Adele ID Interview: Singer reveals details about more new songs in new interview
In her first print interview in over three years, with British magazine I-D, Adele detailed a handful of new songs from her forthcoming album, 25.
On “Hello”, the album’s first single, which shattered Vevo records along with our hearts last week, Adele says, “The song is about hurting someone’s feelings but it’s also about trying to stay in touch with myself, which sometimes can be a little bit hard to do. It’s about a yearning for the other side of me. When I’m away, I really, really miss my life at home. The way that I feel when I’m not in England, is…desperation. I can’t breathe anywhere else. So ‘Hello’ is about wanting to be at home and wanting to reach out to everyone I’ve ever hurt – including myself – and apologise for it.”
She goes on to respond to anyone who might have thought it was about the same man we met on “Someone Like You”, saying, “That’s over and done with, thank f–k. That’s been over and done with for f–king years. No, it’s not about anyone specifically. It’s about friends, ex-boyfriends, it’s about myself, it’s about my family. It’s also about my fans as well. I feel like everyone thinks I’m so far away and I’m not.”
The article also confirms that Paul Epworth, who produced “Rolling In The Deep” reappears on 25, on a track called “I Miss You.” Of the song, Adele says, “It’s about intimacy on every level. It’s about sex, it’s about arguing, one of the most intimate moments in my life. ‘Cause you just blurt it out. It’s a bit like, a drunk tongue is an honest one. That’s definitely my motto, in life. That’s why I don’t really like drinking no more. The panic you get when you wake up the next morning.”
A tune called “When We Were Young” gets compared to “Rolling In The Deep” — the author describes it as “a great big fat love song, it’s a ’70s styled shimmery disco ballad produced by Ariel Rechtshaid and co-written with Tobias Jesso Jr…” They recorded the song on Philip Glass’s piano in Los Angeles.
Adele also mentions another track by producer and songwriter Greg Kurstin, who collaborated on “Hello.” Called “A Million Years Ago,” it’s described as a stripped back guitar jam, yet another tear-jerker. (The singer says it just barely made the album.) “She didn’t want to just go through and write a pop song with any particular formula,” Kurstin told EW this week. “I think that was the idea, that we wanted to do something that was very honest about where she was at right now, and she wanted to do something that was real and believable.”
And finally, Adele confirms that Danger Mouse and Bruno Mars have credits on the collection. Of the Mars track, Adele says, “I’ve never sung so hard in me whole life. Can you imagine the fun me and Bruno had making that?” We can only imagine, Adele.
Elsewhere Ryan Tedder’s influence is mentioned, as is Rick Rubin’s and Max Martin’s. The singer sought Martin out after hearing Taylor Swift’s “Trouble.” Together they recorded “Send My Love To Your Lover.”
Head to ID for more from Adele.
