How far in the future is the album set?
I would say 50 to 100 years.
So it's soon enough for some of your fans to live to see it come true?
Hopefully. But hopefully it doesn't, because that wouldn't be a good place. The Badlands are this part of the world that are kind of removed.
I flew over Las Vegas once and I looked down at this desert with this city in the middle of it that seemingly pops up out of nowhere. Las Vegas is such a bizarre thing because it's all these things that are bad; sex, gambling, drugs whatever, but if you do them there, it's okay — which I think is the most bizarre concept ever. All of these things are awful, but if you do them in Las Vegas it's okay because that is what Las Vegas is for. It's a city that exists for vice.
So I thought that was such an interesting concept and I kind of got obsessive and started thinking about what these people might be like. What are the buildings like? What is this world like? What are things made of? What is the structure of society, and what are the rules? I got obsessive about the society. I wrote 'Castle', the first song on the record, then I wrote 'Hold Me Down', and 'New Americana'. The tracklist appears almost true to the order in which I wrote the songs. So it follows an actual story because the songs are reflective of what part of my life I was in at the time, what kind of mental state I was in. The record is autobiographical, but in a surrealistic fashion because I obviously don't live in a dystopian society. I wish I did!