It’s always a good day when new Tinashe drops. After releasing the synth-y and sweet BB/ANG3Llast year, she’s back today with a new single and video for “Nasty,” as well as the trailer for part two of her three-part album series, which is entitled QUANTUM BABY.
“I think it’s kind of all been leading up to this,” she tells PAPER. The release is timed around her debut performance at Coachella today, which is a full-circle moment for the LA native, who has been attending the festival since she was 16 years old. The video for “Nasty” is a study in sexy surveillance, shot in the desert and intentionally timed around the recent eclipse. Check out
At this point, Tinashe stans are pretty spoiled. Below, we discuss the eclipse, Tinashe lore and new music for the summertime. Check it all out alongside exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the “Nasty” video shoot.
This new video is shot in the desert, you’re playing for the first time at Coachella, the eclipse just happened. It’s all very desert-y. Are you nervous? How are you feeling?
I love it. No, I’m not nervous at all. I’m so excited. There's so much synergy, and the energy is all the way up. Everything's happening at once, which, you know, such is life. When it rains, it pours. It's really positive. So I'm excited.
Did you experience the eclipse?
I was on the plane flying back from Harvard. So no. But I definitely wanted to release my album trailer at the peak of the eclipse, so before getting on my flight, I scheduled all my posts. They were dropped right at the peak in LA. But I personally missed it. Maybe I was closer to the eclipse because I was on the plane.
Tell me about “Nasty.”
Yeah, it's time for summer. I really wanted to have that energy going into the season, just feeling like I want to have fun, be outside, get sweaty, get nasty, party energy all year. I think it's kind of all been leading up to this, and I haven't had a release in the summer in a while. So I'm really excited to be rolling it out in this way. And yeah, I think the song is just fun, sexy, empowered and cute.
What keeps you so motivated to keep creating?
I just love it. I really love working. I love releasing, it makes me excited. It keeps my shows fresh. It keeps me able to travel to new places, and I love playing shows. I just love everything about it. So I'm really blessed to be able to have the kind of career where the more that I work, it's always really positive for me. So I think that's what keeps me going. I just really love it.
Was there a Nashe album that got scrapped?
We had just started working on one towards the end of my relationship with RCA. But that was really on the tail end. I ended up leaving the label a couple months after creating that project. So I wouldn't say that it was a fully fleshed-out idea. It was a concept that was coming together. And based on the timing of leaving my record label, obviously, it never got finished. But a lot of the records got leaked, like on YouTube, and there were some on Spotify. Don't ask me how. Because I was not getting paid for those streams. But yeah, it's kind of like Tinashe lore. But there was never an official project that got scrapped in that sense.
I was recently watching your cover of “We Found Love.”
Oh my god, yes. The lore runs so deep. That’s so funny.
That’s also kind of this desert vibe.
You know what, I think it's just because I've been DIY’ing, making videos for so long in the area. I grew up in the Los Angeles area, and an easy place that we would always go that was picturesque and scenic was the desert. I'm pretty sure my mom shot that video. And we just kind of hiked around. And so a lot of stuff from my old work in the past up until now, I think that's why there are lots of recurring themes around that — just because of growing up in the LA area. And then obviously the Coachella references. I've been going to Coachella since I was 16. So I think that was something that was very pivotal in my mind, an important part of my year to get inspiration and enjoy music. And now finally playing the festival and releasing around then, I kind of wanted to nod to that with tying the desert in as well and having all those themes.
What can Tinashe fans expect in the coming months? Is there new music?
Yeah, definitely. This is the first single of part two of my album. BB/ANG3L was always intended to be a trilogy. I wanted to release it in three parts just to give people a real sense of what every section meant and really allow them all to marinate. Sometimes you create music and it just gets consumed so quickly. You spend years working on this art. And so I wanted to pace myself in how I was releasing and drop it in three parts. I think initially, people were kind of confused as to why the first part of the project was seven songs and didn't understand that there was more coming. So I'm excited to release part two coming up. That's definitely coming this summer. “Nasty” is just the first single that's being rolled out from this next section. So I'm definitely super excited for everyone to hear everything else I've been working on.
I’m so excited. Good luck at Coachella.
Thank you so much. It means a lot.
Photography: Callum Walker
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