Viral popstar Addison Rae joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to celebrate her new album ‘Addison,' releasing this Friday 6th June. During the interview, Rae unpacks the meaning behind her latest single 'Fame is a Gun’, dives deeper into her forthcoming album, and working with iconic artists like Charli xcx. She also reflects on her journey from TikTok stardom to navigating fame.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about writing the track "High Fashion"
Addison Rae: Going to "Diet Pepsi," like you were just talking about, that was such to me a natural beginning to all of this. I think it was a perfect introduction in so many ways. As fun and wild and sexy as "Diet Pepsi" is, it's like easy to understand. You could see why that would be a lead single. I think "High Fashion" was the one that really confused people the most, which I thought was so funny. I remember when we were in the studio making "High Fashion," it went through a few versions, actually, before we landed on what it is now. It was like a ballad and some weird musical theatre song. We were really trying to make this concept work, because I loved it.
When we landed on this, what had happened was we were toying around with the concept of "High Fashion." I wanted a song called 'high fashion' so bad, and that's where it really started. Then I ended up writing down, I don't need drugs. I'd rather get high fashion. When I brought this concept up to Luka and Elvira, like I said, we tried it a few times. Nothing was clicking, but I was so desperate to make it work just because I love the title “High Fashion." Then I wasn't at the studio one day. I think I must have been doing something else.
Luka and Elvira were still in the studio working on things. Tove Burman, who is an incredible songwriter, she came in to the session that they were having, and they were like, "We need to try and make this title work for her. We need to make the concept work. She has the lyrics that she wants.
Zane Lowe: She won't let it go.
Addison Rae: Yes. I won't let it go. How do we make this happen? They came the next day into the session and were like, "We kind of made a track that we feel like could be where “High Fashion” needs to end up." I was like, "Amazing. Let me hear it." They played a very different, but very similar version of what it is now, kind of like the bones of it all."
Zane Lowe: With the chords that feel minor.
Addison Rae: Yes. Weird chords.
Zane Lowe: Kind of like 2:00 AM In A Rave.
Addison Rae: Exactly. Exactly. That was the idea was for it to feel pretty like druggie and, lost in itself in a way. I think that complimented that lyric so well. When they brought me that and had like a little-- they had like a taste of the melody. It changed since the first version that they played me, but it had the lyric. I was like, "Oh my God, I love it. We have to work on this." We worked on it that day. I think we finished it the next day, and it just evolved so magically. Then we didn't even have the bridge in the first version. It was just really short and concise. I was like, "I don't know, I need something that goes even deeper."
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about moving to LA after TikTok boom
Addison Rae: I think in the beginning, especially, and starting out, I always knew that I wanted to make music. I always knew I wanted to act. I think I just knew I wanted to perform. That was just something that was really obvious to me since I was a little girl. When TikTok happened, I was almost like, well, this seems like a really nice way to get myself to LA first because I think in Louisiana there wasn't as many opportunities or like possibility, really, to pursue that profession necessarily, unless you just got really, really lucky.
Zane Lowe: Which means there's probably not a lot of people around that you can kick that dream down the road with.
Addison Rae: Yes. I had a best friend who is still one of my best friends of all time. She had a very similar perspective as me on artistry and being an artist and creating and making that possible. She was with me whenever I first came to LA. I think that was really helpful to have one person that I felt really understood me as a person and as a creative and my passion and desire for that. She was someone that I leaned on a lot to keep inspiring me and keep feeling like, this isn't just a passing thing that I need to let go of.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about her TikTok stardom
Zane Lowe: Did TikTok change your family's life?
Addison Rae: Yes, it did. I think any sense of acknowledgement or, I guess, attention in those kinds of ways changes your family's life.
I think so many opportunities were coming at me at a million miles per hour. When I first moved to LA, within the first two months, I had met with my managers. That was my first time meeting with any type of manager before, but I'm still with them today. It was obviously very great.
Zane Lowe: Whoa, that's really lucky.
Addison Rae: I know. I told them the first time-- they had met me with the intention of talking about social media like, "Oh, great. We're going to manage you on social media, and you're going to be an influencer. I was like, "Yes, well, I actually don't want to do that. That's not the goal for me. The goal is to create art and entertainment for people that exceeds just social media and just living on a platform like TikTok." I want it to be everywhere. I want to entertain people in different facets, not just by sharing my personal life necessarily in the way that I was at the time.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about her new self-title, just "Addison"
Zane Lowe: You're Addison now. It's a great double-barreled name to have, but it's a great first name to have now. It's self-titled by design because to some degree that represents a break in how people have perceived you before.
Addison Rae: Well, I think for me, if you got introduced to me as Addison Rae, as most people did, I think you will always know me as that. I think for me and what making music is doing for just my own soul and heart is bringing me back to like the core of everything. I think Addison Rae is a part of me and that will always be a part of who I am. There are elements of me that are obviously Addison Rae and encapsulate what people have created as who Addison Rae is. I think, for me, it was all about coming back to the center of it all, which is just Addison. I don't know, I think in my life nobody ever called me Addison Rae. That wasn't a thing.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about her debut single "Obsessed," released in 2023
Zane Lowe: Let's talk about the making of this record. “Obsessed” comes out, you take that first step, and people are trying to figure out what it means to Addison Rae. Then there was a concerted amount of time in between that and your return. What were you doing in that time?
Addison Rae: I was writing. I was in sessions. I was meeting people. I had met Charli (xcx) in between that time, actually, for the first time in a session. I love “Obsessed." I think “Obsessed” will get its flowers someday. Actually, it did really well when it came out. I was like, "That worked for me."
Zane Lowe: Why is your reaction to that song when you think back on it now? Not just it did really well, why do you make the statement, I love “Obsessed?” What was the counterpoint to it?
Addison Rae: People weren't ready to receive that, or me, as an artist, which is completely understandable. Actually, I think the reason why people are so much more open to it now is because there's an obvious difference of how much I put into it.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about making "Von dutch" remix with Charli xcx
Addison Rae: I think when I went into the session with Charli to write “Von dutch” remix, that was a really big turning point for me. I think when the EP came out, and obviously the songs got leaked, which was really devastating, but it happened and it happened for a good reason. Thank God it happened, honestly. When that happened, I think I was still pretty insecure in my songwriting abilities. I never had felt sure about it, as one does. I think every day an artist will go into a session, and I was in a session yesterday, and I was like, "Am I just the worst songwriter of all time?"
With “Von dutch” remix, when Charli had reached out to me to do “Von dutch” remix, I sent her back a note. She had sent me the track and was like, "Oh, this is the remix track that I wanted to do with you. Here's the original song, so you know what the topic is or what it's based off of." I was like, "Great." She was like, "I want to rewrite the whole thing. It's going to be nothing like the original song."
I was like, "Amazing. Let me just send you some lyrics that I've written down in the past. They coincide with this topic." Sent her a whole like note. Must have been like 10 lines of things and just information that I was storing up about a similar topic of like, "Oh, while you're sitting in your dad's basement, like I'm chasing my dreams." It's just in this like bratty time, no pun intended.
I was being a brat at that time. I was really feeling that. I sent her that note, and she was like, "Oh my God, we have to use while you're sitting in your dad's basement." Then there was a bunch of other lyrics in there that inspired, what ended up being the final version of it all. I sent her that, and she was like, "Yes, we're going to use all of this. We need to use all of this in the song." I was like, "Oh my God, are you sure you don't want to like change it up or make this better? You're amazing, and I trust you. This is your song and I just want to aid your artistry and your vision on this."
Zane Lowe: You felt seen.
Addison Rae: Yes. I felt very seen. Then I had hummed out that hook melody, you just want to scream my name, that little melody that we do for the hook of the song. I hummed that out in my car and I sent it to her and she was like, "Great, this is the hook." I was like, "Oh my God, I had never felt so seen and understood and also just trusted." I think she trusted me so strongly with what I thought was cool for that, which really gave me confidence in my taste. I already knew I had good taste. I know that about myself. I actually really pride myself on my taste. I think I have pretty refined taste in my own way.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about her next chapter in life
I think the story for me is just go with life. Let the experiences happen. Be a good person throughout the experiences. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Let yourself play. Let yourself have fun. Let yourself mess up. I think all these things have created what the album is. It's trial, it's fearlessness within what feels good. I think that to me is what the story behind this whole project is, is just feeling things and going with them.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about track "Fame is a Gun"
"Fame Is a Gun," that was the only song we did in New York, other than "Life's No Fun," which is an interlude. Yes, for fame, there was a lot of weird intensity in that moment. We were working at Jungle City, and Ariana (Grande) was working there around that time too, for the deluxe that she had put out. She had came down and said hey to us and was so sweet. She's such a sweet person.
She came in and chatted with us, and we were really struggling at that point to keep writing. For fame, yes, we were like, we need something up-tempo and sexy and a little dark. This progressively got darker as we went on. We had written some weird other version of the Hook lyrically, and I was essentially like, "Yes, I'm going to give the label what they want," which is just a straight pop song. That was the structure idea. Was like, "I'm just going to give them what they want." We wrote lyrics that were really wild and just like, "Is this what you want?" Just like this kind of pops.
Then we started talking about fame. We had written some other demo before that, that we never finished, but it was essentially about the trials and the tribulations that fame give to you and present to you. Then we landed on, I think-- I don't even remember how we landed on that final lyric of "Fame Is a Gun." I was also really loving the song “Glamorous Life” by Sheila E. I love that song.
I love Prince. I loved that concept of like, yes, I do want "The Glamorous Life." That is what we all strive for, is this beautiful life of glitz, glamor, and beauty, and fame is almost the price that you pay for that life. I was trying to dive deeper into this concept of fame is a gun, and it's really dangerous, and you don't really know what you're doing with it when you experience it. You are pointing it blind, and you're unsure of what is going to be destroyed by it when you're experiencing it for the first time. It's just really reckless. We really dove into this concept of this almost back and forth between the innocent side of all of it and trying to understand it.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about the challenges of fame
Zane Lowe: You've experienced fame at a very high level. You've written a song that really cleverly sums up, ultimately through metaphor, what that experience has been for you. Do you still want it?
Addison Rae: Yes, I do. I do still want it.
Zane Lowe: Which parts?
Addison Rae: I think the parts of this life that I really appreciate are the challenges and the pressure in a lot of ways. I like the pressure. I like the forceful choices and understanding of the way people work. I don't know, it feels like a lot of psychology, honestly. I feel like I've gotten to understand the way that things can tempt and persuade people's minds and the way that they treat people based off of it.
Zane Lowe: Yes. How do you stay a people person, which you clearly are, when you've seen the side of humanity, a side of us as a species that is irrational and is explosive and doesn't make sense?
Addison Rae: I think it gives me a lot of compassion because I also lived a completely different life up until I was 19 years old. I was living in Louisiana, living with my parents. I was trying to figure out what to do with my life and feeling pretty miserable, honestly, for the most of that part, because I felt like I had to sacrifice my passion and love for entertainment or even creation at the time. I felt like I was almost... I was told a lot in my life when I was in high school, you just got to give up on these dreams eventually. You got to do something normal, like be a nurse or something. Let's be realistic here and just get a good job that pays for your life.
Zane Lowe: Serve capitalism.
Addison Rae: Exactly. I was just like, "Is this what you have to do is you have to give up on the sides of yourself that have such a deep desire and passion for art? Is that worth doing?" Then when I moved here and I realized everything is much more possible than I think I was initially thinking.
Zane Lowe: Small. It can be small.
Addison Rae: It’s very small.
Zane Lowe: Do the work and you get lucky.
Addison Rae: Yes, it's very true. I did get really lucky, honestly. I think timing is everything because the way that the TikTok of it all happened just couldn't have happened in any better way for me.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about capturing the intimate parts of her life on camera
Addison Rae: You know, I actually don't mind people experiencing me in a very honest and open way. Really, any space as long as it is right here. I will allow anyone in my space. I actually don't even mind a camera when I know that the moments are intimate for the people that are experiencing it, I think when you start allowing people to see this footage or to see you in those spaces with zero-- you have zero-- there's not enough to communicate really. It's still very one-dimensional, I think, when you watch a video of some experience. To me, I definitely am a little bit more hesitant of that because I think people can so quickly turn things into a way that they weren't, even if they feel like--
Zane Lowe: We add dimension to it.
Addison Rae: Yes. I am protective of that. Even for my past few music videos, we've had somebody filming the entirety of the day and getting the good moments, the bad moments, the diva moments, the silly moments, whatever it may be. I think I was watching all the footage back actually last night, and I was like, "Yes, I don't know if I want to share this because I think it is intimate and it is personal and it's in a way that I don't want to allow somebody else to spin it into something that it's not because I know what it is, and the people that are there know what it is.
Zane Lowe: Because that'll affect your compassion.
Addison Rae: Yes, I think so. It shows me I don't want to invite an evil perspective of anything or a damaging perspective to things. I think sometimes people will do that, not even for any real reason other than the fact that they're jealous or because they're like, no, you look really happy in that. There's something deeper. There's something more.
Zane Lowe: We got to put our shit somewhere.
Addison Rae: Right. I understand that, by the way, but I'm not going to give you my stuff to do that in.
Addison Rae tells Apple Music about finally releasing her album 'Addison'
Addison Rae: Yes, it's done. I think I'm in the space right now where I'm just really anticipating it coming out, and I'm like trying to hit all the stops. Even like with posting and feeling like, "Okay, well, I really want to make sure I give this the credit and the energy that it deserves." I think sometimes I shy away from that because I'll be like, "Well, I don't know, I'm already putting this out. Is it going to be too much if I'm just like, all right, everybody, the album's this many days away, like every two days. Sometimes I'll get onto myself about that, and I'll be like, "No, it deserves that."
It's a super interesting observation, because what my base take on that, knowing a lot-- well, okay, yes, I can say this, speaking the language of the artist for a long, long time. It's a different feeling to anything else you've gotten in front of and promoted before. It comes from a deeper place. Do I do that to this? Because I'm like it's so intimate and so precious that I don't want it to feel gimmicky in that way sometimes, which it can feel like when you're used to getting paid to promote this or whatever. Even whenever I first started TikTok, like that feeling of that. No, I think this project to me deserves that energy from me.
It deserves that aggressiveness towards getting people to open up and listen to it because then, why else? Obviously, I made it for myself and I made it for my friends and the people that around me create with me to it. I also think we want people to hear music. That's why we create.