Halsey on Duetting With Bieber, Hating ‘Tri-Bi’ Label

Do you think the lines between genres are more permeable right now?
Genre in 2016 is just absolute bullshit. Half the records on hip-hop radio are pop records at their core, and half the records in fucking alternative radio are pop. And pop radio doesn’t even know what the fuck it’s doing. I end up pleading my case to alternative programmers — you’re telling me that my music is too dark for pop, too pop for alternative, and urban radio won’t touch it — so we have a record that doesn’t fit in. And what is more alternative than that?

“Genre in 2016 is just absolute bullshit.”

What do you have in mind for your first headlining arena shows?
I just went on tour with the Weeknd, and he used tons of fire. I was like, “Ooh, I need that!” But I want to build a show that’s a grand, cinematic experience without hiding behind production elements as a crutch, without using those things to cover up my lazy ass. You still have to be able to perform your fucking ass off.

You happen to be biracial, bisexual and have bipolar disorder — but it drives you crazy that people think you’ve called yourself “tri-bi,” right?
I fucking hate it, the idea that something like that would be trivialized down to a fucking hashtag. I mean, there’s a ton of biphobia — people refuse to accept bisexuality as an actual sexuality. And I’m biracial, but also white-passing, which is a unique perspective. So these kids say, like, “Oh, fucking tri-bi Halsey! She’ll never miss an opportunity to talk about it!” I want to sit them down like a mom and go, “Six months ago you were begging for an artist that would talk about this shit! But then I do, and you say, ‘Oh, not her. Someone else.'”