Part of today's Pitchfork review of the soundtrack—which is really positive—is the idea that your effort is extra-winning because any Hunger Games soundtrack would do well commercially, even if it wasn't good. But you's is good. Did you think about that guaranteed audience when you were making it? I think for one second I thought that was true, and then I realized that the kids who are fans of these movies are very devoted. It's everything to them that everything is perfect, and I just had visions of the entirety of the fandom turning their backs on me and the album being number 400 on iTunes or something. I'm lucky enough that I never put pressure on myself making my own music, but with this I definitely felt the pressure of making it cool but also commercially viable. I'm glad about the reviews. In the back of my head, I was like, "The Pitchfork review is going to come out, and I'm going to weep."



How did you manage the artists on the soundtrack? Were you involved after getting them to agree? Oh, yeah, oh my god. Basically I didn't realize how hard working with other artists was. I only have to deal with myself, and I know how bad I am at meeting time goals. It was basically me being like, "Hey! Sorry to bother you again!" Like, super-obnoxious A&R kid. If anyone would try to do that to me, it'd be like, "Ungh." It'd be the biggest eye-roll that someone was trying to choreograph my creative process. It was kind of funny being on the other side of that and being like, "We have deadlines, we have budgets, we have different demographics to think about." But most people adhered to the time really well and were really lovely about getting it done, and I think they realized how much it meant to me, based on the intense vocab I used in my emails.

Tell me about the David Lynch song that got cut. He'd tweeted a long time ago that he was a big fan of a New Zealand artist called Tiny Ruins, who makes this beautiful, delicate, well-written music. I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if I could get them together?" They headed off and they recorded a beautiful, beautiful song for the soundtrack, and it was one of the hardest decisions I had to make not including it. It was so dear to me, but it was an outlier in terms of tone and style, and I thought it would be better suited for one of their projects at some point. But there's nothing weirder than having a David Lynch song on your computer and not using it.

Did you ask anyone to do the soundtrack and they said no? Oh, god, so many people. When I first approached the project, I thought I would choose 15 artists and they'd be the 15 artists I was with three months later, but obviously it evolved like crazy. Nicki was going to do a thing, which was going to be amazing, but she's obviously super-deep in her album, which is going to be awesome and even if I couldn't get a song I'm happy we're going to get a new Nicki Minaj album to listen to at the gym for six months.

So… Diplo insulted Taylor's butt on Twitter, and you called out his dick-size. Major Lazer is on the soundtrack, so it wasn't like you were taking shots at a stranger. Were you surprised the way people got worked up about it? I mean, I think often I say things and realize that Americans hear what I say differently to how I hear it. I love Wes and he's a big brother to me and one of my first friends in the industry, and part of having a friendship with someone like that is not letting them say stupid shit. Taylor's my friend as well, and I'm a girl, and if I see some weird body-shaming on my feed I'm going to be like, "Hey man…" We do still love each other, hopefully.