In the interview, the 22-year-old singer discusses the major themes of his upcoming album, out this June, which include unrequited love and heartbreak.
Smith admitted that he wrote the songs from very personal experiences:
I've never been in a relationship before. I've only been in unrequited relationships where people haven't loved me back. I guess I'm a little bit attracted to that in a bad way. [My album] In the Lonely Hour is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn't love me back. I think I'm over it now, but I was in a very dark place. I kept feeling lonely in the fact that I hadn't felt love before. I've felt the bad things. And what's a more powerful emotion: pain or happiness?
It was only a few days ago that Smith released the "Leave Your Lover" music video, which featured a love triangle that sparked a controversy over the singer's sexual orientation.
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Smith croons out the song's chorus, "Leave your love, leave him for me." It doesn't become clear until the end of the video that Smith is singing to a man.
The process of writing the album brought some closure for Smith, who says it felt great to "chat about it and put stuff to bed."
I am comfortable with myself, and my life is amazing in that respect. I'm very comfortable and happy with everything. I just wanted to talk about him and have it out there. It's about a guy and that's what I wanted people to know—I want to be clear that that's what it's about.
"It's all there now, and I can move on and hopefully find a guy who can love me the way I love him."
Smith made one thing clear: His first and only priority is to simply make music.
I've tried to be clever with this album, because it's also important to me that my music reaches everybody. I've made my music so that it could be about anything and everybody— whether it's a guy, a female or a goat—and everybody can relate to that. I'm not in this industry to talk about my personal life unless it's in a musical form.