I generally don’t think about Halsey, and on the rare occasion when I do come across a Halsey story, I don’t really have an opinion either way. I think she has terrible style. I think she comes across as haughty for no real reason. But I also think she works, and she’s out there doing her thing and why not? I actually like a few of her songs, come to think of it. Anyway, Halsey has an interview with the Guardian about her new album (Now or Never) and I’m sure a lot of it would be more scandalous if I had been paying attention to Halsey’s history of picayune pop music beefs. Still, there’s some good stuff in here. Some highlights:

People don’t know the real Halsey: “Everyone thinks they know what’s going on in my life, because they read it on the internet. I’ll buy a table at a restaurant, I’ll buy bottles, I’ll pay for everyone, then we’ll go to the movies. People I barely know. I’m trying to make friends, I’m trying to get to know people. Nobody says thank you because they’re like: ‘Ashley has money.’ I used to be this social queen. I could go anywhere, make anyone like me, go to any party, talk to anybody. I used to have no shame in walking up to someone on a plane or train and sitting down and chatting to them. I used to just talk. I used to be obsessed with people; now, I’m terrified of them.”

Whether she was telling the truth about being homeless: “I get it all the time. People say: ‘How could you be homeless, you were a One Direction fan?!’ It’s like, can’t you be both? Everyone wants to pick on me all the time. What do I have to do, an Excel page with a f–king timeline of my life, just so you guys will give me some credibility?”

Living with a heroin addict as a teenager: “The dark part of it was when I was living with a heroin addict and not speaking to my family. People might say it doesn’t ‘count’, but it counted to me. Thinking all my friends were going to die and being by myself and being terrified. It was easily the darkest time of my life. The one thing I was doing was maintain my persona online. I never let anyone know I didn’t have a home. If there’s one thing I was smart about at the time, it was knowing that if I wanted to be a musician, I needed to keep up my appearance.”

On her early songs disrespecting Taylor Swift for dating Harry Styles: “I understand it was pack mentality, and knowing that in stirring up that discourse we would all be on the same side about it, which is exactly what people do to me now. When you hate someone’s girlfriend or brother, or hate another band, that’s a gang mentality. People would rather talk together about something they hate than something they all love. And that’s so blatantly clear in our nation at the moment. People in political parties are stans: they sit online, they wait to see anyone who’s going to say something bad about their favourite, and they f–king trash them. They direct hate at any opposer. The political parties have literally turned into fandoms.”

On Iggy Azalea: “There’s a lot of people I wouldn’t put on my record. Iggy Azalea: absolutely not. She had a complete disregard for black culture. F–king moron. I watched her career dissolve and it fascinated me.”

[From The Guardian]

I actually think that observation about stans and fandoms in politics is an astute way to understand our current political landscape, and she makes a valid point. She’s an intelligent young woman, even if… I don’t know, parts of her story don’t exactly make sense. But I’m not going to overanalyze it. It’s funny to me that she tries to take the high road and then slips in that utter disrespect for Iggy Azalea (who, let’s face it, deserves it). Iggy has already said some sh-t in reaction to Halsey, telling People Mag: “I don’t know her. I’ve never met her. To me, because I’m a famous person and I know a lot of the time people have opinions and they’re not always accurate, I really try very hard not to give my personal opinions about people that I don’t know.” Yeah. Halsey never said that she knew Iggy. Halsey just said she’s a culturally appropriating jackass.

What else? If you don’t know the backstory on the Halsey-Taylor Swift thing, go here for some history. When Halsey was a teenager, she wrote diss-songs about Taylor for dating Harry Styles. Now Halsey claims it’s all “water under the bridge.” Yeah right. Just wait until Taylor devotes a song to you, Halsey.

Photos courtesy of WENN.