Willow Smith is not one to shy away from vulnerability and candid interviews. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1, she revealed the immense pressure she felt to live up to her parents' legacy.
"I always just wanted to do right by my parents, and do right by the beauty that they have put in the world, and continue to uplift that beauty and to uphold that beauty," she told Lowe. "And I felt a lot of pressure."
The "Transparent Soul" singer shared that she is still processing the release of her latest album, Lately I Feel Everything (which is quite literally pop-punk-rock perfection). "There were a lot of doubts that I had, not even just about this specific album, but just about my career in general, my musical career in general. I followed my joy, and I followed my heart, and I feel like it took us to a really beautiful spot."
And while Willow said she spent much of her career "overthinking everything" and stressing the little things, she's not holding back anymore. "I'm finding the freedom to, I can put that beauty in the world. I can uphold that energy. And so I'm just figuring that out in all of these different ways, and it's going to be a journey, and there's more to come."
She also shared her realization that not every song has to be "excavating what the meaning of life is." For this album in particular, she wanted to "separate [herself] from those emotions while also just looking at them from a bird's-eye point of view, and diving into that playfulness, diving into that, give no fucks."
The album, which Willow said has been "brewing inside of [her]" since she was 12, features tracks with pop-punk idol Avril Lavigne and rapper Tierra Whack.
