Tinashe’s not showing any signs of slowing down.
The newcomer released a final video from her debut album ‘Aquarius’ featuring the songs “I Bet” and “Feels Like Vegas” just yesterday, and now she’s announced her sophomore LP, Joyride.
She spoke a bit to Rolling Stone about the project and the Boi-1da-produced first single, “Party Favors.”
Why name the album Joyride?
I always had it in the back of my head, but it started to become more and more relevant to my current state of my career. With all this traveling I’ve done this past year and everything I’ve gone through, it just really feels like an adventure, a journey, a ride.
A lot of the focus in the album teaser is on being heard, with you saying “Motherfuckers, I can’t be ignored.” What does that mean in terms of the album?
I feel like I’ve been working really hard this year at developing a fan base, a touring base. I’m continuing to grow, but you always feel like you’re a little bit underappreciated, undervalued. Especially for me, it’s exciting to have new music and to give people a chance to rediscover me again.
It’s appropriate that with that theme, you just wrapped up a tour with Nicki Minaj, whose last album was very focused on the idea of being heard as an artist and person. What did you learn from her while on tour?
With Nicki, I can relate to her sense of wanting to get up there and have her platform and say her piece and be her own person. The biggest takeaway for me was that unwavering sense of confidence and badassness and just knowing that you’re the shit is something that I admire.
What’s changed for you in the process of making this album?
A big part of it was the focus going into it, which was that we weren’t going to make a lot of songs, and it wasn’t going to be so experimental. We definitely knew what we wanted going in, and we were a lot more efficient in achieving it. I have so much other stuff going on that we really didn’t have any other options!
I think it’s also important for me to maintain my authenticity, and I think my fans are going to hope to see that I’ve recorded some songs in my home bedroom [as had been done for Aquarius]. I made a genuine effort to record certain songs and create material in my room. It was definitely different to [juggle] a touring schedule and a creative schedule, but it’s something that I definitely had to just work through and work on and push myself to work even harder and be even more focused.
The list of producers on this album is so diverse, everyone from Max Martin to Dev Hynes. What was it like to shift gears from working with someone like Dr. Luke to someone like Boi-1da?
I have so many sides to me and things that I want to represent. Working with all of those producers is a search to be versatile and being versatile. It’s always interesting navigating working with all these very different producers — you have to learn how to work with each of them individually, but that’s part of the fun and the process of recording.
One of the songs that stood out to me was the Boi-1da-produced “Party Favors,” which goes even harder than your past club songs like “2 On” and “All Hands on Deck.”
“Party Favors” is one of my favorites, and that will be the first song that we will drop within the next week or so, and it’ll be the first taste of the album everyone will get which is exciting. It’s a very in-your-face first impression.
Check out the ‘Joyride’ trailer and watch her video for “Bet” and “Feels Like Vegas” below.
