When many songs on Tate McRae’s upcoming album, So Close to What, leaked online earlier this year, the Canadian pop star thought there was “nothing” she could do to fix the situation.
The “It’s ok I’m ok” singer opened up about the leaks during an album listening event with Spotify at the Living Room in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, recalling how she felt “devastated” to learn some of her songs had surfaced online ahead of the album’s planned release date.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the album got leaked, which was a f—ing bummer,” said McRae, 21. “And I think obviously that makes you look at the project differently.”
She continued, “I was just so devastated because I’m like, ‘There’s nothing I can do about this. The whole project is online.'”
“From my problem-solving brain, I was just like, there’s nothing I can do now,” recalled McRae, who then decided to “write a couple more songs.”
“I wrote a song called ‘Like I Do’ and ‘Bloodonmyhands’ and just [tried] to grab as much control back as I could in that kind of situation,” continued the “Greedy” artist.
Elsewhere during the event, McRae spoke about how some of the lyrics and elements of the production fans heard in the leaked versions weren’t finalized and have since been edited.
“The demo never sounds how you want it to sound. There’s so much missing,” she said. “And yeah, at that point I was just like, ‘Ah, they’re not done or how I want them.’ And that was hard.”
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So Close to What comes out on Feb. 21 and features the song “I Know Love,” a collaboration with McRae’s boyfriend, The Kid LAROI. At the Spotify event, she spoke about the inherently kind of awkward nature of working with a romantic partner — especially on something creative.
“It was a really funny process because me and Laroi have never really taken each other seriously,” said McRae. “You know when you’re in a relationship, and you sing around each other, you don’t really sing. So, it’s a little stressful being in the studio, singing and writing in front of him, but it was a cool experience to watch him in his process.”
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