Post Malone joins Zane Lowe in studio on Apple Music 1 to discuss his forthcoming fourth studio album ’Twelve Carat Toothache’ due out this Friday. He tells Apple Music it’s his favorite album he’s made and breaks down the early stages of the project and how various tracks on the album came together. He also discusses the current TikTok debate and feeling uncomfortable with social media, battling low points and writer’s block while at the peak of his career, parenthood and being pumped to become a “hot dad”, reaching out to Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold to collaborate, being fearful of what the future holds, and more.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music ’Twelve Carat Toothache’ Is His Favorite Album He’s Made…
It’s my favorite. We had enough time to work on it, that’s for sure. At the beginning it was rough. But then I came into what I like to do and who I am and what makes me happy… now I’m happy and I love making music.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Feeling Uncomfortable With Social Media and Shares His Thoughts on The Current TikTok Debate…
Post Malone: There’s so many different ways to get people to listen to your music. And TikTok is so f***ing huge… Everything, no, it’s great. And you have people check on my new song and it goes f***ing viral and that changes people’s lives. And you discover talented people on there and everything. But it’s just so hard for me to make something natural. And it’s just so interesting. It’s interesting to hear her opinion on that [Halsey].
Zane Lowe: Do you think most artists in the mentality, and I’m not asking to speak for artists, but just from your perspective, are really ultimately trying to get to a place where they’ve earned the right to choose? I choose when I go and use this thing, and right now I’m Post Malone and I’m saying this. You’re post Malone, you’re on album number four. You’ve made your best album. And you’re a bonafide arena selling festival headlining artist. You’ve earned the right right to say, “I don’t have to use that anymore if I don’t want to. I choose to.”
Post Malone: I just think it’s my personal opinion and the changes that I’ve made mentally to distance myself from that and that’s really impacted my life in a positive way. It’s just whatever makes you comfortable because at the end of the day, you just got to be comfortable with what you’re doing. And social media is something that I’m not super comfortable with.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About The Early Stages of Making ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’ in Malibu…
It was 12 hours in Malibu that I sat by myself in this dark room with my laptop and just made beats. For 12 hours. Did a bunch of mushrooms, made beats. And I was, “Whoa, this is awesome.” And that turning point there, it kind of… The album, from there, it just wrote itself. And it’s so strange, and I’m a zany guy. We sat, and it kind of wrote itself from that moment. And I went through everything and stood by the water. And it felt like I was getting pushed back, and I was, okay, something weird’s going on. And I stayed up all night and wrote a bunch of the album that night and… made a bunch of the beats that night… It’s interesting. For the longest time we had made songs, and we had made great songs. But I wanted to reflect more of myself. So, these were just kind random sporadic records, yeah. And one night, we were supposed to go to Big Sur. But then we… I don’t want to say “settled,” because Malibu is absolutely gorgeous. “Yeah, we settled on Malibu.” It’s pretty nice, I guess. We went to Malibu. Working at the studio I work at for every album. Every album we’ve done. And I just was super cramped. I was super cramped in. And I was just, “(censored) it. We’re going to go to Big Sur. No Airbnbs? Okay. Malibu?” So we went out there, and it was just so freeing. I was, “I’m not scared to express myself or make music or write songs.” And I could just hang out.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Battling Writer’s Block…
Terrible. Except working with Lou, whenever I’m in Utah, I have to find a way to entertain myself. So I have to try and make beats and write songs on the guitar and everything. And it was so hard because there was nothing there. I was, “Oh my God, I’ve already played that.” None of the sounds were right. I was, “Let me download every sound library. Let me find everything. Let me sit on citrus and crank a knob to the right and see if that changes anything. But nothing came. And I was, “Uh.” Because I can’t play piano for (censored). So every time I went to go pull something up on the piano role, I dragged a note to the same spot every time. And I was, “Oh man, this sucks. This sounds exactly the same as the (censored) beat I made five seconds ago.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Checking Out and Being a Home Body…
I don’t leave my house very much… You offer so much of yourself each time you perform or go out on stage and do interviews, all this stuff. You offer so much and at the end of the day, for me at least, I get very tired and very sleepy. And so, I just like hanging out at the house and playing with magic cards and playing video games and such.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Experiencing Low Points At The Peak of His Success…
Zane Lowe: …when I listen to this album, it sounds like you wrote for yourself, you were speaking to yourself, there’s definitely moments on this record where I feel like you were searching to support yourself and comfort yourself through some tough…
Post Malone: Very much so. And yeah, that’s the most important part. And for a long time, I didn’t know how to. And now I’m the happiest dude in the universe. I’m so pumped. I’m so fucking excited, ready to rock and roll. But for the longest time, I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. I was like, this is it… I’m going, I’m insane. I’m actually, I don’t know what’s going on.
Zane Lowe: At that peak level success on the last record.
Post Malone: Very much so. Yeah. And then COVID came and sitting there and you got to sit down… And like you said, the songs talking about myself but I know that everybody has had these feelings and these thoughts and the ups and downs and everybody has wanted to just give up and be like, I don’t know what fuck to do. But also people have celebrated the, I don’t care if you’re the grumpiest guy in the world, you still celebrated a great time in your life.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Reaching Out To Collaborate with Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes…
Zane Lowe: So Robin Pecknold. On the record, how did you, were you nervous asking him to be a part? Were you already friends? Were you cold calling him as a fan? What’s the relationship pre collaboration?
Post Malone: Man. I feel like… I hit him up on Instagram a long time ago. Mm. And I was like, okay, maybe he didn’t see it. He probably didn’t see it. But then we met in Portugal and I was like, oh my God, this is insane. I think it was Portugal. And then I went to go see him at Coachella. I was like, oh, okay., blah, blah, blah. Then we started talking on social media and then he was like, oh, come to the studio. We’re working on the new record, which I think was Sure at that time. We played the Taiko drum game. We just hung out, look at all these cool instruments that these guys had. And they were cutting everything to this awesome tape machine. And it was super super cool. And then I was like, okay, Hey, how about you come over. Let’s just jam let’s rock and roll. And it was really excellent. And he was just like, I’ve been working on this thing. And then he goes, he just starts playing it and doing the vocal part. And I was like, that’s incredible. He gave it to me. I didn’t even ask. That’s so beautiful. He’s the best in the world.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Being Pumped To Be a “Hot Dad”…
Zane Lowe: I should say. And I want to say, major congratulations, Daddio.
Post Malone: Thank you, sir.Thank you very much. I’m pumped beyond belief.
Zane Lowe: So, has it always been a dream? Have you always felt like this yearning to be a parent, to be a father? Has that always been something you felt that you would love to try in your life? Not everyone does.
Post Malone: I think so. I think so. I think, as a kid, I was like four or five, and I had this little baby I would carry around everywhere. I think-
Zane Lowe: Like a doll?
Post Malone: Yeah.Yep. Yeah. No, it’s not really real. Who is this (censored) five-year-old with a baby? What’s going on here? No, it was a baby doll. And I thought that was the coolest thing. I would take him around everywhere. And I don’t know how long that lasted. But my mom still has it. And I guess, Zane, I’m so pumped up. I’m going to be a hot dad.
Zane Lowe: Right. There’s another term for that. There’s another term for that. A little acronym for that. I’m sure people-
Post Malone: DILF?
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About His Song “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol”…
There’s been some kick ass times. Not in a good way. And there’s just, the record speaks to it. And it’s not necessarily something I’m super comfortable talking about, but there’re parts on the record where it really gets into it. And how I was feeling at that time. I guess, distraction, it feels like a light word for it. It’s super interesting time. And I was not a normal, my brain was not operating at its normal frequency, I guess. I don’t know. But it was, it just wasn’t… I wasn’t Austin. I was, so fucking lost. I think you’re the only person who can bring you back. Everybody can surround you. Everybody can say, Hey man, what’s going on? Are you all right? At the end of the day, you just have to take that love that you’re offered and say, you know what it is, life is pretty fucking kick ass. That’s what it’s about.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Doja Cat’s Verse on “I Like You (A Happier Song)”…
She’s epic…she went absolutely nutso.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music His Verse on Tyla Yaweh’s “Tommy Lee” Is One of His Favorites…
The Tyla Yaweh record/verse, I think is one of my favorite verses that I’ve done. I think it’s so fun. I remember we were in a hotel in Washington, DC, when we recorded it. And I think that might have been the same night that we cut the scratch to the first song on the album, in that hotel room. And that was just a super fun verse. We did that verse in like 30 minutes, but it was just so perfect. I was like, “This is so fun.” This is like, I was pretty pumped up. I was like, “You know what, Austin? You are pretty cool. You are pretty cool.”
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About The Importance of Honesty and Initially Wanting To Release The Album For Free…
Well, that’s very important. The whole thing I want to do is just be (censored) honest and be honest with my music, honest with the marketing, honest with whatever the virality of things are. Just be genuinely honest and this is what it is. I love you. Listen if you’d like to. My original plans for the record were crazy. I was like it’s free, but it’s just so interesting. My ideas are (censored) crazy. So my ideas are nuts. I knew that there was no way that they were going to fly.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Not Liking The Sound of His Own Voice…
I do not like my voice. I am so shy. I’m so shy listening to any of my songs, unless I’m sitting down and I’m like, I’m going to listen to these records now. This interview, I probably won’t even watch unless I’m hammered because I cannot stand the sound of my own voice.
Post Malone Tells Apple Music About Being Fearful of The Future…
I am terrified. I’m terrified. There is this sense of impending apocalypse, especially here in LA. In Utah, I’m like, okay, whatever you want. I’m ready to go. I’m ready to rock. I got food. I got everything else I need…. I have food for 25 years. Semi prepper. I guess now prepping, no matter what happens, take care of my family. That’s the most important thing. Be able to take care of people who need it, move a little bit out, have a spot where you’re able to go. And I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but it’s just a crazy, crazy, crazy time. In LA I step outside and I hear a noise and I’m like, what was that noise? Dude, especially out here, I don’t know. The world is hot. It’s very hot. There’s disease. There’s people trying to hurt each other over nothing. I don’t know. It’s a crazy world and it’s a crazy place to raise a kid. I think any parent would agree.
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