Ep. 266: Tinashe’s Guide to Making It on Your Own Terms

Today’s guest is a singer, songwriter, producer and dancer who has spent her career trusting her own instincts—and building a world around them.

From “2 On” to “Nasty” and “No Broke Boys,” Tinashe has kept releasing music through major-label deals, independent projects and viral breakthroughs.

She’s collaborated with artists including Calvin Harris, Charli xcx and Kaytranada, and joins us to talk about the journey behind it all.

And The Writer Is... Tinashe!

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro

0:46 Tinashe and Ross reconnect—back to The Stunners

3:48 “Deep in the Night”—the song she wrote at five

5:08 Tinashe’s French fry rankings

6:12 Child acting, Whoopi Goldberg, and moving to LA

9:11 Life in a girl group without creative control

11:22 Buying a microphone and building a bedroom studio

14:10 Getting signed—and expecting it to be easy

18:40 Join the ATWI Patreon

19:32 Splice: Sounds and Variations

20:39 Early Travis Scott sessions and being taken seriously in the studio

23:29 Recording 200 songs—and trusting the big producer’s opinion26:33 Trusting your gut and knowing when to leave a session

30:43 “2 On” takes off. What happens after the first hit?

36:03 Writing “2 On” in a garage with friends

37:37 Does having a hit teach you how to make one?

39:20 Leaving her label and rebuilding trust in her own ideas

43:29 What releasing music independently actually takes

46:10 Filming her own videos and building her visual world

48:14 How dancing shapes the way she writes songs

50:08 Working with a label again—and finding Ricky Reed

52:11 Getting the call from Calvin Harris

53:52 Why genre doesn’t define her music

55:19 “Nasty” takes off after she stops needing another hit

57:04 Why she won’t write for a TikTok trend

58:43 Charli xcx and finding freedom after early hits

1:00:41 The unexpected remix journey of “No Broke Boys”

1:03:31 Taking the Grammy off her lock screen after seven years

1:05:14 Making POPSTAR—and giving herself time to play

1:05:55 Which POPSTAR song fits every mood?

1:08:19 Claiming the pop star she’s always been

1:13:32 “Just don’t stop”—keep putting your music out

1:14:42 Her advice to young women in music: intuition

Credits

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.