You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This episode contains explicit language.
Halsey is an award-winning singer and songwriter from New Jersey.
She's been nominated for two Grammys, and she's sold over a million records.
In August, she released her fourth album, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power.
which was produced by the Grammy and Oscar-winning duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from Nine Inch Nails.
Halsey wrote one of the songs on the album, You Asked For This,
with Greg Kirsten, who's won eight Grammys himself, including Producer of the Year.
In this episode, Halsey tells the story of making this song while pregnant with her son,
and how that shaped the lyrics and the music.
I'm Halsey.
When I first started, you asked for this.
I was 26 and I was pregnant and I didn't have many peers in the industry who were having kids as young
as me.
So I was kind of having this full existential crisis of like, what is my life going to be?
Do I have to give up everything that I love?
Do I have to give up the parts of me that I think make me the best artist that I am?
I was working with Greg Kirsten,