Tinashe

Tinashe's inescapable "2 On" was one of the defining songs of 2014, and her unpredictably smoky Aquarius, was the year's best R&B album as well. A fledgling perfectionist whose label let her take her time with her debut, the former child actress has managed to get along with collaborators as disparate as Nick Jonas, Calvin Harris and, um, Charlie Sheen. SPIN caught up with the 21-year-old over the phone to learn how much hard work goes into making such relaxing music, and how she spent the best year of her life thus far.

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Aquarius was two years in the making, what kind of strings did you have to pull to get people off your back about rushing it? I was lucky to have a label that wanted to make sure when I presented my debut that I felt I was ready. They never put that much pressure on me to hurry or to rush. The most pressure came from myself, because obviously I was ready to move to the next chapter of my life. I wanted to put something out that was amazing and I had to take time until it was really ready.

Is it true that you didn't listen to any outside music while you were working on it? Well, not any. [Laughs.] I listened to music at the end of the day. I'm always trying to discover new stuff in magazines, blogs. But when I was doing the album, I didn't focus on that as much I was really more into creating my own.

What would you put on at the end of the day? I was trying to go back to my old school taste. Like, I always listened to Sade, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson. People my parents played in the house growing up I always come back to that.

I love how Aquarius bridges different eras of R&B with current sounds. Like "2 On" reminds me of a lot of millennial jams, like "AM to PM." I don't know if it was necessary intentional, but I tried to have versatility within the music while still being consistent. I feel like at the end of the day, I always would try to make music that I wanted to listen to, stuff that I liked and wanted to hear.

Like Sean Paul? You quote him in "2 On." While we were writing the song I thought it was a really relatable melody and I love when people hear relatable melodies in songs. It's not even necessarily that they know where it's coming from; they just know that they like it, and I wanted to have that element in the song.

Did you really record over 100 songs for the album? Yeah, almost 200.

How many of those are going to see light of day? A couple of them have ended up on separate projects. One of the songs is on the Hunger Games soundtrack. So they're finding their own homes. If not, I don't know. They can release them when I'm dead.

Continued here:
SPIN 2014 Exit Interviews: Tinashe