Photo by @mellozwrld for Pigeons & Planes
Since her introduction to the world as the first female artist on pgLang, not much has been known about Imani Imani. Until now. In her first interview, she opens up about life in the Netherlands, getting a call from Dave Free on the same day she was ready to quit music, and more.
August 4, 2026
“I’m very new, but I have a lot to say.”
“We worked for six years before we even released anything... I really have an intention with what I do, and that just takes time.”
“I want to be the artist that's really honest about who they are and never shies away from saying the truth.”
“Kendrick inspires me by how he taps into culture, but also knows how to remove himself all the time. He's there when it's needed and he does it in such an authentic way.”
“I really care about having an influence, rather than any kind of fame or being known.”
There’s a time machine in North London.
Or at least it feels like one. Nestled in a quiet pocket of London’s Crouch End neighborhood is an audio shop that’s been in operation since the ’90s. Inside, towering stacks of vintage speakers, turntables, and amps form a winding labyrinth, wrapping around bins full of vinyl records from decades past.
This is where I find Imani Imani, sitting next to a massive wall of cassette tape players. The Dutch artist, whose life has been consumed by music for as long as she can remember, settles in quite naturally. She cocks her head to the side, raises an eyebrow to the air, and stares down the lens of a nearby camera. Click. Flashbulbs light up the room. She pauses, calmly tilting her head to the other side. Click. Another flash.
Her confidence is striking. It’s not the loud, in-your-face kind of confidence you might be picturing, however. What Imani possesses is a much more rare, difficult to attain kind of self-assuredness. It’s a calm, quiet energy that sits at her core, guiding the way she moves through the world.
At 14, it emboldened her to pick up a pen and write her first song in a small city in the Netherlands.
At 17, it gave her the courage to quit school and throw herself at ambitious dreams of a career in music.
For over six years, after meeting her producer Daan Zinkhaan at the age of 19, it afforded her the patience to slowly find her voice and develop as an artist. Hunkering down in a small home studio in Amsterdam, she made song after song, carefully tinkering with her sound before releasing any of it publicly.
This summer, Imani’s innate confidence provided her with the fearlessness to emerge on a global stage, proudly introducing herself to the world as the first female signee to Kendrick Lamar’s pgLang label. The same day, she dropped her debut album, Papercut, with no prior rollout.
Photo by @mellozwrld for P&P
Today, on a warm evening in July, the same quiet self-belief follows Imani through the tight quarters of Audio Gold, a HiFi audio and vinyl shop in London. She isn’t quite sure what to expect. It’s a day of firsts. Her first editorial photoshoot. Her first interview. Her first time speaking on-camera. She’s a bit wide-eyed, but poised.
The Utrecht, Netherlands-born singer and songwriter knows exactly how she wants to present herself. Throughout the photoshoot, whenever she’s given direction to pose in a way that doesn’t feel natural, she gently pushes back. Imani clearly has a vision for herself as an artist, and now that her moment has arrived, she wants to make sure it all plays out exactly as she’s imagined.
She’s been preparing for years. Today might be the day of her first interview, but as she confesses with a smile, she’s been mentally rehearsing for it for quite some time: “In my room, I did it plenty of times, by myself.” The world might be finding out about her right now, but she’s been patiently developing for much longer. Maybe that’s where the confidence comes from.
Imani, who considers herself a spiritual person, also points to another reason for her self-belief: she’s constantly getting cosmic signals from the universe that she’s heading in the right direction in life. Like the time she got an Instagram DM from pgLang co-founder Dave Free on the same day she was ready to quit music.
“When I'm on the right path, I always get very clear signs of it being the right path, and that I can be calm about it. I can trust that something's bigger than me,” she says. “My name, ‘Imani,’ means faith. I have that in me. Even the moments I feel insecure, I can always go back to that.”
Photo by @mellozwrld for P&P
Between photos, Imani walks over to a large bin of vinyl records. She flips through albums that soundtracked her childhood, from artists like Nina Simone and Marvin Gaye, before hunting for more contemporary records that match her current tastes. This same marriage of old and new defines the musical palette of Papercut, an album that blends a timeless R&B sound with plenty of forward-thinking pop appeal. Surrounded by analog gear, it’s easy to get nostalgic about the past, but Imani has been thinking a lot lately about how she can impact the future. As she puts it, she wants to “create a sound that would change something, because that's all I really care about in this thing.”
Now, two months after the release of the project, she sits in an area of the shop dubbed “the cassette corner.” As rays of light stream through the windows at sunset, she points out that it’s a new feeling to have a whole room of people—crew members, management, photographers, interviewers, producers, store clerks—looking directly at her. But she’s already feeling comfortable with it. She’s ready.
Before today, Imani Imani hasn’t spoken much publicly. Her social media profiles are relatively bare. She hasn’t done any interviews. But she doesn’t want to be mysterious. She actively wants to share more of herself with the world. So today, she settles into a couch under a tower of vintage speakers and begins to tell her story. The interview, conducted by Jada Puliga for Pigeons & Planes, is below.
Who is Imani Imani?
I'm an artist from the Netherlands. I’m from Utrecht, a small city near Amsterdam. It shaped me a lot because I had to create my own inner world, and that's where I still create from. Imani Imani stands for that world, that inner peace that I have. I'm really excited to share from that, because for the longest time I wasn't releasing any music. I'm very new, but I have a lot to say, and Papercut is a good introduction to who I am. I want the music to speak first.
How did growing up in a small city in the Netherlands influence who you became as an artist?
It challenged me to dream bigger than the city itself. I didn't have many influences that I could really get from there. There wasn't much art there. You go there to study, you go for bars, but I always wanted more. So you learn at a very young age how to create your own world and your own truth. You find it in the things you do to express yourself, which for me was music and words. I love writing.
Were there a lot of people that looked like you in your town?
It was mostly a white-dominated city. I was one of the only Black kids. So people always look at you because you look different. But not in a bad way. What helped was I have a Black mom, so I have a strong Black family, and I had enough people that I could get that strength from. Also, you realize who you are is more important than what you look like.
What kind of kid were you?
As a kid, I liked playing alone. People could join me, but I was okay with just doing my own thing. If I was going around, I would be popular and I knew how to socialize, but I also just loved spending time reading books or dancing or dressing up. I would always have one best friend, and that stayed a theme in my life, where I just have one friend and we create together. I liked entertaining, but I wasn't doing it to entertain other people. It was just an expression. Singing has always been the most important thing to me.
Do you see a lot of similarities between yourself as a child and who you are now?
Yeah. As much as I was looking for my place in the world, I’ve always been quite confident in my feelings and my emotions. I'm a very sensitive person. I've always been very sensitive, but I was okay with that. If you're young, you kind of struggle with that, because you need to find a way to make it useful. And now I do. I still have the sensitivity, but it's combined with a level of confidence that I'm really happy with.
It blended into your artistry.
It did. The vulnerability, but at the same time, being confident about being vulnerable.
Photo by @mellozwrld for P&P
What role did music play in your childhood?
My parents were never together in my life, so I had two different households, and they were very different from each other. But the one thing that was connecting them was the music. They listened to the same kind of music, which is so special now that I think about it. It was all Marvin Gaye, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Angie Stone. This was the only thing I felt like was the connection between my parents, who I both obviously really love. I didn't understand how they were ever even together, and I think it's really special if you have something as a kid that connects them to each other. So there was a lot of soul music. All the good things.
My introduction to music was actually in a choir, which was classical music. It was very different. It teaches you a lot about how to sing very cleanly and how to do harmonies. It also teaches you to care more about the music piece than about your own identity in the music, which is special.
Do you feel like people would be able to tell that you did choir as a kid?
There was one person who commented on Instagram. He was like, "Oh, did you do classical choir?" And I was like, "Wow." I love that they hear it. Some of my harmonies might have a little classical touch to it, but I think it's more about the philosophy behind it, rather than how I actually sing, in terms of: the music goes first. In choir, you care about what is above you. You like to be in service of it. That’s what I feel in the music, rather than anything you would hear.
Who were the first musicians that you fell in love with on your own?
My first was Erykah Badu, because she teaches you a lot about how to be a woman in this world—a Black woman also. And Nina Simone, I really connected with deeply, because she has this way of translating pain that is so special. I didn't even know you could do it in that way. It's so raw. It's so honest. She doesn't care about anything around it. That's something I would love to grow into, because I feel that way, but I don't know entirely how to express it yet. But I love that. Nina Simone was the one that really touched me deeply in that way.
At what age were you listening to Nina Simone?
Pretty young. Kanye sampled her, so I think I found it with "Blood on the Leaves." Around 13 or 14, you start really shaping your own music world a little bit more, and that's when she came around. I was big into trap, too. I just love Young Thug… The Weeknd in the early days. At that time, specifically, I was really into pain in music, and how he could express that. There's so many ways to express it, because even for The Weeknd, it's a different part of his pain, but it's still that place. With Nina, it's obviously a whole different world, and a different age, but it has that similar feeling to it, and that's what inspired me when I was that age.
Is there any reason why you were fixated on pain, specifically?
I have this line in "Chasing," one of my songs on Papercut, where I say, "I'm born with a broken heart." It's just something I truly believed. Especially at that age, I felt a level of hurt, or something I couldn't really place. I didn't know where it came from. I also believe there are people that carry something with them throughout their lives that might be from other lives or other moments. From that place, you can create beautiful things if you know how to channel it.
We've spoken about the artists who made you fall in love with music in the past, but what about today? Who are the artists who make you fall in love with music now?
Now it's me, to be honest [Laughs]. That's why I do what I do now, because I wanted to find that person that inspires me in this time. That's why I feel so passionate about it. I want to be that person.
When and how did you start making music?
It took me a while to actually connect my love for singing with my love for writing. When I was young, I thought everyone could kind of sing, and my writing was more just to create little worlds and stories. I must have been about 14 when I went to the studio the first time because there’s just a fire that comes around that age where you want to be more than what you know.
It was in a room, probably at my dad's or something. He would play a lot of music all the time, and I would just put my headphones in and write music. I would always start with words first, and then a melody would come to me by being in silence. It helps if there's no sound around, because that's when I hear it. That's when I can receive the best things.
Taking music very seriously happened later, when I was 18 or 19. You know, you get out of your bad teenage relationship and you're like, "No, I got it. I want to be my own person and go into the world and really tell a story."
Do you remember what you made?
Yeah. My first song, which I listened back to quite recently, was way too sexual for me being 14 [Laughs]. I'm like, "Why did I do all that?" Because in my writing, I would be quite deep about things, like asking real questions about the world. Then my first song was like, just too sexual for that age, which is really funny. But I also liked it, because I mean, you're 14, and you're exploring that, so it was very honest. And to me, that's the most important thing. If you make a song, it's your time in that moment and your real thoughts. But it's funny when I hear it back, it's just way too much [Laughs].
People see the headline “signed to pgLang” but they don't see everything that came before it. What did those years actually look like?
There's a long story before I got signed. My journey starts at 17, because I quit school to do music at the time. I mean, I finished my first school, and then I wanted to continue university, but I was like, “No, I need to do what feels right.” I had nightmares about not doing it, and it was very serious to me.
I went to music school, but it was really hard back home. It wasn't easy to find people to create with that felt right, who had similar dreams and were willing to work really hard for it, which I did at that age. So I went on to create my world before I got the music right, because I could sing but I couldn't produce at that age. I just wanted to know what it was visually going to look like, and have an artist name. At the time, I had Moon as an artist name because all my music was quite dark and sensual, like during the night type of thing, and Moon is part of my name in Dutch. It was all bedroom kind of music, but I couldn't find the right people to create with.
When I was about 19, I found my producer that I made Papercut with. His name is Daan [Zinkhaan], and we're from the same city. It's so great to work with people that have ambition and ideas, but also have the work ethic, which is not a very Dutch thing. You can dream, but you don't really do it, because it's quite comfortable to live there without having to go out. You don't have to make it out there, and I think that creates a culture of just doing what you're doing without going way further. It was really good to find a producer that could bring a sound to my world. We worked for six years before we even released anything. We really dedicated ourselves to creating a sound that we feel would change something, because that's all I really care about in this thing. I really have an intention with what I do, and that just takes time.
Along that journey, were people recognizing your talent? Or were you keeping it very under the radar?
People would see that I had something going on, just by how I expressed myself in daily life. But I was keeping my music very low key. I wouldn't share it with anyone, because I really felt like we were onto something. Like, “We have a sound now. We can't share it because people are going to take it from us.” It was very serious to us at the time, especially when you're that young.
Since we didn’t share it with anyone, people thought I wasn’t doing anything. I would say I do music, but they were like, "Yeah, you don't," or, "You're too insecure to share it." But it wasn't fear-based. I remember thinking, "I want to get really good at this, because I care about it. I want to see how far I can make it with this, and honor it by getting good at it." That's why I went into the room and just did the work.
Photo by @mellozwrld for P&P
“What I appreciate about pgLang is how much they trust their own taste and their gut feeling... They're not looking out for what's cool or what's the next thing. They just have a strong gut feeling about it. That's how it becomes effortless.”
Were there any moments where you had self-doubt or didn't feel like it was ever going to work?
So many times. The day when Dave [Free] first reached out to me about pgLang was the day that I wanted to quit music. I was in the room with Dan, because we worked in his studio set up, and I remember telling him, "I don't know what to do. We do this every day." It was also COVID, so I didn't know if we could put it out right then because the world was shut down. I just didn't see it anymore. That's the day that Dave sent me a DM on Instagram saying that he saw something in me, based on what I'd already put out, which was very minimal on my Instagram page.
You never really know what happens in those moments, because the day that I wanted to quit, we also had a conversation about how if you just keep doing it, you never know who will pick up on it. It wasn't even about an opportunity necessarily, but just about like: you never know who's going to listen and get inspired by your music. By just continuing, we created a beautiful moment.
I don't know if you're religious or spiritual, but what did it feel like when you got a message on the day you wanted to quit?
Yeah, I'm very spiritual. I can't not be, because my life has been very spiritual in this way. When I'm on the right path, I always get very clear signs of it being the right path and that I can be calm about it. I can trust that something's bigger than me. The days that something happens, it's a full moon, or there's something about it that really makes sense. Also, my name Imani means faith, and I think I have that in me. Even the moments I feel insecure, I can always go back to that.
Is that why you doubled it up? Imani Imani.
Yeah. I need it two times. Faith, faith.
When did you know pgLang was the right home for you?
The first time I spoke to Dave on the phone, which was two days after he DM'd me. I wasn't sure how real he was when he DM'd me, because at the time he didn't have @davefree as a page. He had this burner account, and it was a private account, too. But he had followers that were pretty big artists, and he also emailed me, saying that he would like to know what I was doing and if he could help me in any way with his company. pgLang had been live for only a year back then, so there wasn't much to find online, and I was like, "Okay, let's have a call about it." I just wanted to know if he was real. I didn't believe it.
We had a call two days after, and that call solidified what we still work on. The foundation was laid there. We just connected on so many ways of how to approach art, how to be intentional about it, and how to be patient. This was something that he mentioned he didn't see in many artists at that time. That's what solidified the mindset and our taste levels.
What do you appreciate about the label and how they work with artists?
What I appreciate about pgLang is how much they trust their own taste and their gut feeling. That's something I also do, and that's the best way to work with each other. If you work with people that trust themselves really well, that's when you can really do some things, because they're not looking out for what's cool or what's the next thing. They just have a strong gut feeling about it. That's how it becomes effortless. That's also how I approach things, and I believe in people that do it that way.
Photo by @mellozwrld for P&P
Do you remember your first conversation with Kendrick Lamar?
My first time meeting Kendrick was back in Amsterdam, which was nice because that's where I was living at the moment. It was right before his Mr. Morale show there.
A month before, I had sent a song to Dave that I really believed in at the time, and he was like, "OK, I want you to meet Kendrick." It was special because before that, Dave would never speak on Kendrick, and I liked that, because it was really a personal connection we were making—a business-focused one—and it wasn't about who he was working with or anything. But that song pushed something and he was like, "It's good to meet him now."
We met at a studio and I saw them working. I did melodies on something, just to test it out, which was really nervewracking. We had a little bit of conversation, but it was mostly special because you just feel the energy of someone, and that's the thing that really inspires me. The same way other people feel that with him, I still have that. When you're around someone, you can get so much information from how they do things, how they approach things, and that's what inspires me the most.
He inspires me because, to me, he's the best at doing what I also strive for, which is making music you can listen to and enjoy, but there's so much depth to it. He inspires me by how he taps into culture, but also knows how to remove himself all the time. He's there when it's needed and he does it in such an authentic way. That's what inspires me the most.
That's nice that you and Dave would chat without really talking about who he's working with. Was he initially just intrigued about you and your music rather than being like, "Oh, we want to sign you?"
The first two years, it wasn't about signing at all. We didn't even talk about it. It was mostly about getting to know my world. If I needed anything, he would say, "You can just reach out to me and I'll open doors for you," because obviously he can do that. But I knew I wanted to get signed. I was like, "I want to be the first girl." [Laughs.] It was very much my personal mission, but he would never promise me anything. I really liked that, because in that way, he could inspire me, give me knowledge, help me here and there, but it was never about, "I'm going to do this for you," or "You should do this." He would just let me grow on my own time, which I really did. I took that time. As a developing artist, that's the best kind of development. If you get the time and the resources, take that time. That's something that someone can never just give to you. You have to create that yourself.
When pgLang reached out, were there other labels that wanted to sign you, too? Or was pgLang the first?
pgLang was my very first business conversation. I had no interest from anyone. My Instagram had some lyrics and music snippets, but it was quite vague. But Dave reached out to me based on that page, so he saw something based on whatever I was sharing. Mostly the lyrics, I think. He asked me about my musical ambitions, so I really liked that he could tell that I was serious about what I was doing.
Your song "Snatch" premiered during Chanel's 2024 show, before lots of people even knew who you were. What did that moment feel like?
"Snatch" was an amazing moment. I hadn’t ever even played music in a room bigger than my own room, or the studio room that we had. They didn't tell me that I was going to be in the show before they called me to say, "OK, they're going to play it," which is crazy. I was in Paris for it. I was at the show. But when you see the show, I couldn't find myself, which I also liked. You don't even know that I'm there.
I love that moment so much because it's a symbol of how I want to do music. The song got played and it serviced the show in a beautiful way, and it wasn't about me. If they had asked me to perform it, for instance, I would've been nervous and it would have been all about me and what I look like or what I do and how I sing. But this way, the music got its own place. It was there for the show. No one knew it was even me. That's so special because it's the only moment where no one knows you, but they do hear your music. You don't get that moment back. I loved it so much.
You originally released music under the name Imani Selina before becoming Imani Imani for the debut album. Why the new name? What changed creatively between the two identities?
I used to go by Imani Selina because it's my real name. I always loved it because it has something elegant, but there’s also a bit of toughness in there. I like the combination of it. Letting go of the name was me letting go of a period when it took a really long time for me to share myself with the world. It was about doubling down on who I really am, because I was hiding behind that name sometimes. Imani Selina used to be quite mysterious, and that was the image I had around it. It was darker and mysterious, but I don't want to hide. Imani Imani felt like the right thing to do because I've always bet on myself. I've always taken inspiration from myself and I want to have it twice.
Your debut album Papercut feels very intentional. Where did the idea for the album begin?
Papercut is a mix of moments throughout these years that I was making music. There actually wasn't a very clear moment that we were like, "We're going to do this album with these songs." Throughout those years, I made a bunch of albums, because we made so much music. Papercut was this moment when I moved to Berlin and there was a clearer idea of who I was when I went outside of that little room in Amsterdam where I had created for so many years. I had a better understanding of who I wanted to be in the world. Papercut is about those years that I always wanted so much more. It's in all of those songs. I wanted this one thing, which was releasing music, or releasing myself of those years of working in the same way.
When did you make these songs?
"Bet on Me" is my oldest song on there. I think I made it in 2021. I also have songs that are much more recent. But I love that about it. It's just timestamps.
Why the title Papercut?
The title Papercut works because it all started in a notebook on paper. That's when my world started, and I realized in writing, the words would hurt me sometimes. You write and discover things about yourself that you didn't know. There's also a sharpness to how I express on the album. It's direct. It's bold. It's vulnerable. There's a cut in how it can reach you. It can touch you in a way, and I like that.
Papercut arrived with almost no rollout. Why?
I think it's good music. I believe in it, so it'll find its way at the right time. If I would've put out one song, it wouldn't do justice to how much work we had already done, or how much of a body of work we already had. And obviously I had the luck of having a platform like pgLang that supports it, so that's the rollout in itself.
The artwork shows you turned away from the camera. Why is that?
That was because I like that it doesn't have to be about me. I like that the album covers the back of my head because...I actually don't want to say much about it because I say everything in the songs that you need to know.
Is there one song on the album that means more to you than the others?
The last snippet that's on there, which is "My Mistakes." It doesn't have any clear words, and you hear how I make music. It's a voice note from my iPhone. I have so many of them. You hear a little bit of talking in the background, and you hear me looking for the right words for the melodies. You hear the producer saying, "Oh, this is good. I'm going to record it." He says it in Dutch, but that's why I like it the most, because that's how we would do it. It captures the moment.
Photo by @mellozwrld for P&P
What’s your favorite part of the songwriting process?
I find songwriting pretty hard, actually. I'm better at writing than songwriting. Those are two different things. Songwriting is not always as fun. But what I like about it is the challenge. In the verses, you can tell the story. In the hook, you want to say things in such a concise way. I like writing about anything that feels true to me, and making it something that people can pick up on and take home with them.
What did you discover about yourself while making the album?
I learned that it doesn't always matter if it fully represents you, but if it's right for the song, you should do it. In the beginning, if you make music, you always want it to be who you are and what you like and what you're listening to. For this album specifically, it even came out more poppy than what I was listening to at the time. Like I said, I like Nina Simone a lot, but this is quite far from Nina Simone. But this is the music that reached me. These are the ideas that were in the air that I picked up on. I like that I removed the idea of who I wanted to be, which has made it about the music. Then you put it out and you can tell later on that there's way more of you in there than you thought. It's your stories. It's the way you express it. Sometimes, though, you've got to express something that's bigger than yourself.
You mentioned the pop influences on this album. What do you like about pop music?
Pop music is bigger than yourself, which is why I like it. I love R&B, but at some point I realized with pop, it's a challenge, and I like challenges. It's a challenge, too, because you can reach so much more. It's so much bigger, and pop is fun to listen to. If you put something in there that can also teach people, that's the best way.
You said you picked up on ideas in the air. Do you believe that ideas get passed to you, and if you don't pick up on them, they go to someone else
Oh, yeah. I believe that.
That's why you have to be quick.
Yeah, and just present. I mean, quick and slow at the same time.
What do you think makes you unique and makes you different from any other artist?
I'm not afraid to be naked in my music and who I am in the room. I think I'm different because I'm brave about my vulnerability. I'm comfortable with both [my bravery and vulnerability]. That's also why I like my name being two things, because I get to express myself in two different ways, but they still go together.
What excites you most about the future?
Right now I'm most excited about performing because it's something that scared me for a long time when I was only in the studio. Also, I really care about having an influence, rather than any kind of fame or being known. Even the way that this project was released, and doing it differently, is a symbol of how I want to do the other things. I want to be able to have an influence on culture, change the way people look at things by just being who I am. I believe I'm the right person to do so.
What kind of performer should we expect you to be?
Oh, I don't know yet. I'm going to find out with y'all.
So you've never really performed?
I did a little when I was younger, but it's been so long that I think I will find my identity again on stage while everyone's watching.
Photo by @mellozwrld for P&P
You haven't shared much about who you are with the public yet. Do you feel like that's something you want to continue? Do you want to continue being mysterious?
I think it helps to know the person behind the music. That's why I like that we're doing this. I think I'll know the right moments to talk. I would love to inspire in that way, too, because by being who you are, you inspire so much more than you think. I want to be a leader at some point. I want to be seen in that way by leading by example. So I will definitely share things about myself when I find it important.
How would you describe your everyday life outside of music?
Well, I'm refining it now because I didn't have a very clear everyday life. It was always the same thing. My everyday life really consisted of finding my way to the studio. I've built my life around making music so much that now that it's out, I'm refining how to do each day, and how to get inspiration. I like that, because it's a different Imani now than when I started with this project.
What are three things that bring you joy outside of music?
My family, number one. I have a really fun family. They're just great people. Second is Kiki, my best friend. Creating with her, I just love to do that. I would do it forever, even if I didn't earn any money with it. Third would be going back home to Surinama and eating there.
Five years from now, what would make you proud to look back at this moment?
Well, I worked so hard on my first five-year plan that I don't have a new five-year plan yet. But I do know that during all of the things that are about to happen, or are already happening, I hope that I'm present for it. I hope that I get to experience whatever it is, even when I don't like it. When I do like it, I hope that I just do it fully.
What are your ambitions? How big do you want to take this?
I know it's big. I just don't know how big it is, because I think life will tell me that. It's not always up to you. I know how hard I work. I know how bad I want things, but I like being the reflection of the audience as well. I would love to find a way to reach as many people as possible without having to compromise myself and the art. That's why I'm happy to be with the team that I'm with because I think they have a really good way of doing that. I want to learn how to do that because I think it's also nice to have a woman doing that in that way.
What is your mission as an artist?
I want to accomplish being a leader of the time that we live in now, because I miss that a little in this world right now. I want to become that person. I want to be the artist that's really honest about who they are and never shies away from saying the truth.
What kind of legacy do you hope you're building? Is there an artist's career you look at, and you're like, “I want that?”
No. I look at the idea I have about who I could become as an artist, and that's who I work for every day.
If you could say something to a young musician out there that might be in the same place you were on the day that you were going to quit, what would you tell them?
I would say it's important to only follow the truth you have when you close your eyes. When you forget everything around it, just follow that feeling.