The Raw Truth Behind Halsey’s Badlands Era
Halsey sat down with Zane Lowe for Apple Music to reflect on their early music career with the Badlands album and the anniversary tour.
I’m so proud of this album. I think a lot of people, like, you know, they try to distance themselves from their early work, and I think I certainly did for a period of time. You know, it felt like an unwanted reminder of myself before I had grown or before I had figured out, I guess, before I learned the rules. You know. And so in the time where I was very conscious of the rules, the time before the rules was jarring — and then I very quickly learned that the rules mean absolutely nothing and there’s no reason to pay attention to them. In which case, you know, Badlands then became just became so beloved to me.
Despite fans requesting another record like Badlands, which was released in 2015, Halsey says that it couldn’t be done because they’re in a different space mentally now when it comes to that growth and levels of naivety and courage. They describe the album as being from a time when they thought they were totally grown up, but in retrospect, that was not the case.
Halsey joked that they didn’t know how to do “anything” in the beginning of their career when looking back on the first interview with Zane Lowe, but then gives a very real look into their start into the music industry.
This is what I need people to understand about Badlands, okay? I’m gonna get real with you for a second. I need everyone to understand I didn’t know how to do anything. I was lying. I was f***ing lying. I was lying. I didn’t know anything. They were sending me out on red carpets next to celebrities that I had posters of on my bedroom wall. And I had like, you know, I had clothes from my bedroom closet on. No one had ever taken my picture before. I didn’t know how to smile and hold my body. I didn’t know anything.
You know, I got ready today and I got, like, my special lotion for the camera and the eye drops that make my eyes look all white and sparkly and I know how to do my makeup and I know how to do the thing. It’s like 10 years of having to learn that. All these tricks that everybody has — I got out there; I wasn’t media trained. I was dirty. I was poor. I didn’t know anything. I needed dental work done. I wouldn’t show this side of my face when I smiled in pictures ’cause I was missing teeth that were visible ’cause I grew up poor. I didn’t have access to dental work like health care. Like, I hadn’t seen a doctor in years and I’m walking red carpets next to, like, Beyoncé.
At 51: 24, Halsey points out they can’t make an album right now because The Great Impersonator didn’t perform as the same level of the Manic album. While there’s not new album in the making, Halsey is going out on tour to celebrate the anniversary of Badlands.
Plus, Halsey just released NEW videos for “Gasoline” and “Drive” from the Badlands album 10 years after their release complete with a throwback to the teal blue hair from that era.