Your mixtape Number 1 Angel shows a more emotional side to your songwriting than we’ve heard before. Did you draw on your personal life for those introspective moments?

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I had a lot of time to reflect on myself as a person and as an artist while I was writing those songs. I was asking myself huge questions like, What do I even want in life? Who am I? I was definitely feeling distraught, emotional, and really self-destructive prior to writing those songs for the mixtape, and kind of during [the recording process] as well. I think that that rawness and sadness comes out through it.

You’ve said that Number 1 Angel was made in two weeks, but did some songs already exist as sketches from previous sessions?

I think the only songs that were sketches before were...“Drugs” with Abra — I wrote the demo for that in Singapore last year and sent it to her. And then “Emotional” was a song that I wrote a while ago with Patrik Berger, and I just took the a cappella and gave it to A. G. [Cook]. “3AM” was another one made further in advance. It was really hectic getting all of the features together, it was a lot. I was harassing people every day, and then getting it all cleared was crazy because [the artists were on] different labels. But it was kind of fun doing it like that.

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Had you A&R’ed one of your albums before?

Yeah. Sucker was something that I A&R’ed myself. The only record I didn’t A&R myself was True Romance, actually. It’s something I really enjoy and I think it’s something I’m good at — recognizing who could work together and which producers can enhance someone in the best way.

In February, you tweeted “you have no idea how fucking hard it is to just release a free fucking mixtape in 2017,” because of the red tape that comes with being signed to a major label. Do you still feel frustrated with those complications?

I’m kind of over it. I can be a little bitch sometimes, and I was definitely bitching at my label a lot during that period. I’ve learned that it’s better to work with them. Like, if we’re all working together we can move things along. I’m sure in the future I will bitch about them again. It’s like a weird brother-sister relationship, because I’ve known them for so long. When you’re working with people in that kind of close environment there’s always going to be times when they piss you off, and it's business as well. There are always things that are frustrating, but right now our relationship is in a really good place.

It has sometimes seemed like you’d rather be an independent artist. Is that the case?

No, definitely not right now, and I don’t think ever. The issue with me is I’ve got a constant flow of ideas that need financing basically, and if I was independent I would have to spend just as much time creating those finances and thinking of new ideas. I know that really works for some people...I’m sure I could handle it as an independent artist. But right now I’m happy being a team with my label.