Ahead of the release of her upcoming album 30, Adele sits down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to discuss her divorce, dating, hew new album, and son, Angelo.

 

 

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On wanting to release 30 sooner: “I wanted it to come out last year, obviously. And, when I drunkenly announced it at my best friend’s wedding on the stage. Expect my album in September, to a room full of people I don’t f–king know. But, I wouldn’t know I’d be announcing it to everyone that already pretty much knew anyway. Who the f–k did I think I was? It would’ve been done by then. I hadn’t done the orchestras yet. And, I hadn’t finalized all of my BVs and stuff like that. But, it would have, had the world not shut down. And, it’s such an integral piece to my life story over the last few years, that I wanted it to come out. Because, when it does come out, 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.”

On almost not releasing the album at all: “There were moments, 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 maybe I should write another. Just because music is my therapy. I’m never going into the studio to be like, ‘Right, I need another hit.’ It’s not like that for me. 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 f–king windows and no reception, so no one can get ahold of me. So I’m basically running away. And no one would’ve known I’d written that record. And it’s like maybe I just had to get it out of my system and stuff.”

 

On TikTok: “If everyone is making music for the TikTok, who’s making the music for my generation? Who’s making the music for my peers? I will do that job, gladly…the 30 and 40 year olds that are all committing to themselves and doing therapy, that’s my vibe.”

 

 

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What it’s like to date following her divorce: “I’ve never been this well-known and been single.  So I was with someone most of 19 and then I was in the studio. It wasn’t with anyone, but I was in the studio writing about who that album is about. And then straight after 21 I got with Simon… I just never experienced dating as a grownup really but also everyone knowing who I am and then… I didn’t want to date anyone.”

 

On if her friends recommended dating apps: “What it was, I wasn’t interested in men at all. But what it was was that it’d be like… I was at my friend’s birthday party and people that I had just met in LA since I moved there or whatever, I was always married.  I was always taken, suddenly were trying to chirp me at the bar. And I’ll be like, ‘Are you flirting with me? Don’t you…’. I’d be like, ‘I’m married.’ I’d be like, ‘No, I don’t want to f—ing go out with you, I’m married.’  And I wasn’t anymore. It was very, very strange. But oh my God, was sort of that and just being, please don’t let me voluntarily put myself in a f—ing situation that I’m going to regret.”

 

On ‘Easy On Me’ topping the charts: “I’m never going into the studio to be like, ‘Right, I need another hit.’  It’s not like that for me. 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 f–king windows and no reception, so no one can get ahold of me. So, I’m basically running away. And no one would’ve known I’d written that record. And it’s like maybe I just had to get it out of my system and stuff.”

 

Getting candid about her new album relating to the ups and downs of her divorce: “It was like it really helped me, this album.  It really, really did. And I truly do believe, 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.’ I really do believe, and I’m not being arrogant or anything like that here, it’s just like, it was my hell, but I really went to hell and back.  And I realized, I actually didn’t like who I was, and I think I just really got, like most other human beings, especially of my age, really just got into that thing of just going through the motions. Like, I’ve got to get over there. And wasn’t opening my eyes, and seeing what was actually happening at the time, and enjoying the world around me and stuff like that.”

 

Adele on what inspired a song titled ‘My Little One’: “For him [Angelo] to be little and say, “I can’t see you,” to my face broke my heart. And I just… that was definitely one of the things I was most scared of when I left our… I didn’t leave our family, but left that structure, was just, what if he hates me forever? And it didn’t take him long to ask me why we weren’t together. And I said, “I left, it wasn’t your dad,” and stuff like that. And it’s a lot for him 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, “Dad, I want to go and see my mom now,” and stuff like that meant that he was being my friend and he had some empathy for me. So I really felt like that side of his story but through myself; I can’t tell his story actually for him. But I can speak about where he was finding himself in it. And it was really, really beautiful. And while I was writing it, 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. 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. And we all have our own expectations of our parents. Once we become a parent ourselves, I feel like we tend to be like, “Oh they did a shit job.” But in reality it’s fucking hard. And then you’re like, “Jesus.” Yeah, of course. I feel like it was important for me to tell Angelo’s story and be like, it was hard and I wasn’t doing a very good job at the most wild moment of his life probably.”

 

 

 

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And in case you missed Adele: One Night Only, here’s Adele performing ‘Easy On Me,’ ‘I Drink Wine,’ ‘Hold On,’ and ‘Love Is A Game.’

 

 

Filed under: Adele, Apple Music, Zane Lowe