Jaden Smith joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music to chat about his new song “Cabin Fever”. He tells Apple Music about making the song with Burns, his forthcoming project ‘Cool Tapes Volume 3', learning how to play the guitar, how he approaches mixtapes vs. albums, and the challenges of making music during quarantine.
On New Song “Cabin Fever”…
Dude, Zane, Zane. I don't know, I'm just trying to make the kids happy right now, man. That's it. I'm just trying to give them a little something something. You know? You know I care so much, you know? I really just have to give props and a big shout out to Burns right now for producing the record, he's just so amazing. He really just locked into what I was looking for musically at the time, and I'm just so happy. I'm so happy with how it turned out, I just really hope people can enjoy it.
On Forthcoming Project ‘Cool Tapes Volume 3’...
I'm bringing it inside, and I'm making it more of a world that other people can participate in and actually, this is great for me to let you know because this album is going on... It's an album called Cool Tape Volume 3, right? So, I did Cool Tape Volume 1, Cool Tape Volume 2, and then Fire. So this is Cool Tape Volume 3, and it's kind of bringing all my fans who have been with me from the beginning, since before "Icon,", before SYRE, and kind of updating them onto everything that's been happening. But with that being said, this is also a prequel before SYRE, you know? So it's kind of taking place when I'm like 15, going all the way up until 17 and how did SYRE get trapped in the sunset? How did all that happen? Why did it happen? Where's your friends? Where's everybody else? Tell us the story before you get trapped in this Inception purgatory.
On Finding Inspiration and Learning The Guitar…
I just wanted to be able to really listen into different types of style of music, and pull in different inspirations that I could use for my own music, whether that be vocal harmonies, whether that be different types of pedals on guitar, whether that be playing guitar in general, you know? It's like, I came and we did an interview for Iris, and I played that one song on guitar a little bit, that was me messing around. And now I'm just, through this quarantine I'm just trying to get better and better and better. I'm still nowhere where I want to be, being able to play guitar. But the fact that I can play a few songs and I can do this, and I can practice singing on guitar, that's what I really care about. Because now, I can have a personal connection with the instrument, where it helps me to express emotions, you know?
On His Approach To Mixapes vs. Albums…
Internally for me, it doesn't differ that much because I'm still trying to make the best thing that I've ever made. It's not like, "Yo, this is just a mix tape." I'm still trying to make the best thing that I've ever made. Really the only distinction is the timelines I would say for me personally. It's like the tape is what makes it clear to my fans that this is coming directly after Cool Tape Volume 2, opposed to coming after Iris or after SYRE. This is directly after Cool Tape Volume 2, so it's in that slot. And if you're a fan of me from a long, long time, you do feel like there is that little gap that we missed where it's like, you went from "PCH" to "Icon Living.”
On The Challenges of Making an Album During Lockdown…
It's really hard. it's really hard, because you can't get into the studio with anybody, and you can't even get into the studio at all. So I have to record being inside of my house, and then engineer has to engineer me from his house, and he'll use this app to control my computer, da, da, da. So it's like I'm recording the whole album by myself. So it's funny because it's like, I recorded SYRE with people around and that was more of like, I'm by myself album. And this one is the, "Yo, I'm actually... This is the story before I went into that kind of place where I'm like, 'I'm just going to be by myself.'" And I'm being forced to record it by myself. So that's really interesting. But it's happening, and we're figuring it out and we're just rolling with it in whatever it is, just to make happen.
