Alicia Keys discusses her insecurities, quarantine, and more in a new interview with Allure.
The singer says of being at home more recently due to the pandemic, “I’ve been travelling with music since I was 17 or 18. There’s really never been a time when I’ve just been still. It’s a new experience and it feels really, really, really good, in that sense of being still and solid with my family unit and being much more present.”
Keys adds, “Man, if I can’t find my own space. We all need our own space, just period. No matter what you do or what your job is, you need your own space. [I need space] to create the lyrics or the idea or the concept, or even just to have the confidence.”
The musician talks about the different waves of emotion she experiences throughout her creative process.
“In my creative process, I always start very insecure,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Is this right? How is this landing? Do I feel good about this?’ I have to live in that insecurity for a bit, and then, as time progresses, I get more confident. And I’m like, ‘You know what? I love this.’ Then I start to feel more swaggy and confident.”
She adds of technology: “It’s so easy to never leave your comfort zone. It’s true.”
“We have access to everything. And yet, from this digital world where we can literally see anyone in any place in any country at any time, and we have access to it all, how do you interface when you’re on the other side of the screen? It’s deep. It might be a song. Let me see if that’s a song…. I need to write that. It’s called, ‘The Other Side of the Screen’.“
