Coachella: Kevin Abstract Full Interview

Rolling Stone

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Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - All right, Kevin Abstract,

00:05 I told you this before you walked in

00:07 and before we got recording,

00:08 but this is really huge for me to be able to interview you.

00:12 It's been a long period of time

00:14 for me witnessing your growth.

00:15 I feel like you've really soundtracked a lot of my life.

00:18 - That's very sweet of you, thank you.

00:20 - So you tweeted, I'm gonna--

00:22 - Oh shit.

00:23 - Yeah, we got the tweets, man.

00:25 - That's not good.

00:27 - You said, "I sometimes make songs

00:28 just for me to listen to pretending

00:30 to be every Brockhampton member.

00:32 Not sure if it's too healthy of an exercise,

00:34 but it's interesting for sure."

00:35 I think it's, yeah, it's interesting to think

00:38 about how your collaborative work still manifests itself

00:41 in the music that you create now.

00:44 Why do you think that practice is still something

00:46 that you've integrated?

00:47 - I just get like bored in the studio sometimes

00:49 and I feel like I don't know what kind of song I should make

00:52 so it's like, it just feels like a healthy creative exercise

00:56 to do the thing I know best,

00:59 but through a more singular lens.

01:02 Even with the show tonight, I'm like, in a few hours,

01:05 there's songs from different eras of my life

01:09 where I'm such a different person.

01:13 Mentally, I'm trying to figure out how to translate that

01:17 into a character on stage.

01:20 - So thinking about "American Boyfriend,"

01:22 "Arizona Baby," and "Blanket,"

01:24 what are your favorite songs from each of those projects?

01:28 - Off "American Boyfriend," my favorite is "Seventeen."

01:32 Off "Arizona Baby," my favorite is "Mississippi."

01:36 And off of "Blanket," my favorite is

01:38 "Hide Spiders in the Dark."

01:42 - What do those three songs have in common?

01:44 'Cause those albums are very distinct

01:46 for you and your life.

01:49 - They're all real stories.

01:51 Wow, look at you helping me, it's like therapy.

01:54 - Oh my God.

01:55 - I was like, wait, why do I like them all?

01:57 Yeah, they're all very true to me.

02:00 And there's other songs on those albums

02:02 where I'm not being a character,

02:05 but just making up stories or some shit.

02:07 - So I--

02:09 - I'm sweating 'cause it's warm in here,

02:12 not 'cause I'm nervous.

02:13 - Well, it's a little bit of both.

02:14 For "American Boyfriend," it sounds like Texas,

02:17 where I'm from, so there's, you say,

02:20 I was just singing this, and I was like,

02:22 ♪ I'll be ♪

02:25 (laughing)

02:25 You know, and the 12 speed, it's like I can hear

02:28 the whizzing of a bike wheel.

02:30 - That's fire.

02:31 - Like, it just, you didn't put that in there,

02:33 but it just, it feels--

02:34 - It reminds you of the specific time in your life?

02:36 - Yeah, yeah.

02:38 So how do you put pieces of home, pieces of Texas,

02:41 into the music that you're making now,

02:42 even though it's been about seven or eight years

02:45 since you've moved?

02:49 - Right now, I think it's through flows,

02:53 'cause I'm rapping more, so I try to do a more

02:55 Southern approach, I think, with my flow,

02:59 like a Pimpsy thing or something like that.

03:01 Not trying to get all rap nerdy, but like--

03:04 - Okay, don't say don't try to get all rap nerdy

03:06 when you started on a forum.

03:08 You started on a forum, please stop playing

03:10 with me right now.

03:11 - My fault, my fault.

03:12 Wow, my bad.

03:14 I hope I didn't pick your angle up.

03:16 - How has the process been of rebuilding

03:19 and building collaborative peers and friends in music,

03:22 obviously starting with Brockhampton,

03:24 that was childhood and choices that you made then,

03:29 how are you doing that now as a solo act,

03:33 and do you think it's different, do you think it's the same?

03:36 - It's a little different,

03:39 'cause I search for friendship first now,

03:42 and then if a creative

03:43 partnership comes out of that, then it's great,

03:48 but yeah, with Brockhampton, I was searching for,

03:53 impressed, I used to say I was searching for friends,

03:55 but I really was looking for a way to build a community

03:59 to make sure I had a plan after high school.

04:03 You know what I mean?

04:04 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

04:05 - So it was a little bit more business-minded,

04:07 but right now, I just feel so lonely.

04:09 I don't feel lonely right now,

04:11 'cause I have the right amount of friends,

04:13 but I think before I met my new circle,

04:16 I was feeling lonely, I just wanted people around me,

04:19 that, you know, like-minded people.

04:23 - I wanna talk about the people

04:24 that you've been working with recently,

04:25 like Laundry Day and Codeca,

04:27 how do you feel like it is working with them

04:31 in maybe a different perspective?

04:34 Like, you're, to me, from the outside looking in,

04:37 it's almost like mentorship,

04:38 it's almost like probably a little bit therapeutic

04:42 for you to work with people and help their creative vision.

04:45 Do you feel that way, or?

04:47 - Yeah, well, Laundry Day, I've known them for a long time,

04:50 and then their success right now

04:56 inspired me to interview them,

04:59 because I've seen them just keep trying to figure it out,

05:04 and it's beautiful to me that as soon as they start

05:07 to be themselves more, they got hella recognition,

05:12 I guess what I'm trying to say.

05:13 And then Codeca is like, he gives me so much advice

05:18 to be more confident or just be myself more, which is cool.

05:23 Yeah, maybe wanna rap again, I really,

05:26 people think I have a crush on him.

05:28 - I've seen that a lot, actually.

05:30 - It's actually so crazy.

05:31 - I'm like, why can't two bad bitches be friends?

05:34 - Y'all don't know my crushes right now.

05:35 - Who are your crushes?

05:36 - I'm not gonna talk about 'em.

05:37 - Who are your crushes?

05:38 - I'm not talking about 'em.

05:39 - Why are you playing like this is-

05:40 - You see, this is the first time

05:41 I actually got nervous in this interview, that's crazy.

05:43 Okay, who are your crushes?

05:44 Come on, this is safe.

05:44 - No, I'm actually sweating.

05:45 - Okay.

05:46 - Bro, no, I can't, I can't do it, but-

05:48 - They would be honored.

05:50 - No, they don't-

05:50 - They would be honored to know.

05:51 - You don't want that, no.

05:53 Look at the sweat, bro.

05:55 - I don't know.

05:56 - I have to go on stage.

05:57 - Right, right.

05:58 - Sweating like this.

05:59 - Right, that's correct.

06:00 - Fuck.

06:01 - Aw, teehee.

06:03 Okay, we'll talk about it later.

06:04 - Codeca's not a crush, but honestly,

06:06 in the studio with bro, like, wow.

06:08 It makes me just feel like,

06:12 it reminds me of the shit with BH,

06:13 where like, we're just making music for fun,

06:15 but I'm being pushed to like, be at my best.

06:18 - Mm-hmm.

06:19 - The song I'm doing today is like,

06:21 the one I have with him,

06:21 and it's my favorite one to perform,

06:23 and it just like, feels 100% me.

06:26 Sky Forever's opened the show.

06:28 I had an interesting thought on the way here,

06:30 where like, when I was 17, I was living in

06:33 Lithia Springs, Georgia, it's like,

06:36 right outside of Atlanta, same high school,

06:38 Lil Nas X went to.

06:40 He was a freshman, I was a senior,

06:41 we weren't friends, sorry.

06:43 It's very important to me for some reason.

06:45 But, I was listening, I didn't have that many friends,

06:50 except my online friends like Brockhampton,

06:53 and I was listening to Sky Forever's like,

06:56 ghost EP and her debut album,

06:59 and then Wolf by Tyler,

07:01 and some, like, the synergy around Even Me,

07:05 saying that like, knowing like, Tyler's

07:07 not only helped me so much in my career,

07:09 but like, headlining here, and this guy's opening my set,

07:12 I'm like, this is, yes.

07:15 You know, it's like, 17 year old dream fire.

07:18 And the song she's covering is just like,

07:20 it feels very Southern.

07:22 She's covering Need You Now by Lady Antebellum.

07:29 - Shut.

07:30 - Which is like, it's so like, you know.

07:34 - Stop, don't make me cry right now, I love that song.

07:38 - It's so lit, it sounds so amazing.

07:40 But that opens the show, and then,

07:42 I go through some other songs,

07:44 and then, Dumb Fight comes out,

07:46 and that was like, maybe he was the first person

07:50 to like, help me realize, I'm gay, I'm joking.

07:54 But it sounded like that's where it was going.

07:57 No, I think he was the first person to help me realize like,

07:59 oh, I feel like one of my greatest talents

08:02 is giving so on a stage.

08:04 He was already lit and popping,

08:05 but like, I was so obsessed with like, pushing him.

08:08 Like, posting him over and over,

08:10 like telling everyone how much I loved him.

08:12 Okay, sorry, so there's that.

08:14 And then, Jack Antonoff is also gonna come out,

08:17 and like, he produced my second album,

08:19 and kinda showed me how to like, really produce records.

08:23 So, important to my story.

08:25 And then, Quadeca, I just went off on a rant about him,

08:28 so, that's it.

08:29 - This is stacked.

08:31 - That's a lot of people.

08:33 (whooshing)

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