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August 1, 2017 13 mins

For this week’s episode, Elvis Duran had another revealing conversation with the inspirational Demi Lovato, who expresses how she uses her voice to sing about the issues she is most passionate about. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I use my voice to do more than just saying,
and I use it to speak up about mental health
because that's something I'm very passionate about. I'd say the
whole world knows the real me because there's nothing that
I hid. This is I Heart Radio's Label to Fires
with Deco Coconut Water, where we rip off labels to

(00:22):
reveal the sides of your favorite artists and celebrities you
didn't know. We get to know the real them. Label
de Fires was created with our friends at Zico Coconut Water,
who encourage you to read the label to see what's inside. Zico.
What's inside is everything. I'm Elvis Duran and welcome to
another episode of iHeart Radio's Label to Fires with Zico

(00:43):
Coconut Water. Love this show because we get to sit
down with our favorite artists and get to know what
makes them tick, what makes them real. Enough of these
labels people put on them, Let's see who they really are.
Today's guests latest song is called Sorry Not Sorry. It's
an anthem for anyone who's ever faced hey and lifted
themselves above it all to be stronger. Let's welcome our
favorite Demi Lovato. Demi, Yes, Oh there you are hi?

(01:07):
How are you hi? How's it going? Don't you love
interviews where you don't have to put any clothes on?
I actually am fully dressed in in heels because I
have to work after this. But before you were disconnected,
it's tek My producer said he heard a dog growl,
and then the line with is everything okay? Everything is okay.
I just put my dogs aside. Okay, we think Demi

(01:29):
turned into a were wolf. I'm like, I can't answer that.
So let's hop into it. Your song, Sorry Not Sorry
is number one on the Elvis Durand Countdown. Have you
even heard of Have you even heard of the Elvis
Durant Countdown? I don't know. Yes, no, you have it
because it's brand new. I don't know. They they say
it's huge. It's number one. It's called the e D
Top five, and your fans voted Sorry Not Sorry number one,

(01:53):
So congratulations. Oh that's awesome. Thank you. We call it
the only countdown that matters. Hey, I want to dig
into a couple of things while we have you. First
of all, thank you for being a part of this.
This is my favorite kind of interview because it's not
only about the typical stuff people interview you about. But
I want to talk about labels and how you have
fought and one in my opinion, and washing these labels

(02:16):
people have put on you off and you shine through.
Does that make sense? Yeah, of course. You know. The
thing is you pick up any newspaper or you read
anything online, any blog, whatever, and you hear people's opinions
about artists. And I think everyone's kind of sick of
hearing opinions of artists. They just want to go right
to the artist and talk about like what's on your
mind and how you're feeling. How are you doing, by

(02:36):
the way, how are you in a good space? I am.
I'm in a really really good space. I'm at a
place in my life where i feel like I have
learned so much, but I'm going to continue to learn.
So I just feel like I'm smack dab in the
middle of my journey, right, you know what. And you know,
my dad who passed away like at ninety years old,
he was eighty nine when he told me he was
still in the middle of his journey. So it's an

(02:58):
ongoing thing that we never end, which is kind of
fascinating and fun. Yeah, definitely, So as far as your
music goes, of course, sorry not sorry available now. The
singles out doing extremely well. As far as the album goes, Demmi,
when are we expecting that to be out? You can't
expect it later this year. I don't have a set
release date or a title or anything, so it's still
in the works, but it'll be later this year. Now,

(03:19):
as far as the creative process for this album goes,
are you approaching it differently than your past albums? Have
you noticed a very big difference in how you're putting
it together. Yeah, I'm actually really taking my time with
this album and not forcing anything. The only thing that
I feel like I'm implicating is the release state to
be later this year. But I've been working on it

(03:40):
for about a year and a half already, so we've
put a lot of work into this album and it's
all coming together finally. So maybe a difference between now
and back when you started as an artist. Back then,
people gave you deadlines and now you basically say it's
ready when it's ready back off. Is that kind of
basically good? Yeah? Definitely. Now what about the people you're
working with? You working with a new team of producers

(04:02):
and collaborators, on this I am. I've done a lot
of songs with this guy who's incredibly talented. His name
is Oak and he's a producer and we've written together.
We did Sorry Not Sorry together with another writer named
Sean Douglas. Yeah. I've worked with some incredible people. I
did a song with DJ Mustard. I've done stuff with

(04:22):
John Hill. Yeah, that's some of what I've done. Now.
You know, I know this album is not even out,
but as an artist, do you find yourself already kind
of plotting out the possibilities for the next album. Do
you work that far ahead or is it just nothing
that's on your screen. No. I think what I want
to do is released music, but then put out music
right after. So it's like a living album. And I

(04:45):
think that with that, you know, it's just going to
be kind of like a continuation of the album, but
we're just going to be releasing more music. So I've
thought about what songs I want to release the first
round and what songs I want to release after. You know,
people love all sorts of different topics to relate to
in their favorite artists music that you write. I mean,

(05:07):
it could be a love song, it could be oh,
my God, I broke up and my life is shattered song.
But we're finding more and more of your music and
your performances we've seen have turned into another purposeful lane
where you really really want to uplift and inspire people
who are brought down by whatever they're being screwed over
in life. By I mean, do you find it's important

(05:28):
that you be a part of a movement to help
people with your music? I think it's important to make
music that people can relate to. So whether it's in
a situation where they need to rise above whatever negativity
they have going on in their life, or whether it's
to get through a heartbreak, or whether it's to make
a memory to falling in love. I think that it's
just important to create music and to be as honest

(05:50):
and real about it as possible. Now, what about activism.
Do you find that you really enjoy getting out and
maybe merging with a Trudeau from Canada because I saw
you in a picture with him in Germany not too
long ago, and also with trans rights in the news
and things like that, do you find that you want
to add your voice to the argument and to the
conversation in order to move people's thoughts. Definitely. I think

(06:12):
it's important to speak up about the things that you
believe in, because your voice will be heard no matter
what position you're in. And I just happened to be
in a position where more people will hear my voice
than they would have ten fifteen years ago. So I
use my voice to do more than just sing, and
I use it to speak up about mental health because

(06:33):
that's something I'm very passionate about. Well, absolutely, and let's
talk about that. Not long ago, with the passing of
Chester Bennington, who was a very good friend of our show,
I'm so sorry his music lives on. And I actually
cried a little that night after it happened, because I
was just so happy that he left the gift of
incredible music with us and we had the time we
did with him. But at the same time, the only

(06:55):
good thing that comes out of something so tragic is
it does bring the topic of mental health advocacy to
the top of the list. And so this is when
it's a great time to get out there and go, hey, guys,
let's get this out of the shadows and let's actually
talk about it, and let's not make it so taboo.
So how are your feelings with where that's going. Is
it going fast enough or do you have any plans

(07:15):
on moving forward with anything else as far as it goes.
What are you working on? Yes, I'm working with Global Citizen.
We'll be working together on mental health and education. And
I think that it's very important that people raise the
awareness of mental health because it's something that is so
taboo to talk about, and the more people know about it,

(07:37):
the more people are going to be able to find
solutions to what they're going through. And it's a very
unfortunate situation, and I feel terrible for his friends and family,
but I know that maybe this will raise the topic
into conversation around mental illness and mental health and help somebody, right.
You know, as we say, if you break an arm,

(07:58):
you run to the emergency room because you know the
pole there can help you set your arm and put
it back into its regular spot. But when you have
something going on emotionally, you think you can fix it yourself,
or you feel like there's no way it's going to
be fixed, so why even bothering You just bury it.
And that's what we're trying to get everyone to realize
that it's okay to think it through talk to your
friends and talk to people who can actually help you.
So that's one of your missions. I love that. That's

(08:20):
really cool to me. Thank you. Yeah, that's very important
to me. Every you want to come on the show
and really get into it, please, we want to do that.
Let's talk about your YouTube documentary coming out in the fall.
What's it called and what's it all about. It's called
Simply Complicated, and it's about my life. It's about me
turning the making of my album and also my philanthropic work.

(08:41):
So you get to see me touch the mental health
a little bit more in that as well. So you're
saying your life is simply complicated. It is. I've got
so many things that people still don't know about me.
I've done a documentary before, and I have shared my
story with people, but I think people are really going
to get to see a different side of me in
this documentary. Well, I mean, without giving too much away,
and this show is all about labels. What are some

(09:01):
of the weird labels that you feel have been tattooed
onto you by you know, social media or whatever that
you're just ready, once and for all just wash off
and say no, I'm not that person at all. This
is the real me. Is there anything in particular that
just drives you to go insane over this kind of stuff?
I think when people refer to me as being bipolar,

(09:23):
it's something that is true. I am bipolar, but I
don't like people to use it as a label. And
it's something that I have, it's not who I am.
I think Demi Levado Activists is something that I would
really be proud of. Here you go, all right, every
show we take a little refreshment break with our friends

(09:44):
at Zico Coconut Water. Let's down some ice cool drinks
and play the What's inside game where I rapid fire
some questions and Demi will give us the first thing
that pops into her head. Here we go. The last
thing you googled? I googled Demi Levado gap teeth because
I wanted to show someone my gap. I have a

(10:04):
gap in my teeth. Okay, I didn't know there was
a whole page devoted to that. Okay, yeah. The last
thing you ate? Last thing I ate was oatmeal. Okay,
your favorite thing to cook? What dish are you known
for with your circle of friends? If you do cook,
I'm known to not cook at all. So there you go.
You burn water, all right, That's what I burned water? Yep.
Do you have a hobby or interest we don't know about.

(10:26):
I love doing jiu jitsu, really, yes, I love jiu jitsu.
How did you get into that? How long ago? I
started about a year ago and a little over a
year ago and I started training m M A And
that's a part of M M A is jiu jitsus.
So when I started learning, I just kind of fell
in love with the sport. What do you get out
of it At the end of a session? What do

(10:47):
you get out of it? I feel like I've really
accomplished something and being able to do the moves that
you do and and flow with people. It's an art
form and it's really beautiful, and I feel like it
takes my mind off of things that I dress about
because I'm constantly thinking, Okay, what do I need to defend?
What move can I make? Now? It's like a game
of chess almost. It's something that takes a lot of focus.

(11:09):
Do you actually get to beat the ship out of people?
Or is it just something you's got a fun to do.
It's a hobby you roll around with people. For sure,
I don't necessarily hit them. But yeah, okay, good, okay,
let us know when you wanted to get into that.
I have some names for you. Oh I do that,
I do it, I just not. Who is your go
to person for advice? Do you have one? Yeah? I
have my friend Mike. My friend Mike is someone that

(11:31):
I go to for advice. And my manager Phil, I
ask him advice on everything. And do you have a
role model? My role model would be my mom. And
what are you most proud of to date? What I'm
most proud of to date? I think you'd be my
philanthropic work. Excellent. How many people know the real you?
I'd say the whole world knows the real me, because

(11:52):
there's nothing that I hid. Do you have any words
you live by that you love to share with other people?
You are beautifully and wonderfully made, and that is because
it's something that as a young woman I can easily forget,
so I learned to live by it. And finally, what's
the best advice you've ever received from anyone? The best
advice I've ever received from anyone is don't believe the hype.

(12:15):
So going into my life as an artist, things got
crazy at one point where I did believe the hype.
Now I don't, and now I just do my art
and whatever happens happens. Damianado, thank you so much for
your time today. Sorry, not sorry, of course is available,
and we've got an album on the way and hopefully
we'll have it here by Christmas time. Yes, definitely, okay, perfect,

(12:37):
have a beautiful day, Tommy. Thank you for your time.
We'll see you back in New York. Okay, okay, thank
you so much. All right, take care by bye bye.
If you like what you've heard, joined the conversation on
Twitter with hashtag label Defiers. Thanks to our friends at
Zico Coconut Water for supporting this amazing new fund podcast.

(12:57):
If you haven't tried Zico yet, grab one today. M
Suicide can be preventable. There's no single cause for suicide,
but noticing things like drastic change and behavior depression, anxiety,
or substance problems can help save a loved one's life.
So if you notice any of the warning signs, don't

(13:18):
be afraid to talk about it. Talking can save a life.
If you are in a crisis or think you know
someone who is in crisis, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at eight hundred to seven three TALK that's
eight hundred to seven three, or contact the crisis text
line by texting talk to seven four one seven four one.

(13:41):
Learn the warning signs of suicide at a f sp
dot org audition
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