My whole life, my gender has been something that I felt very uncomfortable about, something I felt very confused about. So if anyone wants to know more about it, I would implore you to read, to go online and just search up nonbinary activists, because they're way more eloquent than I am. I've only been known as they/them with my pronouns for the last year and a half. I want to point out, before I explain this: I am a singer. We may get emails and tweets from people who don't understand why we refer to you as "they" and "them." Can you help us understand that? And I find talking about it great and good. So just like everyone who's in their late 20s, I feel like I'm just trying to figure myself out so I can lead a happier life, because my early 20s were just really tumultuous. I have OCD, so it's not necessarily a depression that I have, it's an anxiety disorder - and then I become depressed because of the anxiety disorder. And it's taken a good four, five years to get into a place where I just feel positive again about stuff, about life. But for me, becoming famous, becoming successful, really, really wreaked havoc on my insecurities and my mental health. I mean, I have mental health in my family, and I think no matter how my life was going to go, I probably was always going to have to battle it at some point - just from a genetic standpoint. Do you mind opening up a little bit about that for us? I think a lot of people are feeling that one way or another nowadays. You have been very open in recent interviews about just having been hit hard by mental stress. And I think that's in terms of relationships but also in terms of life, you know? There's an element of desperation in there, I think, and also just realizing that I can't move forward unless I forgive myself for the things that have happened. This song for me was very fresh after a breakup with someone, and my heart was just really, really heavy when I was writing it. "Forgive Myself" feels like it's about the small recriminations that we all carry but learn to live with as we go on - is that a good reading?Ĭompletely.
This is, in many respects, a sad and pensive album - songs that touch on regret, vows to get better. Sam Smith: Yes - it was called "To Die For." And obviously, because of what's happened the last six months, it felt a little bit desensitive calling the album that. Scott Simon: I gather this album was supposed to come out over the summer, and it had a significantly different title. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read on for an edited transcript. The artist joined NPR's Scott Simon to talk about their new album, Love Goes, out Oct. But the singer's lyrics, whether in a ballad or a bop, aren't just about loving or losing others: They're also about the love of the genuine, the true, the self. Sam Smith is known for their soulful voice and its satin falsetto. 30, is the third studio album by Sam Smith. So yeah, the space was needed for me to finish this record. So I was able to look at the album in a better way. “And getting that time to be home made my heart heal a little bit more, if I’m honest. “And for me, that kind of sentiment is forever, you know, it’s love and it’s, I actually felt like being home during lockdown was the first time I’d been home properly for about four years. It’s an album about my relationship, really. “For me, this, this album is a breakup album. Smith then revealed a bit more about what the album is about during their SiriusXM interview. “The risks that I took and the stress that it caused for me to truly be myself and express myself in a quiet way was really difficult. “I felt at one point that I was going to be trapped on stage wearing a suit and singing ballads for the rest of my life,” they said. Smith, known for their romantic songs from love to heartbreak, will see Smith in another light other than the ballads they become famous for. RELATED: Sam Smith Reveals They’ve Had A Hair Transplant: ‘It’s Been A Touchy Place For Me’ But the last two years for me as a writer and a singer were so beautiful and feeding. There was talk of me not releasing anything at all and just going back to the drawing board. “And that the title felt really inappropriate. “When everything stopped, it made me realize the album wasn’t finished, in a weird way,” Smith said. The album was originally named To Die For, but with the pandemic delay, Smith reworked the album to become Love Goes. RELATED: Sam Smith Screams In Pain Trying To Digest Death Wings
“And it sums up what I went through so perfectly.”
“This album is how I healed myself,” they told Apple Music. Sam Smith’s Love Goes is now here, along with the music video for “Kids Again”.