Joining Audacy’s Bru in studio, Khalid stopped by to catch up and chat about what he’s been up to since performing at Audacy’s We Can Survive, the journey to Sincere, collabs that take him out of his comfort zone, and more.
LISTEN NOW: Khalid talks with Bru
Reminiscing about taking the stage at We Can Survive not that long ago, Khalid shared his love for performing, “I love it,” the singer said. “Although the time goes by, living in the moment is the best, and I don't think anything can compare to walking out on the stage and seeing thousands of people scream words that you wrote.”
With eight years passing since his debut, Khalid feels like “I closed my eyes… woke up and it's 2024.” Calling the relationship his fans have with his past releases, “a little time capsule,” the singer finds it reassuring, “that people are still holding on to the love for that long.” Sharing it shows him, “that all those intentions that I might have taken… when I was younger. They all set up for an incredible, beautiful future.”
“People are talking about American Teen, and how much they love it. And then they're also talking to me about my new album, Sincere, and how much they love that. So it just goes to show I'm continuing to do the right things.”
Khalid also reflected on what its been like gaining success at 18, how it affected his behavior and skewed his perception of age, compared to how it differs now, at the age of 26.
When asked how it feels to have provided the soundtrack to so many memories, Khalid acknowledged just how crazy that is to think about.
“I love it,” Khalid said. “I love when people tell me about how much my music means to them or they speak to me about a story that my music was the soundtrack to, it’s incredible. It just even defies my expectations that I had when I was first creating music. I'm just writing in my bedroom aimlessly. I don't know where this is going to go ,and then it leads to me living my wildest dreams.”
“I think it's incredible that people are like — ‘Hey, I've fallen in love to your music,’ ‘I’ve fallen out of love to your music,’ ‘I've experienced this to your music.’ I think it's great, keep listening to my music, keep experiencing life with it, it’s incredible.”
As Khalid has previously shared while checking in with Audacy just last month, he needed to take some time off in order to rediscover his musical purpose. Expanding on what the process looked like, Khalid revealed the past few years have been about, “taking it easy, living life the way that it's supposed to be lived — in the present in the moment… Experiencing things through my own eyes, traveling and creating and writing and trying things out.”
Using this time to experiment with music that feels right to him and reflects where he’s at in his life now, Khalid said, “it’s been a lot of fun and I feel good and relaxed and comfortable and a low amount of pressure… it just makes me more excited to keep going. I'm just in a completely optimistic state about everything.”
With an impressive list of past collaborators, like Billie Eilish, Marshmello, Halsey and more, Khalid noted he learns something new from every collaboration. From how they create music, how they empathize with music, and just their stories in general. “I think that's my favorite part of collaborating,” Khalid expressed, “stepping into someone else's world and even learning about yourself as an artist.”
“When I wrote ‘Silence’ with Marshmello, I was so in my head about that song,” he shared. Noting he asked himself, “are people going to love it? Are people going to think it's cool?” Until that point, he’d never made an EDM/Dance song, so “Silence” took him out of his comfort zone.
As it turns out, people loved it, and with that Khalid learned “to appreciate music and appreciate other people's homes that they choose to live in creatively.” Adding, “I love stepping outside of my box and working with new people.”
With his new album Sincere, Khalid admitted he also had moments of stepping out of his comfort zone. Like on “Breathe” with Arlo Parks, “I'm rapping and doing different things that I normally wouldn't do,” Khalid expressed. “But that's what's fun about being creative, especially when you're working on music and you're the only person that hears it, you can just take so many risks.”
Khalid went on to discuss how to know when to move on or hang on to an idea, making music that stands the test of time, and how he knows when it sounds timeless. He additionally talked about the process of deciding which songs make the album, and trusting his intuition. Also delving into his desire to drop music more frequently with EPs and to put together a collaboration project, and more.
To wrap up the conversation, with only a couple months left in 2024, Khalid talked about intentions he’s set. "If things go the way that I want… hopefully you guys will hear a song or two from me again before the year is up." Also sharing he has “so many goals and so many wishes” for 2025 that he intends to manifest.
To catch all that and more, check out Khalid’s entire interview with Bru above.