Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 221
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Originally posted by KeshasFansRose
Where's that video of her explaining each track?
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You mean the interview from when she put the album on streaming?
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What's your perspective on this album? Obviously you're connected to it, you wrote it, but I would love to hear how you feel about each song—how it applies to you, your bigger story, what character this is. How much of it is you? How much of it is exaggerated? Talk.
I am Cry Baby. It's very hard to separate myself from the character. It's still something that I'm trying to figure out. I am the character that I made for myself. [Laughs.] I knew that I wanted the album to be called Cry Baby for the longest time and my main reason for it was because I was teased as a kid for being super emotional and I took things way too seriously.
I feel you. I feel like I was the same way.
I think this album was kind of a way to overcome my insecurities in a lot of areas of my life. I wanted to turn the name cry baby into a compliment.
Is there a line between Cry Baby the character and Melanie?
Yeah. In the story of the album there's some things that I didn't experience. I love stories and fairytales, so I wanted it to still feel super whimsical, or else it wasn't fun for me. I look at music like I look at art; it's like painting a picture. If I had a strong visual behind the song, I knew that I was going to use it. It was about the whole package.
It's part of the story.
Exactly. The first song "Cry Baby" is the introduction to who she is. It gives you a deeper look into her mind and how she reacts to things and how she feels.
Who'd you write Cry Baby with?
I wrote it with Kinetics and One Love in New York. I came into the studio and was like "I really need to write this song, 'Cry Baby,' I’m gonna lose my mind if I don't write this song." And at first it started with me just ranting on my phone. I was trying to write down lyrics, so I just went off on my phone about how it made me feel when people called me a cry baby when I was a kid. I wish I could find it now; it's a huge bummer because my phone broke after that. I should have just written it down. Most of the lyrics were just from me ranting in rhyme. One of the things I wrote was "Someone's turning the handle to the faucet in your eyes / You pour it out where everyone can see." That's an exact lyric from me writing out of frustration on my phone. [Laughs.]
I love it. That's amazing. So, track two is "Dollhouse." I feel like people can read a lot about it, but tell me what people don't know about Dollhouse.
"Dollhouse" was the first thing that started everything really. It was the first toy sound inspired song. It’s describing Cry Baby's family life and who she is surrounded by. The concept was kind of a double meaning for how I think people view celebrities and artists. You have to be perfect to be a "good role model" when those aren't realistic expectations. "Dollhouse" was the first session I had with Kinetics and One Love; it was really awesome because I wasn't really into co-writing, nobody was understanding me, nobody was getting what I was saying. So, when I met Jeremy and Tim [Kinetics and One Love] it was just ****ing awesome, because they were down to experiment with toy sounds for hours and watch Tim Burton movies in sessions before we wrote.
Let's talk about "Sippy Cup."
It's a part two to "Dollhouse." I walked into the studio and was like "I'm obsessed with water, I really want some water sounds." And I always had a list in my phone of titles and that's how every session would start. The titles were the concepts. "Sippy Cup" is a deeper look into the "Dollhouse." It's kind of the uncensored more descriptive, how her family life is shaping her, type of song. In the music video I continued the story and had the mom kill the dad and mistress and poison Cry Baby putting her to sleep to forget what happened.
The next one is "Carousel" and that's Cry Baby's first love interest. I wanted it to be kind of magical to capture those first love feels, but still express the dark side of how toxic and kind of one-sided the relationship was. I was actually telling the story of one of my relationships and "Carousel" was the perfect title because I felt like I was bolted on a never ending carousel ride and he was on the horse in front of me, I was reaching out and could never grab him.
What's interesting about your whole vision is how you're able to take these darker emotional topics and have this bright, whimsical imagery to pair with it.
That was the whole point of the album. I wanted there to be a contrast. The next track after "Carousel" is "Alphabet Boy," and that’s mine and Cry Baby’s break up song. I wanted to title it "Alphabet Boy," because he was in college for music and used to try and "teach" me how to write songs as if there was a formula or I wasn't writing songs correctly. It made me furious and I just wanted to elaborate on that. Me and Jeremy used lots of alliteration in that song for all the verses. We wanted to go in order of the alphabet. So the verse lyrics are "Always aiming paper airplanes at me when you're around / You build me up like building blocks just so you can break me down / You can crush my candy cane but you'll never catch me cry / If you dangle that diploma and I dead you don't be surprised." The next song is "Soap."
You don't even want to know how often I listen to "Soap" on repeat. I love playing it for people and just watching them as the chorus approaches and seeing them experience that beat for the first time.
[Laughs.] "Soap" is about "Cry Baby" being hurt after her heartbreak and too scared to say how she feels about a boy she meets. So she washes her mouth out with soap because she doesn't want to **** anything up. This was also a situation that I went through. I was referring to my words being like the water coming out of the faucet. And it was like he was taking a bath in what I was saying. And if I said I loved you it would be like throwing a toaster in the tub. I didn't want to electrocute him. And the next song after "Soap" is "Training Wheels."
So, "Training Wheels" is a love song.
Yeah, "Training Wheels" is the only love song on the album. I had this idea of taking off the training wheels and really going for it. I basically wanted to say that I wanted to ride a two-wheeler with him and go to the next level. I wrote this song in like 20 minutes. It was always a difficult experience writing to happy major chords. But somehow because of how happy and in love I really was it came super quick.
What's the next track after "Training Wheels"?
"Pity Party" is about "Cry Baby" inviting her new love and all of her friends to her birthday party. He doesn't show up and neither does anyone else. She's broken-hearted for a second time. I think "Pity Party" is a huge turning point for Cry Baby.
What's the next track?
The next track is "Tag You're It." Cry Baby is now single and wolves are on the prowl. She gets kidnapped by a "wolf."
Is this a certain person or is this a fantastical thing?
This is just part of the fairytale. I love making up stories. After "Tag You're It", it's “Milk and Cookies." "Milk and Cookies" is her poisoning the wolf with milk and cookies and escaping.
Sick. [Laughs.]
Yeah. [Giggles.] After that she becomes a different person, she's completely embraced the crazy for sure. She's absolutely insane. So the next track is "Pacify Her," which is basically her being a home wrecker. She’s so numb to love and doesn't think that it exists. She just stops caring at this point. And after that, is "Mrs. Potato Head." She’s becoming more confident and comfortable in her own skin, so she's forming opinions. I had the idea for "Mrs. Potato Head" for a long time and the whole visual I had in my head was the fact that you can pull toy pieces off the face and that could represent plastic surgery. It was not me bashing women who get plastic surgery, but more of a "Why are you doing this when you're beautiful without it?" The last song, and the last story of the album, is "Mad Hatter." It's very lyrical, very hip-hop. I wanted it to be about my transition and Cry Baby’s transition into embracing who we truly are. Crazy people.
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http://noisey.vice.com/blog/stream-m...ut-lp-cry-baby
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Wooo
But wow, this album is amazing. Maybe even my favorite release this year.
