Bryson Tiller joins Rebecca Judd on Apple Music 1 to discuss his self-titled new album and feeling confident to push himself even if his fans don't like it. He discusses his collaboration with Victoria Monet, fans wanting more music like ‘Trapsoul’ and how releasing the album made him insecure following criticism he received, and how the drop in his fan favourite ‘Don’t’ came about. He also talks about his most starstruck moment involving Drake, Rihanna and Kanye, his video game career and applying to game design internships even if that means just cleaning toilets.
Bryson Tiller talks about fans wanting him to recreate/go back to the music from his debut LP ’Trapsoul’ his debut LP…
Rebecca Judd: Why did you feel like this was the album that had to be the self-titled one? Because it’s a pretty big statement.
Bryson Tiller: I thought it was super important. My last album was the Anniversary album, and that album was about paying homage to my first era and debut album, Trapsoul. A lot of people would be like, ’Hey can you go back to this and just do this type of stuff?’ So I wanted to make an album, one paying homage and respect to it, but to also show people that can’t be done again. That’s why the album cover is looking back at the other cover. There’s a lot of time references on that album. Even if I take some songs that didn’t make Trapsoul from that era and put them on here, they’ll resonate with you like the song ‘Sorrows’ resonates with a lot of people from that album. But at the same time, you can’t duplicate that. If that’s something that you really want and something you love, go back to that.
Bryson Tiller discusses how releasing ’Trapsoul’ actually made him incredibly insecure at the critique…
I lost a lot of confidence due to the criticism from my first album ‘Trapsoul.’ A lot of people don’t know that I got a lot of critiques for ‘Trapsoul’ and just a lot of disappointment from fans and stuff that made me go back into my creative shell. It took a toll on me and I was just like, “Damn man.” I’m not like that. I thought I was, but I’m not like that.
Bryson Tiller talks about feeling confident and excited to push himself on this new album even if fans don’t like it as much…
The first thing that was me stepping out of my comfort zone was collaborating with people, being open to playing them my ideas and seeing how they feel about it. I used to be super afraid to play anybody stuff in case they didn’t like it, then I’d be depressed for two weeks and I’d be like, “I’m terrible.” But now I’m like, “Let’s talk about this, let’s figure out what we all love. Let’s curate this album.”
I have the last say over everything, and I picked one of the last songs, I executive produced it with my brother Charlie Heat. I just want to be happy with it when it comes out. So even if people don't like it, that doesn't matter to me because it's really about what I love. Now, all the other albums that I did before, it was challenging. It's actually more of a burden, when I write everything. Everything is all me, and then I put it out for people to hear, and people feel whatever the way they feel about it. That takes a toll on a creative. I feel like I was able to let go of the reins with this album and just be creative and be a dope talent.
Bryson Tiller discusses his collaboration with Victoria Monet…
I discovered her music when I was making ‘Anniversary,’ and I was in love with her album, ‘Jaguar.’ It was very earth, wind and fire, but new and fresh, and she had a lot of cool things she was saying on there. I reached out to her and I was like, “Man, Victoria, I need something amazing for this album.” If somebody were to come to this album and say, “Oh my God, the Brice and Toe album sucks, I need them to like the song that you gave me.”
I was like, “I need something undeniable.” And don’t get me wrong, there’s still people that don’t particularly like the song with her and I, but like I said, that doesn’t matter. We love it. And when she played it, I heard how clever it was, I was just like “Oh my God.”
Bryson Tiller talks about his most starstruck moments he’s had…
Summer '16 concert in Toronto, Canada. It was Drake's concert. I went backstage and looked to my left, there's Scooter Braun. Look to my right, Rihanna holding somebody's baby. Then I look forward and it's Kanye ranting about something, going crazy. Then Drake walks in, I was like, "Oh, I got to hear this." It was just surreal... I was frozen. I was like, "What the hell is going? What's happening?" That was a real pinch me moment.
Bryson Tiller talks about his video game career (designing a game), how he’s applying for internships and will clean toilets to be in the building…
Bryson Tiller: It’s going to be very story-driven, very easy to play, it’s not a kids game. It’s not the same type of game as GTA. It’s not an open world game, single player games. I’m doing voice acting as well. My goal is to have it out by the end of 2025.
I really want to pursue game design. God bless that I’m able to prosper and do music and be able to make money from this and be able to support my own game design career. But also, I want to get an internship. I’m working on a couple of internships somewhere with some people that I respect, just so I can learn the ins and outs and step in there without my ego at all.
Yesterday, at my show, I ran into somebody who is close with somebody who works at a game company that I really, really love, respect and admire. I wrote a letter to them, actually, I wrote it four months ago, but never sent it because I was super nervous about it. That was just a nudge from the universe, like, "Hey, just send a letter." I sent it to them and I haven't read the response yet, but they did respond.
I wrote in my letter that I will clean toilets. I don’t care, I just want to be in the building. If cleaning toilets means I get to be in there, I don’t even have to be in the meetings, just to watch people, be a fly on the wall and see what people are doing would just be everything to me. I could take that. Even if it doesn’t work, even if they’re like, “Bryson, we don’t really need you here. It’s been great having you here as a little buddy. But yeah, thanks for anything.” I would take all the knowledge that I soaked in during my toilet cleaning, coffee making, desk cleaning, and then I’ll take it back to my company. Trap Show Games.
Bryson Tiller talks about the drop on his huge fan favourite ‘Don’t’ and how that happened originally
Rebecca Judd: Have you ever missed the drop on your own tune before?
Bryson Tiller: Listening to it on the radio. Yeah. It's funny, it was actually an accident. It was not intentional. It was intentional to keep it that way but it wasn't intentional that it ended up like that. When I was making it, I was really just trying to get the song out and I couldn't figure it out. And I was just like, "You know what? Whatever." Yeah, whatever.
