EP 578: Zacari Interview (uncensored)

Zacari talks about visiting the Philippines, The New TDE Compilation album on the way, SZA's success, working in Alaska & his new music with Ty Dolla$

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
No, No one's perfect, butno one's worthless. Wait what's that said?
Something? Yes, I don't runfor my money. There was nobody,

(00:26):
no one, now Paul, theyblazed for Leanie's some pressful up eing.
This for the car is back onthe cruise Show. Let's get it
real, yo, yo, that'sDJ fuse on the intro. Bro you
killed that bro. That was thatwas the greatest hits right that it took

(00:50):
you somewhere, took it did allover the place. It took me all
over the Black Panther. We gotthe blast feature to the Kendrick feature.
That was crazy single. Yeah yeah, sir, yes, sir yo.
Let's not go too fast. He'sfresh for the Philippines. Yes, a
little jet lagged, Yeah, alittle right? Sixteen hour flight? Yeah,
what do you do for sixteen hourson a flight I've never flown?

(01:11):
Yeah? Yeah, I was aknockout. Yeah I was not. What
do you like? Is it like? Maybe take a few que take some.
I take avil PM though, too, because I have a broken tailbone.
So if I don't take a littlelike pay medicine, I won't be
able to sit through. I brokeit skating when I was a kid.
Wow. Yeah, the flat surfaceof the plane messes it up any but
that's my excuse to do the avilPM. So have you had surgery for

(01:34):
it or now? When I gotextra I was a kid, bro,
And now when I got X raysit was for something else and the like
By the way your tailbones broke,it's too late. Do you think about
it? It's just something you haveto deal with. I have to deal
with it life. It's not toobad either. It's literally only on planes.
Is at the time that it bothersme? Yeah, okay, because
it's so long and not doing anythingphysical. Yeah, exactly. I'm have

(01:57):
to worry about this later on.I'm gonna have one of those pillows our
carry around. But little doughnut.No, so, Philip, you're half
Filipino from your dad's side, Yes, sir, And you went out there
for the first time, first timeever, bro, after four ten days?
Yeah, we're out there ten days. What was that like for you?
Man? It was a trip,man, and we did it is

(02:20):
spiritual. There was one night whereit was a thunderstorm and lightning in the
sky. That's where I really gotemotional at one point. I think because
we're at the studio and we wantedto shoot too. We shot a music
video for a song out There tooSo and out of Nowhere. Bro.
We're in the middle of like downtownand lightning everywhere, and we're shooting and
ship and it was just like itreally felt like I was being spoken to
my ancestors. For sure, youfelt it. I felt Yeah, I

(02:44):
was sorry. I was starting toget it. Yeah, I was starting
to get chills, like all right, chill out. Yeah. Do you
as a songwriter, right, doyou carry that with you and turn it
into song eventually? Or yeah?I have lyrics on this next album is
thunderstorms. Let me know, Godhas watched over. Yeah, yeah,
it was from that moment. Itwasn't from that moment. Yeah, I
wrote that before the moment. Yeah. So that so that was already a

(03:07):
thing for me. Yeah. Wow, it's pretty cool. That's great.
What about thunderstorms? What is it? I don't know what it is.
It's it's it's that it's coming fromthe sky and it's a light and I
feel like I read I read abook on spirtuality and music before and how
the first things that you ever hearis let there be light. So it
sound and light. So I feellike it's it's just a way to communicate

(03:27):
sound and light simple. It's thesimplest form thunder and lightning. Yeah,
man, all right, those arethings real. Quick's fine, that's fine.
You can't play with that kind ofthing because those things that those frequencies
are real. I believe that.And it's like, and those are things
you see and hear too. It'snot something that you like, you know,
it's it's there, you see it. So yeah, bro, your

(03:49):
congratulations on Maria, thank you tillassign. Tie is the homie, right,
I mean, bro, you hearhis verse on there? Oh my
god, that was a second cantry he did. I was like,
I want to put this out.I pulled up on him in the studio.
He's like, bro, I coulddo it better. He went back
there and oh my god, yougotta respect that all. I love that,

(04:10):
Like, tell you I could dobetter like he wants to. Yeah,
exactly for him to even care thatmuch exactly, yeah, Yeah,
he's always been that guy that's embracedhim. I feel like just l A
artists or California artists in general,and he's one of those dudes for one
of those guys. He rarely misses. If he I don't know if he
misses. Yeah, and a gooddude at the end of the day.

(04:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, Man,you smoke with him or yeah? I
try. I can't. I can'tdo as much as him. He got.
That's how you get the tone though. His tone is so crazy.
I want to smoke all days,Like yo, bro, I got phone
calls to answer back, I gotan email, I got to bro to
do. It's hard for my falsettos. Going back to the Philippines. What

(05:04):
was the best part of it foryou? Oh? The best part of
it for me? I think oneof the best parts to highlight is I
I like did a camp with WarnerRight, and they brought in four different
local artists to come through and workwith me. I think that was my
favorite part. I got to workwith some really dope Filipino artists, Mid

(05:25):
Nasty Jaka, Marie Phelipe from aPea pop group It's crazy, Yeah,
Jedter, it was fun. Thatwas the coolest part. And like hearing
where they're from and like their storiesand like being able to work with them
was really cool. Yeah, butit also shows you like the talent that's
out there too, so much talent. The Filipinos can sing. I'm in
the booth doing my It's crazy.I'm in my booth doing doing my take

(05:48):
right whatever. And you have atalk back in the room. You can
hear it. Everyone in the roomis hitting my exact notes. Producer Homie
walked in engineering. They're like,oh, it got vocals and that man

(06:09):
and Easy Miller is killing it too. You know, shopped at him.
Sweety. We got sweety too.People don't know about that. We got
g op dad to her. Yeahyeah, bro, we're in here.
There's an explosion happening. That's anFilipino explosion. How about how about the

(06:30):
eats out there? Like, whatwere you rubbing on? Crazy? Bro?
That's one thing I love is food. I love pork. I don't
know if they had crispy porkadovo,which was so crazy because I have pork
adovo, But the way they cookedit was that's garlic, ry Sea sick,
crispy ce sick, anything with theword crispy in front of it.
I mean, yeah, you knowwhat's crazy. They had a Denny's by

(06:56):
the hotel, Bro, best Denny'sI've ever had in my dude, they
snap over there, but it's likeone Denny's. They don't have it on
every freeway axis and they like,bro, I got a gram sandwich like
at three am, maple crusted.It was like toasted on the outside of
the bread. Like it was crazy, like bro, nah nah it was

(07:20):
all plates. They had Filipino platestoo, like it was crazy. Yeah,
they had Texas Roadhouse grill like inthere. I was like, bro,
The BGC area had a bunch ofAmerican rains, Like Denny's is already
cool, you know what I'm saying, But like that sounds crazy, man,
Denny's. Denny's is not hit likethat here we don't go. Was

(07:42):
that was that your your spot togo to after studio session? Like no,
no, that was just that wasjust one night, But that whole
area had a bunch of food,bro, But just in general, like
after like your studio sessions, ifyou ever to eat late at night,
where do you go? I thinkit would be Denny's because it was across
the street and open, yeah,or taco shop somewhere. Oh you're talking
about in Janet Gerald, like likelate spot about in l A and l

(08:07):
A in La whatever. Talco spot. It is usually taco spots open.
Like, yeah, video out thereas well. Yeah, the whole time,
we did like a little we didperformance shops when we could, and
like just a whole bets of thetrip too for the next single. And
I understand, right, you're workingout there. You're also doing radio interviews
out there. It was a run. It was a it was a press

(08:30):
run, a show. We didlive performance recordings, and it was a
writing camp on top of all that. On top of that, you're touching
you know, you're touching your home. Yeah, also to like feel the
vibe and visit for the first time. Yeah, my goal to is to
make connections to come back because Iknew this trip would be more like work
the whole time, so we didn'tget to see too much. But next
time, I'm going to the beachfor sure. I didn't get to see

(08:54):
that the Philippines, no yet,planning to next year. A week you
know her Man, right, Yeah, Nico sick man. Nico put me
on to like a lot of thisship and your Guys podcast. Thank you.
Yeah. He also did mention tome that you lived in Alaska.
I did. I did three summersI worked there when I was like eighteen,
nineteen and twenty Alaska. Yeah,yeah, like, man, that

(09:16):
was the trip. It was inthe wilderness. So it's like I fly
to the lodge on a floatplane inthe middle of nowhere. You land there,
you're there all summer and it's incap My National Park and it's the
number one bear viewing lodge in theworld. So I lived with the bears
all summer, just like they're likedogs walking around in the Yeah, bron
you No, I haven't pet abear. I've been charged by bears twice,

(09:39):
but all right. And we livein a little cabin hut with a
little electric rope fence around it inthe middle of the of the employees.
I don't think the electric rope fanit helps. It just gives them a
little zap and they don't care they'rethere. The bear. Yeah, the
bears, they really don't care aboutyou at all. They just want to
eat and like they're not hurt.Man. They eat like sixty salmon a

(10:03):
day, so they don't they don'tcare about you. Yeah, that's all
very healthy out there. Yeah,man, River Brooks Lodge. Why did
you live in Alaska? I justwhen I was a senior in high school,
I just applied to a bunch ofsummer jobs and Alaska's the only one
that got back to me was adishwasher. I'm like, yeah, let's

(10:24):
get yeah exactly. That said alot about Yeah, how you you're not
scared to go places from Bakersfield foropportunity. I love the outdoors too,
I love animals and all that.I think in college they make you pick
a major. I wanted to belike biology if I had to, so,
wow, if I had to gointo school, would be probably stemming
animals. At what point did yourealize music was the destination? I knew

(10:50):
that. I knew that sense.There's a very specific moment in high school.
So, I mean it started whenI was leading warship in seventh grade
through high school. But I remembermy teacher let me perform a song for
like some showcase that we had atthe school, and I did free Falling
and the school, the whole schoolwent crazy. So I was Yeah,
but John Mayer's version, Oh okay, Tom Petty that that writing is insane.

(11:13):
Yeah, bro, And yeah,man, that's kind of when I
know, And that's when it that'swhen it hit you. In church.
In church, I found I foundthe purpose in it where it's like,
damn, music can change people's livesand connect with people and heal people.
That's where I was like, Damn, this is where the purpose is.
And then I feel like that momentis when I was like, oh,
I could maybe do this for likea living, Yeah, yeah, I

(11:33):
could live off of this. Yeahwe can have both. Yeah, no,
you really could, and you're doingthat. Yeah, man, I
think so. Yeah, are youcurrently writing an album? Yeah, I've
been writing an album for four orfive years. Wow. Yeah. The
songs we just dropped there a coupleof singles off it, and then that's
a process. You got to bepatient with yourself. I do have to
be patient with myself and everyone aroundme too. I remember sometimes you just

(11:56):
get frustrating anxious as an artist.Like but because as I started with Kendrick
on Love was kind of the firsttime most people heard me, and I
just started recording bro myself. Ijust started learning able to, and so
I really once I saw how thesefools make their albums and their pans and
what they put into it's like,damn, I gotta really like find find
a sound and search for it.But you sat back right, and you

(12:18):
were a student, A student Ilove. I love being a student in
the studio. Yeah, I wassaying with Terrence Martin Kendrick watch him do
the Black Panther Ship and just I'llsoak up every information. I've taught myself
how to produce able to and Ican like do pro tools and record myself
like any studio I go into.Now, I know how to make a
song or an album whatever. Wegotta do. The best school in the

(12:39):
world. Yes, yeah, yeah, I love it. I really love
it. So I'll nerd out overall the technical stuff too. I've got
to remain a student, remain astudent, always learned, learn what to
do, and learn what not todo. Bruce Lee, empty your cup,
that's it? Your cup also drankHennessey. Yeah that's so hard.
Yeah, I didn't know. Iloved shout out. Yeah, yeah,

(13:05):
what's that? Now? That's dopeman, that you you know, at
that point you become a cheat code, you know, yeah, and everything,
and if in case of an emergency, then you need someone there to
do the things that you know youcan get it done, and it makes
you irreplaceable too. Yeah. Ilove all parts of the music too.
So even if I'm not doing afeature, I'll love to maybe just switch

(13:26):
the arrangements for you, or asksome production, or maybe just do background
vocals or just like help write somethinglike whatever I can do to make the
song good. You know what Imean? And what do you want to
do with this project that's been inthe works for years? Are we?
Is it? We obviously want torelease it right yes, top of next
year. We want to go firstquarter, first quarter. Yeah, a
drop more singles before then too,some of the ship we saw in Philippines

(13:48):
and stuff like that. You giveme crazy, But everybody's working. We're
locked in last night. What areyou really? Yeah? What are you
guys working on last night? Canyou say we got a little compilation album
going? Yeah, TD. Everybody'sbeen in every day inspiring like I was
in with Rock and Soul Day wasin there, Cambe yeah everyone, Rayvaughn,
all right, it's insane, Likeeveryone seems motivated like rail do it

(14:13):
verse. The newer dude with bitcrazy bars and soul rock will come and
be like nah and turn their versesup. I said, like, yo,
yeah, it was your dms there, like we saw your guys read
them they're they're read them. Yeah, but Top built these beautiful studios for
us and so that in offices,so we're on the same space kind of
like weekly on a weekly basis.So we got like forty something bounces already

(14:35):
from the past couple of weeks.You know what projects are missing, like
radio skits in the project. Youguys need radio. Oh you know what
I mean, idea. You guysknow how to do skits. Sure you
can figure it out. We knowhow to do radio sometimes. Yo,
that would be kind of tight,actually though, Yeah, yeah, that
would be sick. Yeah, man, that'd be cool. We're here for
you perfect get it done, alittle dog whatever. Yeah, a cruise

(15:01):
show in Cruise has been wanting tobeen on the album. And actually I
can't sing, so I don't knowwhat I'm gonna do. Yeah yeah,
yeah, yeah, I got you. I'll figure it out me and we
got to think of we got towrite the skit out. It's got to
be creative and work with it.But I think it will work. There
you go, making dream come true. No pressure of pressure. It it's

(15:24):
Christmas. It's Christmas, speare Ifeel like, yeah, pretty Christmas trees.
Speaking of pressure, how well,do you work under pressure? I
think I work well under pressure.It's probably the best right for an artist.
Yeah, you get to really likeyou. You get to stretch your
legs out and be like, Okay, you want to see something, let
me Yeah, exactly. And I'vealways been good too about like I love
to work alone at the same timeas I like working with people. I've

(15:46):
always been good at like pushing myselfto and challenging myself. So yeah,
it's crazy to see his success.Oh my god, number one in the
whole world. I think last timeyou were here we were talking about his
off the air, you and Ijust to watch her growth and nine Grammy
nominations, leading the ways and inspirationto me every day. Yes, and

(16:07):
she deserves it all. She's beenworking for a long time, been working,
been working on herself, She's beenthrough it. Yes, she she
landed on her feet on the otherside, Yes, of things in her
life. And now she's here andlook at it. Bro's it's beautiful,
beautiful. Shout out to sis man. Yeah, man, is she in
all the sessions as well for thecompilation. She's still she's still running around

(16:30):
doing shows and ship too. Butwhen she gets back. She always she
always comes in and laces us up. Yeah, man, that's great.
Man. So things are well atTD really well, yep, it should
be man, everyone's excited. Wegot a lot of new young talent too.
It's like we're gonna flow the streetsnext year for sure. Really are
they actively looking for new artists?I want to be able to say how
actively they're looking for m you knowthat you feel me? She's like,

(16:57):
here's my USB actually the leg tape. I'm saying. I'm just I'm asking
because there's you know, there mightbe people watching that dream to be.
Yeah, we we have a fewnew artists. I think we're getting ready
to to talk about but I don'tthink that's dope. Yeah, we got
some good talents producers too, andlike, yeah being in studio time,

(17:18):
right, did you get to hearanything that he's working on with ya?
No? No, this was beforeI think he started working on that.
Yeah, I gotta go over there. He texted me though, he was
like all right, because I askedhim about linking up and he was just
like almost done with this album andhis text almost didn't make sense. I'm
like, oh, he's working Yeah, He's like this he's you know you.

(17:42):
I've been seeing the cool setups thatYa has in Saudi Arabia and every
time he has a cool little aestheticto his studios, Like where's the coolest
place you set up shop back torecord? Oh, coolest place I did?
I did. I got this cabinat Trucky bro. It was like
this giant red cabin but they builtit like on the river. So I
brought the homies arambo j Lewis andwe were worked. We worked on Reverse,

(18:04):
one of my new singles. Weworked on it out there, but
we ran the cables. We wegutted the living room. We brought the
speakers, all the engineering equipment,and we ran cables through the windows so
we could record the guitars over theriver like on the deck. That was
pretty cool. So like there's evenlike waterfall sounds in the back you can't
really hear. But yeah, Ilove capture. I love capturing the earth

(18:29):
and natural sound. Man, andyou're running cables through the window like you're
stealing power from Yeah, we ranif I'm with that ship too, that's
how I have cable now, stealingthat ship. Man. You got a
name for your project Bliss bliss.Why bliss? The theme? I can

(18:53):
put it visually. If if there'sa sun and the moon and there's an
eclipse, it's like, what's blockingthat light? And I feel like that's
what this project is. It wasme moving through these these new fans and
new emotions and not really understanding themand and just going through it. It's
like a journey through the night ofit. I feel like, yes,
sir, yeah, yeah, what'syour writing process? Like do you need

(19:17):
to be isolated? Do you needto be surrounded by people? Bro It's
it's really different every time. It'shard to I don't really have a blueprint
on any of it. I think. I think generally when I go into
write, write a new song,maybe love the song, I'll do melea
ideas and write something, and ifif I love it and I see where
it's going, I'll put it tothe side and write to it on my
own. But sometimes I'll just bedriving in silence and write something, or

(19:40):
I have a hook book in mynotes, I'll write just lines and hooks.
It all comes together randomly. Yeah. Yeah, Now that sound of
silence is undefeated. Yeah it is. I love that. I just love
that, Like where you almost startto hear like ringing in your ear a
little bit. So oh I lovethat. Man. I went to Wyoming
and it was like, that's adifferent silence. Yeah, for real,
It's just it's weird. But haveyou ever astro projected? Have you ever

(20:03):
came out of your body when you'reasleep? Wait? What astra projected?
You know? You know, likewhen you get sleep paralysis. It's it's
kind of like that people train themselvesto, like you're able to come out
of your body and like look downat it. Sleep paralysis is getting stuck
in that stage you're about to goup. See I don't do shrooms.
I've never no, no me neither. Bro. This is something I did

(20:23):
when I was in high school.I looked it up on the phone.
I was like, how to astroproject? But one of the steps is
is once you're about to go youget it ringing in your ear and that
actually happens. It's pretty crazy.It's like that. Yeah, that freaked
me out. It freaked me.I was scared me out. I was
in the middle in my bedroom.I remember it vividly still in high school

(20:44):
and reading the steps is like layon your back, imagine yourself touching things
in your room and you're gonna heara ringing and then you're gonna get pulled
up. And I heard the ringingrealm like, oh, I can't do
this, yeah, out of it? Yeah, oh ship man. And
this was in high school. Whatdoes your search history look like now?

(21:08):
Man? So when you write,is it phone notes or is it penn
A lot of time it's both.Yeah. I love having a journal.
I always still write things down,but it's more like scribbles so I can
like keep up with the way I'mthinking. It's like all scattered out and
then maybe in the notes I'll writeit lined in. But sometimes I won't
write anything down either. It's it'sall it's all different. Yeah, and

(21:30):
it's just kind of something that justhas to yeah project. Yeah, I'm
constantly looking for for things that likeare real to me and that I relate
to. But I can still writeit in a way that people will take
it in so that I'm always lookingfor those, Yeah, man, those
are hard to find sometimes, thereal and that is it the inspiration behind

(21:52):
it? I think it's I thinkit's more on me myself. Sometimes sometimes
when I hear something that maybe I'vedone before, I'm turned off by it
already, or if it's something i'veheard before, Yeah, yeah, and
I am. I get better atkind of like maneuvering around then, because
you want to find a balance betweenfamiliar and unfamiliar, if that makes sense,
and personal. Yeah, so thoseare hard to for me at least,

(22:15):
it's hard for me to get like, oh I love this. You
like to be in sound original?Yeah for sure. Yeah, that's fuck
chasing perfection almost Yeah, blessing anda curse. Yeah, yes, sir,
Bliss is on its way. Isit there to say? Yes?
Yeah, yeah, Bliss is onits way. I've been Maria with Tdy
Dallas on that out. Now we'redoing the Obama red pajama. Let's do

(22:36):
it. Let's do it. HeyJacking Rich with the Cruse Show. Thanks
for listening to The Cruise Show podcast. Make sure to subscribe and hear auto
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