Khalid dropped his debut album, American Teen on March 3 after scoring a viral hit with “Location.” A few weeks later, a fan suggested that he drop a track-by-track explanation of the album.

Inspired by the idea, he linked up with Genius and Spotify to break down the inspirations and meaning behind each song on the album. Genius spoke with the Texas singer to delve into the creative process behind American Teen. The annotations below represent just a fraction of everything we learned from him, so be sure to check out the song pages, too.

Khalid noted the difference between being a proud American and being proud of the current state of America:



Seeing high school relationships fall apart helped inspire lines on American Teen’s second track:



Although “Location” is about meeting up with a girl, it’s also about the sense of awkwardness that comes with a new relationship:



In a Q&A, he explained that although this song shares a title with Toni Braxton’s 1993 hit, he wasn’t aware of it until after he wrote the track:

Actually, the reason that ‘Another Sad Love Song’ became a song is that I had tweeted—obviously, I got my feelings hurt over whatever I was going through—and I tweeted, ‘I guess it’s time to write another sad love song.’ Then, I get into the session and I was like, ‘Shit, I don’t know what to write.’ And I looked at that tweet, and I was like, ‘Boom. I’m gonna write another sad love song.’ And then right after I wrote it, I was looking up the different songs, and I was like ‘Shit, Toni Braxton has a song called ‘Another Sad Love Song.’’ But the songs sound nothing alike.

The bad memories that inspired “Saved” weren’t as easy to forget about as Khalid wanted:



Khalid noted that a lyric on “Coaster” is one of his favorites:



The El Paso, Texas singer elaborated on a night of youthful recklessness that inspired “8TEEN”:



He explained how “Let’s Go” came together:

I wrote that song before my graduation. I wrote it before my graduation and ‘8Teen’ after my graduation. I wrote ‘Let’s Go’ on a positive note because I was super excited to graduate. I was like, ‘You know what, I’m ready to let everything go. I’m ready to move on with my life. I’m ready to start a new life. It’s just about moving forward. You know, I’m gonna throw out all these worries, all this stress, all this homework And I’m gonna have the time of my life. I’m gonna have the best time of my life.’ And yeah, ‘8Teen’ was, ‘Oh shit, all those people that I thought were going to be there aren’t there anymore.’

Khalid does consider himself a hopeless romantic, although he’s not always the best at it:



He broke down the meaning behind the “Cold Blooded” title:

I felt like it was very honest to myself. It was about a relationship that wasn’t healthy. It wasn’t what it should be. It’s like, even though you treated me bad, at the same time, you treated me really good. The way you’ve been treating me is getting out of hand, but you’re walking around like you’re so innocent. It’s like they don’t know they’re hurting you. Or they do know they’re hurting me, and they have enjoyment, because they know I’ll never leave.

El Paso, Texas still holds a special place in Khalid’s heart:



“Therapy” is inspired by seeing people deal with their own personal demons:



He broke down some of his favorite current songs:



“Shot Down” represents one of the final stages of a teenage love that’s not meant to be:

It’s a storyline based on a teenager. It’s the stages of love. They get their heartbroken and try to tell themselves they’re OK. Then they fall right back in love again. They fall right back in love to fall out of love again. It’s very upsetting. It’s very sad.

He noted that “Angels” isn’t inspired by religion so much as the concept of a guardian angel:

We’re religious in the sense we believe in god. But I felt like the song wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about me literally talking to angels. I felt like it was more me talking about guardian angels. I’ve been seeing angels in my living room. I can literally touch them. They’re close. They’re in my space. They’re around me. I know I have someone I can call who will answer me and help me out. These people were placed in my life for some reason. They were there to help me.

It also deals with people looking down on you. It’s about grief. It’s about all the people who left and are watching out for you to make sure you’re alright.

You can read all the lyrics to Khalid’s debut album American Teen on Genius now.