Halsey as One of 2023 Talented Artists 

Halsey's one of 2023's most exciting artists. She's also one of the most interesting, and a few weeks ago I went to meet her for breakfast. I did have some questions prepared, but it quickly became clear that this would be one of those interviews where you just sit there and Let It Happen.

What did happen?

Well, there was talking. A lot of talking. Fortunately, Halsey's good at talking: about her vision for 'Badlands', about her place in the pop cosmos, and about how the music industry works in 2023. From time to time there was a question or a prompt, but what you're about to read is pretty much just unexpurgated Halsey.

This might not be the best Halsey interview you'll ever read (it barely even counts as an interview, let's be honest), but it might well the one of the longest. And that's got to count for something, right? Right? Guys come back it's really interesting.

Right. How are you finding London so far?

I love it here. The air's different.

How is the air different?

I don't know. It feels different. I was in a really high altitude part of the US for a while, so it's really hard to breath out there. It's nice here, I like it here. No one really knew I was coming, but there were like 40 kids at the airport last night which was really cool, it was like eleven o'clock at night. It was fun to stop and get to meet them all. That's fun for me.

What are your UK fans like?

It's so funny because it's a little different to the US. It's a bit more diverse here. There were a lot of girls, but also a lot of guys. Now I'm focus grouping, trying to get to know my UK fans as best I can.

What did you want to do with 'Badlands'?

I kind of got stuck on this idea last winter: Badlands. I didn't know what it meant but I said to my managers, 'I'm naming the record BADLANDS'. They're like, 'we're not even thinking about the album right now'. Then a month later I'm like, 'okay, so for Badlands…', and they're like, 'oh, you do want to name it that'. I'm like, 'Yes!'.

'Badlands' is a concept record, about a dystopian society. I became kind of obsessive about this idea of a dystopian society in the future. I moved into an apartment in LA after my headline tour — no furniture, just paper on the wall. It looked like a serial killer's house. It was me just writing notes about the album, tearing pages out of things, so