Tinashe: Broke Boys, Golf Bros & Short Kings

Call Her Daddy

Alex Cooper sits down with singer Tinashe to discuss her evolution from a teenage girl group member to an independent pop artist. The conver

Key takeaways

• Tinashe began her professional music career at age 14 in a girl group and opened for Justin Bieber on his My World tour.
• She discusses the industry phenomenon of being 'shelved,' where labels cease funding projects but prevent artists from leaving.

Main topics

• Music Industry Navigation
• Dating Standards & Boundaries

Notable quotes

Potential is just potential.

Conclusion

An insightful look at how an artist maintains authenticity and persona

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) What is up, Daddy Gang? It is your founding father, Alex Cooper, with Call Her Daddy. Speaker 1 (0:11) Tinashe, welcome to Call Her Daddy. Hi, thanks for having me. I am so excited to have you here. I was thinking about this on my way here. I was like, the year was 2014. Yeah. And I was a freshman in college. I had horrible extensions. Yeah, we're Speaker 2 (0:28) all Speaker 1 (0:28) dead at Speaker 2 (0:28) the Speaker 1 (0:28) time. Speaker 2 (0:29) You had Speaker 1 (0:29) to. It was a rite Speaker 2 (0:30) of Speaker 1 (0:30) passage, honestly. My hair was like silver. I had really bad eyelash extensions that were like kind of like coming off. Yeah. And when 2ON came out, The pregame was never the same. Anytime I felt like I was like, I need to feel something, I would put it on, I would get ready, and I would feel so confident going out that night. And since then, you have continued to release music that makes me feel that way. And you've also just continued, I feel like, to really navigate a difficult industry and make a name for yourself while also not losing yourself, which I'm very excited to talk to you about today. Speaker 2 (1:05) Thank you so much. Of course. That's always the Speaker 1 (1:08) goal. It's like, make the listener feel like her best self. And then when I was doing research, I was like interested to learn that your personality, you say you're a little bit more Speaker 2 (1:18) low key. I'm very low key. And you're Speaker 1 (1:20) interested in things like aliens and the Loch Ness Monster. How did we get here? How did that start? Tell me everything. Speaker 2 (1:28) No, that was like that was like my elementary school fixation, like library books. Like I was I was like, what are we learning about the conspiracy theories? Like I was diving in deep. From a young age, you know, questioning everything. Very Aquarius, I feel. Are you still like that? I'm definitely still like that. But I'm like not like deep on the Loch Ness Monster. I feel like I've found out everything there is to find out at this point. They still haven't found her. So it's like. Speaker 1 (1:54) Oh, you're like a full expert. Is your For You page just like a bunch of conspiracy theories? Oh Speaker 2 (2:00) my God, no, Speaker 1 (2:00) not anymore. Not anymore. It's plants, honestly. I'm like a Speaker 2 (2:04) plant mom. Big plant girl. Is Speaker 1 (2:06) your place just filled with plants? I have like Speaker 2 (2:07) 50 Speaker 1 (2:08) plants. What's your favorite plant? Oh my gosh, I can't pick a favorite. They're like my children. So there's your whole house? Yeah, my whole house. Speaker 2 (2:15) Actually, my favorite plant is a plant that my mom's had from college and she like propagated it time and time again. It's had babies all over town. It's beautiful. What Speaker 1 (2:26) else is on your algorithm? I'm trying to think of like Tinashe opens her phone. I'm like, what's going on over there? No, it's so funny. Speaker 2 (2:30) My IG. Whatever is full plants. Like, it's so funny. But yeah, I don't know. Like, I like to keep it that way. I've curated it. I was going to say. To a T. That's strategic. It's so calming. You Speaker 1 (2:44) know when, like, you get on the wrong side of the internet and you're scrolling and then you're like, I don't know how I got on the side or just like negativity. You're like working so hard to rework your algorithm. And like, I'm watching the cooking video that I'm actually not even interested in. But I'm like, this will be my new algo. No, the Speaker 2 (3:00) worst is when it's like. someone that like you have beef with or like an enemy and they keep coming up and you're like, I don't want to see this. You're like pressing. Speaker 1 (3:08) It's so scary. No, it's the internet is a scary, scary world, but I'm glad that you've curated yours to make yourself feel better. It's peaceful. It's great. How would your friends describe you? Speaker 2 (3:18) Oh, good question. I don't know. Very probably, you know, hardworking, all those things, a perfectionist, somebody who constantly is. striving for that next thing raising the bar for myself but like you know i enjoy just hanging out and like being with the girls being with my family being outside so i think they would describe me as kind of low-key i don't know okay Speaker 1 (3:42) i saw a writer describe you once as A post-apocalyptic baddie who's making art and dropping it low in the face of life's paradoxes. Speaker 2 (3:53) Wow. Speaker 1 (3:54) Does that resonate Speaker 2 (3:55) at all? I feel like that was very much my last era. I was giving that like with Nasty. You know, I was kind of like the aesthetic. Like we were in the – I was kind of like being chased by surveillance. That was kind of like some of the themes I was experimenting with. That was. I Speaker 1 (4:09) also think like a big theme that you explored in your last album was like – contradictions Speaker 2 (4:14) um Speaker 1 (4:15) what are some contradictions you've realized maybe within yourself over the years i Speaker 2 (4:21) mean right away we just nailed one which is like i'm very introverted and also very extroverted in a lot of ways like i love to be alone i love like my free time i love not having a huge group of people around me. And then on the flip side, like I love to entertain. I love to put on a show. I love to like be in front of an audience, which requires people. So it's like there's this really interesting kind of juxtaposition there and kind of like a contradiction, I think. But like, yeah. Are you Speaker 1 (4:49) someone that recharges by being alone or socializing? I like to be alone. I like to be in my own space Speaker 2 (4:57) with my cat, just like doing my thing. What's your cat's name? Speaker 1 (5:01) PJ. PJ. How old? He's eight. He's eight now. Speaker 2 (5:06) He's a grown man. Wait, Speaker 1 (5:07) how long do cats live till? Like 16. Oh, okay. So you're good. He's got a while. Oh, we're good. Wait, hopefully. Okay. Oh, PJ. Speaker 2 (5:14) What does PJ stand for? Prince Junior. Wait, Speaker 1 (5:18) and was there a Prince Senior or Prince? How did Prince Junior happen? You Speaker 2 (5:22) know Speaker 1 (5:22) Prince. Yeah, of course, Prince. But he's the junior. I so see. And then I had Speaker 2 (5:28) another. animal. Well, my dog, his name was Jackson. Speaker 1 (5:34) you know, you see the thread of connectivity. I see what you're doing. I see what you're doing. Something that also I was thinking about when we were talking about contradictions is one of them being for me that comes up a lot. And I think as a woman, maybe it's like the contradiction between being confident and being vulnerable is a fascinating one to me. Oh, yeah. And I'm wondering how do you personally balance Speaker 2 (5:57) those two in your life? Yeah, I think I use my art as kind of the funnel for my vulnerability. I think it kind of gives you a safe safety net in a sense, because it's art and it's under the guise of art. And so it allows me to have these vulnerable moments and express myself in ways that like maybe I wouldn't day to day as easily. So like the conversations, things I want to say to someone, feelings I want to get across, emotions, I'm putting it in the art. If it comes to like, even just like The way I express myself and like my confidence, my sensuality, my sexuality, like a lot of that is like in the art. And so it's like a really interesting vessel for me to be able to like, I guess, Speaker 1 (6:36) express myself. Like, have you ever had it where you're like, I'm so good at expressing it in my art. And then when it comes to relationships, I'm like. Oh, yeah. All of a sudden mute. Okay. So it's easier for you to just like pour it into the work, but maybe in your real life, you're still trying to figure out that balance. Speaker 2 (6:53) Yeah. I have to, honestly, it's been something that I've worked on a lot is being able to speak. my mind a lot of times. I kind of identify with being like non-confrontational and like not wanting to stir the pot, but I have a lot of thoughts. So it's being able to bring that to the surface, being able to be real, which I think is something that I learned also with being able to run my own business, like going independent, being able to like make my own art. Like I think that makes you, it forces you into the position where you have to be really real with how you feel about things. That's a Speaker 1 (7:24) good point. I want to go back to that because your origin story When I was researching you, I didn't realize that you started out in a girl group. I did. At 14 years old. Yeah. In what ways did like being a part of a group kind of impact the way that you found your own identity and your own voice? Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:45) I Speaker 1 (7:45) think it was the first time that I'd Speaker 2 (7:47) experienced the music industry at all. I had no experience. I was not like, you know. a part of this industry at all. I just knew that that was where I wanted to be. So it was probably the biggest just initial learning experience of like being in major recording studios, going on tour, like seeing how the industry worked, learning how to, you know, just whatever it is, like on a fundamental level, kind of like go through the motions of what it means to be an artist. And at Speaker 1 (8:13) 14. At 14. Yeah. 14. I'm Speaker 2 (8:16) like, Speaker 1 (8:16) what was I Speaker 2 (8:16) doing Speaker 1 (8:16) at Speaker 2 (8:17) 14? Speaker 1 (8:17) Not that. 14? I Speaker 2 (8:19) loved it. It was so fun. Speaker 1 (8:22) 14. Speaker 2 (8:23) Girl, Speaker 1 (8:23) we were going to, we were Speaker 2 (8:24) in rehearsals. We were learning all Speaker 1 (8:27) the choreography. And didn't you, during that time, you opened for Justin Bieber on his My World tour? Yes. That's literally like the biggest flex. It was so amazing. I can't even imagine, because that tour was when it, were you a Belieber at the time? Oh, of course. Okay. Oh, so it hit even better. Oh, of course. I was so happy to be there. Because that was kind of, I feel like, the beginning of when Justin became Justin. That tour changed everything. It did. Speaker 2 (8:58) And it was really... palpable in the room to like be in the, I still to this day probably have not heard like decibel levels in an arena that loud. Leave it to the girls. The screams, the screams were out of this world and I just remember getting like so overwhelmed with like emotion and excitement and just being like. This is where I belong. Like the stage. Like it Speaker 1 (9:20) was just so much fun. I also bet that must have been really inspiring as an artist to be in a position where you're watching someone at the beginning of the height of their career. Who did you look up to growing up? Speaker 2 (9:34) Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, the Pussycat Dolls, Destiny's Child, Beyonce. Speaker 1 (9:43) Oh, you know, the best. All the girls. When I was reading, I read that kind of the success of Two On, you talk about how it was kind of like almost somewhat like a double edged sword. And you have said for you specifically that there was almost like confusion of how to market you, which I think is really interesting. Can you talk more about that? Speaker 2 (10:03) Yeah, I felt like I didn't really have a place to land and I had to continue to push back against, I guess. what people expected or how they expected me to water it down or change it or mold it to make it make sense. That also Speaker 1 (10:21) must have been so frustrating because you're like, you're trying to be authentic to yourself and you're trying to create your own voice. And yes, you have these people that you look up to like a Beyonce or like a Britney, but you're carving out your own lane. And I think not even in just music, it's very relatable where if something is the set in stone of like this is the standard, people just kind of want to be like, okay, do you fit in the Britney box? Do you fit in the Beyonce box? Do Speaker 2 (10:48) you Speaker 1 (10:48) fit in the pussy doll box? And if you don't, then they don't Speaker 2 (10:51) know Speaker 1 (10:51) what to do with you where it's like, but at some point they carved their own lane. Of course. And so you have to have an open mind in industries to allow people to be like, I'm going to disrupt this in my way. But that also requires people to have confidence and trust the artist, which I feel like, and speak from your own experience, the lot of time the men in the suits in those positions think that they know what's best. Speaker 2 (11:15) Of course. But you're Speaker 1 (11:16) the person with the talent. Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:17) I mean, but they're looking at a young girl and they have done it time and time again and X, Y, Z. And I think a lot of times that can be very confusing. And for me, it was really, really important that I left that situation and was able to really. I remember that like my instincts and the type of music that I make, regardless of whatever label people want to put on it, is what I should do. Like ultimately, that is the answer. That is that's the best art that I'm going to be able to make Speaker 1 (11:49) is going to come from myself, of course. Can you share a little bit more about like how? being so yes young in the industry when you were feeling these pressures how did you navigate yeah trying to not conform and not kind of just give in because I can imagine it's hard when they're like yeah just look like this do this and act like this and have this be your image and put this outfit on and then we can support and do this and you're kind of like to do that and lose myself or to maybe not immediately get as many opportunities but stay true Speaker 2 (12:22) to myself how did you navigate that it was really tough i felt there were a lot of moments where i'd honestly felt that i didn't have the choice and i felt like i had to in order to not there was this kind of looming idea of like being shelved like people talk about like being shell what does that mean and that's basically like when you're signed to a record label and they quit funding your project. So