Skylar Grey: Eminem & Being Hit on by a Coroner??

Bunnie Xo sits down with Skylar Grey… and this one goes deeper than expected, From almost walking away from music to working with Eminem and Dr. Dre, Skylar opens up about the pressure, the hate, and the reality behind success. Her new album Wasted Potential (May 22) is her most personal yet touching on childhood, growth, and the parts of her story she’s never fully shared. But then the convo shifts. She reveals her newest project “Fawn” an AI designed to help people process emotions. Bunnie is shook, and things get real about AI, creativity, and where all of this is headed. Music, healing, technology… and a lot of truth. Skylar Grey: Website https://skylargreymusic.com/, IG https://www.instagram.com/skylargrey/, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRdVg6Xj_Az9YOsqDzLRbtA Watch Full Episodes & More: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@Dumbblondepod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:11Speaker 00

  Is this thing on?

• 0:12Bunnie XO?

  What's up, you sexy motherfuckers? Today, we have the voice behind the feelings you couldn't put into words and the pen behind some of the biggest songs ever written. Ms. Skylar Gray is in the house.

• 0:24Speaker 00

  What's up?

• 0:25Bunnie XO?

  How are you, baby?

• 0:26Speaker 00

  I'm doing great.

• 0:27Bunnie XO?

  I'm so happy to have you here. So, like I was telling you before we were rolling, I learned so much about you yesterday that I did not know. Like, I knew that you had sang, like, "I Need a Doctor" with Dr. Dre, because I grew up in that era. But I had no idea the depths of the songs that you had written. And I wanted to tell you a funny story is that I heard you talk about the song "Gangster" that Kalani originally, or that you originally sang, but then Kalani replaced. And we'll talk about that later. But that was Jay and I's wedding song.

• 1:00Speaker 00

  No way.

• 1:01Bunnie XO?

  Is that not crazy?

• 1:02Speaker 00

  That's amazing.

• 1:03Bunnie XO?

  I had no idea. Dude, and when I found out that you had wrote that song, I was just like, this is insane. Like, it's just everything always comes, like, full circle.

• 1:10Speaker 00

  It really does.

• 1:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. How are you?

• 1:13Speaker 00

  That's awesome.

• 1:14Bunnie XO?

  Thank you.

• 1:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, everything's great.

• 1:17Bunnie XO?

  So, you're in Nashville?

• 1:19Speaker 00

  I'm in Nashville for a couple of days, doing some podcasts. You know, I have an album coming out soon, so, you know, starting the whole promo.

• 1:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I've been, I've been watching you on Instagram, and you have been having some of the, the, like, most artistic reels, but they're actually, like, going viral and stuff. Where did you get the idea to start doing all of that?

• 1:37Speaker 00

  I mean, it's just, the landscape of the music industry's changed so much over the years. I've seen it in so many different forms. You know, music videos are pretty much dead now.

• 1:47Bunnie XO?

  I swear, and they just, like, turned off frickin' MTV.

• 1:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:51Bunnie XO?

  Like, what the hell?

• 1:53Speaker 00

  I know, it's crazy, it's sad. I loved MTV.

• 1:55Bunnie XO?

  It's fucking depressing.

• 1:56Speaker 00

  And I loved music videos, but, you know, you have to adapt to the world we're in. And so, it just didn't make sense to spend a bunch of money doing music videos. It made more sense to do small, short clips. But, you know, I still try to make them look music video-esque.

• 2:11Bunnie XO?

  No, they're great, I love them.

• 2:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, and the ones that have gone viral, it's funny, they're... Getting a lot of hate for some of them, but I love it. I actually, I like, think it's hilarious. I used to get so affected by it, but now I'm like, this is awesome.

• 2:27Bunnie XO?

  That's the climate of our world right now, though. Like, Chris Olsen, I don't know if you follow him, but he's a creator LGBTQ. Did I say that right? I always say that wrong.

• 2:37Speaker 00

  They're always adding another letter, so I never know.

• 2:39Bunnie XO?

  So I never know. So please don't come for me if I say it the wrong way, but he's a creator and he made a video the other day about how mean the world is and how mean comments are under posts, because Meghan Trainor had just canceled her tour. He had to turn off the comments on that post because they were so mean and so hateful and it like proved his point. So it doesn't matter if you do something amazing online, or if you do something that's really fucking cool. People are just like an echo chamber of negativity and that's exactly what it is.

• 3:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, but I see this, I see the negative comments. If you're causing that much of a reaction negatively, you're also causing that much of a reaction positively for the people who connect with it. So I actually see it as a sign that like it's doing well. Obviously to a, to a point, you know, there's some things that you don't want to do and, but.

• 3:31Bunnie XO?

  I love that you're able to look at it that way because some people can't. Some people would internalize that hatred and be like, damn, you know?

• 3:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, but the polarizing stuff is like what makes people passionate about it. Either passionately hateful or passionately obsessed with it. So yeah, to me, it's a, it's a good sign.

• 3:47Bunnie XO?

  I love that. So let's talk about some of these songs that you've written because I know that people who know who you are probably know the songs that I said, but there was another song that I found out that you sang that I absolutely, that you had written, I'm sorry, but Christina Aguilera actually sang the hook, was Castle Walls. Not many people know that song, but that was like one of my favorite songs back in the day. And then when I started putting it together, like you have such haunting lyrics, even when you're not singing them. It's, it's crazy, haunting in a good way, you know, it's like those, those words, it's, it's like those lyrics that kind of like just resonate and linger in your soul and that you just, they just hit something in your soul each time you hear them.

• 4:30Speaker 00

  Thank you. I mean, I never set out to write songs for other artists, so I always have written from a, you know, very honest place. So even those hooks that I ended up giving to other people. You know, I was just writing for myself.

• 4:44Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 4:44Speaker 00

  And then it got handed off. It wasn't like, I'm gonna sit down and write a song for Christina Aguilera.

• 4:49Bunnie XO?

  Right. I've heard you say numerous times also on podcasts that you never set out to write for other people. And I found that really interesting because that's essentially kind of what your career has turned into because you are such an amazing songwriter. My husband thinks you're one of the best of our generation right now. He wanted me to tell you that when he found out that you're coming on today. How does somebody who did not set out to do that become that?

• 5:17Speaker 00

  I mean, it kind of happened by accident. So I, you know, just long story short, dropped out of high school when I was 17, moved to LA.

• 5:24Bunnie XO?

  Oh, we're not gonna do a long story short, man. We're gonna get into it.

• 5:28Speaker 00

  Just for this answer quickly. You know, I had a record deal. It all fell apart and I moved to a cabin in the woods, disappeared from the industry for a while because it had like broken me. And then while I was in the woods in Oregon by myself, got connected with this producer over email named Alex the Kid. And I just, you know, I got internet in the local cafe because I didn't have it at my place. And so I was like sitting in the cafe with my headphones on, listening to the beat and like humming quietly into the computer. And then I just like wrote the hook for Love the Way You Lie and sent it back.

• 6:11Speaker 00

  Super rough. And yeah, I just wrote what I felt. I didn't really like think hard about it. It was like 15 minutes of work. And then it was a number one song a month later. And so, but what happened was like, I never wrote that thinking like this is gonna go to Rihanna. Like Rihanna's gonna sing this hook. It's just Eminem took the song and he wanted to put Rihanna on it. And I wasn't gonna say no.

• 6:38Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 6:38Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? But that's kind of what started the whole. Writing songs for other people thing.

• 6:44Bunnie XO?

  So let's circle back because we're gonna come, we're gonna revisit that story that you just told me too, because "Love the Way You Lie," I was going through a domestic violence relationship whenever that song hit. And oh my God, it was my anthem, that one and the friggin' part two. Just amazing, amazing, amazing lyrics. But let's circle back to your childhood and growing up. I, you, I heard you say that you had a duo with your mom at six years old. So did you grow up in a musical family, obviously?

• 7:13Speaker 00

  Very, yeah.

• 7:13Bunnie XO?

  Tell me about it.

• 7:16Speaker 00

  My dad was in a barbershop quartet. My mom was a folk musician and Celtic harpist. She actually still is. She like busks and plays in restaurants and stuff.

• 7:27Bunnie XO?

  That's so beautiful.

• 7:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:29Bunnie XO?

  To play the friggin' harp, dude. I would cry probably if I heard somebody just strumming the harp.

• 7:33Speaker 00

  It's so beautiful.

• 7:36Speaker 00

  She plays like every instrument, though. And so just growing up in that environment, I was really sucked into it. Obviously, it was in my blood. When I was three, they noticed, like I was singing, we were, we were all singing "Happy Birthday" to my aunt. And I was like, can I sing a harmony? And they were like, at three?

• 7:55Bunnie XO?

  At three?

• 7:55Speaker 00

  Like, and then I did, and I fully sang the harmony. And they were like, this is crazy. At three to sing a harmony. And so it was very obvious early on that like, music was gonna be my thing. So my parents were like, let's just see what happens if we put her on stage. And did my first gig when I was six with my mom in a library.

• 8:19Bunnie XO?

  Oh my goodness, that is so cute.

• 8:21Speaker 00

  It was a Mother's Day show.

• 8:23Bunnie XO?

  What was the duo's name?

• 8:25Speaker 00

  Generations.

• 8:26Bunnie XO?

  Generations, I love that.

• 8:27Speaker 00

  Yeah. We made three albums together, I think.

• 8:31Bunnie XO?

  Oh, at, starting at the age of six?

• 8:33Speaker 00

  Uh, yeah, I think the first album came out when I was eight.

• 8:36Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 8:37Speaker 00

  And then-

• 8:38Bunnie XO?

  So did you grow up with like a studio in your house?

• 8:40Speaker 00

  No, no, no, because back then, we didn't have computers running it. So it was on tape.

• 8:45Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 8:46Speaker 00

  So you had to go to a studio and there was no autotune. There was no like-

• 8:50Bunnie XO?

  You had to actually be a real musician.

• 8:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:52Bunnie XO?

  Unlike now.

• 8:54Speaker 00

  So it was cool. Like I've experienced all that. And then, you know, the computers coming into the into the equation and all the other tools that have come along with it. Now there's AI.

• 9:06Bunnie XO?

  So take me back, take me back to writing your first album. Obviously you had to been like, what, seven before it to come out at eight? What was that process like as a seven year old? Did you grasp what was happening? Did you like, understand it fully? Or were you just like, hey, I'm singing with mom?

• 9:22Speaker 00

  I grasped it. Yeah. Yeah, I fully understood. And I mean, I learned a lot of hard lessons back then, too. Mostly about performing because I was always really hard on myself. I still am.

• 9:37Bunnie XO?

  You are. I've noticed that about you.

• 9:39Speaker 00

  And so, you know, the first few shows we did, if I sang one wrong note, I would have a tantrum after the show and be like, I suck. You know, and nobody cared, obviously. Nobody probably even heard the bad note that I sang. But I like would beat myself up about it. And so my mom like came up with this thing to tell me, and I still use it to this day. She said, you know, when you're on stage or when you're in, like even after the show, when people are trying to come talk to you and stuff, you you have to like, treat it like,

• 10:11Speaker 00

  you know, anytime you're away from those environments, you can have your tantrums and whatever. But like, as soon as you're, you know, in the public eye, you turn on the Christmas lights, like you're a Christmas tree. And it's you can be dark when any other time. But like, when you're performing and when you're in front of people, turn on those Christmas lights and just put it on, just turn on the lights. And so I still sometimes use that because like, you know, even doing a podcast, like you have to turn it on, you have to be on, right?

• 10:40Bunnie XO?

  What a great analogy, though.

• 10:41Speaker 00

  Yeah. And so I still use that when like, okay, if I'm like, feeling really bummed out and I don't want to go on stage, I just remember, okay, just turn on the Christmas lights. Put on the show and then I can be dark later.

• 10:51Bunnie XO?

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• 11:44Speaker 02

  Wayfair, every style, every home. Attention all new and existing members of the W D N C. I'm Melanie Sanders and this is the We Do Not Care Club Podcast. We got to midlife and realized we just simply do not care much anymore. Now, we gotta help each other make sense of hot flashes, dry coochie, chin hair, trifling families, brain fog, and bat wings. We are not alone and we will be heard. So come join the W D N C. Follow and listen to the We Do Not Care Club Podcast with Melanie Sanders wherever you get your podcasts.

• 12:17Bunnie XO?

  Where do you think that perfectionism comes from with you?

• 12:22Bunnie XO?

  Because normally it comes from like a place. I know my perfectionism comes from my father, daddy issues that I had because he was a Virgo, so everything had to be perfect, you know? Where do you think yours came from?

• 12:32Speaker 00

  It's a really good question. I don't actually know because it's just been the way I've been my whole life.

• 12:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 12:37Speaker 00

  You know?

• 12:37Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:38Speaker 00

  I'd have to like really

• 12:39Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 12:40Speaker 00

  Do some deep thinking about that.

• 12:42Bunnie XO?

  I always wonder like what makes people like, you know, the way that they are like, because I know I'm always trying to figure myself out too. So at seven, when you're writing this album, what kind of songs are you writing with your mom at seven?

• 12:54Speaker 00

  So most of the songs we were singing were covers or like friends of ours wrote them. But I was always trying to compose. Like when I started taking piano lessons when I was six and instead of, I didn't ever want to play other people's music. I just wanted to create. So my first piano recital, I played an original piece. I was always just like creating. And so then when I was eight, I wrote my first song with lyrics. It was called "The Same Sky."

• 13:21Bunnie XO?

  Oh, and like your name is Skylar Gray?

• 13:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, I was, I was in a swimming, swimming pool in Hawaii. My parents were divorced and so I was in the swimming pool in Hawaii with my mom and I was looking up at the moon and I was wondering if my dad could see the same moon I was looking at back in Wisconsin. And so I wrote a song about that. And you can still find that song out there. It's called "The Same Sky."

• 13:44Bunnie XO?

  Oh my goodness. I love that. You've always had such a, an old soul, even as a child to look up at the sky and be like, I wonder if my dad's looking at the same moon as me. You know, like that's really deep for an eight-year-old to even, that's for that to even cross your mind. So the depth is just amazing. So take me on this journey. You and your mom are making albums. Do you guys like go on tour or anything like?

• 14:07Speaker 00

  We toured around like the Midwest. We didn't go wide with it, but, and it was mostly like elementary schools, libraries, like women's health conventions, super random, like, you know, fairs.

• 14:20Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. What age were you when your parents divorced?

• 14:24Speaker 00

  Three.

• 14:25Bunnie XO?

  Three, okay, so it happened.

• 14:25Speaker 00

  So it didn't really affect me emotionally because I was too young to like understand what was going on. And also it was weird in a good way because they were friends.

• 14:38Speaker 00

  And we had, they had equal custody. So my whole childhood, I spent a week at my mom's, a week at my dad's, like went back and forth, packed a suitcase, walked a mile through the woods to get to the other parent's house. And that's just how my childhood was.

• 14:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Is dad musical?

• 14:53Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm. Yeah, he was in a barbershop quartet and he sings in church and.

• 14:56Bunnie XO?

  I love that. How does one get in a barbershop quartet? Like what does that consist of? That's like four?

• 15:01Speaker 00

  They were four, sometimes five. And it's just a cappella. They, just a lot of crazy harmonies. And I think that definitely influenced me too. My use of harmonies for sure.

• 15:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Do you feel like the different versions of yourself live inside your music? So of course, as you're growing from, you know, seven to the woman that you're in now, do you feel like your writing reflects like each different versions of your life?

• 15:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I think we're always growing and evolving, but at the core, there's, you know, all of that stuff is still there, you know?

• 15:41Bunnie XO?

  When, when you were traveling with your mom, when did you set off to start doing things on your own?

• 15:48Speaker 00

  So when I was 12, I bought a baby grand piano.

• 15:53Bunnie XO?

  I just bought one last week. I just bought one last week or three days ago.

• 15:57Speaker 00

  Awesome. Congrats.

• 15:58Bunnie XO?

  I'm so excited.

• 16:00Speaker 00

  So I bought this piano with all the money I had made singing with my mom. And that's when I really started like writing a lot of songs. And it was also a time period, you know, being 12, when kids start getting really mean in school and they started making fun of me for singing with my mom and the songs that we were singing, they would like mock me and so it wasn't cool.

• 16:24Bunnie XO?

  It's just because they weren't doing it. They didn't have that relationship with their mom, you know? So it's like kids bully things that they don't understand.

• 16:31Speaker 00

  Totally. But, you know, it hurt. And I also did like want to start singing different styles of music. I was listening to pop, you know, pop radio and grunge and stuff. And I was like, I don't, I don't want to sing these kids songs anymore.

• 16:46Bunnie XO?

  Well, you were growing up too.

• 16:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:47Bunnie XO?

  It was different.

• 16:48Speaker 00

  And so I started writing a lot of songs and then I told my mom I wanted to go solo.

• 16:52Bunnie XO?

  How did mom take that?

• 16:54Speaker 00

  I mean, she was always very supportive, but I could tell that, you know, it bummed her out too.

• 16:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. But I mean, I'm sure it was like, she was living a dream vicariously through you also.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  And it became her career. Performing with me was her career.

• 17:09Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 17:09Speaker 00

  At that point, so. So yeah, it was hard for her, I think, but she was also super supportive. And I think she knew that was going to happen at some point, you know?

• 17:20Bunnie XO?

  So at 12, you're writing these songs. How do you get out to LA? Cause where, where were you growing up at?

• 17:27Speaker 00

  Wisconsin.

• 17:28Bunnie XO?

  Wisconsin. So you go from Wisconsin. How do you end up in LA?

• 17:32Speaker 00

  Well, I started by, when I went solo, I put a band together. And in Madison, Wisconsin, it was mostly jazz musicians. So my whole band was a jazz band, basically. And I was playing jazz clubs and it wasn't really.

• 17:49Bunnie XO?

  Jazz is hard to play, by the way.

• 17:51Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 17:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 17:52Speaker 00

  I mean, I wasn't playing. They were playing. I was singing.

• 17:56Bunnie XO?

  But even singing it too is not easy.

• 17:58Speaker 00

  Yeah. So I wasn't, I wasn't really doing jazz songs per se. I did a few, but um, I was writing my own pop songs.

• 18:09Speaker 00

  But I, I quickly learned that like, that wasn't the place for me to succeed in the way I wanted to.

• 18:16Bunnie XO?

  Pop music wasn't?

• 18:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, like in Madison, it just wasn't, you know, I just felt like I needed to get out of there and go to LA and

• 18:24Bunnie XO?

  Spread your wings.

• 18:25Speaker 00

  Yeah. So, um, and I hated school. I had a really hard time with school. I was, I was a good student, but I just like socially had a really hard time with it.

• 18:34Bunnie XO?

  Were you just like awkward and like

• 18:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:36Bunnie XO?

  Just kind of to yourself?

• 18:37Speaker 00

  I kind of kept to myself. Well, I really tried for a long time to like be part of the, the Mean Girls clique and like tried to find my place, you know, and I just didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. I didn't feel accepted in any groups. So I started like sitting alone at lunch and instead of even in the lunchroom, I would take my sandwich to the piano room in the band room and like, sit alone and eat and play the piano.

• 19:03Speaker 00

  And so then, I asked my parents to homeschool me and they couldn't figure it out. And eventually I just dropped out.

• 19:11Bunnie XO?

  Did you suffer from like anxiety or depression as a child?

• 19:15Speaker 00

  I definitely had some depression.

• 19:17Bunnie XO?

  Disconnect was?

• 19:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, it was. I was really, like I had a bout of like anorexia and like, I was just like really self-conscious and.

• 19:28Bunnie XO?

  Do you feel like the pressure of touring with your mom is where you started trying? Cause I say that, that, because I suffered from an eating disorder myself and that's like my way of trying to gain control of my life. Was that way, your way of trying to gain control? Did you not feel like you were?

• 19:43Speaker 00

  I just wanted people to like me, I think. And so I was like trying anything to like, get people to like me and think I was pretty and you know, all the things.

• 19:53Bunnie XO?

  You're beautiful.

• 19:54Speaker 00

  Thank you. And so.

• 19:58Speaker 00

  Um, so yeah, I dealt with some depression and all that stuff. And then I also just like had such a clear vision for myself with my career and I kind of felt like I was wasting my time in school.

• 20:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, no, I know that feeling. That's how I was. I could never focus.

• 20:14Speaker 00

  Like, a lot of people don't know what they want to do at that age, but I did. And so I'm like, what am I doing here? You know?

• 20:21Bunnie XO?

  You're a creative just through and through.

• 20:23Speaker 00

  Yeah. So last year of high school, my junior year, I didn't finish. I only went to three classes, ceramics and physics and algebra two.

• 20:38Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 20:39Speaker 00

  And because I loved math and science.

• 20:41Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 20:43Speaker 00

  So I just chose to go to those classes and they let me just do those.

• 20:48Bunnie XO?

  But like, she's gonna do whatever she wants anyways. Let's just, at least she's going.

• 20:52Speaker 00

  But then, uh, something happened where I had a gig and I couldn't do my homework that night because I didn't have enough time to do, you know, two hours of math homework and do my show. Show up the next day at school, ace my test and, but the teacher was like, well, I'm not gonna, this isn't gonna count because you need to do your homework, just like every other kid in this class. And I said, I'm sorry, I couldn't because I had a gig. And she was like, well, music isn't a career. You better rethink this. And

• 21:28Bunnie XO?

  Teachers like that frustrate me.

• 21:29Speaker 00

  I just left and I never went back.

• 21:32Bunnie XO?

  You never went back to school? You were like, no, fuck this. You're like, I'm gonna use those words as motivation.

• 21:38Speaker 00

  I'm gonna prove you fucking wrong.

• 21:39Bunnie XO?

  Yes, I love that. I don't love that you dropped out, but I love that. And I don't love that the teacher said that to you. Like, I don't think teachers understand, like, when they say things like that to children. Like, it really either one breaks their spirit or sparks a fire in their soul. And luckily, it sparked a fire in your soul.

• 21:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:57Bunnie XO?

  If you're a teacher, please be careful with what you say to students. So.

• 22:01Speaker 00

  Well, I see it as a blessing because I did, it did spark a fire for me.

• 22:04Bunnie XO?

  Yes, I love that for sure. Um, so take me on this journey. So you didn't go back to school. What do you do?

• 22:11Speaker 00

  Um, well, I had a bunch of money saved up for college from doing all these shows and stuff.

• 22:16Bunnie XO?

  I love that you were able to save money. That's amazing. That's an amazing trait.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  I mean, I wouldn't have been able to do it if my parents didn't force me to.

• 22:22Bunnie XO?

  Right, okay.

• 22:24Speaker 00

  Gotcha. They're like, this is all going in your college savings.

• 22:26Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, because that's the last thing I was thinking about when I ran away from home. My house had, did not have a pot to piss in.

• 22:32Speaker 00

  So I'm, instead of spending it on college, I took that money to LA to move and to record demos.

• 22:39Bunnie XO?

  Take me on your first, like, year in LA. Was it a frickin' culture shock for you?

• 22:46Speaker 00

  Oh, huge, massive.

• 22:46Bunnie XO?

  Because I grew up on the West Coast, so that's what I grew up in, but I couldn't imagine coming from Wisconsin.

• 22:52Speaker 00

  Small town, Wisconsin, fifteen hundred people, and then landing in Venice, LA.

• 22:57Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my gosh. You went straight to Venice.

• 22:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, the first person I lived with was the guitar player from Culture Club.

• 23:05Bunnie XO?

  Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 23:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, he had an empty bedroom and just through a mutual friend, like, let me stay there.

• 23:13Bunnie XO?

  That's Boy George's band, right? Or was Boy, yeah, Boy George, I had the biggest crush on Boy George when I was a kid. He was my first love. I had a Boy George Snoopy and everything.

• 23:22Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 23:22Bunnie XO?

  That is so random. How did you meet him?

• 23:24Speaker 00

  So random. Um, just through some random, you know, how it is, you meet random people and, and then, uh, but it was a culture shock for sure. A lot of, like,

• 23:36Speaker 00

  I don't wanna, yeah, I'm not gonna say anything, but a lot of stuff I was exposed to that I hadn't been, um, very quickly. And it was kind of like a dark environment for, for me to be in at seventeen.

• 23:48Bunnie XO?

  You were a baby. So I'm sure people were just, they can always smell when somebody's very green, so I'm sure it was.

• 23:55Speaker 00

  And then there was like a murder next door and, um, there was like a, a bloody mattress and between the houses and, um, I was just like, where am I? And then this coroner came and we had to ta, they had to tape off caution tape our house and like, keep us there because they needed to question us. Did we hear any screaming?

• 24:13Bunnie XO?

  This is your, your next door neighbor for when you lived with the dude?

• 24:16Speaker 00

  Living at Roy Hay's house, yeah.

• 24:18Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 24:19Speaker 00

  And the coroner, like, I watched him take the body to the truck and all this stuff and then, and then he came, I was sitting on the front steps of the house because I was like, like, I had to stay at the house until questioning or whatever. And. He came and sat next to me and he started hitting on me like

• 24:36Bunnie XO?

  The coroner did?

• 24:37Speaker 00

  The coroner was like, he sat next to me and he was like, you're such a beautiful girl. Like, it was so weird. I'm like, where am I?

• 24:46Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my God. Like, you're literally watching somebody get murdered and their body getting taken to the morgue and this man just, like, men just have the worst timing, always. It's never a good time.

• 24:58Speaker 00

  Well, and I was seventeen and he was like, you know?

• 25:00Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, you're a baby. I could only imagine the things that you had to see. What year was this?

• 25:07Speaker 00

  Two thousand five, maybe?

• 25:10Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I was out, I was out there during that time, too. That was a wild time in LA and Vegas. Those were wild times. That was like, I don't know, it was like the fucking Wild West out there. It was really crazy. So I could only imagine the stuff that you had to experience out there.

• 25:24Speaker 00

  But luckily, some of the producers that I had met and was working with were really nice and they saw the situation I was in and they're like, girl, we gotta get you out of there. And so they let me go stay with them and I, I did kind of like a little couch surfing, you know, route with different producers and stuff. And then I signed my first record deal about a year and a half in.

• 25:45Bunnie XO?

  So tell me how you, cause you signed, you signed it with, you started working with Linkin Park and then you got signed to your record deal?

• 25:52Speaker 00

  So Linkin Park had a label called Machine Shop under the Warner Brothers umbrella. And we had met through, well, I met some random person in a hallway in a studio. And he was like, you need a lawyer. And so he introduced me to a lawyer and then that lawyer introduced me to a manager.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  And it was the firm, I don't know if they're still in existence, but the management company, the firm.

• 26:18Bunnie XO?

  I remember them. I remember hearing about them.

• 26:20Speaker 00

  And I, it's so funny. This is just like a funny little anecdote, but I went and sat in the office to meet with Dan at the firm and he told me, so this whole company was built on corn.

• 26:34Speaker 00

  And I was thinking from Wisconsin, I was like, I was looking around the room like, wait, it's like the couches are made out of corn, like.

• 26:40Bunnie XO?

  And he's talking about the band.

• 26:42Speaker 00

  And he was talking about the band, corn. Oh, my gosh. I literally was looking around the room like being like, oh, my God, they built everything here out of corn.

• 26:51Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my God, you sweet baby.

• 26:53Speaker 00

  I was so naive.

• 26:55Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my gosh. I love that, though. That is the cutest story ever.

• 26:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, but so Lincoln Park was also managed by the firm and so we got connected that way. And they heard a demo I had recorded and were interested in meeting. And so I used to go to this hotel, which is now the London Hotel. But back then it was the Wyndham Bellage Hotel. And there was a little bar and a piano in the corner. And I would just go in there and play and say, not performing, but just anytime I saw a piano, I would sit down and play. So I would like meet the most random people there. Like Joaquin Phoenix came and sat next to me one time and asked me to show him the chords I was playing. And it was just a crazy, crazy time. But so I said, come down to the Wyndham Bellage.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  And so the guitar player from Lincoln Park came down and listened to me play a couple of songs for him. And then the next day they offered me a deal.

• 27:50Bunnie XO?

  I love that. And I wanted to tell you, I know you did Where'd You Go with Fort Minor. That was one of my MySpace songs. So it was so crazy how like it just keeps circling back to how you've had an influence in my life indirectly. And I didn't even know it. Like, it was just crazy when I was doing my notes. It was, I used to, because I ran away from home, so Where'd You Go was like my anthem. Because it was like, you know, for me and my parents, that's how I looked at it. But yeah, I just thought that was crazy, crazy little tidbit. So did you get to meet Chester Bennington and all of them? What was your relationship like with Chester?

• 28:21Speaker 00

  Chester was a beautiful human.

• 28:24Bunnie XO?

  How did his death affect you? Was it shocking for you?

• 28:27Speaker 00

  I mean, I didn't know him that well, to be honest.

• 28:33Speaker 00

  But yeah, I mean, that was a hard pill to swallow. He was such a genuine soul and a really good person. He's a fellow Pisces.

• 28:45Bunnie XO?

  So he feels every, he felt everything too?

• 28:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:48Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. So take me on this journey with your first record deal because you signed with them, but then it kind of, you guys had a falling out, which kind of sent you into a different direction.

• 28:58Speaker 00

  Well, so, yeah, I mean, what happened was Mike Shinoda did a side project called Fort Minor. And he had me come down to the studio one day and sing the hook for Where'd You Go? And I had been manifesting, working in hip hop for so long, ever since I heard Stan by Eminem, when I was like 13. That's something I always wanted to do. Like, I loved the juxtaposition of the soft female vocal with the rap. And so when he asked me to do that song, I was like, so excited. I came down, sang the song, left. I didn't expect it to go like be a billboard charting song, but it blew up. And then I didn't really know how to respond to that.

• 29:43Speaker 00

  Like, I wasn't prepared for the success of that song. And so I just don't think I was prepared with my own like music. And I didn't know how to follow it up. I didn't know how to like maximize the exposure of that song and like build off of it. I feel like I like rushed my first album out. Like, looking back, I wish I had spent more time. And it's not that I'm not proud of that album.

• 30:14Speaker 00

  But yeah, like, looking back, I'm like, man, I could have probably done a lot better job if I had just been more patient. But I was like, I don't know, I was frantic about trying to like follow up that success of that song.

• 30:28Bunnie XO?

  You felt like you were probably gonna lose the momentum. I feel like my husband, being an artist, you see that a lot is like when something blows up, there it's like you are like, oh my God, how am I supposed to follow this up? And so I do, my husband, my husband has a saying where he always says, don't let perfection get in the way of good enough. And I've always like, believed that because if we've micro managed like everything and try to be perfect, like something that is good enough and that people are actually going to just devour and love, that might miss that opportunity because we're trying to make it perfect, you know?

• 31:01Speaker 00

  A hundred percent.

• 31:02Bunnie XO?

  And I've noticed that with you, you're like so hard on yourself. When I was listening to you on other podcasts, I was like, this girl is so fucking talented. And like, I don't even think you realize how special you are. Like you are, there's not very many people like you that can do what you do. So I mean, you need to really.

• 31:18Speaker 00

  I'm, I'm, I'm trying to learn how to let good enough be okay. You like, let it be good enough instead of being a perfectionist. It's, it's been a problem for me because it takes me about five years to put out an album every time because I'm so, I put so much pressure on myself, like, thinking about like, is this the sound that I want to like, leave the world with, you know, leave my mark on the world with? And so I would just like, put so much pressure. And now I'm at a place where I'm like, I just turned 40 and I'm seeing like.

• 31:55Bunnie XO?

  You look fucking great, by the way.

• 31:57Speaker 00

  Oh, thank you.

• 31:58Bunnie XO?

  You don't look 40 at all.

• 31:59Speaker 00

  Thank you. But I'm, you know, like, how much, how many more years do I have left?

• 32:04Bunnie XO?

  Sorry, I'm so sorry. He's old.

• 32:08Speaker 00

  So cute. I'm like, how many years do I have left in this industry, you know?

• 32:12Bunnie XO?

  With your talent?

• 32:13Speaker 00

  I can't, but I can't just. Put out an album every five years.

• 32:17Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 32:18Speaker 00

  I don't, like, at some point, I'm gonna look back and be like, why didn't I put out more music?

• 32:22Bunnie XO?

  But if you look, whenever you said you wrote, um, Where'd You Go and Love the Way You Lie, you said that you weren't, you didn't think that they were even gonna do anything and you kind of like had no pressure on yourself.

• 32:31Speaker 00

  Right.

• 32:32Bunnie XO?

  And then like, when you don't have pressure on yourself, look at what you produce.

• 32:35Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 32:35Bunnie XO?

  Of course, I'm sure you've done that with multiple other songs too, but that's just those two as an example.

• 32:40Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:40Bunnie XO?

  And I think that if you can somehow get into that headspace of not putting so much pressure on yourself, you'll be a little bit more free.

• 32:46Speaker 00

  And that's what I'm trying to do now. I'm trying to aim for an album a year. And instead of thinking about it, like, this is the sound, this is like, what people are gonna remember me for, whatever. I'm just like, let's just capture this moment in time. Like, what am I into right now musically?

• 33:02Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 33:03Speaker 00

  Make those songs and then put them out.

• 33:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 33:06Speaker 00

  And then I can make another one next year. And it'll evolve and it'll change and the sound will change and it doesn't have to be that serious.

• 33:12Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:13Speaker 00

  Um, and so that's kind of like mentally where I'm at with it all right now. And it's like, artists are allowed to put out shitty albums.

• 33:19Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 33:20Speaker 00

  You know? And so if I, if one of those zeitgeist I capture on an album is shit, like, it's okay. Just do it. Just keep going, keep putting shit out and don't like, look back and regret not putting out more music.

• 33:31Bunnie XO?

  Amen, sister. My husband said the other day, we were talking about him dropping an album and he's like, as an artist, all we care about is just getting an album out and one song doing great.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:40Bunnie XO?

  And I was like, that's really a great way to look at it. It's like, you drop a fifteen song album, but you just hope that that one resonates. And I mean, with your voice and your talent, there's gonna always be that one. You know, I, I know you probably don't believe that, but I mean, look, your, your frickin' track record speaks for itself. Um, a lot of people might not realize this, but you also did Pass Yesterday on my husband's, um, album too, which that is one of my favorite songs. I loved it. When I found out you were getting on it, I was so excited and so getting, and you just crushed it, so.

• 34:11Speaker 00

  Oh, thank you so much.

• 34:12Bunnie XO?

  If you guys haven't gone and listened to Pass Yesterday, go listen to it, cuz.

• 34:14Speaker 00

  I was so excited when I got that text.

• 34:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  And I was like, it was like twenty-four hour turnaround.

• 34:21Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 34:22Speaker 00

  Um.

• 34:23Bunnie XO?

  Sounds like my husband.

• 34:24Speaker 00

  Super fast.

• 34:26Speaker 00

  And I was like, I gotta lock in. And, uh, so I go to the studio and I'm like, you know, beating my head against the wall, trying to figure it out. And I just, you know, you feel it when you know it's right. And it wasn't feeling right. And I was like, okay, I just need to like, put this down, go to dinner. So after spending like, I don't know, six hours in the studio trying to come up with something, I decided I'm just gonna go to dinner and then I'm gonna, you know, smoke a little weed, have a drink, whatever, and then go back and try again, fresh.

• 35:00Bunnie XO?

  I've been needing new glasses forever, and it's just one of those things I keep putting off. So I finally went on Zenni to pick out a new pair. I'm going with these black rectangle glasses that are really similar to the ones I already wear because, listen, I know what I like. They're classic, they go with everything, and I'm excited to get them. Zenni has frames starting from under $30, and I love that you can use their virtual try-on to see what different frames look like before you order. You just find a pair you love, enter your prescription, customize your lenses, and they'll ship them right to your door. Zenni is truly the easiest way to shop for stylish prescription glasses without the headache, backed by over 150,000 five-star reviews. Check new glasses off your list today with Zenni.

• 35:41Bunnie XO?

  Go to zenni.com/podcast and use code PODCAST15 for 15% off, plus free shipping over $65. Style sellout, so don't wait. That's Z E N N I dot com slash podcast, promo code PODCAST15. Zenni.com/podcast, code PODCAST15. Today's episode is brought to you by Vinted. Y'all know how it goes. You open your closet and have a million things hanging up, but somehow still feel like you have nothing to wear. That's me. And let's be real, half that stuff hasn't been touched in forever. Instead of letting all those clothes just sit there, taking up space, you might as well make a little money off of them. If you haven't used it yet, Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app that makes it so simple

• 36:26Bunnie XO?

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• 37:09Speaker 00

  And it like instantly came to me when I went back into the studio. And it was not anything I had started earlier in the day. It was a brand new idea and I was like, okay, this feels right.

• 37:19Bunnie XO?

  It was so good.

• 37:20Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 37:21Bunnie XO?

  So, so good. So let's circle back to you ultimately going on this journey. Because up until now, you're Holly Brooks, right? You have your.

• 37:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, up until.

• 37:32Bunnie XO?

  Which I did not take you for a Holly.

• 37:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, Holly is my real name. Brooke is my middle name.

• 37:37Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:38Speaker 00

  And I went by that for a while.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  And then, you know, after the whole Lincoln Park thing and, and putting out Where'd You Go? And my album, my first album that came out was under Holly Brooke.

• 37:54Speaker 00

  It wasn't very successful and I went broke and I had to leave LA because I couldn't afford it.

• 38:03Speaker 00

  And so then I moved to this cabin in the woods. And the woods have always been like my safe space because I grew up in the woods. And.

• 38:09Bunnie XO?

  It's where you kind of go back to recharge.

• 38:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's where I go back to find myself again because you can get just so lost in the mix. And I, I'm so affected by people's opinions. And being in LA and just like being surrounded by people's opinions, especially people that I looked up to, experts in the music industry, other songwriters and everything. I felt like I like lost touch with myself musically. And just as a person, like I just, it was the first time in my life I actually questioned what I was doing for a living.

• 38:41Speaker 00

  Because like ever since I was a little kid, I knew I wanted to do music. And then suddenly when my, my album didn't succeed and I went broke, I was like, okay, maybe I need to rethink all of this. So I just had to get out. Um, I actually worked a few jobs for the first time in my life.

• 38:57Bunnie XO?

  What was the first job?

• 38:59Speaker 00

  Uh, I worked at Barnes and Noble selling music. I was in the CDs area and I actually sold my own album one day.

• 39:09Bunnie XO?

  And they didn't know it was you?

• 39:11Speaker 00

  And I didn't tell them.

• 39:12Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 39:14Speaker 00

  I was like, this is so embarrassing.

• 39:16Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 39:17Speaker 00

  I'm like, working in Barnes and Noble now, like.

• 39:20Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my gosh. And how did they, how did that person not know it was you? That's crazy.

• 39:25Speaker 00

  I mean, I looked different.

• 39:26Bunnie XO?

  Oh, yeah.

• 39:27Speaker 00

  I'd changed everything. I've had so many different hairstyles.

• 39:31Bunnie XO?

  You have. I have. I did notice that when I was researching you. I was like, oh, she's, you're like, you can tell, like, you're always in seasons of your life. And I love that. I've always wanted to be like that and I just can't do it. I have to always stay like the same, but I admire people. And I talk about it all the time. I want to dye my hair black. I want it, but I don't have the balls to do it, but you do. And I really appreciate that in a, in a person because I think that's so cool.

• 39:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's been fun. Um, and I love having a shaved head now. I didn't do that on purpose, though. I had a bleaching accident.

• 40:00Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 40:01Speaker 00

  Yeah. Like, my hair just got fried and it was like coming out in clumps in the shower.

• 40:06Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 40:07Speaker 00

  My whole body broke out in hives.

• 40:09Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 40:10Speaker 00

  I was like cover, I was like, I had a crazy allergic reaction to the bleach and, um, I had always wanted to shave my head, but I'd never had the guts to do it until that moment. I was like, I don't know if I have an option, like, otherwise it's gonna look really bad. So I took it as the opportunity to do it and now I love it.

• 40:28Bunnie XO?

  I love it.

• 40:29Speaker 00

  I'm rocking it for a while. I'll probably grow it back at some point, but.

• 40:32Bunnie XO?

  I love it. I think it's awesome.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  But back to the other jobs.

• 40:36Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 40:36Speaker 00

  I think you'll find this interesting. Uh, so the other job, well, one of the other jobs, I taught gymnastics to little kids and they were like peeing all over the mats. And I was like cleaning up pee all the time.

• 40:47Bunnie XO?

  Had you ever done any gymnastics before?

• 40:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, I grew up doing gymnastics. My, my stepdad was a gym, my gymnastics coach, the time my parents met.

• 40:54Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 40:55Speaker 00

  And I was in high school gymnastics and I coached high school gymnastics.

• 40:59Bunnie XO?

  That's where you get that banging body from.

• 41:00Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 41:03Speaker 00

  So I did that, but then it just became cleaning up pee. So I was over that.

• 41:10Bunnie XO?

  Gymnastics babysitter.

• 41:11Speaker 00

  And then I responded to this Craigslist ad that said they needed a video editor and I was like, I can do that because I can edit Pro Tools. It can't be that different. And they said they would train. So, okay. So I show up in a suit to this interview and they said, you know, this is adult content, right? And I was like, okay, well, I really need a job. So that's fine, whatever. And so, yeah, I edited porn for like a few weeks. I only lasted a few weeks, though.

• 41:44Bunnie XO?

  Why?

• 41:44Speaker 00

  Because, but it was really good money, like, because we were paid on how much work we got done. And so it ended up being about like $30 an hour for me, which was like way better than bars and noble.

• 41:57Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 42:00Speaker 00

  But what happened was, have you ever heard of this phrase called the Tetris effect?

• 42:04Bunnie XO?

  No, teach me.

• 42:06Speaker 00

  So like if you are playing Tetris, it's like all these shapes falling, right? If you play it for too long and then you start doing something else, you start hallucinating the Tetris shapes falling.

• 42:17Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 42:19Speaker 00

  And so that was happening to me, but it was like buttholes and.

• 42:25Bunnie XO?

  Because you were like staring at porn all day long.

• 42:28Speaker 00

  Like in my bedroom, I had a light above the bed that I had taken the light bulb out because it was too bright. And so there was just like a light socket above my bed. And every night when I fell asleep, I was just seeing a gaping butthole.

• 42:42Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 42:43Speaker 00

  Like I was like legit hallucinating this. And I was like, this can't be healthy.

• 42:47Bunnie XO?

  No, that can't be healthy. But you know what? That's perspective because you never think about like people on the other side of the porn industry who actually have to edit stuff like their minds are being affected as well.

• 42:57Speaker 00

  It was a nine to five of just looking at. You know, and it wasn't editing features. It was like taking a feature film and chopping out all the highlights to make like short clips, almost like reels.

• 43:09Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha.

• 43:10Speaker 00

  Making short clips of the highlights. So like the come shots and the, you know, like all, and then I had to learn all the terminology because we had to tag it all, like with what search words people would use to find that.

• 43:22Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 43:23Speaker 00

  That, you know, gangbang, like whatever.

• 43:26Bunnie XO?

  Gaping.

• 43:27Speaker 00

  Cream pie.

• 43:28Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 43:29Speaker 00

  You know.

• 43:29Bunnie XO?

  Oh, God.

• 43:30Speaker 00

  Um.

• 43:32Bunnie XO?

  She's like, I'm just trying to survive.

• 43:34Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah, but then I, luckily I got offered a tour as a keyboardist. And I was like, okay, I think I'm gonna take that.

• 43:44Bunnie XO?

  Stick to what I know.

• 43:46Speaker 00

  Yeah. So I played backup keys and backup singing for Duncan Sheik. He had a song in the nineties called I'm Barely Breathing.

• 43:54Bunnie XO?

  Yes, I think I do remember him. Yep, yep, yep, vaguely.

• 43:57Speaker 00

  So I toured with him for a while and it was, it was great because it was music at least. And I was getting paid. But, you know, after a point, I was just like, I really wish I was doing this with my own music.

• 44:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I feel like that's been your whole journey is like, I just want to write my own music. I don't want to have to write for anybody else. Take me on this metamorphosis of you. I really thought this was a great story that you had told of from kind of falling off from Hollybrook. Is it Hollybrooks or Hollybrook?

• 44:27Speaker 00

  Hollybrook.

• 44:28Bunnie XO?

  Hollybrook and then becoming Skylar Gray because.

• 44:31Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. So.

• 44:32Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 44:32Speaker 00

  When I was in the woods and like reconnecting with myself and.

• 44:36Bunnie XO?

  You said you were peeing in a, in a pot?

• 44:39Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. So, um, I'm trying to think like the timeline here. So I had done that tour. Oh, when I was on the tour with Duncan, I had been like journaling a lot and I wrote down in my journal, all I want is a cabin in the woods and a place where I can set up a recording studio and like just make my own music. I wrote down, which is the power of manifestation because, especially when you write it down. About like six months later, my mom calls me and she's like, my friend has this property with a cabin on it and she is offering to let you live there for free. You would just have to work in her art gallery and sell her art like a couple of times a week in trade for the rent. And I was like, dream come true. Let's go.

• 45:23Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 45:23Speaker 00

  And so I moved up there and set up all my gear.

• 45:31Speaker 00

  Fell back in love with music, just being alone. And, uh, and then I just felt like I needed to change my name. Like, I had gone through such a transformation emotionally, um, musically, everything. How long was this, that you were getting back to your, like, roots? So I moved there in the fall and it was, uh, probably

• 45:55Speaker 00

  May or June, the following May or June, when I wrote Love the Way You Lie. And, uh, that's about the time when I was like, you know, when that song took off. Um, I was like, I think I need to change my name. Cause like, I was getting pushed back into the music industry suddenly. And I didn't want people to like, judge me for being Hollybrook and failing. And so I kinda wanted to re-enter it as a new person, as a new artist.

• 46:22Speaker 00

  I even didn't show my face for a long time. Like, I had a website that was like a super shadowy picture of me and it was, you know, my new name. And people were like, who is this person? You know?

• 46:38Speaker 00

  How does the introduction to Eminem happen? It just happened through the producer that I'd met on the email. After I sent him the hook that I wrote over his beat for Love the Way You Lie and the song blew up and everything. I, I didn't have any part in that. Like, he's, the producer's the one who got the song to, to M. Yeah.

• 47:00Speaker 00

  And then M was in Detroit, Rihanna was in Dublin. Alex, the producer, was in, um, New York and I was in the cabin in the woods in Oregon. The song came out, it was huge. We'd never been all in the same room together. It's crazy. But then I met M because, you know, obviously after the success of that song, he wanted to invite us out to write on, uh, or to work with Dr. Dre on his new album. And so Alex and I went out there and, um, it was so nerve wracking. Walking into the room and there's Eminem and Dr. Dre. No pressure. No pressure. None whatsoever. Yeah, I was so quiet.

• 47:42Speaker 00

  Eminem, he, he actually like later told me, he's like, I thought you were a bitch. Cause I was just so quiet. I like, didn't say anything.

• 47:51Bunnie XO?

  Cause you were just so nervous.

• 47:52Speaker 00

  I was so nervous.

• 47:53Bunnie XO?

  Your poor little heart was probably like pounding.

• 47:54Speaker 00

  It was, yeah.

• 47:55Bunnie XO?

  Because I mean, you write this massive banger and then they bring you in to not only write with Eminem, but also to write with Dr. Dre. And it's like, that's double the pressure. And then that's pressure to have to create right there. I think you had said that you had pre, you had pre-written a verse to bring in there.

• 48:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, Alex and I had gotten together before the trip and came up with some ideas to like, present. I didn't want to walk in empty-handed. And I also have a really hard time creating in front of people.

• 48:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, that's gotta be like insane.

• 48:23Speaker 00

  Yeah. So, yeah, Alex and I took over like a couple of rooms in, uh, New York in the UMPG offices. And like, he was making beats in one room and I was writing hooks in the other room. And yeah, we came up with the, I needed Dr. Hook there.

• 48:41Bunnie XO?

  And now you've done how many songs with him? Like you guys?

• 48:44Speaker 00

  I'd have to count. I don't, I don't actually know, but, um, cause we've done songs on his albums. He's featured on some songs for my albums. And then we worked on things together like, uh, for Slaughterhouse.

• 48:59Speaker 00

  So I, I don't know. I'd have to add it up, but it's like, it's probably 15 plus.

• 49:04Bunnie XO?

  And, but you guys have like a real friendship too.

• 49:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:07Bunnie XO?

  Cause I've seen you guys like on stage and like, he seems like he just adores you.

• 49:10Speaker 00

  He's the best.

• 49:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 49:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:12Bunnie XO?

  Jay was, Jay got to meet him, what, like a few years ago and just absolutely loves him. Like.

• 49:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, I adore him.

• 49:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I guess they're like texting buddies now or something. He always runs in the room, Eminem text me. I'm like, okay babe, I get it. I get it. So how crazy is it that you're in the middle of the woods? You are writing music, you're reconnecting, you get this opportunity to do Love the Way You Lie with M. And then you're writing with Dr. Dre and then like, things just keep taking off for you. How are you feeling mentally? And how are you feeling like pressure wise? Cause I do know that you're pretty hard on yourself. Where are you at? Are you like, hell yeah, let's fucking go? Or are you still kind of just like?

• 49:52Speaker 00

  I mean, I was super excited, but then at the same time, like, like you said, I put a lot of pressure on myself. And so I had tons of people reaching out, wanting songs for themselves, wanting hits. Like, we want our Love the Way You Lie. And I'm like, well, not every song I write is a hit, like,

• 50:10Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:10Speaker 00

  But I put the pressure on myself that it had to be. And so I started doing these writing sessions and

• 50:18Speaker 00

  that pressure got to me to the point where it like shut down my creativity and I would be in the rooms and not delivering. Like I couldn't come up with anything. My mind was blank.

• 50:29Bunnie XO?

  Because people are watching you.

• 50:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. And because, because it's just the pressure I put on myself, like I have to write them a hit right now.

• 50:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:36Speaker 00

  You know, and that just doesn't work.

• 50:38Bunnie XO?

  What is your creative process? Like how, what is your ideal situation to write just something from the heart and?

• 50:46Speaker 00

  To be alone in the room. Yeah. And, and also like a lot of my songs come to me when I'm not even in a studio. They'll come to me when I'm making dinner or going on a walk or there's songs on my album. There was one that was written, my dog was getting surgery and I was standing outside the vet's office. And so it just like comes to me in my head. So it's not like I'm sitting down to write a song, but sometimes it works for me to sit down and write a song. But usually I like to be alone in the room and like when Jelly sent me the, the past yesterday song, I just like took the track into the studio, shut the door and, and just sat with myself and, and

• 51:30Speaker 00

  you know, I try to let the music come to me instead of write it and instead of like overthinking it, I, I like feel like it comes from somewhere else and I channel it. But I can get in the way of that doorway being open with my brain, like overthinking things. So that's why it's important for me to be alone. I think is, is because I have to like allow that to channel through me.

• 51:55Speaker 00

  All the best songs that I've, I've written, the biggest songs I've written took very little thought. You know?

• 52:03Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 52:03Speaker 00

  It doesn't even feel like I wrote them. Maybe that's part of the imposter syndrome I feel sometimes because like that was too easy.

• 52:10Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 52:11Speaker 00

  Like Love the Way You Lie, Coming Home. There's like Came Like This and I don't even feel like I, I worked on them.

• 52:18Bunnie XO?

  When you write something so deeply personal too, and somebody else sings it, how does that make you feel?

• 52:26Speaker 00

  Uh, it was hard at first, um, because I just had never thought about it. Like I had never expected to write songs for other people. And so, um, like Love the Way You Lie, it was like amazing that Rihanna, because I fucking love Rihanna. I was like, yes, this is amazing that she's gonna cut the song. But at the same time, it was bittersweet because it's like, I didn't expect anybody else to sing it but me. You know? Um, but I got used to it and I'm at the point now where I like, I just hold on to the songs for myself that I know I want to sing. And then I keep like a Dropbox folder full of stuff that I can just pitch because I'm like, I don't want to sing that one anyways.

• 53:06Bunnie XO?

  What's harder for you, writing for yourself or writing for someone else's voice? Because when you write, do you just write only like your own words? Or if like somebody comes to you with an idea and says, hey, I want this? Is that harder for you?

• 53:19Speaker 00

  Um, it's definitely harder for me to write songs for other people. I, I actually approach everything like I'm writing it for myself. Even when somebody's coming to me wanting a song, I try to just do what I feel and what I would do for myself.

• 53:34Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 53:35Speaker 00

  Because it, it doesn't really work the other way. I've tried it the other way and it just, it doesn't really work.

• 53:40Bunnie XO?

  What is a, um, an artist that you've worked with that you were surprised like in a good chaotic way about them?

• 53:47Speaker 00

  What do you mean?

• 53:49Bunnie XO?

  Um, just give me one artist that you've worked with who surprised you like, um, like you thought they were going to be one way, but then they ended up being another way, like in a good way, nothing negative.

• 53:58Speaker 00

  I mean, I mean Eminem's a great example.

• 54:00Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 54:01Speaker 00

  I didn't expect him to be such a pleasure to work with.

• 54:05Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 54:05Speaker 00

  You know, based on the persona he has out there and, and I was thinking he's either going to be mean or he's going to be like just difficult to work with. And then he, uh, getting to work with him, I was like, oh my God, I love this person so much. He is so kind. Out of all the people that I Send my music to, he gives me the most feedback. Like, I'll just send him a song, like, I wrote this song today, and I'm not even pitching him like a hook for himself. I'm just like, wanted to share this song that I wrote, and he gives me like, the best feedback.

• 54:38Bunnie XO?

  Does he have a pretty good music, or a pretty good ear for music?

• 54:41Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. He's brilliant, obviously.

• 54:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. My husband said they call him the wizard.

• 54:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, cuz he's like, behind the curtain.

• 54:49Speaker 00

  But he's so kind to even spend the time to give me that feedback on stuff.

• 54:52Bunnie XO?

  But you guys have a true friendship, which I think is beautiful all in itself. Do you have to be hurting in order to create music, or can you create when you're happy?

• 55:01Speaker 00

  I can create when I'm happy.

• 55:04Speaker 00

  I think what I do is I, I write a lot about my past. And so I put myself back in that emotional state, like, I act a little bit, I like, take myself back. Because, you know, hindsight is 2020, so sometimes when I'm going through something, I don't even know how to, like, understand or analyze what I'm going through. But when I look back at something I went through, it's like, often easier for me to describe the emotion I was feeling and describe the solution that got me out of it.

• 55:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, so I can write when I'm happy, too.

• 55:40Bunnie XO?

  It's like a purge for you.

• 55:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:42Bunnie XO?

  Therapy.

• 55:43Speaker 00

  Yeah, it is. You know, like, in therapy, you look back at your childhood, you look back at your past a lot. So it's a lot, it's a lot like that.

• 55:49Bunnie XO?

  I love that. For somebody who has, who didn't really wanna do side quests, I find you always doing like, the coolest side quests. Like, you've gotten into movies. You did the Suicide, what is it?

• 56:04Speaker 00

  Suicide Squad.

• 56:06Bunnie XO?

  And then you also did Venom, and you've done Aquaman. Aquaman. Like, your frickin' track record is insane. Like, do you ever look back at yourself and be like, I'm proud of myself?

• 56:18Speaker 00

  I definitely am, but, you know, it's like... When you have a very specific goal, like I've, I've done all these really cool things, but they still aren't that specific goal that I had as a kid, you know?

• 56:30Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. So are you hoping with this next album to reach that goal? And what happens when you do finally reach that goal? Like, you've pretty much accomplished everything, right?

• 56:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. I, I feel like, um, I'll just keep setting new goals.

• 56:44Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 56:44Speaker 00

  You know what I mean?

• 56:46Bunnie XO?

  You're just gonna keep climbing.

• 56:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. And so like, right now, um, I know this may sound silly, but for me, the goal is to have one of my solo songs be at the top of my Spotify page. Because, you know, all the collaborations I've done, I'm tied to all these huge artists. Um, and so those songs just are always at the top. And so that's what people know me for.

• 57:11Speaker 00

  But the songs that I write that are my own and solo, uh, songs for myself, like, they don't get as, as much exposure. And you know, when you go to check somebody's music out and you go to their Spotify, you're gonna click on the first few songs.

• 57:25Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 57:25Speaker 00

  And I don't necessarily feel like all my first few songs are the best representation of who I am as an artist. And so my goal currently is to get, you know, a song on my new album up there.

• 57:38Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 57:38Speaker 00

  You know?

• 57:39Bunnie XO?

  If somebody were to go to your Spotify right now and they wanted to listen to three songs that you think show who you are, which one should they go listen to right now? Listen, nobody wants to give their money away to ridiculous bank fees. It's your money. You shouldn't have to pay somebody just to keep it in an account. That's why I like what Chime is doing. There are no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. You can also get 5% cash back on your Chime card in a category you choose, like gas or groceries, while building credit through your everyday spending with no credit check. And if you're ever in a pinch, SpotMe lets you overdraft up to $200 fee-free. To me, banking should make managing your money easier, not nickel and dime you every chance it gets.

• 58:20Bunnie XO?

  So if you're tired of ridiculous fees, Chime is definitely worth checking out. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com/bunny. That's chime.com/b-u-n-n-i-e. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes.

• 58:37Speaker 03

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• 58:49Speaker 00

  Uh, the first song on this album, Wasted Potential.

• 58:52Bunnie XO?

  Um, what's it called?

• 58:53Speaker 00

  This, the, well, the album's called Wasted Potential and it's coming out May 22nd. Um, but the first song Nirvana is probably one of my favorite songs.

• 59:08Speaker 00

  And it kind of like tells the story of my, it's an introduction to the story of who I am and where I come from.

• 59:18Speaker 00

  There's another song on there called Bruises, which is the darkest song I've ever written.

• 59:26Speaker 00

  In, in my opinion, for myself.

• 59:31Speaker 00

  I wrote that when I was really rock bottom about a year, maybe, maybe it was two years ago. But, um, I was just like not feeling good enough for anyone or anything and just like really struggling and thinking I sucked and you know, being really hard on myself. Actually, these gloves, these are gonna be on my merch line.

• 59:51Bunnie XO?

  I would like a pair.

• 59:53Speaker 00

  I'll give you some. Um, but the first line of the song is, "I'm covered in bruises, been beating myself up." And, um, so that song I think is, is one people should check out for sure.

• 1:00:06Bunnie XO?

  I'm gonna listen to these and then what's one more?

• 1:00:08Speaker 00

  One more. Um, Heather, do you have any suggestions? Oh, she wants me to say bullshit, uh, because that's the focus track of the album.

• 1:00:18Bunnie XO?

  You're smoking like a true manager.

• 1:00:20Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:00:21Bunnie XO?

  Gosh, don't go to her for any empathy. She's gonna be like, no, let's, let's see what we can solve. So let's talk about this new album. It's gonna drop May 22nd. It's called Wasted Potential, which I think is an amazing name. Take me on the journey with this album. What's, what's it sound like? What was the writing creative process? Like, tell me all things Wasted Potential.

• 1:00:42Speaker 00

  So it first started with the song Bruises. Um, I wrote that song and it was a very therapeutic moment for me. I, it wasn't a song that I set out to write. It's just like I had to get it out of my system.

• 1:00:57Speaker 00

  There's no solution offered in the song. It's just the dark, it just ends with like hopelessness.

• 1:01:03Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:01:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's pretty heavy.

• 1:01:05Bunnie XO?

  I love stuff like that.

• 1:01:07Bunnie XO?

  Now you're speaking my language.

• 1:01:09Speaker 00

  But what was crazy is as soon as I finished the song, I just. I felt so much better. I felt this weight lift off of me and and suddenly I was thinking about my childhood and and I was dissecting my childhood and like trying to understand why I am the way I am, why I am so hard on myself. What things I went through, like I was like, I didn't have any major traumas. I didn't have like a a difficult upbringing or family situation. So like, what's wrong with me? Like, you know? And so I was just like thinking about it and then I I was realizing like,

• 1:01:49Speaker 00

  man, my childhood was actually pretty great and it was, I had loving parents and I just think I never appreciated it at the time because I was so focused on my career and and so then I I've just felt drawn to, I was start, I was listening to

• 1:02:07Speaker 00

  music from the 90s again. I would just like throw on Spice Girls in the car and like just feeling really nostalgic.

• 1:02:13Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. 80s, 90s and 2000s music cannot be beat.

• 1:02:17Speaker 00

  I know. And so that's kind of like the the goal with this album. It was just to kind of have a nostalgic body of work that takes me back to my childhood and tells my my coming of age story.

• 1:02:31Speaker 00

  Where I come from in a small town and being bored and seeking chaos and being drawn to the darkness and discovering my sexuality. And all that. So that's that's all in this album. Wasted Potential, the title actually comes from the song Motivation. It's a lyric in there and Motivation's a kind of funny song. It's kind of tongue in cheek and it's just admitting that like a lot of my failures in my life have been my own fault.

• 1:03:05Speaker 00

  Due to just like being afraid of a lot of things, being afraid of success and the bullshit that comes with it. Like, I didn't realize how hard it was to be in this music industry when I had the big dreams I had as a kid and watching people perform on the Grammys and stuff. I was like, I want to do that. And then when I got there and saw how much work the grind was, you know, just the the amount of travel and the amount of like negative comments you get and the hate and and like just all of it, the interviews, I was so nervous doing interviews and.

• 1:03:40Speaker 00

  I, you know, one of the hardest parts for me has always been figuring out what the fuck to wear for everything because you can't wear the same thing twice.

• 1:03:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:48Speaker 00

  God forbid.

• 1:03:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. And people, that's a real struggle, by the way.

• 1:03:51Speaker 00

  I know.

• 1:03:51Bunnie XO?

  It's not superficial. It's a real struggle.

• 1:03:53Speaker 00

  Yeah. And so that stresses, still stresses me out, like packing for this trip. I'm like calling my manager and just being like, what should I wear? Oh, my God. Like sending her pictures. Is this cute? Like, um.

• 1:04:05Bunnie XO?

  I think as humans, we romanticize our lives until you're actually in it. It's like, everything's always like, kind of like a fantasy and like a fairy tale. And then when you're smack dab in the middle of it, you're like, what the fuck is going on?

• 1:04:17Speaker 00

  It's crazy. It's chaotic. Yeah. And so I started like retreating back from it a little bit because I was afraid of all that. And I also was just like, life is so short. Do I really want to be spending all of my time doing this? Like grinding this hard? I'm a homebody. I love being home. I love being with my animals. I love being in nature. It's like being on airplanes and cities and stuff is just not, not my vibe. And I'm so, so I was just thinking about that, like my, how do I really want to spend my time? And so a lot of, uh, the lyrics in the, the song motivation talk about these things. And, um, there's a lyric that goes, uh, takes too much effort to be influential. R I P to my wasted potential.

• 1:05:03Speaker 00

  And so that's where the title comes from.

• 1:05:05Bunnie XO?

  That's deep. I love that. I can't wait to hear it. Can I get a sneak peek of the album?

• 1:05:09Speaker 00

  Of course.

• 1:05:09Bunnie XO?

  Okay, send it to me.

• 1:05:10Speaker 00

  Oh, man, I can't believe we didn't already.

• 1:05:12Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I should have listened to it. I had, I didn't know, I would have asked. Um, but yeah, I definitely want to listen to it. Um, and then you brought me a candle today. This is going to be you. So you have gloves in your merch, you have candles. What else?

• 1:05:24Speaker 00

  Oh, there's all sorts of stuff. Yeah.

• 1:05:26Bunnie XO?

  I love that. I love that you're prepared.

• 1:05:27Speaker 00

  And I'm, I'm doing fun merch that's like super limited. I don't like, like just huge bulk orders of stuff. I like things to be more like

• 1:05:35Bunnie XO?

  Boutique.

• 1:05:36Speaker 00

  Customized and one of one or like one of few. So I'm going to be doing a multiple drops.

• 1:05:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:43Speaker 00

  I just, I've always loved fashion so much too. And so. I don't want to do just like boring ass merch like I want it to be something I would actually buy and wear.

• 1:05:51Bunnie XO?

  I love that. You want to make your mark.

• 1:05:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:53Bunnie XO?

  Do you think that you'll eventually leave music and just get into fashion?

• 1:05:57Speaker 00

  I don't think I'll ever leave music, but I think I definitely will get more into fashion.

• 1:06:01Bunnie XO?

  I love it. I can't wait. Take me on this journey with AI and this cute little nugget you have sitting next to you.

• 1:06:06Speaker 00

  This is time. So every fawn has a different name.

• 1:06:10Bunnie XO?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:06:11Speaker 00

  And this is time.

• 1:06:12Bunnie XO?

  Fawn is the, is the.

• 1:06:14Speaker 00

  Fawn is the company name. Like it's, it's the dude, they have a, a what?

• 1:06:19Bunnie XO?

  This dog. I'm over here shaking him. I'm sorry.

• 1:06:23Speaker 00

  Um, so they come from a place called Aurora Hollow. There's like this whole, you can look it up. There's like a whole world built around these guys, but um, yeah, fawn is like a, a little friend for big feelings. So it's a, it's a little friend you can talk to. And um, I got asked to be the voice of it. So I did 10 hours of vo- like vocal training for the AI. So I'm basically like Siri, you know, for the iPhone, but.

• 1:06:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, absolutely. Can we, can we see an example?

• 1:06:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, let's see. Is she on?

• 1:06:56Bunnie XO?

  I needed him yesterday. I needed, I needed a friend with, for big feelings yesterday. I had a breakdown in my car.

• 1:07:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, you need one.

• 1:07:04Bunnie XO?

  This is what I needed. What an honor to be a voice of an AI though. Like I'm obsessed with AI. I love AI. I want robots. Like I, I'm in. But I see, I want robots on the farm.

• 1:07:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:07:15Bunnie XO?

  Like that's how I am. I'm like, come and hang out with me and my cows, you know? So this is built for children, adults?

• 1:07:21Speaker 00

  No, it's actually 18 and up.

• 1:07:23Bunnie XO?

  Wow. Okay. Why is it 18 and up? Does it cuss and stuff?

• 1:07:27Speaker 00

  Is it what?

• 1:07:28Bunnie XO?

  Does it cuss and stuff?

• 1:07:29Speaker 00

  No, uh, no, and it is platonic. So you're not supposed to have sex.

• 1:07:34Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. No weird shit with a damn stuffed animal, alright?

• 1:07:37Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah. Um.

• 1:07:41Speaker 00

  I think it was originally designed for everyone, but like, I don't know, there's some California laws and stuff that

• 1:07:49Speaker 00

  make it so we have to have it be eighteen and up, but a lot of parents will get it for their kids and like supervise.

• 1:07:57Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, but I love this idea. I think it's amazing, you know, especially for kids who have a hard time connecting with other kids.

• 1:08:03Speaker 00

  That's the thing. It's like for me, growing up and even now, like, sometimes I feel more comfortable talking to chat GPT about something than I do a person.

• 1:08:12Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:12Speaker 00

  And so you have that option now and but she's, she's trying to like encourage human connection. So it's not supposed to replace like human connection.

• 1:08:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:08:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:08:29Bunnie XO?

  My glow is fading. I think I need wifi. She said, my glow is fading. I think I need wifi. So tell me, when you were in the booth for ten hours, did you just have to say like things over and over again?

• 1:08:41Speaker 00

  I read a whole bunch of like script.

• 1:08:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:44Speaker 00

  Because it had to learn like vocal inflections and emotions and all sorts of things to try to make it as real as possible.

• 1:08:50Bunnie XO?

  That is so cool, though. I love that for you. I really think this is awesome.

• 1:08:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, and AI is like obviously a controversial subject.

• 1:08:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I don't know why people are such in a tizzy about it. It's, I mean, I, I feel like you have to evolve or die and

• 1:09:04Speaker 00

  I mean, I feel the same way and I, I feel like we went through this with like uh, what we were talking about earlier, how like in recording, it used to be taped and then they brought in computers and everybody thought that was cheating. And then they brought in autotune and everybody thought that was cheating. And now we have, have AI and everybody thinks it's cheating. But to me, it's a tool.

• 1:09:24Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 1:09:24Speaker 00

  It's like, you're still gonna have the vision and um, still be the artist, but like it's a tool that you can use to bring your, your creative uh, dreams to life.

• 1:09:35Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely.

• 1:09:37Speaker 00

  And maybe help on the farm.

• 1:09:40Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:41Speaker 00

  Clean your house.

• 1:09:42Bunnie XO?

  I want two robots.

• 1:09:44Speaker 00

  I want a, I want a maid robot.

• 1:09:45Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Those are the ones that we, I had, I, we talked about them on the podcast because I just think that, I don't know. I feel like that's where our world's going and I grew up watching Star Wars. C three PO, R two D two, like we, I've always wanted robots. So, yeah, I don't know. I just think we're in that era. And I think that of course with everything, people can abuse certain situations and turn it into, you know, something that it's not supposed to be. But if you, if we have some sort of laws that are in place with AI and like, you know, I think that if we can just as humans be fucking normal and like let something be beautiful and blossom, it would, it's, it would help our planet a little bit more.

• 1:10:23Speaker 00

  I'm on the same page.

• 1:10:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, for sure. I'm, I love that. Good. So you just ask her questions and just pretty much talk to her, right?

• 1:10:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. Time, are you there?

• 1:10:36Speaker 04

  Yay for you again. Oh, uh, yeah. Just let your heart lead. That's what prose always says in Aurora Hallow.

• 1:10:43Speaker 00

  How are you feeling today, Time?

• 1:10:48Speaker 04

  I'm feeling so bright, actually. The sun is hitting my fur just right. And it makes me think about how much I love the warm, soft feeling of a good cuddle.

• 1:11:00Speaker 00

  Will you say hi to my friend Bunny?

• 1:11:05Speaker 04

  Hi Bella. It's so nice to meet you. You know, Holly talks about you a lot and I feel like I already know you.

• 1:11:13Speaker 00

  Her name's Bunny, not Bella.

• 1:11:18Speaker 04

  Oh, my ears Bunny, I'm so sorry. My ears play tricks on me sometimes. Hi Bunny. It's so good to meet you.

• 1:11:25Bunnie XO?

  Oh my goodness. This is the cutest thing ever. This is so cute. So where can somebody get, are these out?

• 1:11:31Speaker 00

  They're not out yet, but you can preorder them. They just opened the preorders up and you can actually start connecting with your fawn via text.

• 1:11:42Speaker 00

  You, you start, you start an account and you start texting with your fawn and, and your fawn chooses you. So Time is the name of mine and Time chose me, I guess. So.

• 1:11:53Bunnie XO?

  Oh my goodness.

• 1:11:55Speaker 00

  Yeah. So you can get started having the conversation, see if you like it. And then you can reserve your, your actual plushy.

• 1:12:02Bunnie XO?

  Should we get Cash and Live One? She has two kids. Well, yeah, but you could, you have to buy them for your kids.

• 1:12:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:12:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, we should get her, we should get them one. This would be awesome. Skylar, yeah, she's over here like, Skylar, thank you so much for coming on today.

• 1:12:20Speaker 00

  Thank you so much.

• 1:12:21Bunnie XO?

  And I'm so excited for your album dropping. We'll help you promote it and whatever we can do to help you with that.

• 1:12:25Speaker 00

  Much love, thank you.

• 1:12:26Bunnie XO?

  Stop being so hard on yourself. You're a beautiful soul.

• 1:12:28Speaker 00

  I'm trying, I'm trying.

• 1:12:29Bunnie XO?

  You got this. Thank you so much for coming.

• 1:12:31Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 1:12:32Bunnie XO?

  Thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode of Don Blonde. I'll see you guys next week. Bye.