Tinashe made her major debut in 2014 with her breakout single “2 On” featuring Schoolboy Q. The DJ Mustard produced song went on to becoming certified platinum by RIAA last November.While Tinashe’s debut album contained mostly slow and mid-tempo songs, the Los Angeles native is looking to increase the tempo on her sophomore project.
LISTEN: Tinashe Feat. Dej Loaf – “All Hands On Deck (Remix)”
So far, the RCA Records signee has enlisted Dr. Luke and Max Martin to produce her next project. In an interview with SPIN, the burgeoning singer speaks on her plans for her second album.
Read excerpts from Tinashe’s interview below.
On her lessons learned from Aquarius…
“With this album, I have a very much clearer direction going into it of what I wanted as opposed to just shooting darts at the wall. [With Aquarius], I knew what I wanted to do, but everybody that I was working with really had no clue who I was or what I wanted to do. They came up with a lot of stuff that wasn’t necessarily true to me. What I’ve learned with this second album is to not waste time making records that aren’t going to end up on the project. Don’t waste time spending the first day getting to know the producer and just cutting whatever they want. I used to do stuff like that, breaking the ice, and we would end up with a lot of material that I didn’t necessarily want in the end.”
On the sound of the album…
“I’ve definitely created a sound, and I’m not trying to just abandon that or the fan base that I’ve created doing that type of music. [With this album], I’d like to play with some more tempos, to not have it all be in the mid-tempo range even though a lot of my music is. It’s been an adventure for me to figure out how to do my version of an uptempo, because the fastest song I’ve kind of ever really put out is ‘2 On,’ which is really only kind of like an upper/mid, 95-beat jam. I’m not really interested in doing like, down-the-middle EDM songs, but I’d like to figure out how to do that uptempo. I’m definitely trying to make songs that are hooky enough to cross over.”
On working with Dr. Luke…
“I’ve actually been in the studio with him for five days total and we’ve made a handful of records. The momentum felt really cool. With the second album, you always want to push it forward and I think that that one thing I was looking for from him was those big hooks, those super catchy, huge, smash hooks while still integrating that into what I do.”
Tinashe will join Nicki Minaj’s Pinkprint Tour this summer along with Meek Mill, Rae Sremmurd and Dej Loaf. Last week, Nicki teased a possible collaboration with Tinashe and Dej Loaf. “Hmmmmm shld I put tinashe and Dej loaf on this song and release it for #ThePinkprintTOUR??? Hmmmmm *thinkin out loud *,” she tweeted.
(Source: SPIN)