- Are you responsible for reuniting the Pussycat Dolls?
- No, I'm responsible for nothing.
(laughing)
Stop saying that.
People are like,
"Wow, you brought Nicki out of retirement."
No I did not.
No, I heard there was a rumor
that they were coming back,
so I texted Nicole,
because I had just made friends with her.
And I texted her like, "Hi, if you need songs.
Do you like this song?"
And she sent a voice message back that was like,
"Ah babe!"
She calls me babe.
"This is such a smash!"
And I was like,
"Okay, would you wanna come feature
on it at least or something?"
And she did, and I was like, "Let's save this."
And we have for awhile,
and I was like, "Let's save this for the album."
- This album is finally out after three years.
- Finally, we here.
How does it feel?
- So good.
(laughing)
So good, I mean I've been promoting
it for three years,
while I was still writing it.
And I hated that I never had a date,
or I hated that I couldn't talk about anything,
because they're like, "Oh, it's not coming out yet,
"we don't know."
So, now the fact that it's out there,
and they can actually listen to it is like,
we did it, we're here,
we made it. - We made it.
- We made it. - I also heard
that you made four albums worth of material
for this album.
- We wrote a lot of songs.
- How did you decide what makes the final cut?
- May the best baby win,
that's what we say.
All these songs are my babies,
and it's like killin' off souls, it sucks.
But, I really pick my songs with my family first,
and then my team,
and I show them like, "Here's what we're thinking,
what are you thinking?"
And we always say, "may the best win."
- Right, a lot of songs made the final cut though.
- Yeah, and a lot of great songs weren't cut,
but hopefully I can put them on the fourth album,
or pass them on to another artist.
- Right.
I know a lot of people were in your ear
during this creative process,
talking about criticism of previous material.
How did you block all that out?
- Opinions? - Yeah.
Did you feel like you had something to prove
with this album?
- Dude, it's so funny,
because every question I get,
it's like, "Oh, I wrote a song about that on this album
“called ‘Another Opinion.’”
Like yeah, I had everyone and their moms
give me opinions on like what it should sound like,
or what song deserves to be there.
Or, this isn't good enough,
you can beat this.
People told me to my face,
"Meghan Trainor could beat this."
And I was like, "I'm Meghan Trainor,
I wrote this."
Like, what? - [B.Dot] Nice to meet ya!
- Like, what do you mean?
So, it was very difficult,
and at times it can really-- like, cause I'm so sensi--
I'm so sensitive.
At times I'd be like, "Maybe I just suck at writing songs."
Like, I would knock myself down,
and be like, "God, I'm not approved yet,
Like, I'm not good enough."
And then I would finally write something
and go in with full confidence,
and I went in with 'Funk' and 'Wave.'
And I was like, "How's this?"
And then they were like, "You got it, you nailed it.
This is the best work you've ever done."
And I was like, "Okay, every song has to be
at this level, or better."
- And speaking of that moment in time
when you were making this album,
I know you were in a dark place,
you know full of anxiety and fear.
How did you persevere through that?
- Help. Speaking up.
Listening to other people speak up about it.
Carson Daly did this whole thing on TV.
He explained what his panic attacks were,
and I sent it to my mom and was like,
"If you don't understand what I'm going through,
this is it."
Then I noticed when I spoke out about it,
my fans were like, "This is great for us,
thank you so much. I don't feel alone anymore."
So yeah, I've learned so much.
But, I went to doctors on doctors.
- But, you almost lost your voice too?
- Yeah, I mean that was everything.
That was my career.
I was told because I was cancelling,
I was told by radio stations like,
"We'll never play your songs again."
I was like, "Wow, I didn't know it was like that."
Really quickly you could lose everything.
So, I went into a dark place,
especially when I was on vocal rest.
You're just alone with your thoughts,
which is, like, not fun.
- How do you stay inspired?
- I got my mental health better.
- Right.
- I worked out, I ate better,
I did anything I could do to help myself.
And I had my husband there with me the whole time.
We started meditation,
I'm telling you, I got acupuncture,
I did everything.
And then I wrote songs about it.
I threw it up,
I got out of it,
and my therapist was like, "You're so much better now,
you're such a happy person, you're back.
"You should write about that,
like you should treat yourself."
And I was like, "Imma treat myself."
- Right.
I also heard that you went
to Kanye West's Sunday Services.
- Heck yes.
I love him.
Man, when you leave there,
you just feel like you can conquer the world.
I don't know what it is.
I grew up in church,
but my church was boring,
and kind of spooky, you know?
Sorry everyone at church, sorry, hi.
But, yeah it was spooky,
and this church was like, fun.
And it's not even church,
it's just like everyone's having a great time singing,
praying, having their moment,
putting their hands up.
And what they do nowadays,
is they'll take an old, like a 70s song,
and they'll remix it with different lyrics
that are about God.
They did Prince, and they were like,
"Jesus died for you, yeah, everything."
- It's like a remix.
- It's a remix.
And so, we're there losing our mind,
like it's the best time.
- When you left Kanye West's Sunday Service,
were you inspired to create new music?
- Yes, absolutely, right away.
It was nice
because I had so many months
that I was just writing,
and I would do some appearances here and there.
But, on my weekends,
there was a time where he would always do it
in this one spot,
and I would bring my family,
and I would bring new family each time, or friends.
And it was so refreshing and nice to be like,
clean my ears, I just wanna hear this choir right now.
And that was like--
I don't go to a lot of concerts,
and I don't...
I don't know, I never really have fun at concerts,
I don't know what's wrong with me.
But, this concert I'm jumping, I'm dancing,
I don't give a what,
who sees me.
And there's like-- like
Brad Pitt will show up,
and you're like, "Oh my God."
I'm like, "I'm in it,
"this is my one hour of happiness. Let's hit it."
And then I wanted to write songs
that made me that happy.
- Some of the great moments on 'Treat Myself'
are the features.
You got Nicki Minaj, you got...
- We did that. - [B.Dot] Pussycat Dolls.
- We did that. - [B.Dot] Lennon Stella.
- Yeah.
- I know you're a big Nicki Minaj fan,
you were happy when 'Nice to Meet Ya' verse came out.
When did you first become a Nicki Minaj fan?
- 2009 when she came out.
When she first arrived.
I've been watching her--
I was like in high school.
Even through every song,
her Ester Dean phase with "Starships."
I learned every rap,
I was like, "I wanna write like this,
I wanna be cool like this.
Her lyrics are so clever."
Especially in the verse she wrote for my song.
- She shouted you out like twice.
- Twice.
When she says my name I'm like, "Oh my God,
that's my name." - [B.Dot] That's me.
- But, she's so clever,
and who can say, "I dumb, dumb myself
down for these chickens,"
and sound cool, you know?
She said chickens and crickets.
What?
I was like, "What?"
- You gotta love her.
What do you think you and Nicki Minaj have in common
as an artist?
- For me, I look at her as like an empowering women,
and loving herself,
and knows how awesome she is.
And that's something I want to learn how to do.
So, when I take my pictures,
I'm like "I'm badass too," you know?
But I don't know, I don't think we have that in common,
but I look up to her like that.
I don't know what we have in common,
except she was hilarious on set.
- She was, I'm about to say the video.
- I made her giggle,
and I was like, "Done, I can die happy."
- The video is really dope,
it was like female empowerment and colorful.
- [Meghan] Yes, I wrote the treatment.
- [B.Dot] Oh you did, okay.
- Yeah I was like, "I want you to run my company,
"and you own the building,
"and you have your own personal gold elevator
that you come up on."
- What was your favorite part
of working with Nicki Minaj on the set?
- We built this gold elevator for her,
and that was her shot,
that was her big moment.
And she came in and did that,
and they were like, "Meghan get in there with her."
And I was like, "What?"
She was killing it,
she nailed every performance.
And I was like, "Oh no, what am I gonna do?"
And I went in there,
and I had this big, orange jacket on.
And she was like, “Umm, there’s something off here,
maybe if we take off your jacket."
And I was so insecure about my arms.
I was like, "Oh no, I didn't get to spray tan them."
You know, like so scared.
And she was like, "You look good."
And I was like, "Really?"
And she was right,
and I looked good,
and we actually used a clip of me
with my arms in the elevator.
I told her, "This is the whole point of the video,
it's like women empowering women.
Especially in the office, like at work.
Like, you made me feel beautiful today.”
She was like, "Really?"
I was like, "Yes."
So, that was a moment I'll cherish forever.