Vulture comes at us with an exclusive interview where they touch on important matters such as the music business, Leap!, and My Little Pony.
You do elicit a very high empathic response to your songwriting — fans feel like they know you and you’re writing to their personal experiences. Do you feel like your fans are actually getting the “real” you?
I feel like every year, I’m painfully stripping closer and closer. Also, I’ve made some changes in the way I look at the business and my place in it. I don’t care that much about maybe some of the things that I should care about, but the ultimate thing for me is caring about leaving something good after I die. So I’m not really worried about how well it sells or how well it does. The game is fun, yes. I understand the game. But I’m never going to sacrifice what I think is the quality of something to win. I think the only way to really win at the game — and by the game, I mean the business — is to win it authentically, almost by accident, because it just was a true version of yourself. I’m not going to be satisfied if something works and felt like it wasn’t me, you know?
What was behind the decision to voice-act in a project like Leap! versus acting live? Did it have anything to do with your desire to stay — at least relatively, compared to other pop stars — out of the public eye?
Going into it, I was just like, “Oh, I haven’t really tried anything like this before!” And ever since watching My Little Pony and realizing that wasn’t actually a pony, I was like, “I want to have the job that does that.” But when the opportunity came, I don’t think I was thinking about it in terms of a chess match: “If I do this, it will look good over here, later on.” I just wanted to do it because it seems fun, and that’s generally how I make most of my decisions. But it’s strange, because I think you did tap into something there.
– Jordan Crucchiola
