Tones And I Is Making Her Most Honest Music, And It's Nothing Like 'Dance Monkey'

Before Tones And I released the single "Bad Child" in March, she made a decision: She was going to tell each person that it wasn't about her. "I've habitually wanted to write a song in someone else's shoes, writing from their perspective. It's seeing life growing up through someone else's eyes," she mentioned in a press release the day the song hit streaming services. The problem? That wasn't the truth.


"I was like, 'I'm never going to tell people it's about me,' because I didn't desire to be susceptible the Australian singer-songwriter told MTV News last week. "I even got a boy actor [for the music video] because I wanted to confuse people into thinking that it was about someone else."


The video does feature a younger version of Tones, whose real name is Toni Watson, complete with her signature baseball cap and hoodie. She appears as an imaginary friend of sorts to a boy who's traumatized by furious authority figures and who embodies the struggles Tones, 26, sings about: "My family member routinely mentioned I was the bad child / Throwin' me away into the bad pile / All my life, been puttin' on a fake smile / Sittin' on my own, feel like I'm exiled." One scroll via video's YouTube comments and you'll visualize a regular sentiment: "This song hits different once you're the black sheep in the family member one fan wrote. "I relate to this song. I'm the bad child. Or at least I feel like it," another one shared. It was those kinds of reactions that recently changed Tones's mind about divulging the song's real roots.


So while she's at it, Tones has another confession to make: Her 2019 song "Jimmy," in which the titular character wants to escape a dysfunctional family member life, is also autobiographical. "I've never mentioned this, however 'Jimmy' is about me also she mentioned, with a hint of nervousness in her voice. She insists it's relieving to finally admit that, however there really are also boundaries to what she does and does not desire to talk about. In a time as soon as most of our pop stars are so exceptionally online that it some days feels like we know everything about them, Tones is more of a mystery, intent on protecting her privacy — hence the reason why she didn't aspire to air out her childhood trauma in the initial place.


"I didn't want people looking and asking questions about my past. I gave the people what I thought was needed to give, to get that off my chest," she explained. "I don't aspire to do, like, an one-hour episode of my upbringing, and that's what I was scared of and how I pulled back from it. Even Whenever I first began music, before any of this, I was very hesitant. I didn't aspire to get also big. I didn't wish to talk about my family member or my life. I just wanted to talk about the positives and what I'm doing right now for myself."


That's easier mentioned than done for Tones, mostly because she released one of the primary songs in the world last year. Yep, it took five paragraphs, however we've finally arrived at "Dance Monkey," the global viral hit of 2019 that topped the charts in over 20 countries, boasts just under 1 billion views on YouTube, and which holds the record for the longest time spent at No. 1 across Australian singles charts, with 24 weeks. (For comparison's sake, Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" reigned atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. For 19 weeks.) Tones wrote "Dance Monkey" immediately after she abandoned her native Melbourne and started busking on the streets of Byron Bay, an artistic beach town where she first lived out of her vehicle and eventually shacked up at a hostel. She wanted "Dance Monkey" to be a party-starter, a feel-good banger for her companions to dance to at the hostel's Tuesday night talent shows. At the same time, the lyrics tackle the bad side of busking — replace the word "dance" with "sing" and you'll know how Tones some days felt as a street performer dealing with unruly audiences who just wanted her to "sing, monkey."


"I wasn't thinking also in-depth. I wasn't thinking about writing to my emotions," she mentioned of the song's humble beginnings. "Yeah, it was also about me busking and around being frustrated, however I didn't put also much emphasis on the meaning of the song. I put a lot of emphasis on the bass-drop chorus and the melody of the chorus, so we may all jump up and dance and have a good time. I wrote it in half a hour. I never thought this would happen to me."


Tones describes "Dance Monkey" as a runaway train that became bigger than she ever dreamed right after its release last May. And it's not decelerating although — just last week, it dethroned Camila Cabello's "Havana" because the most-streamed song by a lead female artist on Spotify, with over 1.5 billion streams. Nevertheless as well as that success comes an inevitable army of haters. "People might like it or they may hate it, because it's really one or the other," she acknowledges about "Dance Monkey," however she wasn't anticipating the complete scope of negativity that was hurled her way. Immediately following the ARIA Awards in November, where she won four awards, Tones opened up in a Facebook post about how lose been in a "big black hole" despite her recent triumphs because of the death threats and "relentless bullying that follows every overjoyed moment." She wrote, "I am going by way of the perfect and worst time of my life."


"In Australia, it's all love," she told MTV News. "Australians are like, 'You've got this. It's my turn this week, it's your turn next week.' I just wasn't prepared for the rest of the world, I reckon, where people bring each other down. 'Oh, you're succeeding? I'm going to bring you down.'"


Fortunately, Tones has noticed some people in the music industry who she's able to lean on, like the Aussie electronic duo Peking Duck, who she says are "like brothers" to her. Then there's Macklemore, her idol, whom she calls "a lyrical genius" and praises for not "saying silly shit about other artists." They met in February at her show in Seattle, and the next day, he invited her to a studio where they wrote a couple as-yet-unreleased songs with each other. More vitally, they bonded over the bullying they'd each faced as so-called "divisive" artists.


"I've discussed to him about probably the worst thing that's happened to me since all of this has come forth, and I hadn't opened up to anyone about it," she mentioned. "I can shrug off bullying; you're going to get people that hate you, and I'm fine with that right now. Nevertheless at the begin, it was hard. I opened up to him about it because while he was coming up, he had a similar thing happen to him."


Earlier this year, Tones reported a special "anti-bullying" tour, where she offered to perform for free at high schools to contributor against bullying. At the same time, she was plotting an extensive world trek of shows designed like theater performances about her life; it was going to start with her busking, then continue with scenes from her life acted out onstage. All of these plans, obviously, are up airborne amid the continuous COVID-19 pandemic, so alternatively, Tones is taking this time to zero in on her debut album. She's spent the past few weeks at residence in Australia, where she lives with a friend, and sticks to a day-to-day routine: Wake up, physical exercise, make music.


The album doesn't have a title although, nevertheless she's been toying with the idea of calling it You're So Fucking Cool, named immediately after a unreleased track she's been playing live for several months, and which was inspired by an elegant L.A. That she ditched immediately after realizing it wasn't her scene. Tones says the album is slated for release in August, nevertheless it's still evolving by the day. She's been tacking on more songs to the tracklist, so it'll be longer than she originally anticipated. "It's certainly all over the place," she mentioned of the project, adding that some of the songs are discarded ones from last year's The Kids Are Coming EP, while others are ones she's written just in the past few days.


"These songs are totally me and my own production. It's not swayed by other songwriters or by anyone that's attempting to aid me get a hit, because that's never been essential to me," she mentioned, adding that she self-produces all of her tracks the same way she performs them live, with a looper pedal, before sending them off to "a genuine producer" to tidy them up. "It's a delighted moment while you could look at something that you've worked hard on and know that you're good enough, which is something that people shouldn't mention also lightly. Actually realizing that you're OK the way you are and that you're good enough is a large deal while you really, really feel that."


She's adamant that her new music taps into something that "Dance Monkey" didn't — she mentioned, "People might prefer 'Dance Monkey,' nevertheless these other songs are the ones I really put my heart and soul into, and the ones that the real fans are going to really listen to and probably prefer in the end." Take "Can't Be Happy all of the Time," which she released in March at the same time as "Bad Child," and which is as plaintive as its title suggests.


"I was in a really bad place While I wrote that song," she mentioned. "I got to the point where my music had really taken off and I was playing sold-out shows around the world. I thought I had what I wanted my whole life, so I was like, 'Why aren't I happy then?' I got so furious by that thought. And then I had to tell myself, 'There's more. You have to have relationships, love, be loved, be healthy, look immediately after yourself, have good friendships around you, work, do physical exercise, play music.' I had to tell myself, 'You're not there nevertheless, so don't expect to wake up day-to-day and stick out of bed till you fall asleep.' I think that's why I wrote the song: to remind myself of that. It doesn't mean that you're depressed or your world's crumbling down. We just have those moments."


Like "Bad Child," it's another deeply personalized song for Tones And I. And this time, she's not afraid to mention who she wrote it about.


"'You Can't Be Happy all of the Time' is so straightforward and real, and it's certainly about me," she mentioned. "To put that song to the forefront is something that's new for me. Nevertheless to be more open and to talk about me in a song is a good thing."