HALSEY

55. BADLANDS & BLUE

"You worked with some incredible producers—from Tim Anderson (Banks), Captain Cuts (Tove Lo), and Jim Elliot (Ellie Goulding) to Lido (Ariana Grande) and 4e (the NBHD). How have they impacted the resulting sound? Like on "Drive" when you have the signal sign for example. Are they the ones who brought those elements into the music?"

Halsey: "Yes and no. The idea of Badlands was creating a space with sound, which is a really difficult thing to do. I was in a session with Tim Anderson, and he was just playing around with these low, vibe-y sounds, and then I wrote "Drive" in probably about 10 minutes. So I read the song out loud to him, and he looks at me and mutes the rest of the track and turned up the bass, and it was the sound of a car engine. And I was like, "This is fate! Let's do this thing!" And so we got into it, and I asked about putting the sound of a door opening or seat belt sound in there. We end up starting the song with this signal sound of "ding, ding, ding." And then I took the song to Lido who executive produced the whole record, and he turned that "ding" into an actual beat that followed through the song. That ended up creating this genius moment in the center where the door slam and beat all match up and it puts you outside of that car. I've just been working with incredibly talented people who just get it."

Obviously blue is a very important color to you. It's your aesthetic, it's your vinyl. What does it mean to you?"

Halsey: "It's just my creative color. It's like so many things at once. It's electric, and it's bright, but it's also calm. It's also ethereal. Blue is just an otherworldly color to me. Blue is the sky. Blue is the sea. Blue for me represents the unexplored territory."