[Music] whew debut albums sum up the screaming Eric white like American teen an incredible groundbreaking in the hugely successful release for Khalid but what comes next a second album free spirit and right now a conversation about it captured in the legendary Henson studios in Los Angeles this is the kalid interview on Apple music how long you being here Kelly I just got here this
week yeah in this space where have you been recording mainly we usually record right to plan a record plant right this one is definitely viably yeah it just has music in it yeah you can just tell you can feel they can feel it I think about and III was talking to them the farm like yeah so many people come into these studios and just create songs I
ended up changing the world think the fact that this is the we are the world room and that's been one of the most impactful songs today globally is just insane so it's like it's it's also just a piece of history I mean you walk out and you see the way that they used to record like 30 20 years ago compared to now it's so different technology is a crazy interesting as thing we can't
forget the environment I'll pour you a pot that plays and things I should think I feel people getting more back to that kind of place where no one wants to go back and try to resurrect the old way of doing things but there are some universal truths that should come along for the ride and that is like don't forget about the process and the environment don't just think about the
result and and it being out and on to the next thing like what's the what is the experience for me as a fan if not an experience for you and there's so many levels from recording in this space or well first off for me I definitely started my house with like okay what what am I going through today mentally am I happy in my side in my whatever then then you take it to this place you
get to the studio you're like okay let me tell you guys what I was just thinking about what can we do then you do it you finish it you go through the mixing the mastering wrap that song up with a bow and then you give it to the world so then you think about the first pack that it has on people in their ears then you take it to tour and then you
perform it and you really get to test the records well it comes alive at that point even even greater yeah but do you get bittersweet when it's time to finish a project do you get a little bit kind of I don't know yeah why not I suppose sad is the word when you think that this era is gonna come to an end and you're gonna have to go out and do other things I definitely get anxiety I played it
very safe for me with American teen and I think oh yeah I definitely did I definitely feel like I didn't because when you when I'm making my first album I don't know what the world wants to hear for me or what they would like to hear from me sure or even necessarily what I would want the world to hear from me yeah so I had a lot of anxiety with the American teen
because I'm just like wow these are my voice notes and my journal logs and all of that stuff and I get to put it out into the world and they get to judge it and they get to you know determine how they feel about it if they like it if they hate it so it was definitely safe did you feel at the time when you were even when you were composing these voice notes and you were tapping into
something that was taken in my opinion and we'll get to the themes of this record too but from what I can gather is something that remains in your spirit the idea of suburban life and making it feel romantic and inspirational right it's like let's take that frustration and that kind of exclusion from the excitement of a big city but let's actually dress it up and make people
feel exciting to listen to because it is and a great song writing does that but when you're like when you're kind of speaking these voice notes were seeing these voice notes and conjuring that feeling in yourself do you Rick - you recognize that u.s. you are potentially speaking to a lot of people who feel the same way do you get that sensation it's
crazy I mean as a 17 year old when I wrote it I didn't necessarily think that yeah everybody else thought what I thought yeah I was I was just speaking on what I was going through mentally and it was a very lonely idle point in my life and that's why I turned to music because music became the company what's that bedroom life like can you paint that picture for us that place where you
first wrote those songs and you make those songs and like what's that environment like for you like what did you stare at every single day what did you fill that room with the moment to get to that place I had this mirror this long mirror and I would go and I would record this songs because I knew I didn't necessarily have a studio that I like that I would just float around from
Studio to studio every song on a different mic didn't know what Mike I wanted to use I'm just just recording just to record I can remember taking those songs on the drive home going into my room and looking at this mirror and just dancing with it with the song thing am I your on song yeah dancing just free just arms wide open just wow this feels
so good and then BOOM pause alright no one's gonna hear it for a little bit the process of writing the songs are a little bit more it just depends I mean American teen for me I wrote pretty much them all the same I would write an idea I would sing in my shower it's the most comfortable place for anyone to sing I feel that natural reverb yes so I would
sing in my cell to write it and I'd hurry up and I'd rest to my phone and I put the note in my phone and then that I'd write it I bring the idea to the studio I have literally hundreds of hundreds of voice notes just through my phone and just at that moment of time and it's cool to see the songs come to life because it always ends up being something I didn't expect when I first
started it everything always changes nothing is permanent but there has to come a time as an artist where you're like okay I'm not gonna do anything else to it cuz you can you can write a song a hundred different ways you can add a hundred different inflections and harmonies and whatever then the song is it's never gonna end for me I'm like
what that song is the moment that I left that studio yeah I could go back and look at it again but I'm not gonna change anything about it majorly because it takes away the the feeling that that I had in the heart behind the booth and I was sad and I started just wailing when you're at your most sort of uncomfortable through that process and just trying to be a teenager and trying
to sort of understand and absorb with the people that you could look to or take advice I mean you're not alone I mean I mean Sam Smith yeah sort a lot of records on his first album at a young age you know did you get a chance to kind of just privately chop this up with people and so how do we do this and who did you talk to him well this conversation is like there's luckily I have so many
friends in the industry mmm which is which is great you know talking to someone I love to talk to so much and we share the same birthdays me and Kelly Rowland hmm and I'd love to talk to her and she is another one who's been through it yeah emotionally the connection that we share when we have a conversation it's like she just wants to make sure are you good
is everything okay like mentally where are you are you alright if you ever need to talk about anything so here this song the saddest song and she's like you need to talk about this and I I love that yeah I have that relationship with her whether it's I can always remember my conversations with black for sure especially when we were in El Paso he
came out to my show and all passed on we just talked about the fact that one being in the thick of it is a little overwhelming because you think about the fact that your songs are starting to have impact on the way that people live so people cry to your songs and they laugh they smile they have their firsts whatever they have their lasts whatever there's just so many different levels to
the way that music impacts someone whether it's even just them hearing it on on a radio or them hearing it on their phone and their favorite playlists and that's a lot of pressure because if they get to have all of these moments you think about what song you want to give them to have that moment yeah you put the cop for the horse you start to get it around the wrong way yeah yeah
yeah and you just you start over thinking about things yeah you gotta realize that okay yeah they're sharing their moment with you but they're sharing their moment with the genuine yeah yeah it's right the authentic you so just continue to just do what you're doing you don't gotta really think about what what people want as long as it's from the heart at the end of the day let's
lighten it up real quick who's the person that you met on your travels during the most ridiculous like at like fish out of water environment that you were like holy oh I have a list yeah when I met Drake it was crazy for me when I met Drake where was that Australia huh he was on a tour I was on a tour this is actually not that long ago but I'm only like 20 so that the
context of life regeneration through experience it's a long long time so I met him and it was it was crazy because I can remember walking down this hallway backstage and um I'm just walking I really wanted to meet him and I'm walking I'm trying to walk into the the opposite way of where he's walking because I know how it is to be backstage the moment that she hop off the stage
and I was like I'm not trying to get in anybody's way I'm like I need to just walk away so I'm walking away then I hear my name I hear Khalid I was like turn around and it's Drake and I'm like oh straight offstage to her yeah and I've really respected that yeah because there's so many other people who would just be like I'm just gonna keep walking
and I'll just see them later yeah now he called my name and I turned around and he was so nice to me and that's what I really was I really respect when the artist is genuinely nice so we had a conversation we chopped it up and he was nice and you move forward with time I met him again in a situation he approached me he came up to me that's really what aspect just a fan of it yeah
now you're in a situation where you can offer advice to those that you care about it right at the precipice of their own experience and you've already collaborated with Billy you know she is about to go and go through things the homie out the route Mokes and like already it's like it's like her in Phineas can't help it like they dare us they go I'm gonna make this really
reduced really dark horrorcore four-on-the-floor weird our song and it's gonna go number one all over the world so you know there's no avoiding this right now and I wonder kind of what your thoughts are around where she is in her career and and because you know she speaks so highly of you you guys are no good friend and she's amazing she's a rock star I catch myself in moments of
thought where I'm just scrolling through my phone and I'm like what the just see this do y'all see this cover that she just did do you see this song very a friend like be are you guys hearing this are you guys are we hearing the same thing because this is exceptional and the music is amazing unafraid unafraid the fact that she's so young and growing up in front of everyone's eyes she was
younger than me when she started so the fact that she's growing up and she's daring enough to be like I'm going to do what I want to do and I don't care I'm fearless her and her and Phineas have an amazing relationship the fact that it's so strong that you can hear it through the songs that they make and and what I talk to her age means nothing when it
comes down to artistic quality but I'm like if you're making this music at the age of 17 what are you gonna make at 20 mm-hmm so I'm thinking of the long run of her and I've I've thought that since the moment that I met her I thought about the long run I'm like she is going to be a superstar and the fact that I get to be living in the same era as
Billie Alice as a blessing for me because then it also charges my artistic qualities of myself because I'm like if she's making music this good I gotta make great music too you know and it's not necessarily it's it's not even a competition it's inspiration of course of course yeah absolutely you get pushed by each other that's the game and if she taught such a sweet story the
first time we spoke about you before you played your collaboration together you'll do it it's just like man I just felt like I'd known him like forever yeah and there was and a lot of people say that about you and I get the feeling that you've obviously a very generous collaborator I wonder whether or not you've entered it especially with this out and coming now whether you've
entered into the era of no and it can be respectfully no or it can be you know I love you as a person but no the era of no is important and whether you've started to say no oh yeah I've said no to a lot of difficult things and I mean just because it's a no for now doesn't mean that it's enough forever and it's never in bad intent it's more about mental health because I'm like I
could make a hundred songs at the end of the day but I don't want to tire myself out and I don't want to put myself through anything and I love my age I love being my age I love 20:21 I love this era of me and I love my freedom in that in that sense that I get to share this time and share all these rewards with my friends and I want to make sure that I constantly have that
time I don't want to take that away but I bring them everywhere anyway where I'm going I bring my friends with me on the road I would so that was the ultimate like if you get to a point where you have creative freedom and you have a little bit of money and a little bit of resource a little bit of support and why wouldn't you bring your friends and and
because the other people that know and understand you and you would absolutely maintain a similar standard of quality because otherwise you wouldn't be friends in the first place yeah they keep you saying they keep you grounded they keep you you yeah I don't want to lose myself in this I keep thinking about how if you're nearly 21 right that's not recording right now it's like
days away yeah and I think like wow the 17 year old and you would have been thinking because we all plan for our 21 it's probably the first major milestone we get up puberty and so you're sitting there thinking like okay man one day I gotta make sure I have my 20 21st birthday ever your 21st birthday is so different to what you thought it was gonna be yeah but what's crazy is what's
crazy is about turning 21 I'm still going to be acting and still going to be giving the energy to my friends and it's reciprocated just as well as if I wasn't in this position to have a crazy party for me I hate parties thank parties make me nervous because I saw you in your party last year and you were in the corner just like Hello yeah I hate parties but luckily I get to just
go into this 21 to this new door to life with so many people that I love and I get to share that that amount of energy with them in that moment and and the comfort of my own home yeses it's amazing I'm glad that I get to go into 21 with the people that I have around me and it's a blessing it's a blessing to be at this stage of my life at this age the reason we're here
is because you have this new album oh yeah you know where you have what is the kind of as of right now what shape is the project done is the album and the album is almost done mm-hmm like as almost as almost can be almost but now it's kind of just tightening things up and making sure things are just in an amazing pick a place for me me doing my
job of making sure all my vocals are recorded mm-hmm the production is really going to be what I learned with Sun City is I've really really dived into production of a body of work in its entirety from the moment that it starts to the end yeah I want to make sure everything is as seamless as possible I want to make sure all the songs are in the right place I want to make sure that
every moment has its moment so I feel really good about the songs that I'm making but I'm gonna feel even better when the production is in a place where I'm like oh my god this is it we did exactly what we wanted to do I've been working on this album since I would say early 2018 after I made Sun City I started making my favorite songs after I after I you know went into Sun City like
okay I gotta be this level of experiments were but at the same time just myself and everything and I really opened the door for me to create things that wouldn't have created before either Sun City it was a pivotal moment for me so now the album is from songs old and new earth for the the common thread is very cohesive and the message behind the album I really
believe that people will genuinely feel it what is it it's all about for me the album's called free spirit and it's about the path before and after you find your your sense of freedom and is freedom even a real thing in it was just my my question on freedom I'm like as much as I want to be a free spirit I don't feel like I will ever truly be a free spirit because there's so many
things that restrict me whether it's the job that I I wanted on this I wondered about whether like the success of American teen kept you at American teen while your friends go off and have a normal or like a lie outside they move on in a way they grow in a way that you can't yeah they grow in a way that I can I'm watching them grow in front of me huh and I'm seeing them go through their
first and I'm seeing them go through their college experience experiences and I'm seeing them go through life and I'm aging differently and I had to grow up after American teen but still I felt so restricted and so closed in so it was really me having conversations with myself and being honest with myself like I said it's like well freedom really exists to me to an extent but overall I
don't really feel like I'll ever be free again v when you see your friends going out and kind of just just mild every healthy envy watching them live the life that the pot that you are on at one point writing American teen that was you and your friends with the same dreams on the same journey to a degree it's crazy how an amusement park can be the funnest
thing one year and then the next year it's an anxiety attack so this album was a way for you to write about that and to experience that being unable to experience it yeah 18 is a pivotal year for you but 21 is so it's two and they're two completely different experiences eighteen is your first step of adulthood now you're just like okay you're 21 and you all right
it's go time you can do everything not you can drink you can buy weed yeah but it's it's gonna be it's gonna be cool and it yeah it does touch on American teen but at the same time it's just on steroids who who he worked with on this record who are some of the people that helped me make it okay started it with John Hill and dizzy my friends John Mayer actually walked in here yesterday
and I played him that song and then he ran got his guitar that's my name yes man yeah instead it's just my oh man yeah he just shows up on all the rights it's like there could be the best thing going on to somewhere in the land and it's like hi I'm John Mayer he's like yeah he put the guitar strums and how was that watching that happen it was wild yeah it was wild and it was
just really cool that he liked the song you know I was like why he's got great taste he's got great taste I was like wow he really really likes his song they do the mayor face he bit the mayor like hey thank you the bed was rocking he was in it and yeah he's got the man face man he was it was it was amazing the last you know what's funny you call you a free
spirit and that it I can see how the concept works off the back of American teen yeah but it's almost sounds to me like you've been a process trying to get to that place yourself yeah yeah there are creating all these records like I said it's just a process of searching or fighting freedom to realize does it really exist in to what extent does it
exist and where does it really come from does it come from your mentality or does it necessarily come from your surroundings and how do you relax I'd smoke and share with my friends and I watch cartoons watch so many cartoons for me I feel like it helps keep me like imaginative I watched cartoons I'll show my friends I love being around my friends and yeah I'll come here and I'll
make these records and I realize that it's a side of my life that I keep to this side and I keep my regular life to that that side a lot of these veterans are very or a lot of these songs on the record are very they're just honest they're just real and it's just like like I said I felt like American teen was so innocent and so like I touched on troubles but I'm like I go through
everything a human ghost do we all go through the same things you know for me although it's called free spirit it's definitely so dark it's it's dark but it's not too dark way it's like ah like dragging I'm so sad it's more just like I'm in pain you're in pain the doctors are in pain these are dark times we are this is a coming-of-age we are finding ourselves the roughest years of your
life around this time from 18 to 21 because you've really got it and not me people still go through it people still go through troubles or finding themselves luckily I get to find myself through these records I get to be a you know I get to experiment I get to go from one side where it's super funky dance disco to like that words so soulful to like R&B pop like very like
early 2000 talk you know influence from like the 70s to like now it's just it's if there's so much but it's really it's really me it's really myself you'll be done by Coachella yeah it would be out but it'll be out by cuchara yeah and Coachella in every event diary especially when you're coming with something new you pick those moments whether it's a Glastonbury yeah
shower or whatever it's gonna be where you get to show the world what you're thinking at that moment in time is the will Coachella feel to some degree like a coming-out for the free spirit your own yeah Coachella will be so free spare it'll be so literally everything all the plans what what I'm doing you know that will coincide with the album is just so free
spirit and I'm just ready for this area I'm ready for this era I'm ready because it's so mature you know is it all you know collaborations on the record it's John Mayer at this point is just all me which is crazy because American teen was just on me I don't know maybe I'll you know contact someone to kind of fill in the gaps and take songs to the next level I would love to have a rapper
on it who you love him right now I would love J Cole we made him love that I have man I love just how you can literally picture and imagine everything that he's saying is if we were there in that moment and he's his storytelling is really really really amazing so yeah yeah that that could be cool for that I know maybe that happens maybe we'll send
it over fly it over to him but it's clearly or you but it's it's got that playful melodic storytelling the ed Sheeran does really well yeah you know it's super playful super Dancy super like a very like Club like have you guys ever done anything you would crush together this is wicked day - Wow that's called investigative journalism my friend that's what that's called you are welcome