Even if you don’t know her by name, chances are that you’re familiar with the work of Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter extraordinaire Skylar Grey. She’s perhaps best known for star-studded collabs with everyone from Eminem and Dr. Dre to Rihanna, Macklemore and Zedd, and the songs from her catalog have been streamed more than 19 billion times and counting.
However, our favorite parts of Skylar’s discography have always been her deeply personal solo work, and we’ve been especially infatuated with her latest album, WASTED POTENTIAL, which releases on May 22. Its 11 tracks are diaristic, vulnerable and unflinchingly intimate as Skylar reflects on her youth growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, before she left for L.A. to pursue her ambitions as an artist. It plunges us into hazy nostalgia of the ’90s, when Skylar yearned to escape her sleepy, humdrum life while dreading the thought of never meeting her full potential. This coming-of-age tale is equal parts hopeful and warm, angsty and grungy, with touches of the music of that time. We had the pleasure of catching up with Skylar on a call to learn what this album means to her and why now was the time to tell this story. Read our full interview with her below.
Sweety High: Where did the title WASTED POTENTIAL come from and why did it feel like it perfectly summed up this project?
Skylar Grey: Well, the project is based on my childhood. It’s telling my coming-of-age story growing up in small town in Wisconsin. I just recently turned 40, and that’s kind of what instigated me looking back at my life and my childhood. I was looking at all my “wasted potential.” There’s a song called “Motivation” on the album that dives into the reasons why I “wasted” a lot of my potential.
SH: Is that something you truly feel now, or is it more based on the expectations you put on yourself from when you were young? How do you unpack what “wasted potential” really means to you?
SG: Well, the song “Motivation” is definitely tongue in cheek, kind of making fun of myself about being lazy, or not wanting to do stuff that I should do, or missing opportunities because I just didn’t want to or whatever. It’s more than my potential was wasted based on the expectations I had as kid about where I’d be this point in my life.
But when I really actually sit down and think about my life and everything I’ve accomplished and the lifestyle I have now, living on a ranch in Napa Valley with a vineyard and having full control my career and my schedule and everything because I’m independent—when I compare that to the pop stars that I wanted to be like when I was kid, actually my lifestyle is probably better. I’m actually living a very ideal lifestyle. So I’m super grateful for the different turns that my life took. I don’t necessarily fully believe that I’ve got a ton of waste of potential. It’s just not exactly what I thought when I was younger.
(Photo credit: Shervin Lainez)
Also read about: Everything You Need To Know About Singer-Songwriter Skylar Grey
SH: What are the biggest overarching themes of the album, and what do you hope listeners will take away after a full listen?
SG: I’m just telling my story, and a lot of it is written almost diary entry-style. I hope that a lot of people can relate to it and feel seen and feel less afraid to be themselves.
SH: You’ve mentioned your work and where it’s gotten you so far. You’ve been known for major collaborations with huge names. Do you approach your solo writing differently than when you’re working with somebody else? In what ways?
SG: For sure. When I write for myself, it’s therapy for me. It’s usually on the subject of something that I wanted to talk about or I’m dissecting myself and my emotions. When I write for somebody else, I take a similar approach, but I first ask them questions about what they’re going through, and I do research on them, and then I try to find something in their story that’s relatable for me. I find that anytime I try to write song that’s not emotionally true for me on some level, it just ends up being a sh***y song. I try to make it personal, even though it’s somebody else.
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SH: Why did not feel like the time to look back on youth and get introspective about those formative years in your musical journey?
SG: I think it’s because I was really depressed about turning 40 and feeling old and feeling like I didn’t appreciate my youth enough, and so I kind of wanted to relive my childhood vicariously through the music.
SH: Does looking back on that time make you reflect on your evolution as a songwriter since that time?
SG: I’ve definitely evolved as songwriter, but I don’t know if these songs show that evolution. But I’m definitely stealing inspiration from the music I listened to as kid in the ’90s. There’s a lot of ’90s pop and grunge influences on it.
SH: Were there any artists you revisited a lot or listened to a lot during the making of the album?
SG: I did put on some ’90s music for fun. I started listening to Spice Girls again, and Fiona Apple and Nirvana. But I don’t listen to a lot of music. These songs from the ’90s are just so ingrained in me. They’re just part of who I am. I can’t help but be influenced by them, inspired by them.
(Photo credit: Shervin Lainez)
SH: Do you think that trickled into the album’s sound and how you went about it production-wise?
SG: For sure. It definitely did play a role. But I didn’t go full retro. I used bits and pieces of things that then made it in a more modern way.
Also read about: Camylio on the Sense of Love and Giving That Inspired His Debut Album, Take My Bones
SH: Do you have a favorite song on the album?
SG: That’s really hard. I love all these songs so much. Each one means something really important to me. I think if I had to pick one, though, “Bruises” is probably the most powerful one. I needed to write that for my soul, for my well-being. It was the most therapeutic song I’ve ever written. Also the darkest, heaviest song emotionally that I’ve ever written, and so it was really important for me to get it off my chest.
SH: Is it scary to put your heart on the line like that in your music?
SG: I don’t think it’s scary at all. I don’t talk to a therapist, and so my piano and my studio is where I get that shadow work done. I did cry when I was writing the song, and it was painful, but sometimes therapy is painful.
SH: Is there anything else we should know about you or the album?
SG: The song “Bulls***” is the focus track of the album. If people are going to go listen to one song just see if they want to listen to the rest of it, I would say send them to hear “Bulls***.” It’s probably the catchiest song on the album, but the album also has arc to it. It starts out looking back at my childhood and my life, and then we open the diary pages and you go through the period of my life when I was discovering boys and my sexuality and flirting, and so those are like the diary entries. Then you get into the hardship of love, and so that’s where “Bulls***” sits in the arc.
You can listen to WASTED POTENTIAL in full here:
For even more from Skylar, click HERE to read our 2022 interview with her on her single “Falling Apart.”
