Adele: The '30' Interview | Apple Music

this is all the vinyl they pressed before you got involved yeah absolutely in the other room it's just all mine hi how are you good to see you nice to see you for me music was like it was really important especially when my parents went through divorce and stuff it became this place where i sort of immersed myself and it really fostered my imagination and it kind of felt like it was my friend was it the same for you did you lean into it yeah very very much um i was an only child and i was lonely a lot of my childhood whether it be like actually or just felt it and i was just always very available to the way that music made me feel from a very very young age like you know i was lucky that my mum was really into music and she was so young when she had me that she was still at that point of being somewhat fanatical about music like you know we're an artist and that really rubbed off on me it was the most reliable friend i've ever had in my life like you know there is a song for every emotion there is a song for every feeling and it's just that's just like consistency so what's the song that reminds you of your mum gosh it's probably a jeff buckley song oh my god yeah and did jeff rub off on you oh yeah bloody hell yeah and his singing style as well like you know he had such a soulful voice i hear it in 19. yes i would say i was i would agree with that um yeah that whole grace album she was she loved him and she obviously loved him as well that's an emotional one that's an emotional one to connect to a parent because jeff didn't you know he wasn't throwing maladies and emotions around for free yeah they definitely came at a cost for the listener and you have to be in a space where you're drawn into his word i met him once did you read i interviewed him you interviewed him interviewed him when oh my gosh i was wow in auckland yeah in a bar in ponsonby and it was one of the last tours he's doing tours he was out doing shows funny guy very self-appreciating that was was he touring the record then i'm trying to think i mean i was in new york when i found out that he passed away which would have been 1997 so it must have been 96. yeah i remember when he died my mum was really sad oh my gosh she was so sad my mum was sad i remember when freddie mercury died as well because my mum was really sad and the uk was just i mean the world was devastated but i didn't even know the world existed at that age of age but you see it through the eyes of your appearance yeah very much but i think my mum's very similar to me like i think that she has this she just you know has a sadness in her just in general i think some people are just like that um but she loves music there was always music there was always music like more music playing in my house when i was little than there is now with me being an actual artist um yeah she loves it she loves music very much but also susan vega she um she it was a freeze tag he used to be the lullaby that she sing to me if i couldn't sleep like we go to the playground in the winter time like it was just yeah she reminds me of her as well well cheers yes cheers i've got a straw because of me lippy it's good to see you and welcome back oh fine how's it all felt i mean i didn't get a chance to really see you when it was all happening and from the minute easy on me came out and that sort of month leading up to the album how did it how did it feel um fell i wanted it to come out last year obviously and when i drunkedly announced it at my best friend's wedding on the stage best announcing it to anyone that already pretty much knew anyway like who the did i think i was and it would have been done by then i hadn't done the orchestras yet and i hadn't done like finalized all of my bvs and stuff like that but it would have had the world not shut down and it was like it's such a it's such a like integral piece to my life story over the last few years that i wanted to come out because when it does come out it's the final it's the final door closing on that chapter of my life so it feels like it's dragged out for me a little bit i wanted to ask you quickly about the shows you did as well leading up to the release of the record because we spoke over there about the intensity of standing on top of a mountain in the middle of los angeles probably the highest point in a freezing cold day with helicopters over here singing for the first time in front of that audience yeah it was wild yeah i enjoyed it but also i never enjoyed my first thing because it's so nerve-wracking like you're on fire but what was incredible was so many of my friends that you know that i've made in la who really really held my hand over the last few years and have been so loyal to me don't know me as a singer so i moved here after my last tour so i haven't done anything like i haven't literally haven't worked a day in my life since i've since i met them sort of thing so they were all just like oh the is that like you know i remember like seeing them like you know it's just a very refined version of me you know because no one needs to have like the full love you just went ahead and picked people who had never seen you live never yeah but it was it was it was it was it was great i enjoyed it once it was over was there something cathartic about being able to step on stage again and just know that if the last time that you attempted to play a show wasn't wembley and it wasn't those shows and it wasn't that moment and you could just move past that again yes very much so yeah um and it felt like a very safe size you know i wanted it to be small it wasn't for covert or anything like that we were allowed more people i wanted a certain crowd like you know people that i knew and stuff like that the people that were celebrities in the crowd are people i really admire and respect like or no like you know so it was amazing like and i met lizzo years ago like oh my gosh she was late she was she was well she i think she was getting a drink or something then she was standing there looking like a sort of tropical bird in that outfit just like dressed fabulous perfect yeah i haven't known her for years and when we first met it was she was making her first record but she wasn't she hadn't put it out or anything yet and she was a big fan like you know and i i remembered her very very clearly and then obviously like she's such a good girl i love her she's the best she really really is but yeah so i'm glad it was a safe place it's the same as me making my album i worked with a lot fewer people than i normally do and it was all with people i knew other than flo who the first time i met him i felt like i'd known him my whole life i wondered how someone makes it into that circle because you're right it's greg it's tobias it's max um you know i'm probably missing a couple of people we'll get to them because we're going to go through the songs but yeah you know for flow to come in we all know his work he's incredible he's worked with little sims you know salt whatever yeah you know he's got an incredible ear for sound and he makes things down vintage but modern so i know you would have been implanted that's how i knew about floating michael of course thank you and michael also opened for me on the 21 tour that's right so that was my first you know thing and obviously i worked with danger mouse yeah on 25 and me and brian are really good friends but that's what the minute i realized he was from like tottenham from north london i wouldn't stop talking to him like you know we've got no work done we were doing a session with brian in new york but i was frazzled it was only a couple of months after i left my marriage and we were just we just got on so well but he could feel that something was wrong he knew that something dark was happening in me and stuff like that but also just loved that i was just being like one thing it's similar it just opened up you know i was dying for someone to ask me how i was but no one knew so they wouldn't necessarily do it and because he was a north londoner of the same age and stuff like that it was just very very very natural and then i went back to the uk for the summer and i texted jonathan and i was like i want to work with flo like just me and him in a room so we went to metropolis and um love is a game started yeah but he was like you know he's also an integral part to my survival emotionally over the last few years like he's been so careful with me you know like it was really really amazing but other than that like keeping it with people i knew felt safe to me because i knew i could tell them things and it wouldn't leave the studio but also they'd been through it with me you know same as like i didn't really want to do you know another big interview after doing my vogue pieces but you and cara were there for me when it was all going down you know so it's like as long as i'm doing things that make me feel safe in those i'm then i'm up for doing it like you know because it's um i feel like you know what what i've done and the record i'm putting out you know when i say dangerous i don't mean it's like you know actually dangerous but it's i go places on it it's vulnerability yeah which i think is dangerous to do at my level of fame because the press will always it's so funny though isn't it because i feel like you've got past that construct a bit listening to this recording that that fear that maybe was around when we when we hung out during 25 and had a similar conversation as well there's a lot going on and it was a lot you were very protective and understandably so but there's a there's a kind of a freedom in the way that you're moving now and this album is clearly essential to that when i listen to it start to finish it's hard not to see it as a timeline through the whole experience i mean to the point where you know strangers by nature okay i'm ready now yeah it's a meditation that song is so beautiful it's like a private message to you and your heart mm-hmm uh explaining to yourselves that you know you'll see this through yeah and that it's not your fault and not anyone else's fault it's just the way it is strange is by nature yeah i also think it reminds me i'd watch the judy garland biopic and i remember like thinking why did everyone stop writing such incredible melodies cadences and harmonies and blah blah blah and obviously then i went to the studio with ludwig who that is his vibe and um 808. but he was playing these chords i've never heard yeah in my life let alone like in real time in the room and um and i just just sang that line out i didn't even have it i just went i'll be taking flowers to the cemetery with my heart and he was like you're right you know what's going on and um it was yeah it was it was it reminds me of when you know like mary poppins goes into color or something like that it's just you have no idea where it's going you know keyboard yeah but it's just and i love that song and i didn't know if i should have it for my album or if i should give it to someone as a song who else could sing there well no i'd just be like okay sample it because it sounds so old school it sounds like it's from a movie or like you know it's you know so i was i messed around with that idea for a while but it was it's too hard it was too hard for them but i just don't know where this would really fit on my album because it basically becomes your song like it'll be on my album i'm like i don't do your album no i'm like you know so it was it was i'm glad i kept it because it really opens the album well and then it goes into easy on me which we've all gotten to know and love and is still as of the time of filming this number one and i know man three weeks yeah but you stream music right you use streaming services to listen to music i will if it's a random thing that i've never heard as a reference that's where i found the aerial gardener stuff for my album your first ever collaboration on an album i know it's so magic that moment oh yeah it is it's just it's also just cheeky light-hearted it sort of shows me where it's gonna go oh yeah for sure oh yeah give me a jazz called and a beat any day but yeah right i'm ready oh yeah little selection vibes it's just it's just great i can't wait i can't wait for the other albums i'm gonna make i'm excited hold the press i love that fact cause you never know like i feel i felt like after 25 and maybe i just was looking too deep into it i didn't know what all of this meant to you i knew that you i still don't know what it means to me well i know you love being a singer and loving a songwriter and love making things but had it kind of strayed away from why you got into it in the first place was it starting to drift away a little bit oh yeah very much i don't i don't think there's any expectation of sincerity left in music from artists and i believe that artists are sincere and i think to be an artist like an actual artist um it's it comes from deep within us that and it's it's a necessity that we have to put it out and i understand being an artist as a singer or a writer it could be a painter it could be a photographer it could be you know a chef an architect or someone that's creating something you know and i just feel like it's just a transaction now that's a trade yeah and i don't that's not why i got into music it's just not my vibe but i'm not in it long enough at a time for it to really take me off of music at all like you know um if i was doing this every year i mean i'd just i'd just be a zombie i think you know but i definitely did lose my connection with my own music and you know with how it made me feel and stuff like that and but it came back to me on this album because i needed it so badly that's the other thing as we were wrapping it up with the mixing and all of that the conversation the tick tock came up a lot right so i'm like tickle tickle hoo like but they're like you know we've got to make sure these 14 year olds know who you are i'm like but they've all got mums they've all got mums and i've definitely been growing up listening to my music these foot really roles and stuff like that but it was like if everyone's making music for the tick tock who's making the music for my generation who's making the music for my peers i will do that job gladly i'd rather cater to people that have like are on my level in terms of like the amount of time we've spent on earth and all the things we've been through then i don't want 12 year olds listening to this record it's a bit too deep but the 30 and four-year-olds are all committing to themselves and doing therapy that's my vibe yeah because that's what i was doing yeah you know so i'm more concerned with how this record can help them i'm not i'm not saying i mean angel's not a fan of mine but he's just like he thinks that rolling in the deep is that what you know about rolling down in the deeper that is not the original rolling in the deep what are you talking about yeah there's got to be a match up though but i love it but he's like okay great you know whatever he doesn't really care it's great so i'm trying to put the timeline together so easy on me was the first thing you laid down for the record but was had you moved on past your marriage by that point or did that reveal something to you no no yeah we already we'd already broken up yeah yeah yeah yeah so what did that song remember we broke up earlier than everyone thought yeah yeah that's right and so that song revealed itself to you and set you on the journey and um and i think about your albums and i think about what they represent in a singularity and so this is where i sort of put myself out on the ledge but to me 19 is kind of like about you and 21 is kind of about her yeah and 25 is kind of about we yeah and i feel like dirty is about me yes for sure yeah i'd agree with that yeah i like that observation yeah you her yeah that's me yeah me right it's time yeah and so if every album has a purpose who is this album for aside from yourself for my son yeah for angelo yeah it reveals itself really beautifully in this third song but it's heartbreaking yeah um where were you when you recorded that song and and what did it take to reveal itself that song for you because it's incredibly open and and honest i was in l.a i was in la and i went to greg's house to write it um and i didn't know what kind of vibe i wanted to get but i knew i had to tell his story in a song because it was clear that he was feeling it even though i thought i was doing a very good job of being like everything's fine like you know but i also knew i wasn't being as present you know you know i was present like in real life but like i just wasn't really there i was just so consumed by so many things to be honest with you so many different feelings and um he plucked up the courage just to very articulately say to me you're basically a ghost like you might as well not be here like you know when he said i can't see you and i'm like what kind of po po is that like you know but for him you know to be little and say i can't see you to my face broke my heart and i just you know that was definitely one of the things i was most scared of when you know i i left you know i didn't leave my family but left that structure was just like what if he hates me forever you know and it didn't take him long to ask me why we weren't together and you know i said i i left you know it wasn't your dad and stuff like that and it's a lot for him like you know and i just feel like him sticking with me not asking to not stay at my house not asking to not spend time with me still always saying is that all going to see my mom now like you know and stuff like that meant that he was being my friend and he had some empathy for me so i really felt like his that side of his story but through myself you know i can't tell his story actually for him can't put yourself in his shoe yeah but i can i can speak about where he was finding himself in it and and it was really really beautiful and while i was writing it i mean i just remember thinking of any child that's been through divorce or any person that has been through a divorce themselves or anyone that wants to leave a relationship and never will or um i thought about all of them because my divorce really humanized my parents for me and that song writing it made me just be like kind of get over things that my own parents did or didn't do for me like you know and we all have our own expectations of our parents you know once we become a parent ourselves i feel like we tend to be like oh there's a job being reality it's ours and then yeah and then you're like yeah of course it was just i just i feel like it was it was important for me to to tell angelo's story yeah and be like it was hard and i i wasn't doing a very good job at the most wild moment of his life probably i mean first of all the music and the accompaniment and i didn't i knew i wanted to go and wrap i didn't know what i wanted the song to sound like you know and i just started doing these oohs along with some chords she was a piano and greg was that sort of called that oh you know yeah and they just started taking shape yeah i mean it's it's so beautifully created that when you hear the voice notes which are so at times so heartbreaking i mean that last couple of minutes of the innadel was just like for someone who obviously i mean i can say this i don't kill anything i mean i care about you know that we're friends and to hear you in that state like that yeah is tough um where had you been the night before how hungover were you no no i this is the thing i wasn't really going out very much i was i put angela to bed and it would be like i could finally sort of let out this gasp of trying to hold all these things in and again thinking i was doing a good job and i you know i wasn't but it felt like i was doing you know acting out the opposite of how i was feeling so i'd put him to bed and once i knew he's asleep i'd take this gasp and then when it got late enough i'd stay up late to call my friend my best friends back in england yeah so i'd be up all night like you know and i wasn't always drinking because you know on my days of angela i take him to school and stuff like that i drive him and some of that but it was just i've been i was up to about four or five drinking that night and or that morning rather and um when i was going to bed the night after when i recorded them when i sent that voicemail to someone called my best friend i just had this out of body experience of an anxiety attack and no one answered their phone you know yeah which isn't their job to answer the phone at four in the morning but it's funny isn't it you know it's it's oh but i was trying my therapist told me to document things that i i wondered why you did it yeah well the conversations around you i mean you know you've got they're older now but you've got kids and they they love to talk at bedtime like they want to chat about their whole existence right before bed um because they don't want to go to bed but also because they've got nothing to distract them and stuff and then so i'd get paranoid that i might speak to him like he's an adult or something like that you know about things so then that would also bring on my anxiety somewhere else so my therapist is like just start voice recording them now if you do get paranoid about what you might have said you can listen back and reassure yourself and i never did overstep the line with things that i was telling angelo no matter what his questions were you know i was really inspired by um tyler the creator's album because he had all these voice notes and you know stuff like that and skepta did it as well with ignorance as bliss and it just it felt very like they were in the room you know when i when i'd hear those on their records so that was definitely one of the reasons i put it on it it leads beautifully into um cry hard out which is like you know one of those moments where the outpouring is healthy and yeah and i look i collect cries by the way they're events to me they're like great dinners or concerts or whatever i can remember a couple of them i could be happy or sad but i can't remember all of mine what helps you what helps you get there do you have things to cry yeah oh babes anything oh my god i mean i've nearly welled up a minute go talk about angelo it could be an absolute pure act of kindness right that either happens to me or that i can do something else sometimes or i'll just see on the street at the car um it could be i was bawling my eyes out on my flight back i watched euphoria cry my eyes out watched the cbs special with me cried my eyes out but it wasn't even sadness i was just like oh thank god like you know it's i'm like getting it all out of the way and anything anything so my favorite is when you laugh so hard it turns into tears but sad tears yeah like you know it triggers something in you and i cry all the time yeah i love that song and i love what it represents the idea of cleaning your face because yes you know i could be an ugly crier oh yeah the older i'm getting i've got this vein that comes out in the middle of my forehead it drives me insane you know and my family always like you know you gotta let that go without it it comes up when it comes up and it hits you when you least expect it but i like to collect them i really i mean i welcome it at first i thought you meant you like collected your tears but also what i like about it is if you want to listen to the lyrics it's clear that it's about depression yeah but if you don't want to just like a little it's a vibe a little vibe it's you and your rhythm yes exactly yeah um but it was sometimes it got so ridiculous how unwilling i was to leave the house or like you know i'd cancel my friends coming at one or at four to just come and check on me and like they cut they come at 4am because i've been sleeping all day because i've been depressed and i'm on the floor like like the world has ended like the world not my world like the actual world had ended i'm a floor cry and after a while they'd come and just laugh at me just being like you kneel give it a break like it's not the actual world it's just your world like it got you know one time one of my best friends here maybe four or five hours i was like like just it was the end for me and she went well my husband died she's like you left your husband she was like so i'm gonna need you to wrap this up now i want you to go and have a shower and you're going out tour you'll go to the gym in the morning you know you're gonna go you're gonna go and get your stuff done and it was a real moment for me i left my husband voluntarily and here i was paralyzed and her husband died and she never dropped the ball that's real friendship real friendship that's real friendship you talk about if you want to you can listen to the lyrics and recognize the theme of that song or you can dance and that's kind of that suite of songs because it goes into omg yep and can i get it yeah which is like ah she's out yeah she's having a good time but they're not they're vulnerable songs that are that are rejecting dependency yes to me yeah absolutely yeah um going into oh my god that was like the first time where i was like able to like brush my teeth like actually like get ready to like exist in the real world and be like a valuable member of society and i remember i went out it was my friend's birthday and i actually had a really nice time like you know but then they were because i'm in their labor and you know i've never you know i've never been this well known and been single so like i had you know i was with someone most of 19 yeah and then i was in the studio i wasn't with anyone but in the studio writing about you know who that album was about and then straight after 21 i got with simon yeah you know so i hadn't been so i didn't i don't i i how like dating as a grown-up really yeah but also everyone knowing who i am yeah well first of all dating so i didn't want to date anyone what a i wasn't interested in men at all but what it was was that it would be like i know i was at my friend's birthday party and people that i'd either just met in la since i moved there or wherever i was always married i was always taken suddenly were like trying to chirps me at the bar you know and i'll be like but also i'll be like are you you flirted with me what don't you and i bet i'm married but i know i don't want to out of you i'm married i wasn't anymore it was very very strange but oh my god was sort of that and just being like please don't let me voluntarily put myself in a situation right that i'm going to regret right like you know like and also like i'm grateful that i didn't date for most of 25 and 25 because i feel like i've really gotten away with not had any horrible people come and tell stories about it or anything like that if you want to go and meet someone new at this point in your life irrespective of how many people watching this know who you are just being a single mom coming out of a divorced situation and searching for a new beginning you've got to put rules in place yeah absolutely what are the rules like how does it work nowadays when you go dating generally i don't know i don't know i mean definitely not not stranger danger yeah can't be going out strangers oh absolutely not no but there were definitely people that i hadn't seen since i was a lot younger than when i saw her as an adult i was like oh okay all right yeah come on then you came for dinner you know you got to a place where through these songs and then we get to like i drink wine where i feel change is occurring well you're actually starting to recognize changes occurring can i get it just quickly can i get it it's like obviously it's got this massive pop question but the lyrics in the verse that i just love like you know and that one is about like when i was like oh okay i could be open to dating first of all la is not the place to go dating when you're adele i'll tell you that but was like watching my friends it was all casual sex yeah and everyone has slept with each other yeah and i'm not doing that i'm not i'm not that's not i've left my marriage to go forward not to go backwards like you know so yeah strings it's just more strings and that was what that was about just being like i'm telling you that i will love you forever i'll do everything in my power to like make this work i want to make sure that i get hurt and not you when one of us does and stuff like that okay great you just wanna have sex like you know so that's what that whole can i get it thing is and stuff like that yeah yeah and then i love the bridge in that like when will you run with me like i know you want to like you know it's just put the pieces of me back together i really liked that bridge it's like very 90s very mad the whole track though even with the trip with the beats like the beats have their almost like late 90s love it but then you've got like this like wild country sort of vibe in the verse but i love that one but yeah it does then it goes into i drink water yeah and then it's just which is just greg out of control oh it's amazing out of control i mean he's there's six of seven of them playing simultaneously at the same time it's incredible yeah and the bvs i loved as well it's just trying to be really like i've already got the energy like i was reading i feel like i really slipped my beat but i feel like i really set my game up on this album oh you really did i mean even like not to jump in here but even when we talk about lovers again oh no wild yeah but that's also flo's input like you know on that he was like just keep throwing more at the wall and i'm like what you want like 200 at the end there's something like 270 tracks of me singing i mean the way that you go high in babies and even on like all night parking where it's just like abducted yeah so yeah very quiet but yes no um it was a lot of fun that one it was like a very seventies songwriter revives like very everything is live and organic on it it was really really fun and that was i think sort of me being like okay cool i'm a hot mess okay great sometimes just knowing you're a hot mess that's okay no but once you do realize it it gets easier yeah so i mean it's like it's it's it's like acknowledging that you haven't figured anything out exactly it's totally free yeah all out the window okay but then you're on the really you're on the road to to growth and at that point you have to decide what's coming with yeah and what's so what stayed behind one thing that did happen um you know which is it was sort of going it's not really a song about it but on this record i got really angry after i left my marriage it was really interesting because i've never had arguments with any of my boyfriends let alone my marriage was very calm like you know you said us together like we never got into a screaming match and if we disagreed we'd figure out like you know like very quickly that there and then i got this rage like a lot afterwards and i think it was frustration of me ignoring myself for such a long time and me feeling like i was falling back into my old habits and stuff like that but it was scary to me like you know that was very very so i'm not i'm not i mean i mean i can fight like you know if i need to fight i'll fight but i don't start arguments i don't scream and like lose my voice and and stuff like that once i realized what it was you know of why that would happen everything really started changing so once you start to unlock that what did you recognize inside that you wanted to take with you that you wanted to nurture and actually i left everything behind if i'm honest with you everything i left everything behind yeah every like actual trait huge thing i left behind literally my personality i took with me but my traits and my habits wow and my patterns and [Music] all those things that were handed down to me yeah from other people in my family yeah i just said i'm right i need i don't want it anymore so thank you therapy i love therapy and that's where you untangle all the knots until you have a clean piece of string and you get to figure out where you put your own points yes and also my therapist that i got when i was here was more about my brain than like any trauma i've ever had yes like okay i'll be like yeah no what happens is it goes in here but it should go to there exactly or the reason you interpreted that is this was because when you were five right but then the issue was with that was after like a good sort of two and a half years of that um i started you know i'd find myself in a situation where i just would regret how i handled the situation straight away and that was growth because before i'd be like i'm always right what it's all about like you know but like where i'd be like we should have done it in another way i'd be like it's fine you know because he's going to tell me it's fine and the reason i did it was because i stopped holding myself accountable so i actually haven't had therapy um since like december and i've made the most positive progress in my life i just started again yeah oh no i will need it again i thought we needed it again about three months after all this but i've like i'm noticing i check myself regularly and i resolve every every situation i need to yeah did it help you when you were able to move past that situation through therapy or whatever you needed to in order to make peace and to move beyond yes i didn't realize i was making any progress though for a very long time um and most of the time it felt like it was i was never going to come out the other side um which was scary like you know and i definitely lost hope a number of times you know that i'd ever find my joy again like you know i remember i didn't barely laugh for about a year and like my laugh was such a big part of who i was and um nothing made me happy you know like for for a moment like you know anything to do advantage i could be like feel like pure love and joy from it for a split second and nothing lasts and they're so not like me like you know so i definitely really lost hope a few times it was just gloomy every day and not being able to yeah and not that anyone should know what to expect every day or know what happens but like i could i could wake up and feel all right and then feel like i was going to have an alright day and then it would just like halfway through the day it would just be like this massive rock will just land on the head and squash me down like you know but i didn't realize i was making the progress until i wrote hold on and listened back to it and i remember like we wrote that you know the we wrote it months before i wrote the rest of the song and flo kept bringing it up at every stage i was going through and i remember like in between love is a game and hold on he was writing it in process with he'll encourage you to address yes he kept playing it and then the first time i was like oh no robert and then um i love the game first and it was in between that and i was writing a woman like me that i sang that hold on thing and then women like me i wasn't in the headspace or in the heart space to be moved by me singing hold on to myself and then i remember he played it to me right towards the end it was february of 2020. so we're about to go into lockdown not that we necessarily knew and um he played it to me again and then again i just sang that that line oh what have i done you know um yet again and i got my friends to come and sing at the end and stuff like that and it was after they left and we were listening back to it because i thought they were going to sound terrible but they actually sound amazing on it like you know and i just remember listening to the lyrics and listening to my you know my way home and listening to when i got home or something and me just being like the fact that i'm able to identify all of these feelings that i've i've been having you know and and and i could really picture scenarios of what i was writing about you know without knowing and stuff i was oh i really learn a lot you know i've really come a long way but you just don't always notice it while you're learning there's just a line in there which we spoke about earlier today on the way here sometimes emptiness is the only rest sometimes loneliness is the only rest sometimes loneliness is the only rest that we get and there's sometimes emptiness that that line is just so ferociously great and makes it just no well i wrote it i was like oh yeah you had a moment with that it's a beautiful moment it's a beautiful song and it really conjures up the idea of what friendship you know has has come to mean to you right which is essential to your growth the idea of being able to um get past your own fears and and and feelings that that people might think some kind of way about you and just give over yourself to others yeah and receive in return what have you learned about friendship and the qualities of friendship in the last couple of years um [Music] i've never i can't believe how disastrous some areas of my life are with relationships but with my friends from a very young age i've never made friends with someone and who i'm not friends of anymore like i have the best taste in friends like you know no truly like it's just i love it it's just it's such a so i don't feel like i've had to ever learn any lessons about any of my friends because it's such a kindred holy space for me my like best friend laura is in london but like my soulmate is i met here at the gym and she's the one who said to me okay i'm bored now like my husband died like you know but not in a not in a you wear anything she's just like i can't do much more of this and you're not learning anything you're not crying anything out anymore it's not helping you by doing all of this our friendship is like true sisterhood like i feel like we've both really enabled each other to address ourselves in ways i've never experienced before like our friendship is based on our grief that we've both been through in different times of our lives and stuff like that and we're both you know single mums to boys who are similar ages and stuff like that but showing up for yourself means you can show up for your friends i think that's what i've really learned from her like if i i don't should be making plans to go for dinner or to go to the gym or to like call my nan like whatever just being like by showing up for the things i promised myself that i will do for myself means i'm so much more useful you know to my friends so i think that's probably the biggest thing i've learned from her i mean she's like the most she's she gets things done i've never made anyone like it in my life like you know i'm lazy but i'll do it next week but you know it's just i think that's probably what i've learned through her yeah specifically but the loneliness is the only rest was like i had to i had to be on my own to go through all of my feelings you know i i've always been a bit of a wimp with that and i've always been like hi what are you doing i'm great y'all come out distract me yeah yeah but i'll try and then it'll be too much for me and sometimes forgiveness is better sometimes sometimes it's the easy sometimes loneliness is the only risk we get sometimes emptiness actually lets us forget yes and sometimes forgiveness is easiest in secret which is just you know three lines leading into this beautiful uplifting wonderful finish of a song um it's one of my favorite things you've ever done oh thank you i absolutely love it and it but it doesn't it doesn't do it you know it doesn't warn us about what's to come which is to be loved yeah which is gotta be the hardest vocal you've ever yeah done i think i've only really sung it obviously i'd practice it to warm my voice up and stuff like that and when i was writing it with tobias i obviously sang it lots because i was singing out and writing it but since we've finished it i think i've only sang it two or three times um and only that was to get the album version of it because when we first wrote it we wrote it in the same room in brentwood that we wrote when we were young and it's not a studio it's just a big empty like lounge with brilliant natural reverb and philip glass his old bloody you know big grand piano in it but because we had such good luck the first time we worked together when we were young i actually really love it there like you know so we were there and there's no studio equipment so i've always had to use my photo booth on my laptop yeah to just keep note and keep track of anything we're doing and we we managed to get this take just as we finished sort of writing as i finished writing the lyrics you know and he finished figuring out the sort of chords and stuff like that and we were both like the two of you in the room just the two of us because you can feel yeah there's something about the way you're feeling each other out during that arrangement it was out of control and um we couldn't believe the take that we've done and i have that all on video um which we're originally going to launch this whole thing with it but um didn't feel quite right in the end i remember i remember watching it back you know and showing some of my friends and me just my intentions were always right it just took me a while to to get there you know of of dismantling my my own life and my kid's life but um the only times i've sung it was to get a vocal because it was too much voice for photo booth so it just peaked all over the place like you know so i had to get a proper recording of it yeah at the end do you have any recollection of even recording that vocal because it sounds out of body no but the thing is we the second time i sang it all the way through was it henson and i remember just doing it i mean i don't believe it's vocal at all i'm going to go home wow it's just it's a lot for me to sing not just vocally but just like it's a lot yeah it really breaks my heart and then so it's sort of gonna be like maybe it wouldn't make the album and it'd just be this little shitty little home video that went up online at some point and then tobias was like what about if we record it in the room that we wrote it but it's impossible to because we have to at the same time it's all gonna bleed into each other and then we like really broke it up and put so many blankets and like duvets and pillows everywhere to really soak up the sound and we were able to do it together and it was funny as well so i remember i think i did two or three just warm-ups to it and stuff like that but we both knew that we got it and he knew and i knew i knew i'd got the vocal and i was like okay great he wants margarita well you can move on at that point because you feel at that stage like you've achieved something the album has taken you as far as as as as it needed to to get you to for that song to reveal itself but now the question is what's your relationship to that song and what's our relationship going to be to you singing that song i mean will you do it live can you do it like no i don't think i'll do it live no too much well i can't i can't even listen to it so no what happens when you listen to it if you were to i know i have to leave the room i have to leave it yeah i get really upset get really choked up but also when i was writing it and when i was singing it i just envisioned angelo being like in his 30s and it's yes and i just i i guess i'll sing it to him then when i when when when the reality becomes this vision i've had since i first wrote it maybe i'll do it then but no i'm not doing that obviously everyone's like you need to do it live i'm like you wouldn't be able to sing that song live and you're oh is it at your story no but that one's different i'm like yeah i know you like that song and i know that people were like straight up i i i cried the whole way through the last three songs of the record i mean i got emotional at times through the record definitely you know during my little love but the last three songs i didn't stop the first time i actually took a photo i was going to send you but it was so ugly not even i could send it your messages when you sent that message the other day when you were sitting the whole i was on a plane so it was coming through in drips and dragged oh this is what happened i was crying when i sent it going i am sobbing like a baby that was the first thing like a baby but nothing came through for ages but you know she says bec hey cause i'm sobbing like a baby that was the first message for an hour so i was like what about what like you know and then i was i'm just lying back and forth okay i was like what do you think she meets my vet eh cara's just like i'm i've got a message she would have flown in from the uk she's tired and jet lagged what are you doing i was on the flight and i was like what are you talking about i'm trying to sort the cell phone what's wrong with you i overshared and i did think about not seeing it but one time once it all came through when i landed it was lovely and then you get to love as a game and i have to ask this out of the most from the most loving and respectful position it feels to me like in and amongst this original sentiment this idea this way of finishing the record that there is some spirit of amy in this song it is something about this song oh it's so 60s it's so mo towny and stuff like that i get that also the title just reminds everyone that love is a losing game because it's called love is a game a little bit but it's just i don't know it it just felt it just felt loving it felt like i i don't know maybe it's sibling or maybe it doesn't exist but she was definitely right love is a game in it she was right all along it really is um i mean i definitely didn't take direct influence or inspiration from her but you know how much amy means to me like frank that record is more important to me than like back to black is for most other people and it's the whole reason i picked up a guitar yeah and it's one of the most heartbreaking things of of being an artist of never ever being able to hear one of your favorite artist's voice appear i mean it was a time in london it was a puberty it was only a couple of years i mean we forget that we look at these these time periods and we think of them as eternal but they're not they're such a fraction in the time space right and that time when you think back to that when you're all coming up and you're all finding your voice and singing your songs and developing this new song it was amazing just an incredible time it was an incredible time i definitely do think as well like on 21 and 25 like because i love like 60 soul music as well like you know but um you know it was sort of it was so much amy's thing definitely shied away from it which you know i think going through like i'm not i'll do whatever the i want from now and like what i've just gone through in my life i'm not phased or scared by anything like you know and i and i also won't do lots of things i don't want to do anymore before i'd be like i better do that because you know they think i should i'm i am doing that i'm not anything that makes me anxious after like going through hell and thinking i might not actually survive save the energy my anxiety why would i why would i do that on purpose yeah you know and it's just like also i'm so scared of anxiety that if i have an anxiety attack about anything being late or whatever or you know i don't know like flying in a storm you know what i'm saying i'm a bad flight but anything it's just like it might trigger something when you're open and ready to embrace the things that you know are good for you otherwise that is a fear that can totally paralyze you yeah and so for you to be able to say now i know what i don't want to do is only because you know yes exactly absolutely but i definitely um i can totally see why would remind people with amy but no it wasn't it it's it's entirely spirit of it the spirit yeah the energy of it it just felt like a to me i don't know but you know what else i wrote lovely i reckon that might be as well as because there's an element of sarcasm in love is a game it's humor too a lot of amy's lyrics were funny and really clever yeah like reading a play on words and all of that and i i could i think there's definitely some of that going on in there um like you know and it was just sort of you know people were always trying to take the piss out of her no one took the piss out of amy better than herself totally you know she was she's one of the greatest british artists of all time he gave us a great punchline at the end of that song though and i laughed out loud when i heard it because you made us wait the entire time and then you gave it to us with only the tiniest little bit of volume left which is at the very end when you say i'll do it all again and you make us wake up you know i'll do it all again the whole album but the fact that it's barely audible at the end of it yeah you know i'll do it all again i love that and i i wonder kind of i i don't want to be granulated as we draw to come to the end of this conversation but i'm nerdy about things like that like that's all you i know how just focused you are on every single tiny detail of what you put out that you would have loved also love the idea of that just fading into oblivion yeah absolutely yeah when i'll do that i don't know you know i'll do it all again but also am i talking about love am i talking about making an album i don't know am i talking about putting putting my life in other people's ears i don't know and also with the nature of this album and i guess this album was done several years ago and it beautifully captures the journey you've been on as a human being right turn to art a human being first oh yeah um and now the idea of bringing it to life you've done this before you sing these songs from a place of detachment and give them to us as gifts but does this feel different are there nerves about bringing these songs to life and how you might feel i don't feel any nerves about performing them um especially if i get to do them in the way i want to do them um no because you know i know i i wrote that letter when i announced why when i announced when the album was coming out whatever they haven't covered you know was like it really helped me this album like you know it really really did and i truly do believe um you know like when we started the interview where i was like there's not an occasion or a scenario or a feeling where there is not the perfect song for it somewhere yeah is i really do believe um and i'm not being arrogant or anything like that here she said i really you know was my hell but i really went to hell and back and i realized i actually didn't really like who i was you know and i think i just really just got like most other human beings especially with my age really just got into that thing of just going through the motions like you know i've got to get over there and wasn't opening my eyes and seeing what was actually happening at the time and you know enjoying the world around me and stuff like that um and i really think that some of the songs on this album could really help people really change people's lives and i think i think a song like hold on could actually save a few lives i agree i really really do and there were moments you know when i was writing these songs and even when i was mixing them and stuff like that where i was like maybe i don't need to put this album out like you know maybe i should right now i wanted that and just you know because music is my therapy i'm never going into the studio to be like right i need another hit like you know it's not like that for me it's when something is more powerful and overwhelming than me i like to go to a studio because it's normally a basement and there's no windows and no reception so no one can get hold of me so i'm basically running away no one would have known i'd written that record like you know and it's like maybe i just had to get it out of my system and stuff but when i listened back to and you know i play it because i've had because i have had it you know i've had it ready written for over a year nearly two years like you know so but along the way i play it to a few people and men especially like one of my friends josh whose mum died when he was 15. i played him some of the songs i played in my little love and he burst into tears and he was like i never thought about who my mum was other than being my mum you know and and that for me is why i was trying to do the album was to show to angela like i'm your mum and i always will be your mum and like you are top tier priority in my life every day every decision i make and my entire day is based on making sure i get home before bedtime getting up in the morning like you know and stuff like that and just like his happiness is my happiness but i also have a lot of other things going on that went on before you were born that been going on since you were born and will go on when you leave me when you fly the nest like you know and it was just i could have really done with a record like that for me to really forgive my parents for a lot of the things so that's why i ended up being like i know i will put this out and also like you know alongside my my career and i enjoy my career i enjoy you know i love i think it's hilarious you know that i'm like an artist for my job but like celebrity comes with it and i'm not up for that i don't like being a celebrity at all and they got to talk about my story like they knew it and they didn't and this is my story and it's like it's me taking back my narrative to the point sometimes where it'd be so bloody ridiculous things that they'd write that my own family and friends would be like is it true is it true that what like you know you know and it's just i'm let me just put it let me just rewrite all my feelings and if i'm happy with the songs i'll put it out and just you know i wasn't yeah i was on my own i did it all on my own i did it on my own you know like if you know if i'd like to thank anyone it would be myself because i really really committed to myself and i really yeah i just i think it's an important record also for other artists to hear you know those ones that i feel like could be encouraged not to value their own art and everything should be massive and everything should be get it while you can like you know because that's not what artists are and they and i know and i know a few of them that feel this pressure to be like all the time and i just yeah i wanted to just remind them all that like you don't have to be in everyone's faces all the time and also you can you like you can really write from your stomach if you want so yeah it definitely definitely is um it's my album i don't think i will ever be like oh we go to yours never can i have it you can have it babes yeah you can have it you can't keep it [Music] you

Channel: Apple Music

Views: 1,890,759

Keywords: adele, 30, thirty, adele 30, adele 30 interview, album, album interview, adele album, interview, adele interview, adele apple music interview, zane lowe, adele zane lowe, zane lowe interview, easy on me, adele easy on me, easy on me adele, love is a game, i drink wine, hold on, to be loved, someone like you, hello, oprah, oprah winfrey, live, studio, song, singer, songwriter, lyrics, adele lyrics, record, apple music adele, apple, music, apple music, apple music youtube

Id: 1gtPULpjzuA

Length: 50min 3sec (3003 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/kylopiccolo]

This is such a better interview than the Oprah one omg. Zane is so talented at getting artists to open up, and this makes me even more excited for the album!

[u/ginger_savior]

Around the 36 minute mark, they start talking about To Be Loved. This song sounds insane...Zane said its "the hardest vocal you've [Adele] ever done."

[u/Pure-Willingness3123]

Zane skipping over Can I Get It? completely and Adele having to bring it back up made me scream.

[u/teomichael]

I couldn't wait for this interview. Zane Lowe is such a nice guy and seems so genuine and I love listening to Adele's voice!

[u/abscefht]

I love Zane

[u/Allinyourname]

When adele brought up LA casual sex culture lol

[u/[deleted]]

Zane saying he interviewed David Buckley is kind of blowing my mind.

I—

[u/miaxcx]

It blows my mind that Adele just casually goes out to bars with her friends wherever she’s living and the way that she met one of her best friends at the gym? Imagine going to work out and striking up a conversation with fucking Adele and y’all become besties???