I find myself sometimes kind of questioning good things.
Like if something's good, I have a very, like my brain likes to assess everything and figure
it out to like, and really, you know, get a grip on it.
Like sometimes I'll be like, am I really happy right now or am I just trash?
Do I really love her or am I just drunk or am I really mad or am I just hurt about something
that happened earlier?
But those moments when you're like, nah, I'm present and I'm here and I'm alive.
Those are the real special ones.
And that's, you know, kind of the energy of the whole record.
"Paradise" was definitely about a feeling and not a place.
What's funny, humans we hear paradise and we think of like a beach or vacation but "Paradise"
is about bottling this nostalgia of a moment.
The production on the song was actually really interesting.
I was on my way to a show in New York.
Traffic was so fucking bad.
I was so bored I pulled up Garage Band on my phone.
There's a symphony on the Garage Band.
I just started vibing on it, I was like "Hands on your titties, I'm grabbing your ass, enjoying",
like my girl on my shoulder, my dad's in the car, I'm just like vibing on Garage Band and
everyone in the car, my manager was like "Yo, that's a hit."
I constantly want to grow, like I don't, I'm proud of who I am today, I'm proud of who
I was, but I want to continue growing, I want to, you know, continue becoming a better man.
A better artist, a better friend.
That comes by shedding your skin and letting go of what you used to be, letting go of ideas
of what you use to be.
I think for a while, I tried to find my identity in some many other people, artists I liked
or if it was actors I liked, I would try and mimic them and me and then I had a realization
that the best version of myself, I'm ever gonna be, is just myself.
I just remember my first tour last summer.
So many moments that you don't even realize you're making memories in the moment, you
have no idea that these are gonna be like pinnacle boundary points that you go look
back at.
But I’d say this summer touring with JT was really cool.
I had all my boys with me, and we definitely fooled around, it was really fun.
I'll say the luckiest thing that's ever happened to was definitely, like two weeks ago I'm
gonna meet up with one of my boys.
And I'm in LA, I'm a bad person, I'm texting and driving, I'm sorry, sorry mom, I love you.
My bad.
And I'm in my Bentley and I literally slammed into this guy in front of me.
Like, I hit him, knocked him like 6 feet forward.
His car went flying.
And I'm sitting there like holy fuck, I just slammed into this guy, it's like all my fault.
This guy gets out of his car, he doesn't even look me in my eyes, he just looks at the front
of my car, I'm looking right now, I see the back of his, it looks fine, he looks at the
front of my car, he gets in his car.
He's a Lyft driver, too, there's like two kids in the back, they're like freaking out.
I'm like, holy shit, did that just happen?
I pull over, I look at my car, nothing happened to it.
Like completely untouched.
But, that's a sign from God.
It's like, I'm done.
No more texting and driving.
Self care for me is everything when I'm making my music, when I'm working on my albums, I
take really good care of myself, like, comes from waking up early.
I hit personal training every day.
I like to feel like a god, going in the studio.
You know what I'm saying, I shower, I put cologne on, I put my fly clothes on, like
I want to feel good, because you naturally end up emulating that energy in your track.
Just those nights that there's no tomorrow, we can burn this thing down and I don't think
it will effect any of us and I think we've all had those nights that just, the recklessness
is just like, inevitable man.
If it was my last night on Earth, I definitely wouldn't spend it getting fucked up.
Or doing anything like that.
I just want to savor it, man, what would I do?
I would go eat a bunch of good food.
Trying to hang out with some people I love.
Definitely food, tough, I would just fucking pig out.
Eat some wild shit.
When I wrote this song, what I was definitely thinking of, was not really the Friday nights
I have anymore, just remembering like the nostalgia of high school.
Like, Friday nights in high school, like going to football games, like you know, being with
the girl that you like or being with your homies.
I'm not super old, but I kind of feel like I have a good grip on things, and I know how they work
But when you're young, you're just kind of going through things an experiencing them
and everything so magical and new.
And you know, mysterious.
That was definitely the feeling when I said Friday nights.
What I really like about drinking, it's like the natural made ice breaker.
You know what I'm saying?
We all come in with this level of, you know, restraint on people and then everyone has
a couple of drinks and you're free, you're down to talk to someone and you're down to
connect with someone.
I feel like it kinda puts everyone on the same frequency.
I feel like sometimes your with somebody, and you feel absolutely invincible.
Someone can really personify that emotion for you.
I've always said that people are like our mirrors, it's like when I first moved into
my place, I got like the big expensive Beverly Hills penthouse.
Interior decorated it, did the whole thing, but being in it by myself was cool, but it
wasn't until I had some friends and I had my girl over and people saw it that you can
kinda see their reaction and they're like your mirrors and you'll be like, wow, this
pretty cool, know what I'm saying?
Things are really tough to enjoy by yourself.
There's certain nights that you know that you're kind of like locking in something special.
I've been extremely obsessed with that feeling my entire life.
I think I've chased it in everything that I've done, from music from friendships to
relationships.
'Cause that's a point we're alive, man.
It's like we're here to make memories.
We're here to make moments that really will last forever.
Boys and girls all get that under appreciated moment and they feel like they kind of bounce
back.
You know what I'm saying?
Make it a little bit of money and you get to kind of shine in your ex, which is always
a good feeling.
So insecure people turn to insecure lovers is basically like the idea that you can never
love someone properly until you love yourself.
If I don't love my myself properly and I secretly, you know, resent myself or I'm hurting about
something that's personal or retrospective to myself, it's going to be very hard for
me to give you real truthful, faithful, loyal love.
'Cause I'm going to reflect my same demons right on you when I open up and you know when
I become vulnerable to you when I open up to you, you're going to see all the real shit
that exists inside of me.
When I get drunk I get kind of reckless.
It's funny, I got, I got my bodyguard Bruce, he takes good care of me.
Yeah.
He usually has to carry me like right on the shoulder and I'm just like so little to him.
I'm just like getting dragged through the streets of wherever we are.
Nah, you're going out, you need your boys, you need that help.
That's security.
Man in my life, I just want to always be doing exactly what I want to be doing in the current
moment.
And I know that doesn't sound too difficult, but it really is.
It's, it kinda is hard to look at yourself and say, Yo, like what do you
really want?
You know, what are you really after?
If one point I want to get into film, I'm going to get into film.
At one point I want to give away every dollar I have.
It doesn't mean you have to be a millionaire.
It doesn't mean you have to be famous.
If you're doing what you love, you're living well, you're living right.