With both singles, you’ve taken these words or concepts and turned them into songs about love. How did they come about – did those words literally just pop into your mind and you’re like, ‘Oh, you know what, boxing, yeah, I can use that in a song’?
“With lightweight, completely. I love boxing so much; it’s like the most beautiful chess match to me. You get in there and you fight for your life. And I really feel like when you’re in love, and you’re with someone and you really care, then when things get tough you don’t throw it away or give up on it. That’s really how I feel about love. And I just thought it was a beautiful kind of metaphor.
“And with synthesizer, I was really inspired by The Commodores, who wrote the song Brick House. I was like, ‘Man, I want to do the 2024 version of that!’ But I was thinking about musical terms, like, ‘Well, this person kind of synthesises everything around me.’ I came in with that, and the guys were like, ‘This is awesome. Let’s make it weird!’ I love coming up with concepts to talk about love, because we’ve been talking about love for billions of years, but I think it has a spectrum like no other, so I’m just going to keep discovering it and exploring it.”
Like you said, lightweight in particular is a message to fight for love. Does that come from a personal place, or are you also thinking about the world we’re living in right now, and how important love is during such dark times?
“Oh, 100 per cent. Man, that’s why I’m so happy to be an artist today, because I think we need love. I was watching this Prince interview and he said, ‘You’re either here to enlighten or to discourage,’ and I want to be the artist that’s here to bring joy to people and bring love to people, and show them that love is a sexy thing. It’s okay to express it and it’s okay to surrender to it. I really want to put my flag in the ground and be like, ‘I am that artist, and I am that person completely.’ I think it’s important and I hope that people can realise that, and when they do need a little bit of joy or a little bit of a boost, they can put me on and really vibe out and know it’s real.”
What can you tell us about the other two songs on this EP?
“I think homewrecker is a crazy title (laughs), but that’s the most pop-rock – it’s like me trying to do the De’Wayne version of Oasis! The chords and the chord choices, and even the melody choices, I think people are gonna really like it. And with mr. she, I’m super, super-hyped on that one. It was super-inspired by England! It’s totally me doing The Human League. And I think mr. she is such a beautiful title. And I feel that way, too: since synthesizer, I’ve been seeing a lot of comments and people really receiving me and understanding who I am, as someone who walks in both worlds, you know, kind of within genders and not really caring. Sometimes I’ve got my clothes on and sometimes half my clothes are off, and it makes me feel beautiful. I kind of explain that on mr. she, which is cool.”