Audacy Check In: Halsey
Halsey is here to talk about her new album ‘The Great Impersonator’, upcoming ‘Room 93’ anniversary, mom life + so much more ❤️
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00:00Do you have a favorite where you feel like if Halsey was around during this decade?
00:05I would have like done some serious damage. I think it's the 90s
00:11I think I would have tore up the 90s
00:14Gosh, yeah, I don't know if that's just the the music you've always put out or you're like an old soul or whatever
00:20But man, I feel like you slide right in there perfectly. I I kind of agree with you
00:26I was born in 94, but it kind of feels like I
00:29Just all of me exists in 1994, you know what I mean?
00:35What's up, it's Mike Adam this year Odyssey check-in with Halsey we are at the Rockstar suite at the Hard Rock Hotel, New York
00:43You have a birthday coming up. No, do you have plans? Are you a birthday person?
00:49I think I used to be a birthday person. Okay, and I've worked every year on my birthday the past few years
00:54Yeah, so I'm excited for this birthday though because it means a lot to me
00:59It's been like a hard couple years and you know, I'm about to turn 30. It's a big big birthday
01:04It's also, you know 10 years since I put out my first album Badlands
01:09So, you know that decade from being 19 turning 20 putting out my first album now being 29 turning 30 about to put out my fifth
01:16Album, it all just feels mystical, you know, yeah, it was like a lot of synchronicity in that
01:22So I I'm gonna be 40 in January Wow
01:28Milestone one and but I don't feel my age like, you know
01:31I look at that number 40 and I'm like, what the heck how did that do you that doesn't surprise me?
01:35Cuz you don't look your age. So you probably look in the mirror and you're like no me for no, that's wrong
01:40That's how I would feel. Do you feel or do you still feel like you're 20 something?
01:45No, you know 20. I felt 30 since I was like 15. I'm catching up now
01:49I'm just I felt 30. I think sometimes people there's certain people in this life who are the age they are and then they stay that
01:55Way, you know like my mom for example is just perpetually 21
01:59Yeah, like she had me when she was 20 and she has just been 21 for as long as I've known her
02:05Yeah, and she's 51 51 and she is like tatted up tongue-piercing like super cool girl
02:13But she just gives off the energy of someone who's like 21 like down to like she's walking outside
02:17She's like where's my uber like she's just so 21. I've been 35 since I was born. Okay. Yeah
02:23Yeah, which is nice because then what's gonna happen is once I pass 35, I'm gonna start feeling really young, right?
02:29We're like that but until now I've just been like, okay, come on like I don't know. I I feel like my 20s lasted a
02:36Century like my 20s were too too damn long. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we talked a little bit about this off-camera
02:43I know you you love Halloween
02:45Do you have the costumes picked out for this year? Are you gonna do a theme with your son?
02:50Oh, I have a couple ideas. I actually was thinking, you know, it's so funny now. I really have to do this
02:56I'm like afraid to say it cuz I don't want somebody to steal it, but I'm a gatekeeper about Halloween
03:01I take it very seriously. Like that was the one thing they said do not ask about. Yeah, right
03:07You could ask me and you can ask me anything just like she's really weird about Halloween. Don't ask her about Halloween
03:11Weird that would be um, no, I love Halloween. I you know, every couple years
03:16I throw a huge Halloween party in LA and we do it to benefit my friend's place
03:20Which is a charity organization and a resource center for unhoused youth in Los Angeles
03:25Yeah, and super awesome super close to my heart and I love it because everyone gets it comes open bar
03:30like, you know people have
03:32It gets crazy. It was like a line down the blocks and seems like the police come and they're like this
03:36You can't do this in the middle of Hollywood. Yeah
03:39It's become a little bit of like an urban legend kind of in LA, which is awesome
03:44and I
03:46Prepare for my costume for like months
03:48but the one I want to get off with my son this year because he's three and I feel like it's the perfect age and
03:54now it feels sort of like
03:57Like an immemorial like a tribute just because of the recent her recent passing, but I really want to do
04:05The Shining
04:07And I want to get him on his little tricycle as Danny and I want to be Shelley Duvall. Oh my and I just want to
04:15Like take these pictures with my creepy little kid on a tricycle and his hair is like the perfect. He's got those long bangs
04:22I love that so much gotta do it so much. So as having a child changed your relationship with your parents. Oh
04:29My gosh, I'm actually really glad you asked me this question because there's a lot of this on the album actually
04:35Okay. Yeah, you know so when I was writing the Great Impersonator, I was you know
04:39I was going through a lot in my personal life
04:40Let all those changes were becoming a new mom and I was also I got really sick
04:45and I got the kind of sick that makes you think about you know your your life and like look at it in that way and
04:52I started just going all the way back and I started thinking about my childhood and there's a lot of songs on this album
04:59That kind of touch on that I touch on my relationship with my parents one in particular just about watching my mom
05:04grow older and like
05:07Like I said, she's perpetually 21 to me and just watching her age
05:11And it's like this cognitive dissonance like your brain can't compute like we feel like there's no you're you're you don't you don't get old
05:18Like, you know, it's so crazy and you know, it's gonna happen
05:21But when you see it, you start to see their face their hair change
05:25And and one of the things I say in the song is I talk a lot about in this one record in particular
05:30I talk about when I was a kid
05:32Listening hearing my dad like make a snide remark about her or like, you know
05:38Me and my dad kind of ganging up on my mom and how I was like a kid
05:42I wanted his approval so much and I did it at the cost of like kind of ganging up on her
05:48You know and I say in the song, you know that Alliance didn't save me from her fate
05:54You know like aligning with my dad didn't stop my life from turning out almost exactly like hers
05:59I became a single mom and I look back on that and I go wow, I
06:05Should have had more compassion for her, you know, and I and I say in the record. I hope my son
06:11Realizes it before it's too late. Like I did. Yeah, you know, what was their reaction to hearing that?
06:16I'm cried like a baby. Also, I did it the worst time. I was in New York
06:20I was working on the album at Electric Lady and I had just kind of worked on this
06:25Song and I had this fresh demo and I got really sick that night
06:29So I was still kind of figuring out my health at this time. I was trying to work, but it was a little
06:33Transparently, it was a little too soon
06:35Like I probably should have waited a beat but I felt like I couldn't wait at all
06:38I just wanted to get it out. I got really sick at the studio. I ended up in the hospital and I
06:43Was in the hospital
06:44I don't remember saying this but apparently I was in the hospital like begging for my mom and she lives in Jersey
06:50So she just drove right over
06:52She got me home put me in my bed in the hotel like tucks me and she stayed next to me all night to make
06:58Sure that I was okay. She had gotten no sleep
07:01She was so worried about me and I had to go to the airport the next morning
07:04She drove with me my mom up all night worried about me. No sleep. I play her this song in the car
07:10the worst timing ever
07:13She was like you're
07:16Yeah, you know what? I mean?
07:17Like you are a jerk like that is not nice to do to me and you're just like Ashley
07:22She was like what the heck man?
07:23She was like, I was way too early for this like and she's just crying and like I was trying not to cry and it
07:30Was just like this crazy moment where I looked at her and I was like, I'm a mom too. Yeah, I'm
07:35Weird. We're more the same
07:38Right now at this moment in life than we ever have been for the first time. It was crazy. Yeah before we talk about well
07:45You got the Badlands anniversary next year, but even before that room 93 the OG
07:53next month
07:54turns 10
07:56Looking back on that now. Do you look at it with love? Do you like dissect it rip it apart?
08:01How do you feel about it? I love room 93. Okay, I love it. I love it
08:05I loved it so much that I took half the songs and put them on the debut, you know hurricane ghost
08:10Like I still play is there somewhere live a lot of the time. It's definitely a fan favorite
08:15You know, it's funny. I I love room 93 so much. I actually reference it in a way
08:20You know, there's a single on this album called ego and in the song
08:24I say I want to go back to the beginning when it all felt right a rooftop lower east side. I'm singing. Yeah, and
08:31That story is real and it's about a time where I was at a friend's apartment
08:34I was like on Orchard Street
08:36This little apartment above hair of the dog like on the roof and I have these demos from my EP on my iPhone
08:42And I'm playing them at the table for all my friends for like sitting around having a beer
08:46I was not old enough to be having a beer like, you know
08:49And I mean just like playing these songs and they're all like this is sick
08:51This is so cool
08:52and all that mattered to me in that moment was making music that
08:56Like my friends and my peers and the people I spent every day with would like and would think was cool music
09:02We could play while we were hanging out
09:04Yeah, you know and then obviously comes all these expectations and this pressure and everything about the way I make music changes
09:11But room 93
09:12It's kind of like the perfect moment where I was just making something because I felt like it sure, you know
09:19So I just love it for that. I really do
09:22So if I'm following along with the theme of this new album properly, it's gonna be very eclectic
09:29You're covering different decades. Yeah
09:32Do you have a favorite where you feel like if Halsey was around during this decade
09:37I would have like done some serious damage because I do personally but I want to hear what yours I think it's the 90s
09:44Me too. Yeah, I think I want to tore up the 90s
09:49Gosh, yeah, I don't know if that's just the the music you've always put out or you're like an old soul or whatever
09:55But man, I feel like you slide right in there. Perfectly. I I kind of agree with you
10:00I was born in 94, but it kind of feels like I just all of me exists in 1994
10:07You know what? I mean?
10:07Like I I think there's so many like artists from that era that have been so influential to me
10:14And even artists that debuted earlier than that who are putting out some of their best stuff in the 90s
10:18You know like well into their career and like totally my gosh Fiona Apple PJ Harvey
10:24Alanis Morissette Tori Amos Ani to Frank like the list goes on and on, you know
10:28And I I just think that I would have had such a blast. I think you know the early 2000s
10:35I I think I would have done well
10:37Also, but in a different way because I you know
10:40That era was the era of like Michelle Branch Vanessa Carlton
10:44like Regina Spektor like these really singer-songwriter II type women with these
10:50These big voices and like something to say and I'm like I was slid right in with y'all
10:54I would have been just us, you know, but the Lilith fair thing. That's me
11:00That's me right here before we wrap. We're obviously at the hard rock
11:05And they're known for a lot of their memorabilia and you have had quite the fashion journey
11:11Just some some awesome
11:14Costumes outfits if you were going to donate one that you really think
11:19Fans would enjoy seeing in the flesh. Yeah, which would it be?
11:22Well, I actually have already a long time
11:24Well, not a long time ago last year, but I I did one of my tour costumes from the Hopeless Mountain Kingdom tour
11:30Okay, but if I was gonna give something else now, it would be hard to give away
11:33Yeah, I'm gonna be honest with you, but I have a couple of these incredible dresses that Vivian Westwood designed for me
11:40For the if I can't have love I want power
11:43album film and
11:45you know, obviously I
11:48Vivian is an icon and like she's she's like probably the most frequently
11:54non-musician
11:56Person to be referenced by musicians, you know what I mean?
12:00Art just totally transcends that in that way
12:04And and they're just so dear to me and I feel like you know, they're huge. They take up a lot of space
12:10So if I ever needed to put them somewhere where they'd be appreciated and loved I'd put them
12:14I definitely put them in hard rock and then you'd have all that closet space exactly their ball gowns Halsey. Thank you so much
12:21Congratulations on everything. Thanks for having me. Of course