(vocalizing)
♪ Can't live without me ♪
♪ You wanna but you can't ♪
♪ Nah-nah-nah ♪
(laughing)
- That's all.
Hey guys, it's Ava Max.
And for the past 24 days,
I have been in my home quarantining,
social distancing
and I hope you guys have been too.
But today, I'm gonna have a video chat
with my friends at Elle.
And they are going to ask me anything.
Before we get started,
you can check out
my new single "Kings and Queens" and "Salt."
(upbeat music)
- Hey, Ava.
- Hello, it's so good to see you.
- [Angel] I know, how's it going?
- Good, you know,
just drinking my coffee
and quarantining away.
- Same.
I'm actually so glad that we got on this call today.
This is the first day in weeks
that I've put on makeup,
real clothes,
a bra.
I tried to pull it together for you, girl,
but my nails are kind of...
- Okay, I wasn't going to show anyone my nails
but I broke my middle finger
and I painted everything else.
So, basically took off my acrylic by myself.
It was really hard and they still hurt
because I didn't know how to do it.
- [Angel] Well, I'm going to need you
to send me those tips because
look where I'm at.
- Get some acetone,
dip it in there for about two hours.
(laughing)
- [Angel] Okay, Ava,
so are you ready
to get into these ask me anything questions?
- Yes, let's do it.
- Alright.
Question number one,
fill in the blank.
My fans would be most surprised to learn
I want to record a blank record.
- Ooh, R&B,
like full on R&B.
I love R&B music,
The Fugees,
I love Mary J. Blige.
I love R&B,
I grew up listening to a lot of Mariah Carey
and R&B music
and pop music
but R&B as well growing up, so.
- Name two things that you're grateful for
in this moment.
- The health of my family and friends,
my health
and also safety 'cause the world
is a crazy place right now.
Yeah like, we're living in the future
and it's kind of strange that it's happening in 2020.
Like, we've entered this new decade.
Is this the new normal, you know?
- We are definitely living in
some interesting times right now,
but I wanna know what three things
are keeping you most occupied while staying home?
- Writing songs,
watching TV shows
that I never had time to watch
and cooking.
I've been cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- [Angel] Same, I do not like to cook at all
and I've been cooking like crazy
since all of this started.
Have you mastered any family recipes?
- Okay, so, I never make crepes.
My mom is like the best at making crepes
and I actually wanted to make a healthy crepe,
so I made a brown rice crepe
and I'm telling you it tastes exactly the same.
I got some healthy,
like, chocolate spread
that's not Nutella
but it's a lot healthier.
And like, it just tastes the same like as
a regular flour and Nutella crepe.
I mean, it's the best.
I've been eating it a little too much,
so maybe it's not that good.
I should have it in moderation.
- Listen, we all deserve a little sugar right now.
Is there a family recipe that you're going to master
now that you have all this time at home?
- I really try
hard not to
do exactly what my mom does
because she's so good at it that if I try,
like I've tried before,
I fail miserably.
(laughing)
I could try making her baklava.
Like, every Christmas she makes a baklava
and it's very special,
once a year.
But man,
that one's hard.
(laughing)
I can try.
I do wanna though.
- So, when you were younger,
when you were baby Ava Max,
what did you think you would grow up to be?
- I don't know.
I think when you're a kid,
you just love to have hobbies,
so I loved singing in my basement,
all of my karaoke songs,
Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey.
I would sing every song on the CD
and drive my neighbors
and my parents crazy.
I've always loved to sing
and as weird as that sounds to some people,
like, how could you know,
you know, what you wanted to do at like
six, seven, eight, nine years old.
I think ever since I was little
I've gravitated towards singing
and it's something that kind of was magnetic with me.
Like, I felt the connection immediately.
And you know,
it's a blessing and a curse
because it's also like,
oh my god like,
I want this now
and I'm so young.
Like, I would just think about
the next step in my career when I was just eight.
You don't know that it takes a long time
and you know,
struggles are what lays ahead.
You know, you just think,
oh, you know what,
this might just happen like that.
It's never like that.
- [Angel] Right, and you're still so young.
A lot of people these days
think that fame comes overnight
and it's a super quick formula
but you've been working at music
for as long as you could remember.
- Literally.
And it's funny to me
when people are like,
"Oh, so Sweet but Psycho made you a singer overnight".
And it's just not the case at all.
- I think I know the answer to this,
but who is your biggest cheerleader?
- Oh, my biggest,
my mom.
My mom's my biggest cheerleader.
So, she's always been my cheerleader
since I was little.
She's the one who kinda moved the whole family out
when I was 14 for my singing career.
I was doing a bunch of singing competitions
on the East Coast
and everybody in my family
thought my mom was crazy
for wanting to move cross country for her daughter.
But she did it
and at the time,
it's funny,
like, no one in our family wanted to go
and including me.
I was kinda nervous,
I'm like,
"Mom, are you sure you wanna do this?"
So, she sold our house
and we all moved cross country.
So, because of her
my life started changing for the better.
And of course,
like at the time,
we didn't know it would be a 10 year journey
of ups and downs
but she's the one who started it all
by moving out to California when I was 14.
- Is there any advice that you've taken from your mom
to help you get through this?
- Yeah, I mean,
my mom always brings back,
like, when she came to America with no money,
she didn't know the language,
she had had my brother at the time,
who was six years old.
They didn't have a place to live,
they didn't have pillows.
They would fold their jeans as pillows for weeks like.
So, it was like,
that was a hard time,
she told me.
She's like, if you have to stay at home
and eat good food,
it's okay.
It's just gonna make you a better person.
So, she's telling me that it's gonna be okay
because of what she went through.
- Okay, so I've always wanted to ask this question,
what's the story behind the half short
half long Ava Max haircut?
- I'm gonna start off by saying
I just do not feel like myself
when I have the same length hair now.
Like, I have put on wigs where it's like
the same length, right?
And I do not feel like myself
which is weird.
It's part of my identity.
And like,
maybe I'll change it in a few years
but as of now it feels like me.
And I get comments all the time like,
hey, are you ever gonna change that haircut?
And to me,
the haircut resembles like,
having your cake and eating it too.
I hated hearing growing up like,
you can't have both,
you can only pick one thing.
Or like you can't,
I hated that.
Like, as a kid I'm like,
"What are you talking about?"
I'm like,
if I want,
anything is possible.
If I want two of the best things,
I'll work for it
and get it, right?
So, that's what I thought growing up
and it kind of made me irritated.
So, this haircut really was important to me,
and I've kind of grown into it now.
(laughing)
- Okay, we're gonna have a little fun with this next one.
Fill in the blank,
my favorite curse word is?
- I'm allowed to say?
(laughing)
- [Angel] Go for it.
Go for it.
- My favorite swear word is (beep).
(laughing)
Because you can use it in many ways like,
when your excited your like,
(beep).
Really excited.
And then sometimes you're like,
when you're angry you're like,
(beep).
(laughing)
So you can,
I know it sounds crazy
but you can use that word
when you're excited, angry, sad
mad, everything.
Like, all of the things.
So that word is a key ingredient in my vocabulary.
- [Angel] It's definitely a multi-purpose curse word.
- Exactly.
I love how you summed it up in one sentence.
I'm over here in Albanian in a,
like I think in Albanian
and I try and like,
make it in English.
(laughing)
- What are you binge watching right now?
- Ooh, I'm binge watching Ozark,
season 3.
- [Angel] Yes, I love Ozark.
- Really dark,
it's really dark.
It's so good
and 'cause it's done very well,
like the way the actors are playing it,
so real.
It's so real.
I mean, every TV show has like a bit of real to it
but this is like,
it doesn't feel like they're actors,
at all.
- Speaking of filming,
you're visual for "Kings & Queens" came out
just a few week ago,
what was your favorite scene to shoot?
- Oh my goodness.
So we shot that actually right before
our president announced quarantine.
So it was like a few days before,
we had just shot it
and then everyone was forced to be home, right.
So that one is inspired kind of by Khaleesi,
on "Game of Thrones"
Because I kind of feel like
the song itself was about kings and queens.
And queens taking back their throne
and ruling the world, right?
So I wanted to feel like on a throne.
I was thinking like,
if there was any other way to make this music video
it probably wouldn't make sense,
so I really wanted to right the dream with the director
and like, how it felt.
Like, fun,
guitar scene,
on a throne,
like really just like straight to the point.
I didn't wanna go around the meaning of the song.
(vocalizing)
♪ Can't live without me ♪
♪ You wanna but you can't ♪
♪ Nah-nah-Nah ♪
(laughing)
That's all.
- Okay, so tell us about a time you had to say no at work?
- I was doing a meet and greet once
and the last person in the meet and greet
was being a little too touchy.
And he was you know,
an older man
and I instantly was just like,
I literally yelled,
"No."
I was like,
"No."
And I like pushed him off
'cause he was getting little too touchy.
I'm like, that's not necessary,
so I pushed him off,
yelled no
and walked away.
So there are instances where I do like,
I stand up for myself.
And this was at the beginning of "Sweet but Psycho"
really going
and it was like,
the first few months of me touring for the first time
and I didn't know what to expect
and then when this happen I was like,
really, really concerned
with my meet and greets after that.
But then you know,
I started putting some boundaries and yeah.
- [Angel] I'm glad you put your foot down too.
Just because you're a celebrity
or public figure doesn't mean
people can have immediate access to you like,
you need to back to back up sir.
(laughing)
What's a hobby or skill you want to master
before the year is out?
- I want to learn to play the guitar.
I feel like when I was younger
I used to play the piano all the time
and I never thought to play the guitar
maybe because my uncles
and my dad played the piano and not the guitar.
I think it's fun too.
I feel like when I see people play the guitar and sing,
it's like something you could just whip out.
Like it's just,
it's not like a grand piano
where you have to like (laughs)
have to have it.
- [Angel] I know it's crazy to think about
the end of the year
with everything that's going on right now
but once this season of social distancing is over
and we get back to a little bit of normalcy,
who's the first person you want to hug?
- Mom, dad, best friends.
Bam, right there.
(laughing)
- Ava, this was so much fun.
It's really one of the my highlights of week.
I'm so glad we got to hang out and chat
and thank you for letting me ask you anything.
- Thank you so much for hanging with me
and video chatting, yeah.
Keep rocking out to "Kings & Queens"
and "Salt".
And I hope to see you soon after this quarantine is over
and everything is back to normal hopefully.
I love you guys so much, mwah.