[Music] welcome back as you heard Selena Gomez is releasing a brand new app which is called rare we're now joined for part two by her steamed colleagues Justin treinta Julie Michaels great to see light good afternoon this is part of a loyalty crew hell yeah this is part of the crew that if I may say someone who I'm not just be you're honest with me I'll be honest with you up until revival I can't say I was an expert in Selena Gomez as a musician
yeah it was your collaboration as the three of you that really got my attention yeah it was when I felt like oh wow there's something really unique going on here and there's like my favorite kind of subversion which is taking what I thought I knew about
somebody and ripping it to shreds I loved that love - I said that to me 2015 was when it kind of started for me and I wonder what those kind of first days for you guys were like and how you got to a place where you could start to
rip it to shreds I mean I'll just be personally my intro to Selena came from from this little booboo I was in a band for a long time which we've talked about many times but when I first started writing songs with and for other people
she was like the first cloud rider met who was like oh you want to talk about really weird and she and Selena had already worked together and she was like Selena likes to talk about weird too and so then you also just wanted to talk
about real yeah you know what yeah it's so exciting you know for writers like us who want to write only from honest opinions and I think that they made it okay for me you know I don't like going in and felt like I go in and I'm like we
usually talk for hours just about everything right and then usually we pick up things like I think you understand the ways of like a room when it comes to writing it's like the more that we talk about the more detail we go into the more it's easy for us to write
about yeah and I you know obviously it takes the level of for a new level of trust but you are pretty much an open book you'll go any like this is what's happening please help me make art out of my misery yeah basically yeah it was at that point I
think when we had started working it just felt so natural and it felt like they believed in what I was saying and not that anyone around me didn't it just it was able to take it to a place where I was so excited about the music this
meant more you know and I'll and I love revival and what we did with that but then you know transitioning into what we did a lot more stuff to untangle - yeah there's more pain yeah right about yeah I have to ask because you seem really
well and really healthy and I want to and you've got friends in the couch now so you know you've been you've been dealt with some really some real challenges with with your health and after you met Justin and Julia he went
through one of those again in a significant way and and I think she had to ask Justin Julia like when Selena came back to word like came back - right did you notice a difference that you feel there was a change in the way she approached her music after she'd been
faced with that we've always been so close and so honest with each other but I did definitely see you in this album like what you mentioned before that Kurt confidence in like what the album should be and what the music should be your
confidence definitely like she was always like this is what I want to talk about this is what's happening but this time it was like more melodies were coming directly from her more production ideas were coming directly from her so
that that whether that was more journal entries more in full journal answer is it related do you think you think you came out of that going you know I well first off I'm a huge advocate for mental health um I have this dream of mine
that's you know beyond all of this where I think that personally it should be required in schools to be taught dialectical behavior therapy there is something I read where and you know I think it was the 50 is the 14 year old
kids of today have the same anxiety and depression as a 40 year old in the 50s that says so much and I don't know why that perhaps doesn't shake people up a bit to where maybe there should be more of that accessible I am glad that it is
being discussed more I'm glad that we are having the conversation but it does it saved my life yeah 1,000% I need to know yeah and stopping to know that it might have been bigger than something I could control and I think to what Justin was saying it
is it is a huge part of how I was able so release it and let it go and sometimes we would just even write songs that were like just to purge things out and like that's never gonna see the light of day but it's it you know that
verse is not allowed to ever see the things that I love that process I love the fact that you're willing to go in there and kind of clear out the tank before you actually get down to the pure stuff yes well you don't even know
you're doing it you just like okay that's right this thing saying whatever whatever we're saying and then you kind of you finish and you're like okay that was really fun but no one can ever hear that for whatever reason right wait wait
that's a good word fun and we've covered some heavy ground in this right but this is a fun Rick which is fun songs on this Rick it's one cool fun yeah of course it is I mean that's just man okay we'll get to fun in a second but I have to say
like you love words and you love words like that is a perfect marriage and so when you guys first connected and start doing that it must have been fantastic and also to move into this album to like what's one of your favorite songwriting
moments on this record the two of you you think if you can find a common one lose you to love me happened when I had come home from tour it was on Valentine's Day that we wrote it and I think that's probably when I was a powerful moment on Valentine's Day
yeah right and it was also our first time seeing you and so long so I got that I think it was just one of my favorites just because we were all like reunited again yeah and doing it again and we had you being what were you
coming back from it's a treatment center mmm Wow and so when you walked in that room did you have a line or an inkling or an emotion of that you knew you had to cover or did you just let it happen naturally well usually Julia texts me it's kind of
like how it works when everyone's kind of getting in the studio when she asked me I felt it was kind of overdone the the subject and I just said I'm sorry that this is what I'm gonna give you but I'm still not fully done with this she's like got
it and so when I walked in and it was literally just the piano and the chorus and a bit of the first verse and I just like sat there and I tell people this too because it was also such a very raw moment a I had just gotten back but B we
were in the bright daylight you know and that's not normally how you're maybe talking about something like that and then you know Julie had to leave well we did the second verse and then you guys did the bridge yeah what's that without
me but I was like okay we know these lyrics are great for the bridge it's not the outro but like we need your approval on the melody because even though she's the queen of words she also relates some of the best melodies of all time and she
was like yet approved it was very quick I feel like the ones that come the quickest for us are usually the ones that feel the most right cuz we're not overthinking it and we're just in it yeah it's a human album like I said it's
a human album it covers a lot of ground of what it is to kind of feel a lot of things from the very deep right through to the frivolous you know and and there is equally important as each other yeah they can't live deep all the time you go
crazy sometimes you just need to write a song like like crowded room there is this a married couple that I'm friends with they're older and they're awesome and they had told me this story which was really sweet very cheesy but
adorable they do a lot socially so they're in rooms a lot or with a lot of people and one of their things that they do is that they're not always together which I love I admire their like we don't really stay in every moment we go and do our own
thing and throughout the night or day or whatever they're doing they'll just kind of make eye contact and do this and then turn away which means you're you're my number one and it's just a check-in and it's kind of cheesy but I thought that
was so cool and so the the concept of of crowded room and and it feeling you know that it's just you you - it's very romantic and it's fun and then to get black on it was awesome yeah I mean I you've picked your collaborators
brilliantly I mean why did black come to mind I mean apart from being a great melodic writer in a fantastic artist so we we had discussed features and at first I don't I didn't want any yeah we were kind of going through what you know
who would a want to do it but would sound great and compliment for me it's his tone and and and his like it's his voice as well so it's kind of the rapping part but it's the singing so I was blown away when I got his cut cuz obviously they go and do their thing and
so it was awesome except for the Cuddy thing I mean the Cuddy thing sounds like it was far more of an a genuine old-school collaboration yes how did that come about I have to ask him he's one of the cornerstone artists at that
time yes so I went into the studio with Emenike and Madison everyone was kind of saying maybe we should do up-tempo and and I said I don't know let's try something acoustic messed around with that I didn't like that didn't work we
scratched the idea and I kinda got exhausted so I said I want to do something weird like Kid Cudi and I mean under compliment then I didn't know what that was gonna be so we were listening to different sounds but I I just had that melody when they were saying what's
what does that mean you know and I'm like something where he's he's so good at storytelling but changing it up with every line it almost has a character to it and so that was when he does a very distinctive melodramatic sensitive yeah
I mean it's very there you know you know you're listening to you know that the melody came about where it has that kind of singsong like playground type of chorus and so we had nothing to it it was just that then we did the verses and
my ANR came in I said this is who inspired it and you know how do you like it I was really excited about it and without my permission um which will never happen again because I was I have a major fear of rejection and so I think they know that I also
don't it's not take advantage it's just like I'm scared to ask artists especially certain artists that are particular so someone sent the record to his management apparently he had heard it that exact day and he loved it so
then they told me and I remember exactly how it went down I was like why it's just like oh my gosh just did no you're kidding and then I was like how how the hell did he know and then it was that moment where I found out and it was kind
of like yes okay amazing I'm so excited and just so quiet no there was a bit of just I was a little annoyed but it was perfect and so he wanted to have a phone call and that's when I had told him as far as production wise I said I would
trust you on this you know I've built this part up and if you like it I know kind of of course I know your ability and what you can see so I'd actually love to know what you feel and hear what you feel for the record then he came to LA and we were in
the studio for two days it was very very scary at one point because giving cutting notes is like the scariest thing in the world to me but I had ideas for the intro and stuff and his response to that made me feels so comfortable because it ended up
working and it was so great that it happened that way surely you can finish off an experience like that and it gets you somewhere closer to not being so scared to ask trust in yourself more because you've got two of the best riders in the world
on your team and you got Cuddy jack way back in Vegas is that too much she doesn't like compliments I love them by the way one of the greatest songwriters of our generation and his sidekick on your team it's kind of a I guess I'm
trying to get it and I don't want to become across as overly concern or patronizing but yeah through all the achievements of your life and all the work you've done the work and everything that journey you've been on 227 a very
pivotal year an important year surely now you can think about this album and the kind of people that ride for you on this album and and want to be a part of it based on the quality the music but also just what an honest and genuine
person you are does that resonate now are you able to acknowledge and appreciate that I think that's how I've continued to have a career is that I'm very okay with speaking about that speaking about myself through that I think that's truly what has sustained me
and I don't do it purposefully I'd do it because it's necessary for me I came from Disney who I have the utmost respect for and has you know that they changed my life but when you're coming from a machine like that you end up
losing a bit of that vulnerability because you are meant to carry something which is carrying that brand and making sure that you are being a respectful person that families are okay with and that kids can look up to and so I I had
dealt with that for so long that I had been conditioned and one I chose to do spring breakers that was a huge moment you know and I it's very controversial and you know it was it was definitely one of those moments but it just it slowly happened
where I didn't want to have to be okay I needed to say something because it got to a point where everyone else was saying something and that would drive me crazy so that's why I'm always really adamant by saying if it doesn't come
directly from me it's definitely most of the time 90% of the time not sure I was able to gain control of that and I think that's when everything real started happening for me and good for you was the starting point for music in that world without
sacrificing vulnerability is the important point and that's why that song is so important on the record yep it's it's in your album to me deliberately it's the centerpiece of doubt my thing that's all thank you and
I think that that that message that you're saying there of like all right even through all of that like I'm still gonna be that person that's gonna lay it on the line right but now I have expectations where it's like if I were to do this or if I were
to give you are you strong enough are you capable of being someone that's gonna be in my life that's how I approach things now and I'm not being conceited I'm saying it's actually an honor to be with me because I think I'm a great person and I love
people deeply and I won't tolerate ever being treated the way that I had been that's the song it's not just me being like I'm still vulnerable it's like well I am but I need these things for you to get that from me you