Ahead of the release of her new album Takin’ It Back, Meghan Trainor sat down with Billboard News host Tetris Kelly to discuss the inspirations behind the project and how it feels to go viral on TikTok with her 2015 track “Title.”
The singer explained that her past catalog inspired what’s to come on the new record, set for release in October. “I’m taking it back to my sound that apparently I had, because I started writing and one of my co-writers were like, ‘It’s crazy, these artists are coming in saying I want to do Meghan Trainor sound,’” she said. “I have the doo-wop sound. At the same time, ‘Title’ blew up on TikTok. I was like, ‘Wow, universe is talking to me, and I’m listening.’”
Fans will also be delighted to know that Trainor’s collaboration with Natti Natasha has finally come to fruition after teasing it on social media. While the girls have yet to meet in person, the 28-year-old revealed their track came together at the last possible moment: “I haven’t even met her yet! I’ve DM’d her and she’s lovely. We were told, ‘It’s not gonna happen,’ and the day the album was due, vinyl and everything, she recorded her verse that morning. I was like…’She’s down?!?’ So yeah, I just got really lucky.”
Trainor’s back catalog has seen viral success on TikTok recently after her track “Title” made waves on the social media app, seven years after the song’s initial release. Though some artists can feel burdened by posting on TikTok to appease their record labels, Trainor says the app has been a blessing in disguise.
“When you feel uncreative, I can see how that’s annoying, but when you finally hit with a video or when ‘Title’ blew up, I felt like it was my birthday every day,” Trainor says. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It’s the quickest way to connect with fans. It’s the best place to get a whole new audience, and now I’m obsessed with TikTok and I’m obsessed with posting. I’m constantly like, ‘What ideas can I do?’ … If a new artist asked me what I should do with music, I would be like, ‘Get a TikTok.’”
Watch Meghan Trainor’s interview with Billboard News in the video above.
