Talking with Variety, The Weeknd is breaking down each song off his new album, After Hours, and he specifically talks about one song in particular – a track titled ‘Faith.’

 

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Abel explains, “It’s about the darkest time of my entire life, a time when I was getting really, really tossed up and going through a lot of personal stuff.  This is around 2013-14: I got arrested in Vegas, it was a real rockstar era, which I wasn’t really proud of, and at the end of [the song] you hear sirens. That’s me in the back of the cop car, that moment.  I always wanted to make that song but I never did, and this album felt like the perfect time, because of the setting of Las Vegas, and [the character needing] a kind of escape after a heartbreak or whatever, ‘I’m gonna go to Vegas and drown all my sorrows,’ and by the time you get to the end of the album you realize it’s more of a redemption.”

 

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In this week's Variety cover story, The Weeknd opens up about his past, turning 30 and getting vulnerable on his first full-length album in over three years,#AfterHours. ? ? While the album ultimately was released to rapturous response from critics and fans as planned on March 20 — at the end of a horrifying week when the grim reality of the pandemic’s magnitude finally struck the United States — that date was by no means a foregone conclusion. Albums by Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Sam Smith, Willie Nelson and many others have been pushed several months, due to practical matters of marketing and touring as well as the bigger concern of appearing tone-deaf or insensitive to the fast unfolding tragedy.? ? The Weeknd’s team considered the possibility of delaying the album. But “I cut that discussion off right away,” The Weeknd says. “Fans had been waiting for the album, and I felt like I had to deliver it. The commercial success is a blessing, especially because the odds were against me: [Music] streaming is down 10%, stores are closed, people can’t go to concerts, but I didn’t care. I knew how important it was to my fans.”? ? Link in bio. (: @paridukovic)

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The Weeknd continues, “I wanted to go to Vegas and be this guy again, the ‘Heartless’ guy, the drug monster, the person who hates God and is losing his f—ing religion and hating what he looks like when he looks in the mirror so he keeps getting high, and hating to be sober because ‘I feel the most lonely when I’m coming down’ — that’s who this song is.”

 

 

 

As Billboard writes, “This ode to losing his ways and coming to the most chilling conclusion of them all — “When I’m coming down is the most I feel alone,” heard in the song’s chorus — doubles back to his 2011 mixtape House of Balloons, specifically the track “Coming Down.” “I always want you when I’m coming down,” he drones over and over in the chorus that he dusted off and polished for “Faith,” which both explore hedonism through his heavy drug use from the past.”

 

When Variety asked The Weeknd about his own religion, he responded with a simple ‘I dunno.’  Abel says, “Faith is a misleading title, because everything is a test, and if you are religious or spiritual, you have to go through things.”  Back in February, The Weeknd celebrated his 30th birthday in Sin City and he describes this era as, “Not just a chapter but my second decade.”

 

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“I’ve always been self-destructive. I’ve never brought harm to others; my problem was always hurting myself, so at 30 I realized I’m genuinely happy, I have my family, my friends, my company, I’m making the smartest music I’ve ever made, and I feel like my career is just starting. This is the beginning of another phase — not just a chapter but my second decade,” shares Abel.

 

And check out this super cool video The Weeknd created with Variety.

 

 

For the full interview with Variety, click here.

Filed under: The Weeknd, Variety