean, I'm not afraid to say it
04:27but I love listening to my music because
04:29It's like my own personal journal entries that I get to look back at and I'm like, wow
04:33I was really going through something when I wrote this song or at Wow
04:38I was really visiting a place for the first time when I conceptualize the song
04:43So when I look back and I listen to my music, it's it immediately brings me to those moments those stories
04:50So I love listening and I love reflecting not even just on this album
04:54But I still love listening to better and I still love listening to American teen
04:58I still love listening to all these things because I'm like I thought of that
05:03But then I'm like, I'm so glad that it wasn't just the thought right I'm so glad I released it
05:09I love it
05:10and that must translate to performing live because I think
05:14Sometimes when you have a hit a lot of times you're chained to performing that forever. Does that?
05:21Perspective that you just mentioned allow you to kind of just enjoy being able to perform these songs
05:26like it's so funny you say that there was once a point in my career where I was like
05:31I have to perform young dumb and broke for the rest of my life
05:37Have to sing about being a young dumb broke high school kid for the rest of my life 50 years old
05:4250 years old and I'm speaking about but then through the pandemic and I reflected I'm like
05:49Right. Those are the times that I didn't have a care in the world and I'm not worried about anything and I embrace those
05:55Those songs because when I think about performing these for people I think about how do they listen to this song?
06:01How do they view the experience?
06:02They're coming into this like 18 years old and they could be 60
06:07You could be wherever but you're reflecting on moments of nostalgia that makes you feel good
06:12And and that's what validates it for me. So when I sing I'm not just singing for my own experience. It's a connection
06:18It's a mutual experience. We're having a conversation and I mean, it seems like you're in a really good headspace
06:24but is there any pressure to
06:26You know release this album after it's been some time since a studio album came out for you
06:32The hardest thing to do is to ignore what you're being told by others
06:37Sometimes you internalize those thoughts
06:39Yeah, when you internalize them, it's hard to decipher what's true and what's false
06:45But for me, I really took a step back and I'm like, what do I do what I do for why do I do this?
06:51And I do it because I love it and I feel called to it and in some ways I remind myself
06:58I was born to do this what beats out all of the
07:02Opinions and the thoughts is intuition. How does it make my heart feel when I'm doing this? Some people might not understand
07:11where I've been at in the journey, especially because
07:15I'm super soft-spoken and quiet at times
07:18I'm more than excited to show them where I've been over these past few years and that
07:26It's worth the wait it is a hundred percent worth the wait
07:29I mean the singles you've released already are well worth the wait
07:32In what ways do you feel that you've grown as a songwriter as a musician as an artist when I think about this album?
07:40Before I was speaking. I mean I was naive of my experiences. I didn't know
07:45Who the songs would touch I didn't know where they would be hurt through the knowledge that I've garnered over the past few years
07:51I know my audience I can connect with my audience
07:54And so I hear them asking for many things and I hear them asking for their stories to be told
08:00I hear them asking for something to relate to and now I'm like, you know what?
08:04I'm confident enough to do that for you guys. How does it work when you get into the studio?
08:08Do you start with a lyric? Do you start with the melody? Is it a mix? I am an
08:13Impulsive creator. I mean even you can ask my friends. I'm the type of friend. That's randomly like do you guys just want to go to?
08:22Do something random and they're like we have to plan for these things and I look at myself that way in the studio as well
08:29I can't plan a song
08:31I might have an idea
08:33but it's sparse when I'm in the studio and I step behind that mic and I close my eyes and
08:40The producer is playing fresh keys for the first time and it's something so magical about that moment
08:46Yeah, I find myself in those moments
08:50Writing a song within five to ten minutes. It just floats out of me the words
08:56I freestyle the melody everything is very freestyle
09:00But it's those songs too that I come back to years later that I didn't finish
09:05I'm like I didn't finish it because I had to wait for this
09:10I had to learn what I wanted to talk about, I had to experience what I wanted to talk about like the words were there
09:15But they were distant and they were small and sometimes you have to wait for those words to get so loud and unbearable
09:21I'm like I gotta get it out
09:22You know you're talking before about how much intuition played such a role in your career and letting the song guide you
09:30Sometimes we try to control everything
09:32Sometimes I go into a studio and I'm like I want to write a song about love
09:37But then you start writing and I'm like well
09:39I don't feel anything and then you wait for a moment where you're on a walk and
09:44Wind is brushing upon your ear and you're like, oh, I got it. I love this moment
09:50I love I love I love I love and then that's when the song
09:53Mm-hmm. You gotta wait for the moment
09:55You gotta wait and what would you say?
09:57Like if you went back to yourself, maybe right when like young dumb broke location came out
10:02What would you say to that Khalid be patient wait?
10:06Because the best has yet to come I always look back at that 12 year old version of myself
10:14dreaming and
10:15standing on tabletops and singing for all my friends and I'm like
10:19I'm gonna be this big artist and I'm gonna be all this and I look at where I where I'm at now and I'm
10:26He would be so proud of the man that I have grown to become and I think when you're young you're like
10:32This is it. This is the best my life's ever gonna be but that's not true
10:35Yeah, it really does get better. I'm like living in the American teen era like
10:42There's so much to see
10:44I'm like you haven't seen anything yet
10:56You are so unique in the sense that you're genre lists when it comes to not only your music but the collaborations
11:03EDM you'll do R&B. You'll do pop. How do you get into the studio? And I guess I don't know morph into
11:11connecting with whoever you're working with
11:14collaborations are my way of stepping into the artist's world that I'm working with and
11:19discovering them and
11:21Understanding them and creating with them when I do collaborations
11:25I gravitate to the ones that are like, let's make the song together
11:29But I'm still moved when people are like I imagined you on this song and I'm like, oh you thought of me
11:34Yeah, cool. I'll try it and I'll try to bring the best version of myself
11:39But I always listen to it like what is gonna complement this artist and what is gonna complement their path?
11:46I mean what's gonna complement their voice? And so it's it's
11:50Extremely complimentary. Is there someone that you haven't worked with yet that you're really hoping to get in the studio it you know
11:56I I met Tyler and I love Tyler and I see her in front of me right now. Maybe that's a sign
12:03Yeah, I'm really thinking about it
12:05You know, I want to work with her when I feel like the time is right and and I would love to work with Tyler
12:10I love her voice love her energy and I just think that she's a star on the opposite end
12:14I could see Noah Khan for you, too
12:17Because I think you guys both have that like intuitive
12:21heart driven
12:23Nervousism that you can fold. Yeah, I just try it out
12:28And I'm so open. So if you're an artist out there and you're thinking of me a reach out you never know. You never know
12:36What has been the biggest adjustment when it comes to dealing with being the spotlight?
12:42especially now with the social media aspect added into everything valuing what I want out of this career and
12:50Not being offended
12:53By much I have this altercation with my fans all the time because they'll beg me for music
12:59We want it. We want it. We want it and sometimes I selfishly think well, it's not done. You can't have it yet
13:05But then I remind myself they're just excited. It's just excited to hear me
13:09Yeah, just as if I'm meeting someone randomly in the grocery store and they asked me for a picture
13:13I'm like, they're just excited to see me. Yeah, when does it have to change?
13:17I remember when I first started this career and I'm
13:20Sitting on the side of football games and people are asking me if they want to take my picture and I'm so excited
13:25I'm practically walking around the the football arena like
13:30Like why does that have to change
13:33Yeah, I mean it goes back to again reminding yourself why you're in this
13:36You know like to connect with people and these people connect with your music. What more can you ask for?
13:42You know, this is my job
13:43Yeah
13:44And I'm blessed to be able to do it at the capacity that I'm able to do it at so if you see me and you
13:50Appreciate me. Don't feel afraid to come up to me and talk. I love it. I love it and on this album
13:55I mean this might be a tough question given that you're so, you know attached to everything you do
14:01Is there a lyric or maybe a song that like really encompasses the vibe that you want to bring?
14:06There's one that is who says there isn't beauty in everything we see and there's another that is
14:13Almost seems to cut me deep just like a dagger to my stomach as you watch me bleed
14:18Is this what I deserve and I look at it like this when you're sad?
14:21There's so many people telling you to be happy not telling you to embrace your sadness
14:27When you're happy, there's so many people trying to tear you down and to make you sad
14:32Yeah, but I can live in happiness and have the best time
14:36But I can also live in sadness and I can grow exactly
14:40It's where I like where the light enters is like that dark those dark moments is when you start realizing things about yourself
14:47And I love that you use the word light because when I think about this album and I look at these pictures behind me
14:53That's what I see. I see
14:55Light peeking through the darkness. I love that black and white motif. It's all
15:00Coming together. I love it. I love it. I mean think about it all day. You're like wow.
15:08And lastly
15:10What is a message that you hope that these fans who love you and connect with your music feel when they hear sincere?
15:16There's nothing better to be than to be sincere. It's what we're here to be y'all. I love it. Hey you
15:23Be yourself. Be sincere. I love it. I mean no better way to end this
15:28I've loved you forever. I'm so glad that you're back. Thank you so much for having me