Halsey, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross discuss 'If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power'
Click to viewHalsey recently sat down with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, executive producers of her critically acclaimed fourth album If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power, for a candid discussion at Capitol Studios with moderator Lizzy Goodman.
• Halsey originally intended Manic (2020) to be more in line with her 2019 single "Nightmare." When they found themselves moving in a more "colorful, euphoric" direction with it, they decided to wait to make a darker album organically.
• "Lilith" was the first song written for the album in early summer 2020, around the same time that Halsey began trying in earnest to conceive a child. Upon learning they were pregnant "the music started absorbing [the] anxiety" they found themselves feeling.
• Originally, Halsey only hoped to collaborate with Reznor and Ross a couple of tracks for the album, possibly with additional musical contributions to the score of its accompanying visual. The pair responded that if they were to be involved, they felt it should be with the entire project.
• Intrigued by a letter the pair received from Halsey, they requested to hear the work in progress, then requested an opportunity to experiment with its stems. In turn, Halsey found themselves not having many notes for the producers, feeling understood by their choices and believed in as an artist.
• Reznor was invigorated by and respected Halsey's willingness to go all in with the album, having his own experiences with commercial and critical success and the resulting pressure to continue down a path that maintains it, and release it to the world without the traditional pop album rollout.
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