Zach Sang: Hello, beautiful human, you're about to listen to eternal sunshine in a way you can't listen anywhere else. You're about to listen with me Zach Sang, and the one and only Ariana Grande.
Ariana Grande: We're rollin'! Zach Sang!
Zach Sang: We just listened to "intro (end of the world)", why are we making music now?
Ariana Grande: I don't know, I did not plan to, I didn't have the goal to make an album, I didn't have, I actually was really opposed to coming out with music until after Wicked either both parts or just the one part, I wasn't sure how it would feel, but as soon as the strike began, I came to New York, and just for fun just to see how it would feel, um, Max Martin came to New York to spend a week with me at Jungle City Studios here, and it all just kinda started pouring out, and after our first week together, I kept coming to the studio everyday by myself, and it just kinda kept organically happening that way, so, um, I just decided to react and listen to that, and I thought maybe it should come out if it's coming out of me this way, maybe it should be shared this way, um. I love it, it's-it's in the heights.
Zach Sang: There's a reason why so much came out so easily, right?
Ariana Grande: Yeah, I think I, it had just really been a long time, honestly, it had just been such a long time, I– the last time we spoke was four years ago, positions was 2020, this– the last time we spoke, it was on Zoom because we were in the pandemic, there was a gourd. It had been a long time, and I think my relationship to music changed and healed a lot through taking space from it, I think I learned so much from Glinda, and through Glinda, I kind of healed a lot of parts of myself alongside and through her, and it actually helped me heal a lot of my own personal, weird stuff that I had with my relationship to music, and to being an artist, and to that, like, persona, and I was able to kind of come home, and adress it and sit with it, and change the things that weren't working, and fall in love with it again, and it all kind of, yeah, was, it all happened absolutely how it was meant to be.
Zach Sang: What was the hardest song to write? What was the easiest song to write on this album?
Ariana Grande: Oh, God, I-I, hardest? I think "bye". Honestly, it's a very simple and silly lyric, and it's not– but it was hard for the reason that I desperately didn't want it to sound like a "fuck you". I wanted it to sound like, "I need to leave so bye". You know? Like, I wanted it to be kind of rooted in self-awareness, and, like, not "fuck you, you go", but with love, I'm emmagrating from the situation. That's why I put it after the "intro (end of the world)" because it asks the question that is sort of– takes accountability and is self aware, and then going into "bye" is like prefacing it, because I think my biggest fear on– when it comes to song writing in general is just kind of, um, even if the concept is strong, and even if empowerment is important, and I want to empower people, making sure that it is kind and that it leads with empathy and that it has that. It's still fun, but it's, like, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't, like, any sort of harshness that isn't in my DNA.
Zach Sang: But also beautifully aware, and I think like– dude, "It's not the first time that I've been hostage to these tears", acknowledging that another relationship is over again. I mean, that is awareness, no?
Ariana Grande: Yeah, yeah, this song– is it okay if I talk about my mom a lot? She's here in the corner listening, but is it okay?
Zach Sang: You got the nod of approval.
Ariana Grande: Are you sure? I might, like, air your shit out a little. I got shit to air, she said.
Zach Sang: She's wearing a purple lip today, she's fine.
Ariana Grande: Yeah, okay, okay. Um, the reason why I felt okay to go there is because of my mom honestly. And woah! Sorry. Almost there, almost there, okay. I think a lot of, um, I think growing up kind of– you want what you don't have like you– my parents got divorced for all the right reasons, they weren't supposed to be together. And, um, you kind of crave when you grow up, the happily ever after. The one is the one is the one, so you ignore all these issues, and you-you kind of, um, you cling onto that fairytale, you kind of self-abandon. And I think, um, my mom is a fierce example of not doing that. And, um, a massive thing that I learned in my year of Saturn return is, um, that my fears of replicating a certain cycle was actually the opposite. I was like, "Oh, wow!" I want to be so much more like her than I am. I want to have the strength to say bye kindly when something isn't fuckin' right. It's as simple as that. And she's the strongest, most brilliant person I know, and it's also a disco track which is my mom's favorite thing in the world, so
It kind of feels like my mom's song, or, like, something that I wrote from my mom's perspective almost. Um, because that's something that I, I watched her do a few times, and, um, and yeah, that's kind of like [?].
Zach Sang: I watched my mom do the same thing.
Ariana Grande: Yeah.
Zach Sang: And there's strength in goodbye.
Ariana Grande: Yeah, and–
Zach Sang: Because it's-it's hard to-it's– it's hard, especially when the most is invested.
Ariana Grande: Yeah, and especially when you do have so much love, you know? Um, so, yeah, that's kind of a-a pattern that I realized I don't need to be afraid of because it means doing the right thing, it means listening to your soul. And not being afraid to be uncomfortable.
