Daily VICE: Tinashe Wants To Change How Women Are Treated in Music

At 23, R&B/pop artist Tinashe has had a hand in every facet of success in her career. From guest spots on T.V. to building herself as a multi-talented artist—one who can not only sing and dance but also produces and writes—she's made well-received mixtapes like Reverie and Black Water and landed hits like "2 On." As well as attracting the ears of a wider audience with her debut, Aquarius. Nevertheless, for someone as driven as she is that's not enough. "I’m not sure I’ll ever be satisfied. I feel like that’s just the part of my personality and what keeps me motivated and hungry and working all the time. I have this crazy tunnel vision, I’m always trying to think of how to get to the next step. I never want to stop." One of those next steps happens to be breaking into the larger mainstream conscience with her new album, Joyride. And beyond music, trying to build a space in the music industry where females can be more than artists, but engineers and producers. We got her to expand on her thoughts and more for Daily Vice video above. Read the full interview below.

Noisey: Getting right into it, When is Joyride finally coming out?
Tinashe: I don't know, I’ve been asked this question all day. I’ve made small changes to a couple songs along with a couple of additional songs here and there but a majority of the body of work is finished.

What song are you particularly excited for people to listen to?
I have a few, I love all the records that I’ve put out for the album but there are others like “Fires and Flames” or “No Contest”, “Touch Pass” that I think listeners will appreciate.

There’s almost been an ongoing debate in terms of what type of music people expect you to make. Whether it’s experimental or mainstream, is that something that bothers you?
I just don’t understand why some people are so limited in their thinking. Why they think you can only be one thing, or you can only make one type of music. If they like one particular style that I’ve created, why do they think that I’d continue to make the exact same thing my entire life? As a creative person, as a human in general, I think we have different sides to us and we’re growing and evolving. For people to expect one thing all the time is just naive and limiting. I’m growing as a person as well as an artist so I think that’s definitely reflected in the music.

And what side are you showing for your upcoming music? That you feel you haven’t displayed before in your previous works.
I think it’s just growth. I think there is a natural evolution from the stuff that I’ve done in the past. I don’t feel like I’ve ever left anything I’ve done behind. I still feel like it’s still got all the same essence as it did before. It’s just that I’ve been influenced by other cultures, other genres, traveling the world and seeing what people react to. Just stepping out of Los Angeles and the bubble that I grew up in, it just opens your eyes and makes you want to try some new things.

When you’re making a song are you consciously thinking about whether it's a hit or not?
Yes and no. Sometimes it’s important to be creative and not create expectations for yourself. Once you do that, it’s hard to create something based on a formula per se. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing to make the best song or the most catchy song or something that people can relate to or go back to. Those are legitimate goals.

What is one thing you really want to send across when people get to see you perform with your new album?
The biggest thing I’d like people to know about seeing the show or hearing the music is that I’m a real artist's artist. It’s not contrived, it’s not a formula. It really is coming from a legitimate place in all every aspect. From the live show to the music, to the visuals. I want people to know that that is me. I am an artist, and I am the creative behind these things and I don’t want people to take that for granted.

Is there a larger purpose you have for yourself outside of music?
The biggest thing that I have to offer is to just inspire young people, young women in general, to get involved in creating music. Especially, the production side of music and entertainment; so as far as producing music, engineering music. In my music career, I’ve worked with two female engineers and one female producer in contrast to the hundreds of male engineers and producers and I find that very concerning. And I would like to change that.

Photo via Instagram

You’ve talked about this at length in an early interview about how there can only be one black female musician, was there a specific moment in time where you realized this was happening?
I just realized over the course of my career and the trajectory that it’s had, how often they just want to pit me against other women. Where it be other women on the come up, other women who are already established. Anyone really, and it seems entirely unnecessary because I feel like they don’t do that with male artists; There doesn’t have to be one or the other, there can be as many as possible. That’s a little bit frustrating, I just think it’s a lot harder for a female artist in general.

It’s also a larger problem in the festival scene, there are very few female headliners and even less black women.
Definitely, it’s evident everywhere. From festivals to the radio, there are barely any black women on the radio. Especially pop radio, maybe two or three ever. Ever. It’s really disappointing and it’s something I hope to change.

Do you feel we're at the point where people are looking at the issues women face in the music industry more closely than before?
I feel like the struggles that women have in music have probably been happening forever. Obviously, even just going from the standpoint of production and the fact that I’ve worked with so many males in engineering and production. For example, the recording academy, the people that are voting for the Grammys, it’s entirely male based and male dominated. I think that creates a little bit of an issue and a little bit of tension for female artists. Because it’s so limited how many women are involved that there can only be one and we then have to compete with each other as opposed to helping each other out or boost each other up. That’s something I hope will change in the future and that we can have ten awesome women artists on the charts at the same time.

Do you have a five-year plan, in terms of what you want to do?
I have loose goals and things that‘d like to accomplish, but as far as a real set in stone plan goes, I don’t even know what I’m doing tomorrow so, I can’t tell you what I’m doing in two or three years but there are definitely a lot of things that I want to accomplish and the sky’s the limit. I’m just going to keep crawling and building and releasing new music, traveling and performing.

What’s your idea of success?
I’m not really sure what my idea of success is. It’s not like a number or something that is super set in stone and I don’t know if I’ll ever reach that. I don’t know.

Cause you can reach one level, and you’ll want to go up higher.
Exactly, so I’m not sure what success means to me, we’ll find out [laughs].

Jabbari Weekes is a Noisey Canada Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.