In conversation with Remix’s Autumn cover star Madison Beer

With 1.5 billion Spotify streams, 1+billion views on Youtube and over 22 million followers on Instagram, this 21-year-old is no ‘up and comer’.

Madison first tasted fame when Justin Bieber scouted her online aged 12, but it was the independent years of her teenhood that followed which went on to form the building blocks of this young woman’s talented force.

Navigating the music industry and fast fame on her own so young was no easy feat, and yet she’s proving everyone who ever doubted her wrong with her debut album Life Support.

Remix editor Amber Baker caught up with the powerful voice to discuss wearing her heart on her sleeve, breakup songs and how her biggest fan became her best friend…

2021 is going to be mᴀssive for you. With Life Support finally out how do you feel about listeners hearing an album that has been years in the making?

I feel amazing. I’m so excited. And I’m very grateful that it’s finally coming out. It’s been like over a year in the making. So it feels like I’ve been pregnant for a year and a half with this baby!

It’s ironic that your album release on Feb 26 was exactly the nine-year anniversary of when you launched your YouTube page. That’s pretty much what started your whole career, right?

Yeah, which is so crazy. We didn’t even plan that. It was merely a coincidence! But, it’s super cool and it’s a very, full-circle moment for me. YouTube is where I got my start so it feels really good.

Our team listened to the entire album and we love it all. My favourite track is Interlude Song…

That one’s really beautiful. That’s one of the oldest tracks on the album, we made that one night randomly, I just got on the vocoder and was like, let me just sing some stuff. It was just a freestyle!

What’s your favourite track on the album?

It changes a lot. I’ve had a lot of time with it, I’ve been able to sit with it. So it changes all the time. But, I would probably say, Homesick and Effortlessly are my number ones right now.

But you know, when I first made it, it was Defaulted, it just changes all the time. They’re all so special to me for so many different reasons.

Throughout the album, I heard hints of Lana Del Rey and Sia and kind of like this electronic rock feel, how do you navigate so many types of vocals in one album?

I don’t know. I think it’s kind of just like an accurate depiction of what I like. I listen to so many different types of music, so many different covers and songs. I did a cover of a Lana song on tour, and I also did a cover of a RadioHead song on tour.

So that kind of shows you that I like all different types of music, sound, everything. I really wanted my album to just feel like me and feel really honestly like these are the things that I listen to, these are the types of songs I want to be creating. I’m glad that that translated.

It definitely did. It feels a little bit like a breakup album…

Yeah, so initially when we were starting it, it was definitely a breakup album. That was the only real main talking point, I guess, like at the very beginning.

And then once we started the writing I started talking about things that were deeper and things that were a little bit more personal, not as simple. So I kind of realized I shouldn’t be reducing myself just to a breakup album.

There are obvious songs about my breakup but, everything happens for a reason. The last song on the album, that song has to do with my breakup, but also has to do with me and how I went through a really hard time. I tried to reduce it into not just a breakup album because it’s so much more than that.

You have clearly gone through some sort of heartache… What advice would you give to other people that are going through something that you’ve gone through?

I get asked that a lot and I think it’s hard because obviously everybody’s experience is catered to them, everybody’s healing process is different. But, the one piece of advice that I could kind of marginalize to everybody would be to just, you know,

stay strong and know your worth and remember, what you should and shouldn’t be putting up with. If a relationship ends, remember why and try to stay strong. It’s not maybe, the best, most insightful advice, the only real piece of advice that I can give someone who I don’t know what the exact situation is,

would be, just try to stay strong and remember that you deserve to be treated with the utmost respect and love and reciprocation across the board. And, if you’re not getting that, then it’s going to be tough and breakups suck, but you can get through it and come out better on the other side.

The album is тιтled Life Support but I also noticed some songs also referenced mental health and medication. You’ve dealt with mental health struggles over the years, haven’t you?

Definitely. I have never felt like I’ve touched on my mental health, musically. Before this, and for a long time, I felt like I was swimming through this ocean, which was this part of me that I wish I could have listened to when I was going through a breakup.

Like the bad bitch and being like, you know, ҒUCҜ your ex, and you don’t need him. That was the whole motive behind a lot of my music prior, then creating this album I wanted to show the other side of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think you should be a bad b*tch and you should move on from this piece of sh*t guy. But at the same time, there are nights that you still might miss this person, and there are nights you might want to cry and be in your feelings.

I wanted to show all sides of me and a breakup and be honest about it all. I think it’s really important to talk about, and I’m really glad that this is the way that I’m finally being able to touch on it.

I started opening up about my mental health, I wanted to talk to my fans before the album comes out about everything and prepare them a bit. So that when they do listen to the songs, like Effortlessly and like Stained Glᴀss, they could understand what I’m saying on a deeper level.

Obviously, you’ve gone through a lot over the years, who in the industry have you sort of connected with really well, and consider a good friend? Because that world can be a tough place…

Yeah, it is very cutthroat, it’s very compeтιтive. The people you think are your friends then turn around the next day and write you off. So yeah, it’s tough. I’ve connected with a lot of people,

artists and influencers who have been through similar situations, and I’ve been able to find some great people. But honestly, I try to give credit to myself, there’s no one in particular that I could be like,

this person really helped me, unfortunately, I wish there was. People kind of suck. So I kind of had to figure it out on my own and I feel like, that’s good. I haven’t had to rely on anybody or anything I’ve been able to get through it on my own.

[Disclaimer: This news has been made on the basis of information received from the website. NewsKosh does not confirm this from its side.]