The Weeknd has had incredible success with his sophomore album, Beauty Behind the Madness. Since pulling out of Rihanna’s Anti World Tour, the Canadian artist has been relatively quiet as he’s been working on his follow-up project.
In his cover story with VMAN, The Weeknd opens up about his third album, how Ethiopia influenced his music, the Black Lives Matter movement and much more.
On his new album: “There are new inspirations on this album. The production feels aggressive but still sexy. The Smiths, Bad Brains, Talking Heads, Prince, and DeBarge play roles. We wrote it all in Los Angeles. I think it’ll be the best-sounding album I’ve ever done. It’s hard to label the sound because, when I first came out, nobody would label it R&B. I just want to keep pushing the envelope without it feeling forced.”
On how Ethiopia influences his music: “You hear it mostly in my voice. I’ve been told my singing isn’t conventional. Ethiopian music was the music I grew up on, artists like Tilahun Gessesse, Aster Aweke, and Mahmoud Ahmed. These are my subconscious inspirations. ‘The Hills’ was the first time you actually heard the Ethiopian language in my music. It will definitely be key on this next record.”
On Beauty Behind the Madness: “Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, Beauty Behind the Madness felt like the beginning. My purpose is to make exciting music, and I feel like I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life, so there’s no pressure. Nothing is stopping me from doing what I love to do. I’ve been very intrigued by the film Amadeus. I’ll touch on my relationship with religion a little bit and how it ties into my crazy and materialistic life. I’ll touch base on some recent experiences and past experiences that didn’t make the last album. I wrote some of these songs while recording Beauty Behind the Madness. It’s like a fictional book inspired by true events.”
On Black Lives Matter: “I promised myself that I would never tweet or talk about politics and focus on the music, but I was just so bewildered that we lost more of our people to these senseless police shootings. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are people who can’t or won’t see what Black Lives Matter is trying to accomplish. I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic. It’s an escape, but recently it’s been very hard to ignore, and it’s also been very distracting. Maybe you’ll hear it in my voice, but it is not my forté.”
