Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to Inside the Studio and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: My name is Jordan runt Hog. But enough about me.
Speaker 1: You could call my guests today. A pop prodigy at
Speaker 1: a j teen, she became one of the youngest Grammy
Speaker 1: winners ever for Don't Let Me Down, her song with
Speaker 1: the Chain Smokers. That same year, she released her debut LP,
Speaker 1: Sit Down, Look Pretty. She's a veteran of Forbes thirty
Speaker 1: Under Thirty and Billboards on Lists. Recently, she took a
Speaker 1: step back from music to reconnect with herself and her life.
Speaker 1: But now she's back and she has a lot to say.
Speaker 1: Now twenty two, she's entering an exciting new chapter of
Speaker 1: her career. There's a new label, new songs, and a
Speaker 1: new single, bad Girl. She says the track is among
Speaker 1: her most personal to date, a direct reflection of her
Speaker 1: life's experiences. That sense of intimacy permeates her work in progress,
Speaker 1: an EP that's coming soon. Today, we're gonna hear more
Speaker 1: about her creative rebirth. I'm so happy to welcome Dya.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm so excited to be here. It's so
Speaker 1: great to talk to you. First things first, UNI track
Speaker 1: is called bad Girl. It's a very loaded phrase in
Speaker 1: our culture. But you're flipping the narrative with your song.
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about Yeah, So, I actually
Speaker 1: wanted this to kind of play off of personal experiences
Speaker 1: I've had with the time. Loosely with the time, but
Speaker 1: more just kind of like that sort of stereotype which
Speaker 1: I think is projected onto women who are bold or
Speaker 1: as sort of or kind of you know, speak confidently
Speaker 1: and for what they want and don't really care about
Speaker 1: if it clashes with the what the people around them
Speaker 1: are saying or whatever. And I think that I, over
Speaker 1: time have been just when I was younger, I think
Speaker 1: when I was a teen, but also throughout my budding
Speaker 1: adulthood too. I think I've been in situations where I've
Speaker 1: been more you know, like I don't want to do this,
Speaker 1: let's go in this direction, or just more as sort
Speaker 1: of in that way with my writing and with other
Speaker 1: aspects of my career. And I have been called a
Speaker 1: problem child before. I've been called just other like miscellaneous
Speaker 1: like things that you would say, like about someone who
Speaker 1: is kind of like embodies that stereotype, I guess, um,
Speaker 1: who makes other people feel uncomfortable because of their like
Speaker 1: a sort of nous um and I feel like as
Speaker 1: a woman, we run into that so much in kind
Speaker 1: of like a male dominant culture, and the music world
Speaker 1: is definitely not it is definitely I would say is
Speaker 1: would be included in that. And yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think it was just about like flipping that on its
Speaker 1: head and being like, no, a bad girl isn't someone
Speaker 1: who did something bad. It's about someone who is not
Speaker 1: afraid to speak up for what they want and even
Speaker 1: if it means like clashing with what you know the
Speaker 1: people around them want for them. So yeah, it's kind
Speaker 1: of a way of reclaiming the termine term I guess. Awesome.
Speaker 1: Maybe in a lot of ways, it sounds like the
Speaker 1: antithesis of your first album titles. It's still look Pretty.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like which I know obviously was was
Speaker 1: done in a in a in a sarcastic uh, but
Speaker 1: playing off that was funny to see the two together. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it feels like messaging, like kind of a
Speaker 1: continuation of that. People pointed that out to me, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it definitely feels like I was trying
Speaker 1: to say similar things in both. Yeah, it's cool. I
Speaker 1: love the track. The song was co produced I believe,
Speaker 1: and also co written with Charlie Pooth. What was it
Speaker 1: like working with him in the studio or was this
Speaker 1: during COVID or was this pre this was during COVID. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this was we we actually wrote all together in
Speaker 1: the studio for one of the only person sessions I've
Speaker 1: had this year. And I think because of that, we
Speaker 1: just felt this like energy, this like this more like
Speaker 1: you know, we were all so excited to be back,
Speaker 1: and it was there such a flow to it. And
Speaker 1: Charlie wasn't actually there that day, but Jay Cash, who
Speaker 1: is the owner of my label and my co writer,
Speaker 1: he wrote it when he was there. He wrote it
Speaker 1: with us, and just in that moment. The best thing
Speaker 1: about working in this kind of label structure is that
Speaker 1: with him being my the owner of my label and
Speaker 1: also my co writer, is that we can write anything
Speaker 1: and then a second after be like, okay, we're putting
Speaker 1: X and yeah, this is the next single. So we
Speaker 1: decided in that moment. And then he's just really good
Speaker 1: friends with Charlie, so he sent it over to him,
Speaker 1: and Charlie loved it and he wanted to throw some
Speaker 1: production on it, and yeah, it's really cool. I love him.
Speaker 1: I love his music. He's so talented, so it's a
Speaker 1: it's a definitely cool thing that he wanted to do
Speaker 1: that an incredible track. How have you been feeling just
Speaker 1: creatively in the last year. Obviously the last year during
Speaker 1: lockdown has been tough, But have you been feeling really
Speaker 1: productive creatively or has it been been sort of struggle
Speaker 1: to get your head into that space. Every day has
Speaker 1: been different, and the first few months, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to look at right. I didn't want to go in
Speaker 1: my studio. I didn't think about writing, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to think about singing. I was just like, no, I
Speaker 1: need to sit in my bed and watch TV all
Speaker 1: day and not think about anything else happening in the world.
Speaker 1: So I did that, and then I feel like I
Speaker 1: got that out of my system, and I'm someone who
Speaker 1: just can't sit still really after well not to yeah
Speaker 1: play on my Yeah, I think I was just going
Speaker 1: to start crazy, and I wanted to get out and
Speaker 1: start creating and writing more. So I built this like
Speaker 1: little makeshift studio in my house and started teaching myself
Speaker 1: how to produce, and I started writing on my own,
Speaker 1: which I haven't done in like four five years before
Speaker 1: everything kind of started for me professionally, and which is
Speaker 1: really cool. And yeah, just just kind of like sitting
Speaker 1: with my thoughts and and I think that that was
Speaker 1: a really good thing to happen before this next era
Speaker 1: of releasing music, because I had just the most clarity
Speaker 1: and the most time to like, if this isn't the
Speaker 1: best reflection that I can do with myself right now,
Speaker 1: I don't know what will be because I have spent
Speaker 1: so much time on this stuff. So what is your
Speaker 1: process for that? Is it something that that you do
Speaker 1: almost like a meditation practice practice or an exercise practice
Speaker 1: for you? Every day you're there and some days some
Speaker 1: days you're good, some days the muse comes and some
Speaker 1: days not. Or do you do you sort of only
Speaker 1: sit down when you have an idea already going in
Speaker 1: your head. I feel like I definitely I don't try
Speaker 1: to force it because otherwise it feels like work, It
Speaker 1: feels like something I don't want to do, And then
Speaker 1: ultimately like I'll be more critical of myself, I'll be
Speaker 1: hard on myself, Like I'll just set up these boundaries
Speaker 1: in my head where I won't go certain places. But
Speaker 1: I feel like if I have an idea just out
Speaker 1: of nowhere. I'll tend to follow that and to just
Speaker 1: lead me to wherever it goes. And I think that
Speaker 1: that's just like something that I found is the best
Speaker 1: way of writing for me personally, is because I just yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like if I try to force it, it it
Speaker 1: just it never works out the way I wanted to.
Speaker 1: There's a video you shared, I think it was over
Speaker 1: the summer, captured relearning the guitar, and you were playing Blackbird,
Speaker 1: which was I think probably the first class Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I think that was the first song I learned on
Speaker 1: guitar that I was ever really proud of. That was like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was I thought it was a lot more advanced
Speaker 1: than I was. And then a lot of people were like, no,
Speaker 1: we all learned that as our first risk. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I I tried picking up the guitar. I used to
Speaker 1: play actually a lot when I was younger, just core,
Speaker 1: like more like UM chords, the same like four five
Speaker 1: six chords or something UM just when I would play
Speaker 1: shows like uptown from my house and like a little
Speaker 1: coffee shop or whatever when I was younger. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I never I never really got into like finger picking
Speaker 1: or anything like that. So it's been fun. I've been
Speaker 1: trying to learn from YouTube. There's so many there's like
Speaker 1: such a world of tutorials and literally any any that
Speaker 1: you can never imagine is on there. So trying to
Speaker 1: pick it up again. Um, I tried to learn going
Speaker 1: to California, but that's really that's a lot harder. So
Speaker 1: I'm trying to but who knows what It's just gonna
Speaker 1: be super Yeah, I'm never going to release anything that
Speaker 1: I've ever doing on the guitar. It's just more for me.
Speaker 1: I know. No one wants to hear that. Not at
Speaker 1: this point. Oh, I loved your version of Blackbird. I
Speaker 1: mean the Beatles, my you know, my everything, My responsible
Speaker 1: for every creative impulse I've ever had. Are there any
Speaker 1: people like that in your life? Are there any musicians
Speaker 1: out there that made you want to want to be
Speaker 1: a musician? The Heroes? Yeah. When I was younger, my
Speaker 1: parents listened to a lot Atlanta's more Set. Actually the
Speaker 1: first cover that I did live. I was nine and
Speaker 1: I was in this like rock band that it was
Speaker 1: like a summer camp type thing, and we played at
Speaker 1: this bar right next right near my house, and um,
Speaker 1: ironic was like one of the first songs that I
Speaker 1: ever learned how to play. Um, I put on the
Speaker 1: piano and I loved her. I loved Died Oh a lot.
Speaker 1: I really loved her tone and her her like grittiness.
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess there's more like soulful, and then
Speaker 1: and Atlantis just kind of had that more like raw
Speaker 1: like gritty feel, and then Amy Winehouse was like, my
Speaker 1: my god, probably ultimately got into music more than anyone
Speaker 1: cannot ever anything like I still to this day, like
Speaker 1: constantly watching her perform, watching her like, yeah, listening to
Speaker 1: her early albums, I feel like she's someone who just
Speaker 1: you can always learn something like pick up something on.
Speaker 1: Her music has been fun as an adult because as
Speaker 1: a kid, I feel like I loved just listening for
Speaker 1: fun of it obviously, but now it's like every little
Speaker 1: like riff and scat choice and everything is just it's
Speaker 1: so cool to listen to you now. So much is
Speaker 1: made of her her voice, which is just, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously one of a kind, and her phrasing is amazing.
Speaker 1: But I feel like I've been I've been discovering more recently.
Speaker 1: Her lyrics are just incredible. They're just raw and fearless,
Speaker 1: and she just she really goes there. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what I really love about her. I think that her
Speaker 1: lyrics were really what drew me in. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: her voice too. I feel like the combo of the
Speaker 1: two is just like it feels like you're in wherever
Speaker 1: she was making this, making the album with her. It's
Speaker 1: just so personal and so like prete flowing and just
Speaker 1: flow of thought. Yeah, and it's it's really really cool
Speaker 1: because I feel like there's really not a lot of
Speaker 1: that out there that feels that that personal, so are vulnerable,
Speaker 1: so it's cool. This is probably a weird question, but
Speaker 1: would you consider yourself an old soul? I've heard that
Speaker 1: a lot before. Maybe I don't know, who knows. I
Speaker 1: haven't gotten into the phase where I'm like into like
Speaker 1: looking into a bunch of different religions and like reincarnation.
Speaker 1: You're not getting your chart done, you're not getting your
Speaker 1: estrological get that up. But I feel like I feel
Speaker 1: like it's coming soon for me. But I feel like
Speaker 1: I definitely could believe in reincarnations if someone gave me
Speaker 1: a good explanation for it. But I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: I was an old lady in my past life, I
Speaker 1: lived to be like a hundreds something. I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the things I love about Amy As. I
Speaker 1: feel like I I pick up on that in her music,
Speaker 1: and I also in yours too. I feel like that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of experience in the lyrics and it
Speaker 1: comes through in every every line that you say. And
Speaker 1: I sensed that in both of you. That's fine. Well,
Speaker 1: I ask thank you so much, thank you. I appreciate
Speaker 1: that's a huge honor. Thank you. Such a bizarre, transformative year,
Speaker 1: I suppose, is the most positive way I could put it.
Speaker 1: How did it change you as an artist or as
Speaker 1: a person? I think in so many ways. I think
Speaker 1: I would not be released in the type of music
Speaker 1: that I am without it. I think, not in like
Speaker 1: not writing my songs about it, but just yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I've grown a lot as a person, and I
Speaker 1: have probably just like put things into perspective that I
Speaker 1: hadn't before, and also just realized the power of song
Speaker 1: and music and how it can touch people in times
Speaker 1: like this um and how it can be kind of
Speaker 1: that like through line to connect people's experiences. Because I
Speaker 1: feel like I really had, like heavily relied on music
Speaker 1: to get me through quarantine, and I'm sure so many
Speaker 1: other people did, so Yeah, I just definitely realized like
Speaker 1: the weight and power that it holds and just made
Speaker 1: me more excited to get back into it and keep
Speaker 1: putting stuff out. And you took some time off from
Speaker 1: your music career before dropping first time last fall. What
Speaker 1: made you decide to take a bit of a breather.
Speaker 1: I think this it was like a few years in
Speaker 1: the making. I feel like I, like two or three
Speaker 1: years ago, I like had this gut feeling of just
Speaker 1: wanting to just take more time to myself and live
Speaker 1: with myself and get to know myself and um get
Speaker 1: to know the artists that I want to be a
Speaker 1: little bit more clearly, and also just like live regular
Speaker 1: human experiences that I felt like all my friends were
Speaker 1: living in college and you know, going in and out
Speaker 1: of relationships and friendships and everything. And I feel like
Speaker 1: I just definitely knew that for my development and for
Speaker 1: my music too, for my writing, it was crucial for
Speaker 1: me to have those years um too kind of just
Speaker 1: like funk up and do the wrong thing and explore
Speaker 1: and experiment, and um, I just I definitely like knew
Speaker 1: that that was something that I needed, um for development
Speaker 1: and for clarity as a songwriter too, um and for
Speaker 1: my artistry. So UM yeah, I was still I was
Speaker 1: still like touring and releasing music and stuff. It was
Speaker 1: just kind of more. I definitely took more time for
Speaker 1: myself too. I tried to fit that in as much
Speaker 1: as possible. So I'm really happy that I did that.
Speaker 1: You said the first time is sort of more like
Speaker 1: a musical rebirth or reintroduction. These sort of hit the
Speaker 1: re restart button in a way. How How so for you?
Speaker 1: I think it was just the first song that I've
Speaker 1: released that I felt really really like a kind of
Speaker 1: reflects where I was at the time. And I guess
Speaker 1: my whole journey of like taking time to myself and
Speaker 1: everything has been to get to a point where I
Speaker 1: feel like I am not holding anything back. I'm super
Speaker 1: honest with my music and it feels like me and
Speaker 1: I feel like with the early stuff it was, you know,
Speaker 1: it was just it was all rushed. It was all
Speaker 1: just kind of like made in this like whirlwind of
Speaker 1: things happening. Hideaway started charting super early on, and I
Speaker 1: had this same team of writers that just got together
Speaker 1: and and helped write the rest of the album, and
Speaker 1: I'm really grateful for that, and I you know, I
Speaker 1: still have such like personal connections to a lot of
Speaker 1: the songs released then. UM, but I also feel like
Speaker 1: I my gut feeling of me needing to take time
Speaker 1: was definitely be like partially because I felt like I
Speaker 1: wanted to, um, just be more in control of my
Speaker 1: writing and what I wanted to say and how I
Speaker 1: wanted to say and what I wanted to sound like
Speaker 1: and everything. So for me, the first time was really
Speaker 1: UM was really like the first time that I that
Speaker 1: I thought that UM so many puns in this interview,
Speaker 1: whow it. I saw the water in the in the
Speaker 1: visuals for a very like you know, rebirth. What's the
Speaker 1: what's the word for like like baptismal? Yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was UM. Yeah. We we definitely wanted to to symbolize
Speaker 1: rebirth and kind of me falling into it in the
Speaker 1: beginning of music video and then me going throughout this journey,
Speaker 1: my subconscious kind of in the back of this truck,
Speaker 1: UM pretty much just like having no control over where
Speaker 1: it was going, and then UM gaining that control as
Speaker 1: I want, and then emerging at the ends out of
Speaker 1: the water as like a new person, a new really
Speaker 1: realized person, and Bad Girl kind of continues off of
Speaker 1: that too with the visual UM because it's also kind
Speaker 1: of this like subconscious journey at the bar exists in
Speaker 1: this like dreamlike place that we really wanted to come
Speaker 1: across as UM like reflective of my subconscious at the time,
Speaker 1: UM just going through the process of discovering my sexuality,
Speaker 1: and UM, you know, I saw that girl and then
Speaker 1: I just like all these feelings and emotions started coming
Speaker 1: through me, and I, um, you see me in this
Speaker 1: like very kind of um the lights are crazy and
Speaker 1: there's like five and it's just like this very like weird,
Speaker 1: mystical kind of dreamlike place where I'm trying to come
Speaker 1: to terms with my sexuality. And then at the end
Speaker 1: of it, I emerged its like fully realized, confident UM
Speaker 1: person and I'm like, I have like my dress on
Speaker 1: and my heels and I do this like runway performance
Speaker 1: because we really wanted to get that across of that
Speaker 1: like arc. So yeah, I think a lot of my
Speaker 1: visuals I've tried. I've tried to carry the sort of
Speaker 1: like rebirth theme into UM for the past two releases.
Speaker 1: I guess, and well, I don't know, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't want to say anything about the other So that's
Speaker 1: coming up. But yeah, oh that was what I was
Speaker 1: going to ask him. What are you working on now?
Speaker 1: I know a lot of fans are wondering about what's
Speaker 1: next for your next album or I'm working on an
Speaker 1: EP and I'm very excited it. It's gonna be bad
Speaker 1: Girl is gonna be on it, First Time is going
Speaker 1: to be on it, and a few other songs, and
Speaker 1: it just feels like the most confident and proudest I've
Speaker 1: been releasing music, and I just I want to release
Speaker 1: it tomorrow. I just I don't want to wait. I
Speaker 1: want everyone to hear it right now. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: Are you able to say roughly when or soon? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I feel like that's been a key word the past
Speaker 1: like two years, where it just like it really has
Speaker 1: no meaning anymore, just soon, But I'm telling you it
Speaker 1: has meaning. I'm telling you it does. It actually is
Speaker 1: coming very soon. Any surprises on it, any any new collaborations,
Speaker 1: any any surprising music choices or anything you're able to share.
Speaker 1: I will say it's kind of a mixed bag of
Speaker 1: things that it's it does live in that dance the
Speaker 1: dance space with First Time and Bad Girl, and then
Speaker 1: it kind of carries over into this more intimate um
Speaker 1: stripped down. We have a stripped down kind of acoustic song,
Speaker 1: I'll give that away. We have some more kind of
Speaker 1: like alternative leaning, more rock leaning. It kind of plays
Speaker 1: with a bunch of different genres that I've been listening
Speaker 1: to myself. So yeah, I'm really excited and I think
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll have something for everyone. Can't wait to check
Speaker 1: it out there. I was reading some inter of you
Speaker 1: gave recently. I'm trying to remember who it was with,
Speaker 1: but you were talking about how at some point in
Speaker 1: your in your career you want to experiment with scales
Speaker 1: outside of like Western modes, at Western modalities, how in
Speaker 1: like Eastern scales. It's it's so someday that would be
Speaker 1: a really interesting experiment with Yeah, yeah, I think. Well.
Speaker 1: I So I have family in India and I've been once,
Speaker 1: and I grew up going to Indian brunch every Sunday
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, and I just loved watching Bollywood on because
Speaker 1: they would always play like these like full like future
Speaker 1: films on their screens while you're eating brunch, and I
Speaker 1: just loved like I was always just so mesmerized. I
Speaker 1: loved watching it, I loved listening to it. The scales
Speaker 1: are just something like they have notes that don't exist
Speaker 1: in our scale um that they regularly use. And I
Speaker 1: think that that's just so cool and something that I
Speaker 1: would definitely definitely don't know the most about right now
Speaker 1: at this point in my life, but I want to
Speaker 1: and I want to hopefully implement that in their music
Speaker 1: at some point. Kind of dovetails into into my last question.
Speaker 1: We've been asking everybody if you could snap your fingers
Speaker 1: and have everything go back to whatever your definition of
Speaker 1: normal is, say, you know, pre COVID, pre everything. What
Speaker 1: would be the first thing that you would do? Places
Speaker 1: you would go, people you'd hug, restaurants you'd eat at. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess a lot of those are opening now. I
Speaker 1: will be the first thing that that you would do. UM.
Speaker 1: I would probably travel, I would probably just get out.
Speaker 1: I feel like I would just go to like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I've been thinking. I've been thinking a lot
Speaker 1: about Tokyo recently, just randomly, and it's been one of
Speaker 1: it's always been one of my favorite cities, but I
Speaker 1: would love to travel and to maybe go to Tokyo
Speaker 1: also to hug my grandparents. I think that that that's
Speaker 1: something that I definitely haven't done in so long, and
Speaker 1: I want to do as soon as we all get vaccinated.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your Tom Davis. This is
Speaker 1: such a pleasure. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. It was great talking to you. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio or other fantastic shows, check out the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite podcasts.