Inside Madison Beer's Sophomore Album, 'Silence Between Songs'
This exclusive interview with Hypebae sees a deeper dive into the platinum-selling artist’s creative mind and inspirations.
Madison Beer‘s rise to fame has been nothing short of meteoric. From her early YouTube covers to her chart-topping hits and a devoted legion of fans, she has proven herself as a strong force in the music industry. Now, with the release of the highly anticipated sophomore album, ‘Silence Between Songs’, she appears poised to take her artistry to new heights, offering a vulnerable and profound glimpse into her world. Fans across the globe can now prepare for a musical journey that promises to be both soul-stirring and intimately revealing.
Hypebae sat down with the 24-year-old platinum-selling artist to explore the creative intricacies, inspirations and emotions that have poured into the project. In this exclusive interview, we delve into the heart and soul of the album, uncovering the stories behind a few tracks and exploring the influences that have shaped Madison’s artistic vision while we also digging into the pages of her recently released book, ‘The Half of It: A Memoir’.
Read on to get to know more about Madison Beer and her craft and inspirations.
The cover for ‘Silence Between Songs’ looks extremely freeing and like you’ve closed a chapter and are starting a new. Would you consider this to be a healing project?
I think it’s a mixture of what it represents. Healing isn’t just like “Oh! I’m healed!” I definitely wrote this when I felt like I was on the other side of things a bit, but I wouldn’t say I felt completely healed. A lot of this was written deep in the process.
There is a different type of pain. This not so much about be being depressed or sad about a boy, this is more like real things I’ve been holding in and that are very serious and real to me. The album is definitely a freeing project and I’m really excited to get it out and have a lot of the things that I’ve been holding in forever be out there. I’m really proud of it.
Le3ay
The song you’ve written for your brother Ryder sounds almost guilt-driven coming from an older sibling. You expose quite a bit about your upbringing. Do you get scared about being so open with the public especially nowadays when people think they can have an opinion on your life?
I definitely think it can be intimidating when people think they can say whatever about very serious and real things that happen to you, but I think that it’s just part of putting yourself out there, unfortunately. I’m more excited for the people I feel it’s going to reach and touch. I think a lot of people can relate to it. Of course, it can be scary, but it’s my truth. This is how I feel and these are the things I’ve gone through and as intimidating as it sometimes can feel, it’s much more rewarding because it can actually help a lot of people by doing it.
“Of course, it can be scary, but it’s my truth.”
Even in your book, ‘The Half Of It: A Memoir’, you’re so open about the many different hardships you’ve had to face in life. It’s really interesting reading it as someone who doesn’t know you personally but has been a fan for years. People can see you as someone who has it all and who has had a flawless life until they read your words or listen to your music and see that even the ones that seem untouchable can have hardships.
That was kind of the point. Everyone has a story that you don’t know and it’s not just about me or celebrities or people that you follow. This is every single person in the world. You don’t know what people have gone through. Your perspective on people can be the wrong take or a bad read and I wanted to write this in the hopes of people being like, “I didn’t know this about her and I’m glad I’m getting to know this now in an intimate way,” but also the bigger picture was having people realize they don’t know much about people’s lives.
You are extremely creative when it comes to your progressions in music. We heard it in ‘Spinnin’ as well. What inspires you to completely change the mood of a track?
I think, subconsciously, I’m such a movie lover and I love movies with a twist and feeling surprised by things that when I’m making music, I want people to listen to it and also have that moment of experiencing something they weren’t expecting. I’ve also always loved weird chord progressions and songs that take you somewhere and I enjoy to make things that feel good to me and I guess this has just been the theme.
Let’s talk about ‘17’. The lyrics are so heavy but the music is light and almost flirty. How did you decide to take that approach and follow the juxtaposition.
I like writing a song that has a deeper meaning and lyrics with a happy beat. Sonically, it can go over your head if you’re not listening to the lyrics. I know “The Less I Know, The Better” by Tame Impala does that to me where if you’re not tuning into the lyrics, you don’t really know what it’s about, but if you listen, you realize it’s quite emotional. That’s what I wanted to do with ‘17’. If you read my book or hear me speak, I talk about how I feel like my childhood wasn’t very much of a childhood at all and that’s what this song is really about.
There are four tracks in the album which you had previously released as singles. What’s the process like when you’re putting your trackless together? We know you’ve got drafts on drafts.
I definitely do! I pick what I feel like flows the best and makes most sense together. I want things to feel whole. Those singles were always going to be a part of it and it would have felt weird without them. A lot of the album is actually constructed around those songs.
‘Sweet Relief’ and ‘Home to Another One’ are the more upbeat pop tracks in the album. What helps you decide to follow your preferred approach to music and not feel like you have to create commercial tracks?
Obviously, I would love to have more upbeat records because I know they sell and people like listening to them. At the time, this is what the album called for in my head and this is what I felt like was necessary. I know it is overall a bit more on the downbeat side, but I love it and I think it’s beautiful. There are those songs in there, whether it’s ‘17’, ‘Showed Me’, ‘Home to Another One’ or ‘Sweet Relief’ that have a bit more of a vibe and kick to them I guess and I can always make more upbeat songs and do whatever, but I try not to put too much pressure on it because when you’re releasing an album, you want it to do well and think you have to have pop records on it to balance out the ones that aren’t, but I don’t actually need to do any of that. I want to create projects that feel good to me.
Le3ay
‘King of Everything’ sounds extremely mature and involves your iconic progressions and sounds almost like an homage to Queen. Is there a particular place where the lyrics was inspired from?
There were definitely experiences I’ve had with powerful men in the industry that I wanted to write about. It’s funny because that song is written about something specific to me, but it can be related to that jock guy who peaked in high school and now is the worst. I feel like there’s a lot that I can relate it to.
Queen was a huge inspiration for that song and I really wanted to do something that sounded like an essence of Queen.
The second last track is ‘Silence Between Songs’. Why did you decide to pick it as the album title?
The song came first and it’s really about missing someone in between those silent moments and the album is about something different. They’re the same title but they have different meanings. To me, for the album title, it was the time I felt like I grew the most because I was actually still and able to hear my thoughts and not be constantly distracted or want to be distracted.
