happy new you happy new you congratulations everything that you'd warned us about couldn't have prepared us for this body of work so you succeeding fooling us all the way through thank you the other day I was like talking to some fans like you know ahead of the release of the album and like I was like you have no idea like you know what to expect and they stopped for a second I was like oh no am i building your expectations yes you've
made one thing a constant and that is that you're willing to improve in public and learn in public thank you yeah taking responsibility is a is a painful experiment the way that I see it is like if everyone's gonna call me out for what they think is wrong with me I can at least take the narrative into my own hand and be like you know that's not what's wrong with me but I'll tell you what is you can't control other people's
opinions but you can control the way they affect you sure you're getting better at that I think so it's like reputation versus character I've come to learn in this industry that no matter how open they are or honest people are really so different than they seem to be in the public eye but don't you think it's about getting beyond the industry no just getting to the heart of the matter full-stop and recognizing what the
industry is to you yeah well that's what a lot of this album was you weren't born into the industry I wandered into this industry it wasn't like I never never really considered myself that kid who was like I'm gonna be a musician I'm gonna be like rock star you know like basically a lot of the songs have this like this gulp like this like yeah look I'm trying really hard here I definitely have had a lot of experiences that I
think probably would have like hardened some people or made them really jaded and one of the probably best and worst qualities about me is that no matter what happens I always try to see the best in people yep and I always go into every situation foolishly expecting that everybody's intentions are as pure as genuine as my own and no matter how many times that proves to be untrue it doesn't stop me from going into the next situation and
being like new person new clean slate it's about instinct before the diligence right instinct diligence and also learning what I need and what I don't it's about learning to be satisfied with less like having less friends putting myself out there when it counts not just all the time which was something I had to grow into and maybe that's a result of having been hardened or having been tricked or wronged that's like I hate everybody
yeah you know what I mean that songs the irony in it is this is the punch line which is well maybe I don't are you done maybe I don't I tried to carry myself with that mentality of like you know F everybody like I hate everybody that's just got it in protective mm-hmm and then at the core of it is a person who is like desperately seeking to connect with people and has been successful and fruitful in that multiple times where
I've made human connections that have been like incredibly pivotal the good that I find in some people is worth siphoning through the bad that I find in others you know what I mean it's always worth a try we are going through this album which is called manic the album title doesn't jump out at me as an obvious album title for the actual sonic nature of the album the reduction of feel of the album so where does the term
manic come from as an album title for one thing I think that the sonic nature of the record is very fleeting tractor track it's I think I kind of approached subjects the way you'd least expect me to a lot of it for me is about my own personal experiences of mania versus like the public perception of mania like for example like you're saying that all it doesn't sound manic looks like well because manic to us in the media is
this like self-destructive unsure irresponsible kind of panicked mentality that's what I thought too which is why I wrote songs like nightmare at first it says like yeah like when I'm manic I'm like I can't trust myself and I'm finishing back and then I sat down to write and I was like cool I'm gonna write all these angry songs about being manic and I couldn't I couldn't get a word out and I was really stuck I was
like why can't I write about this I've experienced this for my entire life and then I had to sit down and do like a real self reflection of self inventory about what am I really like when I'm manic and the answer is I am loving I am passionate I am open to anyone who wants to come into my life and be a part of it I can be a bit irresponsible yeah I can be impulsive but mostly I'm going through every second of my day being
entirely led by emotion rather than logic so this record is once I figured that out once I was like oh these are all the best parts of me or the parts that are motivated by instinct and impulse and thinking with my with my
heart and so after that I learned I could forgive her this is I think the first record of mine where when you finish listening to it it's arguably the most self-deprecating but also when you play the last song and the whole thing
is done and you got that like you know that resolved on track 16 you're like this is not a person who hates them no you're being kind to yourself it's an album were you being super kind to yourself I think you've been far more self-destructive on record before yeah and actually you start out the song number ones called Ashley yeah when we spoke around without me mm-hm and your private life was crashing down around ya
and you were super honest that day but you and Gerald were falling apart yeah and you wrote a song about it and you use that as therapy you said something really important which was like I need to be Ashley like yeah I've
been hiding behind Jose all this time and I need to kind of be myself mm-hmm and I can still be the artist but I need to show people who I really am yeah this all means a crossover that it's the odyssey of that it's funny too because I
start with Ashley which is like this reintroduction traduction of my personal self and it's arguably the most Halsey sounding song on the album you know what I mean it's this like electro pop kind of like rappy versi like small voice agitated so efficient of Badlands a little bit you know so it's funny too and we talked about this in our last interview actually which is starting an album that has a new sound in a new
direction with a comfortable entry point for people and going hey I'm still here but I'm gonna take you down it on a different journey right now yeah so it's track 1 on the album and it's an introduction but it's also this like cautious goodbye I became very like aware of my mortality when and why losing my peers so many of them friends people I didn't know people I looked up to people I was friends with and almost losing others and you know
realizing just how fragile it is and like you know music is supposed to be this thing that immortalizes you in a way and it's also like at what cost and how do people receive it you know when you're not around to direct the ship and I'm so glad you said a walk cost I'm sort of obsessed with right now with this idea of the trade and and what we get versus what it takes out of the artists and the ultimately costs the
artist yeah sort of expression mhm and how we've always just gone oh well it's the more mixed-up ones that lose their way but it's not because it's not every artist is on the verge I feel and some some degree it is bleeding your permanence and your opportunity cost that balance those scales are constantly going back and forth day to day sometimes I'm on top of the world and I'm like I've never felt better in my
life and there's other days where I'm like if I keep doing this I'm gonna die you know I mean just straight up no bullsh just if I keep doing this me to die like not in like a whiny way just like a matter-of-fact like feeling it in my bones um Ashley is an introduction in a way that says here's this album that I'm giving you that I had to cut myself open to make and we'll have to continue to cut myself open to tour and promote
and explain and everything like that but this this song is a warning that I don't know how many more of these you're gonna get yeah it says I'm standing now in a mirror that I built myself and I can't remember why the decision wasn't mine but it seems I'm only clinging to an idea now I took my heart and sold it out to a vision that I wrote myself and I don't want to be somebody in America just fighting the hysteria I only want to die
some days and then the chorus says someday when I burst into flames I'll leave you the dust I hope a bit of it will be enough to help remember the days when we came to this place I told you I'd spill my guts and then left you to clean them up and bursting out of the seams and in that beautiful turn seems like now it's impossible to work this out I'm so committed to an old ghost town but is it really that strange if I always want to change
and if only the time and space between us wasn't lonely I disintegrated into a thousand pieces I think I'm making a mistake but if I decide to break who will fill this empty space so now if I figure this out apart from my beating heart it's a muscle but it's still not strong enough to carry the weight of the choices I've made I told you I'd ride this out but it's getting harder every day somehow I'm bursting out of myself you know so
it's this kind of like plea to my fans that's saying like you know someday if I burst into flames I'll leave you the dust it is an exhaustive process and sometimes it must feel like you have to do it rather than wanna do it absolutely and there are some days I was making manic that I was sitting in the studio and like I mean there was days where I was doing like five sessions a day working on songs like I remember one day
and I'm gonna say this like I went in the morning to work I'm gonna give away some information to give away but I don't want to do it I was because I'm always working on music even if I'm not working on an album so in the morning I was in the studio of Brock Hampton I left from there and went to Benny's and was working on something left from there I went to my home studio at my house and was working on something with Leto
that we had to bounce out to Suga in Korea right away and then John Cunningham came over and we finished something out and then I got a call from Louis Bell late at night and was they come by and do this verse on this post my own album and so at midnight I jet from there to go work on the post-motor album I did five sessions that day and I just remember I was wired I was like yeaaah give it to me yeah and then I woke up
the next day and was like I legitimately quit don't move or for the next five days people were like what do you want for lunch I was like I don't care just give me anything you know and I mean I think that's what became of it it's almost this come down it's like taking Molly you know what I mean you go in the studio and you're like rushing with these endorphins and you're making all this stuff and you're like I am so full
up and like invigorated right now I can make anything I am a god I am taking abstract concepts like sound waves and turning them into tangible content I am a god I am making creating isn't like the whole like next couple of days
you're like I just need lunch anything yeah you know it's like that's real and it's like it sounds funny when I talk about it like this but it's not funny when like you know you know that happens then I have to cancel plans at
my brother I haven't seen in two months I just can't do it that's what you Lin yeah that's why you keep moving yeah and for me this also being my third album you know this is the point where I'm hoping people are gonna be like oh okay so this is what she does is every time she puts out a record it's a whole different thing it's a whole different sound when I put out hope was found in Kingdom people were like well this
doesn't sound like Badlands and I only had two albums so I couldn't be like well all my music sounds different super import a moment do that I would recommend any artists out there who has any kind of attention or success on the album number one that the most important only make that decision is to yeah go left and I did that with this album - to be frank for a second please you know I had this crazy year two years I had
all these hits on the radio for the first time and I was pretty confused you know what I mean because when I made Badlands that wasn't even a consideration you know once I think my awareness started to rise you know first was bad at love or first was now or never then was bad at love then was him and I then was without me then was Eastside them was graveyard you know did we forget chainsmokers which was like the biggest well that was before
hopeless found kingdoms winning everybody recognized whether they knew you or not your voice yeah that was the moment when your tone cut through I think is the a big part of your toolbox is the ability to sound great well since then I've never not had a song on the radio so then all that happened and everyone's like oh look she's at the top of her game she's gonna put out an album full of pop bangers and I was going on
in your life while you're having success oh I mean it's a disaster it's a complete disaster my personal life is a is a disaster the only refuge I'm finding is on the stage I'm touring the whole baton Kingdom tour I'm doing the arena tour the summer tour and touring all over the world the only place that I feel safe and at home is when I'm onstage and the only place I'm feeling safe in at home is when I'm singing songs from before all this you