Skylar Grey is All Bubble Grunge in WASTED POTENTIAL

Let's talk about bubble grunge. I think that's such a unique genre of music. What does that mean for you?

Is it actually a genre, or did I make it up? [Laughs.] But basically, this album to me was a combination of pop music and a little bit of grunge. So it's like bubbly, but grungy at the same time. 

I’ve always really admired how vulnerable and emotionally in tune your lyrics are. What does the process look like, getting yourself to open up in such a way?

Well, I think it's kind of like a muscle, and the more you work it out, the stronger it gets. And over the years of being a songwriter, I've just found that when I'm writing from a really true emotional place, it ends up being a better song. So music has always been a therapeutic thing for me. I usually write about whatever I'm feeling and whatever I'm going through. And it's basically like talking to a therapist, except I'm doing it at a piano and expressing my feelings through poetry.

I’ve heard you’re big on collecting eclectic items like creepy dolls, vintage band tees, and custom charms. Do you feel like collecting is a way of archiving an inner world?

Yeah, for sure. I think, just like if you're shopping, it's just a feeling I get when I see it or hold it. And for some reason, I love creepy dolls. They just make me feel nostalgic. And also, I'm drawn to the darkness. I always have been. And I was trying to understand why I've always been drawn to the darkness. And I realized it's because it's scary, and I like to scare myself. And so the things that I do, like, why I'm into spiders and why I have snake tattoos and things, it's not because I'm like, oh, I love these cuddly creatures. It's because they scare me. And I like to be a little scared. And so I lean into that.

WASTED POTENTIAL is, at its core, a coming-of-age story. Do we ever stop coming of age?

That's a great point. No, I don't think so. I think there's always more to learn, and we're always evolving and changing and growing. But I do think that the most formative years of our lives are when we're kids. And we do get set in our ways as we get older. You know, the young adult years to me were definitely [the ones] that shaped me the most as a person, as a soul. And the music I listened to, the fashion I was into, all of that stuff has stayed with me. I'm still more obsessed with 90s music than anything new, you know.

I guess that brings me to this question— In your song, “Nirvana”, you mentioned that listening to the band Nirvana transported you back into adolescence. Are there any other artists that have become really reminiscent of certain periods of time in your life?

Fiona Apple was a big influence of mine when I was younger. And her music has stayed with me. Daito, Massive Attack, Radiohead. Yeah. And then also things like Spice Girls. When I was younger, I used to go to my friend's house and make up dances to Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls songs. 

I’m really curious about how you interact with space. You grew up in the Midwest, lived in LA for a while, and now you’ve moved to a ranch in Napa Valley and have chickens, cows, dogs, and cats. How does that environment affect you as a creative and as a human?

I grew up in a very rural place. The town had 1500 people. And I lived out in the woods. My parents were divorced. So, I grew up in two different houses, but they were about a mile walk through the woods. I started making music when I was six years old professionally. And one of my favorite things to do instead of hanging out with friends was to go home and play the piano, sing my heart out, and write music. Because I was in a place that was rural and there wasn't much to do, that was very exciting. It kind of helped me be more creative.

When I got to LA, there was just so much going on. There were so many distractions. But more than anything, so many opinions. It made it hard for me to be creative because I didn't feel very in touch with my muses. For a while, I lost touch with who I was and why I wanted to make music in the first place. That was what instigated me to move back into a rural environment. In my early twenties, I moved to Oregon. That's where I wrote “Love the Way You Lie”. I got into LA, did my thing, made a bunch of really great relationships, and then I escaped to nurture my creativity and get back in touch with my roots. Pretty much ever since then, I've lived in more rural environments. I've lived in Park City, Utah. And now I live in Napa Valley. I will never live in LA again or any major city. I'm so much more peaceful [now]. I feel more in touch with myself. I can hear myself think. I like to create my own excitement.

I totally agree with that. The overabundance of stimuli, it's overwhelming. And I find that it's so important to allow yourself to be bored sometimes. You can get so much more out of that creatively.

I actually love being bored! Because it pushes me to create something. When I was in LA, I felt like my life was passing me by because I was just bouncing around, here and there. And feeling like I didn't have anything. I wasn't [creating] enough. 

Also, I have to ask, how are your chickens, cows, dogs, and cats doing? And do you name them all?

The chickens— there are a few of them that have names, but not all of them. We have three cats, they all have names. Two dogs, obviously, have names. And then our cows, they're kind of always rotating. So they do have names, but I don't always remember them all because I work with this cattle rancher who brings in cattle for a certain time of year to graze on our property. And then when they go to calf, to give birth, they get taken off the property. And then we get the babies of those cows. So it's like this constant rotation. And then the sheep— we actually just lost one last night to coyotes. I have a long history with sheep, and it's hard for me to get too close to them anymore because the last property we lived on, we had a mountain lion attack that took out all of our sheep but three. And so there was a lamb that I bottle-fed from birth because her mother didn't accept her. Her name was Valentine. And I actually have a tattoo of her on my arm. Oh, and a pig! Did you know we have a pig too? Her name’s Olive. She's hilarious. She's very trained. She's like a dog. She can do tricks and stuff.

I couldn't help but notice that your lyrics read like poetry, and so does the tracklist. Is poetry something that you engage with often? 

It's funny because when I first started making music, when I was younger, lyrics were the last thing I cared about. I loved the melodies, harmonies, and chord changes more than lyrics. Maybe just because my brain wasn't fully developed, I didn't understand them. And so I would just write songs based on how the music made me feel. It wasn't until I got a little bit older, probably in my 20s, when I really started caring about poetry. And now, as I've gotten even older, the lyrics have become just as or maybe even more important to me as a songwriter. And so I didn't do a lot of studying of poetry or anything like that. I didn't read a lot of poetry books or have any poets that I really looked up to. But to me, it was always just about: how do I express an emotion and say it in a way that has never been said before, or is an uncommon way to express a feeling. Find a new way to word. Because there are only so many emotions to express, and there are [only] so many subject matters to write songs about. And a lot of them are repetitive. There are so many love songs. But how do I make a love song that is worded uniquely and differently and captures a different nuance of love? And that's always kind of what I'm trying to do.

So much of the album has to do with allowing yourself to unravel and even reconcile with having made the wrong moves at times, whether it be having been unfaithful, leaning on alcohol, etc. What happens when we look at our mistakes in the eye?

That's an interesting question. Every mistake is a learning experience, right? And so I think it's important. When I approach songwriting, I'm not only expressing an emotion, but I'm working through it. And so I'm looking at my mistakes and thinking, how can I become better from this experience?

WASTED POTENTIAL is such a striking title. What do you think we’re collectively failing to nurture right now as a society?

I think people have a tendency to focus a lot on the negatives in life, and don't realize that happiness is in your own power. I see people get really sucked into the news and all the shit going on in the world. To a point where it's detrimental to their own mental health. That is probably where we're wasting most of our potential as a society. We're just giving too much to the negative and not enough to the positive. We need a perspective change. Because it's so dark, and you can let all the darkness in the world just bring you down. But what good is that doing you, your family, or anyone around you? I see it happen in my own family. I just want everybody to be happy. There's only so much you can control, and you can have feelings and thoughts about things and share your perspectives and try to make change and do all the things, but at the end of the day, when you fall asleep in bed, you have to feel good and happy and comfortable with yourself and your life.